MIT Moves Beyond the MOOC to Court Companies, Professional Learners

By Sydney Johnson, EdSurge

There are few key differences between MIT Professional Education’s new and existing online offerings. For starters, Digital Plus will not be “open enrollment,” meaning the courses will only be available to paying companies or organizations. Piloto says that’s meant to enable each course to be capped at 50 students—a sharp scale back from the more MOOC-like courses, which can enroll as many as 1,500 students at a time. Capping each class allows Digital Plus courses to provide a tighter, more focused learning experience, Piloto says. Digital Plus courses—which are taught by MIT lecturers—will focus on project- and team-based exercises, along with a combination of videos, reading materials, and group work. Those elements of the curriculum may take place online, in-person via video, physically on the MIT campus, or at a company site.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-10-13-mit-moves-beyond-the-mooc-to-court-companies-professional-learners

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=32646

More NC students stay home to go to class. But they’re in low-performing schools

By Lynn Bonner and David Raynor, News Observer

Online charter schools came to North Carolina under a cloud that still lingers two years after they began enrolling students. K12, Inc. and Connections Academy were approved in 2015 as critics of online education pounded on reports of poor student performance in other states. The Tennessee education commissioner had tried to boot K12, Inc. out of his state. In 2014, a virtual school in Pennsylvania decided not to renew its management contract with the company. In North Carolina, the State Board of Education approved the schools reluctantly, and only after the state legislature passed a law requiring the state to allow four-year pilot programs for two companies.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article178438251.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=32636

4 Useful Applications Of Mind Mapping In Business

by Sandhya Lakhanpal, eLearning Industry

The concept of graphic organizers and thinking maps is all too familiar in the field of education. From outlining an expository text to storyboarding a narrative one, concept maps or mind maps are a commonly used tool in K-12. This tool is equally beneficial in the business world, especially in the arena of Instructional Design. This article gives a glimpse of the wealth that this magnificent tool brings to the field of Instructional Design. Before we delve into the uses, let’s construct a working definition. A mind map is a graphic representation of thoughts, ideas, concepts and notes. As the old adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. A mind map provides a visual structure depicting the linear, or non-linear, relationships among concepts or ideas.

https://elearningindustry.com/mind-mapping-in-business-4-useful-applications

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=32626

How important is technology in education?

by Shalini Rajvanshi, Indian Express

Technology is slowly and steadily making a foray in education. Knowledge is no more limited to books and the use of platforms such as websites, apps, videos, live chats, etc., have taken it to another level. A lot of schools and colleges – mostly in tier 1 and tier 2 cities – have embraced technology to make learning fun and interactive. Interweaving technology with education seems to be helping students at all levels. Many educators in the city swear by instructional videos while parents are gradually opening up to the possibility of a platform which may help their wards learn something new in an innovative manner.

http://indianexpress.com/article/education/edtech-how-important-is-technology-in-education/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19341

Are Educational Apps and Technology Nurturing or Killing Learning?

by Azzam Sheikh, Huffington Post

Learning through educational apps and digital environments can offer many more advantages than traditional learning styles, but personal factors such as a student’s familiarity with technology can have an impact upon learning preferences and effectiveness. The future for digital learning is certainly a trend that cannot be ignored, as the next generation who are native with digital technology will no doubt create more demand for it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azzam-sheikh/are-educational-apps-and-_b_12390480.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19329

EdX Partners Dominate the Top of Times Higher Education World University Rankings

BY JERRY HAMEDI, edX Blog

Times Higher Education (THE) recently released its 2016-17 World University Rankings list, and we’re excited to announce that eight of the world’s top 10 universities are edX partners! Among the top 10 are Caltech, MIT, Harvard University, Princeton University, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, UC Berkeley, and University of Chicago – with even more edX partners appearing on the full list. In THE’s rankings each university is comprehensively evaluated on 13 performance indicators across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

http://blog.edx.org/edx-partners-times-higher-education-world-university-rankings

