It’s All in the Data

By Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed Digital

The University System of Maryland’s campuses boast diverse student bodies in terms of race, income and college preparedness. Officials believe new data collection standards will improve retention and graduation rates.  “We [needed] to understand … what does it mean when we put interventions into place?” said M.J. Bishop, director of the system’s center for academic innovation, during a panel at last week’s Educause conference here. “How do we know whether or not we’re making a difference when we put these interventions into place?” What followed was a process of introspection and realignment that the system’s leaders believe has moved the campuses toward a level playing field: standardizing disparate definitions for student success data and identifying areas where students need more help than they’re getting, particularly in the classroom and before they arrive on campus for the first time.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/11/08/university-system-maryland-standardizes-data-collection-improve

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33595

As Pedagogy Changes, Learning Spaces Are Transforming Too

by Dennis Pierce, THE Journal

As a student, Anthony Johnson hated school. He hated sitting still at one of several cramped desks aligned in precise rows, listening to his teachers talk for hours. It’s why he dropped out of school before ultimately earning a GED, going on to college and becoming a teacher himself. “My own experience in school was awful,” he said, “and I decided that my classroom wasn’t going to look like that.” In Johnson’s classroom at H.D. Isenberg Elementary School in Salisbury, NC, students can choose from a variety of seating options. There are tables for students to collaborate in groups of four, as well as bar-style seating on taller stools and even a few couches where they can sit comfortably while they work or read independently. The school provided the tables, and Johnson supplied the rest of the furniture himself.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/11/07/as-pedagogy-changes-learning-spaces-are-transforming-too.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33585

Stunning: Research shows intense spike in children’s media use

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News

New research has unearthed a dramatic increase in the number of young children who have their own tablet device–42 percent compared to 1 percent in 2011. The research from Common Sense, which examines media use by kids ages 0-8 and is the third installment in an ongoing series that tracks media and technology use, also uncovered an increase in the amount of time children spend with mobile devices–48 minutes, up from just five minutes in 2011. The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight is based on a large, nationally representative sample of respondents and replicates methods from 2011 and 2013 to gauge how media environments and behaviors have changed over the years.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/11/06/spike-childrens-media-use/

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Teachers share formative assessment strategies that work

BY DAWN NELSON AND ASHLEIGH SCHULZ, eSchool News

Today’s students have too many tests to take—but today’s teachers still need insight into their classes’ knowledge and skills. Adding new tests every time students need to prove mastery rarely seems like the right answer. For some classrooms, the solution lies in formative assessments, which gauge their students’ understanding and personalize their lessons in real time. Here, two educators share how formative assessments are transforming their students’ learning across the board.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/10/31/teachers-share-formative-assessment-strategies-that-work/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=20254

Engaging videos help students learn about STEM concepts with real-world relevance

by eSchool News

More often than not, students pick up a mobile device or use a computer to access videos and digital media online. With a dearth of resources online, educators can find content that meets students where they’re comfortable learning, with interactive and engaging presentation. TED Talks have grown in popularity in part for their inspiring and frank perspectives on any number of world issues, and educators can leverage these resources for learning. Educators can build lessons around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video through Ted-Ed. Once they locate the video they wish to use, they next use the TED-Ed Lesson editor to add questions, discussion prompts and additional resources. When the lesson is published, educators can monitor their progress and submitted work.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/11/01/10-ted-ed-videos-students-can-use-today/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=20242

How a small district turned every student into a music composer

BY JOHN ZIRKLE, eSchool News

New software and a big collaboration changed how one rural school’s students think about music; the Achievement Program seeks to establish the first national standard in the United States for measuring musical aptitude in students of all ages. There are moments in my life when the world slows down long enough for me to have incredibly emotional experiences linked to music. Those moments are pure joy. My goal as a music educator is to facilitate opportunities for my students to connect in that very same way. One of the purest ways to imbue students with these amazing experiences is through music composition. Spending seven years as music teacher in Big Sky’s rural community, I encounter daily the educational benefits that a small school district offers students, particularly in its abilities to offer more intimate backdrops for learning.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/11/03/small-school-turned-every-district-music-composer/

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The Promise (and Perils) of Digital Textbooks

By David Raths, THE Journal

The New Media Consortium’s 2014 Horizon Report K-12 Edition noted that although digital textbooks have become a mainstay in higher education, they have been slower to infiltrate K-12. The report’s authors added, however, that the “financial and educational benefits of digital learning materials will eventually outweigh the outdated paper textbook dependence in K-12 education, and gradual adoption of digital textbooks is expected.” THE Journal recently spoke with teachers and administrators in several districts that are experimenting with digital versions of textbooks from traditional publishers as well as those curating digital material to compose new, more personalized texts for their students.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/28/the-promise-and-perils-of-digital-textbooks.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14283

