How to sort the good from the bad in OER

by Lawrie Mifflin, Hechinger Report

Teachers often spend many hours at night or on weekends searching the internet for good instructional materials – or just good ideas about how to meld online learning into their classrooms. Sometimes, they consult curation sites that have evaluated these materials; sometimes they just consult other teachers on what they use. The need for reliable evaluation has become more urgent with the flood of new, often free, online materials. These OER – open educational resources – may be good, bad or indifferent. How can school districts or teachers know?

http://hechingerreport.org/how-to-sort-the-good-from-the-bad-in-oer/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37766

Two UMD courses will have free online textbook access in the fall

by Christine Condon, DBK News

Two University of Maryland biology courses will be among many in the University System of Maryland to offer students free online textbook access next year with the help of a system grant program. BSCI201 and 202, introductory courses in human anatomy and physiology, will use a free, open-source textbook from OpenStax beginning in the fall, said biology professor Sara Lombardi. To make the switch, university lecturers for the courses received a $1,500 grant from the Maryland Open Source Textbook initiative, which offers grants to encourage faculty to utilize open educational resources. The grants were announced March 6.

http://www.dbknews.com/2018/03/14/umd-textbooks-free-open-source/

 

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37758

10 makerspace activities for the k/12 classroom

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Makerspace activities are taking over classrooms and turning students and their teachers into makers. Makerspaces encourage hands-on student-driven learning, experimentation, and collaboration. To help you see how possible it is to incorporate makerspace activities into your classroom, here are ten makerspace activities that can fit any grade level and most budgets.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-makerspace-activities-k-12-classroom/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37751

19 Atlanta students suspended for cheating in online classes

By Molly Bloom,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nineteen students accused of cheating on online courses have been suspended froman Atlanta high school. An Atlanta Public Schools spokeswoman called the case “an isolated incident.” The alleged cheating comes after staff at the same school warned the school board that students in online classes were awarded grades they did not earn. And it comes a year after students at another Atlanta high school used a teacher’s account to change online course grades. In Atlanta, as in many districts nationally, more students are taking classes online as part of regular instruction and to make up credit for failed classes. Atlanta’s expanding use of online classes includes the use of “blended learning” at Crim, which entails online coursework supervised by in-person teachers.

http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/atlanta-students-accused-of-cheating-in-online-cla/nqqk8/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15379

The future of learning: Technology coupled with human interaction

By Amit Nagpal, Forbes India

Although technology helps scale up the process, it also dehumanises certain factors. People need to interact with one another, impart and learn from each other’s experiences. The stories we share with each other, the successes and the failures will change the way we learn. In my experience, a blended approach that includes both digital and classroom methods, is the future of learning. According to a leading research company, Markets and Markets, Smart Education & Learning Market will be worth $446.85 billion by 2020. Another research data presented by Docebo research organisation states while the worldwide market for Self-Paced E-Learning reached $35.6 billion in 2011, the five-year compound annual growth rate is estimated at around 7.6 percent, so revenues should reach some $51.5 billion by 2016.

http://forbesindia.com/blog/technology/the-future-of-learning-technology-coupled-with-human-interaction/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15376

Arkansas leading way on computer classes, Texas left in dust

By Brian Fanney, Arkansas Online

Texas was the first state to require that all high schools teach computer science, but Arkansas schools catapulted ahead in the past year after a mandate from the governor backed by millions in funding, said state and national advocates. In Texas, a single state school board member pushed to require high schools to teach the classes. But few schools are following the policy and Texas has put up little if any state money to train teachers. In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson made computer coding a state priority and pushed a bill to provide funding for teacher training and to mandate that high schools offer the courses. It also requires that the classes count as math or science credits instead of an elective.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/mar/20/state-leading-way-on-computer-classes-2/?news-arkansas