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19317

In ‘Flipped’ Classes, Faculty See Opportunities and Obstacles

By C. RAMSEY FAHS and DANIEL P. WOOD, Harvard Crimson

Harvard faculty members have demonstrated an increased interest in the “flipped” classroom model, the practice of moving some material previously taught in lecture to pre-class video recordings, according to faculty involved in pedagogical research. Robert A. Lue, faculty director of the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, said faculty members interested in an “active learning” model have recently consulted the Bok Center in increasing numbers, though the center does not keep statistics on flipped courses. To support interested professors, the Bok Center holds weekly “Active Learning Lunches.” The ramp-up in faculty interest comes as researchers publish more studies on the active learning model and others internally raise concerns about faculty and student workload under the flipped model.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/10/9/faculty-weigh-flipped-model/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14054

Essentials for Effective Online Courses in K-12

by Nicole Gorman, Education World

Quality Matters, a nonprofit that aims to improve the quality of online education in both the higher education and K-12 sphere, has produced a guide for K-12 schools to follow when creating and offering online courses. How Can Online Education Reflect High Quality Teaching? “When you walk into a classroom, you have an instinctual feel for the quality of teaching and learning happening there, along with standards and expectations that have developed over decades. How can we do the same for online education? ” asks WeAreTeachers.com. Quality Matter’s rubric aims to help strengthen online courses that might otherwise be ineffective busy work through several recommendations that administrators and educators should familiarize themselves with.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/essentials-effective-online-courses-k-12-1397811894

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14051

Fundamentals of Sheltered Instruction, Featuring the SIOP Model

by Center for Applied Linguistics

This new self-paced online course from CAL is designed to help teachers and administrators increase their knowledge of research-based sheltered instruction to support the language and content learning needs of English learners. Examples are based on the widely-used and effective SIOP Model.

http://www.cal.org/news-and-events/in-the-news/new-online-course-fsi

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14048

How one school set up 600 iPad Air tablets in 2.5 hours

By Fredy Padovan, eSchool News

Through our innovations using iPad Air tablets, students definitely have a bright future ahead of them. Imagine a school where paper is a dying species. Imagine virtual science labs that are making experiments possible that were previously deemed too expensive. Imagine unlimited resources and information at every student’s fingertips. This school exists, and it goes by the name of Immaculata-La Salle High School. Our private Catholic school, which serves more than 800 students as a member of the Archdiocese of Miami, is extending the possibilities of technology. Many people think of iPads in education as devices that need to be locked down. But at Immaculata-La Salle, we’re doing things a bit differently.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/10/school-ipad-tablets-422/

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Coding with the kindergarten crowd

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Introducing coding to kindergarten students helps them reflect on their own learning as they develop 21st-century skills such as problem solving and creativity, experts say. Coding has emerged as one of the most popular learning trends in recent years, and when it comes to programming, young students are proving just as capable as older students. Studies suggest that engaging students in STEM and computer-based learning at an early age will help students retain their interest as those subjects become more challenging in high school and college, and it is this line of thinking that has prompted such early introductions to coding concepts. Teaching coding in kindergarten helps young students learn important creativity and problem-solving skills that will position them for success as they move through school, said Amanda Strawhacker, DevTech Research Group lab manager and research scientist on the ScratchJr Project at Tufts University, during an edWeb webinar on kindergarten coding.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/10/coding-in-kindergarten-653/

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Switch launches 1st learn-to-code course search for online AND offline classes

by AGbeat

Switch launched earlier this year an aggregator to help anyone to determine which coding bootcamp is right for them, as the options begin to multiply. To reduce confusion, Switch created the TripAdvisor for people considering a career change by launching transparent reviews (read: it’s much more than just search). Now, Switch has launched the first ever aggregator for online and offline learn-to-code resources, seeking to help anyone from the DIY entrepreneur looking to brush up to the career veteran looking to learn a new programming language. By adding Online Courses, they are innovating in the space by helping bridge the gap between empty course seats and potential students of all types.

https://www.switchup.org/online

http://agbeat.com/tech-news/switch-launches-1st-learn-code-course-search-online-offline-classes/

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