On-Campus Enrollment Shrinks While Online Continues its Ascent

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

More than 6 million students took at least one online course in 2015, representing more than a quarter (29.7 percent) of all higher education enrollments that year, according to a new report from Digital Learning Compass. Among that 29.7 percent, it’s almost evenly split between students who took some but not all courses online (15.4 percent) and those who took every class online (14.3 percent). In contrast, total online enrollments in 2002 came in just under 10 percent. Put another way, the number of students who have taken a “distance education” course rose by 3.9 percent in 2015, adding an additional 226,375 online students to the virtual attendance rolls. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of on-campus students has declined by 5 percent, losing a total of 931,317.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/05/02/on-campus-enrollment-shrinks-while-online-continues-its-ascent.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27401

Finding a Balance between Teaching and Tech

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

According to eSparks Learning, teachers regardless of age or experience level harbor doubts about their ability to successfully use classroom technology. So, if teacher’s skills and technology are to exist in harmony, there needs to be a balance. We need teachers’ talents and at the same time encourage them to start looking to the future. The majority of today’s student population have never known the world without high-speed internet. It acts as a source of information, a place to socialize and now, a place for them to gain a formal education. Teachers need to see technology as another way to engage with their students and not as a replacement for their talents and their jobs. So, in hopes of finding a balance between technology and teaching, here are some ways to make sure there is a balance between teaching and technology.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/find-balance-teaching-technology/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27376

Cash-strapped schools offer virtual summer learning

by Vikki Ortiz Healy, Chicago Tribune

Summer school — once the dreaded stretch of vacation when students were required to be back in the classroom for weeks — is getting an update at several elementary and middle schools this year through virtual programs designed to allow students to complete lessons from home, the beach or anywhere else. “We felt that this was a better way to engage more students,” said Cathy Fisher, director of teaching and learning for Maercker School District 60 in Westmont, which this year is replacing its traditional in-school elementary summer school program with a home-based version.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-summer-school-online-met-20170429-story.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27391

The opportunities and challenges of digital learning

By: Brian A. Jacob, Brookings

Even with the best implementation, digital learning is likely to benefit students differently depending on their personal circumstances and those of their school. For instance, non-native English speakers might benefit from online instruction that allows them to pause and look up unfamiliar words. Likewise, we might expect an online course to be more advantageous for students attending a brick-and-mortar school with very low-quality teachers. A large IES-funded evaluation of computer-aided instruction (CAI) released in 2007 found that students randomly assigned to teachers using the leading CAI products fared no better than students in control classrooms. Several years later, then graduate student Eric Taylor, decided to reanalyze the data from the study, focusing on whether the impacts of these technologies varied across classrooms. His analysis suggests that the introduction of computer-aided instruction had a positive impact on students in classrooms with less effective teachers and a negative impact on students in classrooms with more effective teachers.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/05/05-opportunities-and-challenges-digital-learning-jacob

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15834

Dropbox Launches Education Offering

by Inside Higher Ed

The file-hosting service Dropbox is launching a new deployment option specifically for colleges and universities. More than 4,000 institutions already use the company’s cloud-based storage solutions for businesses, but the company saw an opportunity to launch a separate offering for educational institutions, said Jason Katcher, who leads Dropbox’s education efforts. While Dropbox for Business customers pay $149 a year per user, Dropbox Education is priced at $49. Colleges can also earn discounts depending on the size of their student populations. Katcher, previously the head of Google Apps for Education, said Dropbox sees itself playing a supporting role to the learning management systems and collaboration tools that colleges already use.

http://www.cblohm.com/2016/05/11/infographic-how-to-prepare-for-meeting-the-media-iste-2016/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15831

Strategic Technology and High-Touch Support Key to Student-Centricity

Kristy Davis, The EvoLLLution

Leveraging technology and committing to offering high-touch services that respond to the unique needs of traditional and non-traditional students are central to creating the experience today’s learners expect and need. Student centricity starts with mission. Academic Support Resources, the core student services unit at the University of Minnesota, follows a shared mission statement: “Making a Positive Difference in Student’s Lives.” Faculty at this large R1 University may be working on a cure for cancer, developing a theoretical framework to analyze an art form or researching artificial intelligence, but they all want their students to be well served and fully engaged in their learning. There are many initiatives currently underway that place the student at the center of our efforts—too many to detail at great length—but here is a glimpse into some of the ways the University of Minnesota has committed to crafting an engaging, enriching and student-focused environment.