What Drone Technology Can Teach Students

by Edudemic

12 Creative Ways to Use Drones for Learning

1. Make Your Own Drone

First and foremost, one of the best ways to use drones in the classroom is to have students design and build their own, whether in a robotics club, in shop class, or as a class project. There aren’t a lot of options for buying cheap kits at the moment, but keep your eyes peeled, as the cost of such kits will inevitably come down over time. Making drones in a school club or even just studying models online will teach key lessons about:

http://www.edudemic.com/drones-classroom-can-happen/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14281

Dropouts: innovative online schools attract Santa Clara Co. youth

By Sharon Noguchi, Mercury News

Three Opportunity Youth Academies that opened this fall offer free online classes, guidance and a path to young people like Schmeing who dropped out of school but want to earn their diploma. Organizers hope to reel in some of what they estimate to be 8,000 dropouts ages 16 to 24 in Santa Clara County. The Santa Clara County Office of Education held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday at the newest of its three academies, this one tucked into a Gilroy strip mall. The innovative academies allow students to work at their own pace wherever they want. Furnished with couches, tables and computers, the sites deliberately don’t fit the image of a traditional school.

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_29081764/dropouts-innovative-online-schools-attract-santa-clara-co

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14278

5 Skills That Games Teach Better Than Textbooks

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Playing games at school can inspire students in ways that nobody could predict. For proof, just take Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In it, Dumbledore raises his hand for silence and pronounces the memorable line, “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” The victory is decided by the modest 10 points Dumbledore grants to Gryffindor’s Neville Longbottom, and with it comes a lesson worth learning: Following your conscience, even in small ways, can have a big impact. Trying to impart that lesson without the game would most likely have had as much impact as the lunch ladies making a switch from peas to carrots. Because games immerse students in a world outside their daily experience game-based pedagogy can help students learn skills that they could never grasp by reading a textbook. Here are five of them.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/11/05/5-skills-that-games-teach-better-than-textbooks.aspx

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10 ways to create engaging schools

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Technology integration and project-based learning are two of 10 strategies that one district technology director uses to help educators create engaging schools and classrooms that excite and empower students. Ninety-five percent of kindergartners are truly enthusiastic about school, but for some reason, that enthusiasm wanes, and only 37 percent of ninth graders are enthusiastic about school and learning, said Robert Dillon, director of technology and innovation for the Affton School District in St. Louis, during an edWeb Connected Educator Month webinar. School leaders must find a way to sustain that kindergarten enthusiasm all the way through high school.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/11/05/10-engaging-empowering-652/

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Professor’s online course delves into all things ‘Doctor Who’

by Anthony Domanico, CNet

A new MOOC, short for massive open online course, from a Syracuse University professor will take “Doctor Who” fans on an epic journey. The course, titled “Doctor Who in the Digital Age,” will be taught by Professor Anthony Rotolo, director of the online masters in communications program at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It will run from January through April and will explore the history, evolution and cultural impact of the long-running BBC series, Rotolo tells the Daily Orange. The free course will be offered both in-person to Syracuse students as an independent study class and online for Whovians across the universe.

http://www.cnet.com/news/a-new-mooc-dives-into-the-timey-wimey-world-of-doctor-who/

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Top Five Tools for Online Learning

by Sandra Miller, Huffington Post

When you think of the 21st-century classroom setting, you have to consider social networking and other online tools as its essential part. Although old-school educators view Facebook and Twitter in a negative light, these social networking tools can be very useful for building and growing relationships among classmates. All online tools can be very useful for educative purposes, but there are some specific networking opportunities that have been created with the purpose to enhance the academic environment and make the learning process easier for both students and educators.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sandra-miller/online-learning-tools_b_4212409.html

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Classes minus the classroom: Students throughout Wisconsin say Grantsburg’s virtual charter school is making the grade

By Heidi Clausen, Country Today

While most teens her age were seated behind a desk one recent Tuesday morning, Audree Marcis was finishing up the morning chores on her family’s dairy farm. Shortly before 10 a.m., she logged on to her computer for geometry class, then online lessons in world history and Gothic literature. While she lives a couple hundred miles away from Grantsburg, Audree is one of about 680 students throughout Wisconsin enrolled in the Grantsburg School District’s virtual charter school, iForward. Homeschooled from first through fifth grade, she’s been an iForward student since sixth grade and now is a sophomore. While it can be challenging at times, Audree said she enjoys the freedom virtual schooling provides.

http://www.thecountrytoday.com/front_page/article_59d618f0-4579-11e3-84a6-0019bb2963f4.html

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U. at Albany Will Share Technology Services With Community College

By Megan O’Neil, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The State University of New York’s University at Albany and nearby Hudson Valley Community College have agreed to take the first steps in what officials envision as a long-term, multifaceted sharing of information-technology services and facilities. They are the first institutions in the 64-campus SUNY system to share information-technology resources, and the arrangement could become a model for other colleges, officials say. The first step, in which each institution will house secondary backup servers for the other, involves linking the campuses via a dedicated fiber cable that is to be installed by December.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/u-at-albany-will-share-technology-services-with-community-college/48107

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