Parents Prefer E-Mail for School Messages — Far and Above Auto-Phone, Texts, Facebook

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
The only people who seem to want face-to-face meetings and personal phone calls anymore are school principals. Four in five parents consider e-mail the most effective way for schools and districts to communicate with them. While one-third of parents with children across all grade levels say the personal phone call is an efficient way to communicate with them, 72 percent of principals endorse that strategy. When it comes to in-school meetings, the difference of opinion is just as dramatic; at the elementary level, only 45 percent of parents consider face-to-face sessions effective compared to 73 percent of principals; at the middle school level it’s 35 percent of parents compared to 67 percent of principals; and at the high school level it’s 30 percent of parents compared to 58 percent of principals.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/03/15/parents-prefer-email-for-school-messages-far-and-above-autophone-texts-facebook.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37818

7 popular online courses in STEM and gaming that are taught by female leaders in their fields

by Connie Chen, Business Insider

Since men hold more jobs in these fields, it’s not surprising that when you browse online learning sites, there tends to be more male teachers in those subjects as well. However, for a woman looking to approach something like STEM or gaming, the impact of seeing a teacher who looks like her cannot be understated. Similar to how representation in media affects how groups of people perceive themselves and are perceived in the world, representation in STEM and gaming plays an important role in motivating women to overcome and fight back against gender-related barriers in their own career journeys.

http://www.businessinsider.com/online-stem-gaming-python-courses-taught-by-women-2018-3

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37806

Best Practices for Gamification in Schools

 

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

In education, “gamification” refers to using elements of game play (such as rules, competition, and point scoring) as a teaching tool that increases student engagement and motivation. Gamification can include badges, leaderboards, and any type of educational competition or game. While the concept of gamification isn’t new, the digital tools available to today’s teachers make gamification more innovative and engaging than ever before. Research indicates that gamification helps students develop more positive attitudes toward learning, increases cognitive and social growth, improves attention spans, and more. To ensure your students benefit as much as possible from gamification, try following these best practices for gamification in schools.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/best-practices-for-gamification-in-schools/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37798

OSU offers German Online Language courses to high school students across the country

by Oklahoma State University

For more than 30 years, Oklahoma State University has been meeting a need in high schools across the country. As language programs have become increasingly rare in physical classrooms, OSU has provided a German language distance learning class to help students meet their language requirements. The OSU German language course for high school students started in 1985 and was originally offered via satellite to classrooms. Currently, students can now experience the German Online course over the Internet, either in their school classrooms or on their own.

http://newsok.com/osu-offers-german-online-language-courses-to-high-school-students-across-the-country/article/5542092

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25202

Higher ed’s digital shift not as fast as some hope

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

The shift from paper to digital resources in higher education has affected virtually all levels of operations, and it is transforming the way students learn and faculty teach — but perhaps not as quickly as some might hope. An inaugural survey on the state of digital media in higher education by VideoBlocks finds overwhelming support for digital materials by faculty and students. Fully 91% of faculty or administrator respondents said digital media in lectures improves student learning outcomes, and about three-quarters of student respondents said multimedia elements make them more engaged in lectures. But faculty report frustration with levels of institutional support, including for technology resources as well as training. The VideoBlocks report includes responses from about 150 students and 150 educators across a diverse higher education landscape that makes generalities difficult.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-eds-digital-shift-not-as-fast-as-some-hope/416102/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15395

The Key to Better IT Communication

by David Raths, Campus Technology

In an October 2015 Campus Technology article, Hilary Baker, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at California State University, Northridge, described her approach: “Who knew that a CIO was in the marketing business? But I am — and my team is — so much so that I now have a director of communications reporting to me that I did not have in other times in my CIO career.” For this article, we interviewed Mayra Solano, CSUN’s director of planning and communications, about her position, which she has held for the past two years. Solano said that before her position was created, the IT group was not developing marketing plans around new initiatives. “People think of IT as a service organization. One of my goals is to begin to think about services as products for our students, and explaining the overall benefits.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/24/the-key-to-better-it-communication.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15393

Machine learning is reshaping security

by Leslie K. Lambert, CSO

At the recent RSA Conference it was virtually impossible to find a vendor that was not claiming to use machine learning. Both new and established companies are now touting “machine learning” as a major component of the data science being used in their products. What the heck is machine learning anyway? And is it really going to reshape cyber security in 2016? For brevity’s sake, I’ll define machine learning as the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed. Over the past decade, machine learning has enabled self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, and has vastly improved our understanding of the human genome. Machine learning is so pervasive today that we use it dozens of times a day without knowing it. Many researchers also think machine learning is the best way to make progress towards human-level Artificial Intelligence.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3046543/security/machine-learning-is-reshaping-security.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15390