http://evolllution.com/technology/tech-tools-and-resources/strategic-technology-and-high-touch-support-key-to-student-centricity/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15828

20 Education Administrator Blogs

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

It’s not easy being a school administrator. As leader of your school or department, it may be difficult to find peers you can confide in, discuss challenges or get insights. That’s why it’s great to tap into the opinions, knowledge and research of education administrator blogs. Most of these blogs are written for and by administrators, and can open up a conversation and help you connect with others who, like you, work to provide the best educational opportunities for your students. Others blogs are written from people who aren’t in the trenches, and can provide a different, but necessary perspective.

http://www.edudemic.com/admin-blogs/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/XTzav6rSSSE/

Next gen learning for small businesses

by Matt Smith, the Age

Over the years web and mobile technology has advanced to the point where online training has become an easy and attainable cost-effective solution for small businesses. No longer do we need to sit through boring PowerPoint presentations that produce ineffective training results for employees. Electronic learning (eLearning) has advanced so that training courses can now be used on any device, anywhere, with the latest technology to engage all employees. We’ve seen this shift in learning mindset with start-ups offering skill specific training as well as universities offering their content online through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). With these advances, small businesses now have access to courses that would have been only available for large corporations a few years ago. Through eLearning, small businesses are better placed to maintain competitive advantage by offering this type of training for staff. Employees in larger organisations expect to participate in some form of elearning, and soon it will be the norm in small businesses too.

http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/smallbiz-tech/next-gen-learning-for-small-businesses-20150511-ggyvj8.html

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/iI8-6zy9nQA/

This year’s grads have more debt than ever

By Tara García Mathewson, Education

Continuing the trend of the last several decades, this year’s graduates have more debt than their predecessors. The Wall Street Journal reports on a new study from college financial planning company Edvisors, which shows the average borrower in the Class of 2015 will be responsible for paying back $35,000 and 17% of these grads have parents who took out $30,687 on their behalf, on average. Student loan debt has increased by more than 10 times since 1994, according to the article, and if current trends continue, the Class of 2016 will soon take over as the most indebted class ever.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/this-years-grads-have-more-debt-than-ever/396225/

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End of Year Burnout: How to Finish the Marathon in Stride

by Maurice Ellias, Edutopia

The end of the school year can feel like the final few miles of a marathon. Not only does your body not want to go on, your mind wants to be elsewhere. It’s not helped by the fact that the dreaded tests are over. Feeling burned out is quite common. In one of my previous blog posts, I drew upon the work of expert Cary Cherniss, whose book, Beyond Burnout, gives great guidance about factors most likely to lead to teacher burnout and some ways to detect and prevent it. But the end of the year is different. Detection is not the issue. Neither is prevention. You are at mile 23 and your lungs are bursting, your legs are cramping, your mind is in a jumble, and you just want say, “Beam me up, Scotty.” Yet, just as the marathoners make it to the finish line, so can you. Here are five ideas that work.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/end-of-year-burnout-how-to-finish-stride-maurice-elias

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/FteKT91NNPk/

Brain Movies: When Readers Can Picture It, They Understand It

by Marcus Conyers & Donna Wilson, Edutopia

The images that form in your mind as you read — we call them “brain movies” — can be more exciting and memorable than a Hollywood film. More to the point for teachers, guiding your students to visualize as they read is an engaging and enjoyable way to boost comprehension and retention. Learning to create brain movies can help students make sense of complex nonfiction subject matter and “see” the characters, setting, and action in stories. Teachers who use our strategy tell us their students seem to have more fun — and success — as they read. These anecdotes are supported by research showing that students who are taught to develop mental imagery of text do better than control groups on tests of comprehension and recall.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-movies-visualize-reading-comprehension-donna-wilson

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