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15372

Britannica® and Merriam-Webster® Announce Free English Learning App and Site for Spanish Speakers

by Merriam-Webster

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Inc. are pleased to announce the launch of Nglish—a free English language learning app and site designed especially for Spanish speakers. In addition to full bilingual text translation, Nglish offers a unique and tailored learning experience that allows users to learn the words they want to learn, on their own schedule, wherever they are. Nglish includes a comprehensive Spanish-English dictionary with hundreds of thousands of example sentences in English, synonyms, and audio pronunciations by native speakers. Word and sentence translation is available from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. Automatic language detection makes translation fast and easy, with one single search box for both languages.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-britannicareg-merriam-websterreg-announce-free-english-learning-app-/2015/03/18/8161241.htm

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Using Voxer to Streamline School Communication

by Alejandro Rivera, Edutopia

Voxer is described as a free app that combines the best of voice, text, and photo messages into a high-tech walkie-talkie, creating a powerful, modern, personal and team messaging tool. As the administrative team at Northern Parkway Elementary School in Uniondale, New York, we’ve found that Voxer has served as a simple yet effective way to improve the following administrative practices.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-voxer-streamline-school-communication-alejandro-rivera

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/D0tLq7p7lqQ/

From home to Huntsman: Wharton’s online course offerings will draw MBA applicants

By BRYN FERGUSON, Daily Pennsylvanian

Taking Wharton classes online may not earn Coursera students a degree, but it may draw them to Huntsman Hall. Wharton has recently expanded its offerings of Massive Open Online Courses on Coursera with the introduction of the Business Foundations Specialization. The program combines the introductory business classes that were released in 2013 with a new Capstone Project that users complete after successfully finishing the Foundations classes. The top 50 students will have their application fees to the Wharton MBA program waived and, if accepted into Wharton, the top five students will be granted a $20,000 scholarship. “We are hoping someday we can have sponsors to increase the size of the grant,” said Managing Director of the Innovation Group Don Huesman.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/03/wharton-expands-online-course-offerings-on-coursera

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/gbTG5ovHkE4/

Forming “Teams” or “Discussion Groups” to Facilitate Learning

by Todd Zakrajsek, Teaching Professor

Learning is enhanced when the material to be learned is thought about deeply and also when related material is retrieved from memory and associated with the new material. When students have an opportunity to work together to learn course content, particularly when applying that material to a new challenge, both deep thinking and retrieval of associated materials are realized. Active and collaborative learning are regularly discussed in the literature, and when done well few debate their value in terms of impact on student learning (1, 2). Although some students resist anything that even resembles group work, most students understand the value of working in teams or in discussion groups. Responses from students indicate that they learn when they “reflect, dialogue, question, write, summarize, and create their own knowledge” (3).

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1315

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Is OLPC Dead or Alive?

By Christopher Piehler, THE Journal

Eight years ago, One Laptop Per Child started on its quest to provide computers to the developing world. This Tuesday, OLPC News posted an article called “Goodbye One Laptop Per Child.” In it, author Wayan Vota wrote, “With the hardware now long past its life expectancy, spare parts hard to find, and zero support from the One Laptop Per Child organization, its time to face reality. The XO-1 laptop is history. Sadly, so is Sugar. Once the flagship of OLPC’s creativity in redrawing the human-computer interaction, few are coding for it and new XO variants are mostly Android/Gnome+Fedora dual boots…. OLPC is dead.” On Wednesday, Giulia D’Amico, Vice President of Business Development for the OLPC Association, the Miami-based group focused on XO sales, responded that “OLPC’s mission to empower the world’s children through education is far from over.” As evidence of this, she pointed to a recent strategic alliance with the Zamora Teran family to deliver XO laptops to Central America, South America and Africa.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/03/14/whats-new-with-olpc.aspx

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Do we still need school buildings?

by John Eggers, Bemidji Pioneer

Schools as we know them today will no longer exist in 2114. School buildings are still constructed today, but before long, one of the questions that communities should begin to ask is “Do we still need a school building?” As you know, it is now possible to get a high school diploma by attending a virtual high school where everything is online. Colleges and universities have been operating “schools” without campuses for many years and more and more classes are being offered online every year. Online learning is big business. At one time, our college campuses were filled with meandering summer school students but today’s campuses are pretty quiet.

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/john-eggers-do-we-still-need-school-buildings

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