Report: To Unlock Potential of Ed Tech, Use a ‘Closed-Loop’ Instructional Approach

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

A new report from the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group finds skills gaps in language arts, math science, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and curiosity among a range of countries and income levels and suggests that technology could help address the issue. The report argues “that for technology to reach its greatest potential it needs to be better integrated into an instructional system we call the ‘closed loop.’” The closed loop system suggested in the report includes creating learning objectives, developing curricula and instructional strategies, delivering instruction, embedding ongoing assessment, providing appropriate interventions, tracking outcomes and learning, then feeding the results back into creating new learning objectives.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/03/16/report-to-unlock-potential-of-ed-tech-use-a-closed-loop-instructional-approach.aspx

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Instructional Designers by the Numbers

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

CNN Money says that being an Instructional Designer is the 38th best job in America. According to CNN Money (2012) there are 217,700 Instructional Designers. Expected job growth over 10 years is 28.3 percent. Payscale.com says that Instructional Designers rate a 5 out of 5 in the “extremely satisfied” category. 70 percent of Instructional Designers have been on the job less than 10 years, 38% less than 4. Women outnumber men 61% to 39% The national average salary for an Instructional Designer is $61,000. The highest paid Instructional Designers are in San Francisco (a 23% wage premium), Washington (22%), Los Angeles (18%) and Seattle (16%). The most senior Instructional Designers, those with 10 to 20 years of experience, have average salaries between $70,000 and $80,000.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/instructional-designers-numbers

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/rs28jdYnKUA/

Does The New ClassDojo Have Mass Mojo?

By Mitch Fairchild, Edudemic

Using the ClassDojo reward system, I was able to award points to students for good behavior, or deduct points for poor choices. I was also able to let my parents follow the classroom management habits of their children via the app. The students responded positively and ClassDojo gave parents a way of keeping up with their student’s classroom behavior without having to communicate directly with me. Jump ahead to January of 2015. ClassDojo is releasing their newly redesigned app, and it promises to be faster, sleeker, and easier to use. I have to admit, I now teach secondary classes and I don’t use the app for the older students. But my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to check it out for myself. So, being the inquisitive sort, I quickly downloaded the new version and began investigating. After examining this version versus the old version, I observed the following.

http://www.edudemic.com/does-the-new-classdojo-have-mass-mojo/

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The Future of Education: It’s More Sci-Fi Than You Think

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

The equipment that will be available to students may soon be nearly unrecognizable. While laptops and tablets are in some classrooms now, in the future, each child could well have a wrist-mounted computer. More conveniently, students might have a computer chip implanted somewhere on their person that could communicate with whatever serves as the equivalent of the internet in their decade. In such an environment, teachers will need to figure out how to do more than merely direct students to websites for facts and then ask them to regurgitate them. Teachers will need to be able to teach kids how to think critically and apply the information that is available to them in solving problems. With any luck, and the right preparation, the kids of the future will go on to solve world problems such as hunger, environmental degradation, and geopolitical conflict.

http://www.edudemic.com/future-education-sci-fi-think/

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It’s Time To Start Teaching About Sustainable Technology

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

There’s also lots of green technology out there. That is, technology devoted to alternative resource use, or items being designed to use as little energy and physical pieces as possible. But what about the materials that go into our beloved technology? And what about recycling them? Technology changes so rapidly these days. Our need and desire for the latest model sometimes cause us to quickly discard our once trusted devices for the next best thing or the newer model, leaving outdated gadgets with a shelf life in some cases of a matter of months.The handy infographic linked below takes a look at how our love of technology is affecting our environment and why is it important we alter our recycling habits.

http://www.edudemic.com/sustainable-technology/

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The Revolution Is Not Being MOOC-ized

By Gayle Christensen and Brandon Alcorn, Slate

At least in their early stages, these courses are not providing the revolution in access that proponents claim. Two-thirds of participants come from the developed world—the United States and other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of leading industrialized countries. This is despite the fact that these 34 countries only account for 18 percent of the world population. And 83 percent of MOOC students already have a two- or four-year diploma or degree, even in regions of the world where less than 10 percent of the adult population has a degree. Meanwhile, 69 percent of them are employed. Furthermore, 56 percent are male, rising to 68 percent in the emerging BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and to 62 percent in other developing countries. Even more alarming, the gap between male and female participation is far greater for these courses than in traditional education. The 36 percent gap between male and female uptake in BRICS countries is nearly three times as large as in traditional higher education there. The United States is one exception, where males and females participate in equal numbers in both.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2014/03/mooc_survey_students_of_free_online_courses_are_educated_employed_and_male.html

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