8 WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EDTECH INDUSTRY

By Matthew Lynch
Edtech users seem to have a love-hate relationship with the edtech industry. They love what edtech can do but hate that the industry has not lived up to expectations as quickly as had been hoped. There are many reasons for this. The possibility of viral edtech success may lure potential developers into a field for which they have little interest and less passion. Creating edtech isn’t the same thing as creating partnerships. In all fairness, edtech users haven’t provided the edtech industry with long-range objectives, either.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/8-ways-improve-edtech-industry/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33011

Zoom Is Hot in Higher Ed

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I’m always on the lookout for the hot technology in higher ed. This year, the winner seems to be Zoom.  Zoom is the web conferencing system that everyone I know across higher ed seems to really like. When talking to colleagues at other schools, they often mention that they have moved from some other platform to Zoom.
What folks seem to like about Zoom is that the application is: a) simple to use, b) has consistently high video and audio quality, and c) has a great mobile experience.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/zoom-hot-higher-ed

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=33001

Who is keeping student data safe in the era of digital learning?

by TARA GARCÍA MATHEWSON, Hechinger Report
As students spend more time on digital devices in school, data security becomes increasingly important. Baltimore County has become a leader in student data privacy and security, and is one of only 13 districts in the nation to earn a Trusted Learning Environment seal from CoSN, the membership group representing the nation’s K-12 school technology leaders. The seal identifies Baltimore County as going above and beyond mere compliance with laws that require schools to protect the privacy of student records. Among the extra steps the district has taken to foster trust is posting online a complete list of all third-party vendors that receive student data and exactly what type of data they get. Parents can also read the student data privacy agreement, a strict set of expectations with which vendors must comply to do business with the district.

Who is keeping student data safe in the era of digital learning?

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=32991

Creating and Managing Successful Online Faculty Learning Communities, An Interview with Jennifer Goode

By: Jim and Beth Harger, Faculty Focus

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Goode to discuss the opportunities provided by Faculty Learning Communities (FLC’s), an established method of small-group faculty development. She addresses the challenges in managing them, including participation, commitment, follow-through, and the ability focus on goals—all of which are magnified if the faculty members are geographically separated. She also shares with us many of the positive outcomes and benefits from FLC’s and how they can be implemented at any institution. One of the interesting things about this is the competitive application process to take part in the FLC’s. A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is a cross-disciplinary faculty group of five or more members (8 to 12 is the recommended size).

http://www.facultyfocus.com/podcasts/professional-adjunct/pa022-creating-managing-successful-online-faculty-learning-communities-interview-dr-jennifer-goode/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19685

District 203 opens door to possibility of course overload

by Suzanne Baker, Naperville Sun

Naperville School District 203 could be warming to the idea of high school students taking more than seven courses in a semester as long as one of those classes is offered through the local online consortium. Giving students at Naperville Central and North the chance to overload their semester schedule is one of the options being weighed by District 203 officials to encourage more students to participate in the Expanding Learning Opportunities consortium, also known as eLo. Prior to the 2014-15 academic year, the district partnered with Indian Prairie School District 204 and Wheaton Warrenville School District 200 to create a consortium to give high school students access to online courses taught by teachers in the three districts. The classes would provide the same rigor and accountability students would receive if they took the course in a bricks-and-mortar classroom.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-203-online-numbers-down-st-1021-20161020-story.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19673

San Diego Unified School District designs today’s classroom for tomorrow’s workplace

by Cindy Marten, Google Blog

The San Diego Unified School District has more than 132,000 students across 226 schools. They’re about to embark on what will soon be one of the largest 1:1 Chromebook programs for a school district. Leading the charge is Cindy Marten, superintendent of San Diego Unified School District. We’re proud to work with San Diego Unified School District on this journey and excited about what’s to come. At San Diego Unified School District it’s our mission to prepare our students, who represent more than 180 countries and 60 spoken languages, for the competitive global economy, and we believe that integrating technology into the classroom is a core part of these efforts. To ensure students graduate with the skills, motivation and curiosity to thrive in the workplace of the future we’ve launched a over 47,000 Chromebooks and G Suite for Education, including Google Classroom, district-wide to give all students access to collaborative technology both in the classroom and at home.

https://blog.google/topics/education/san-diego-unified-school-district-designs-todays-classroom-tomorrows-workplace/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19661

Ohio Schools Go Big with Blended Learning

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A majority of schools in Ohio are using some form of blended learning, primarily in high schools or schools that house grades K-12. The big motivators are facilitating personalized learning for students, providing more course choice and improving academic outcomes. Of those that aren’t blending, nearly a third expect to do so. Those results surfaced in a survey among all of the schools in Ohio conducted earlier this year by the Ohio Blended Learning Network, the Learning Accelerator and the Clayton Christensen Institute. All 994 district and charter schools in the state were invited to participate; 211 schools responded. As the survey found, 58 percent of schools have some type of blended learning going on — most of those in and around three large cities, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/20/ohio-schools-go-big-with-blended-learning.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14145

Google, Udacity Team Up to Offer Training For Tech Entrepreneurs

By Jaikumar Vijayan, eWeek

The four- to seven-month Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree program is geared toward helping developers learn how to take their apps from design to market. Google has launched its new short-duration Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree program that is designed to help software developers learn how to take their app ideas from the design stage to market. Google’s mini degree program, designed in collaboration with online course provider Udacity, takes four to seven months to complete with a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week. Students who finish the course successfully will receive certification from Google and Udacity while top-place finishers will have an opportunity to pitch their product to venture capitalists at Google.

http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/google-udacity-team-up-to-offer-training-for-tech-entrepreneurs.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14141

CMU Rolls Out Technologies to Help Students With Disabilities Take Notes

By Adora Namigadde, 9 and 10 News

Central Michigan University is helping its students with disabilities be more independent with some new technology. The new programs are available for students with disabilities who register for them at CMU’s Mount Pleasant campus. In the past, Central Michigan University has hired personal note-takers to help students who can’t take notes on their own. This semester, they’re turning to technologies that can help. Programs like Kurzweil and Sonacent’s Audio Notetaker are all helping students navigate the classroom more independently. The digital note-taking programs let students record lectures, have books read aloud and even allow different accents and translating.

http://www.9and10news.com/story/30313198/central-michigan-university-rolls-out-technologies-to-help-disabled-students-take-notes

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14138

Free online AP courses debut on edX Web site

By Nick Anderson, Washington Post

Rice University launched a free Advanced Placement biology course Monday on a Web site overseen by two other elite schools, a potentially significant milestone for a movement that aims to bring college-level courses to high school students. The site, edX, was created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in 2012 as a nonprofit platform for those universities and selected others to offer massive open online courses, or MOOCs , to the world. AP Biology from Rice is the first MOOC on the site advertised as an AP course for high school students. It is divided into four content segments — the Cell; Genetics; Evolution and Diversity; and Ecology — followed by an exam in April.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-online-ap-courses-debut-on-edx-web-site/2014/10/20/6b16c204-5883-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/Xh634BJHW4s/

Real-Time Classroom Feedback Enhances Flipped Learning at Temple College

by Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Terry Austin, an instructor of anatomy and physiology at Temple College in Texas, has boosted student retention rates in his classes — and he attributes part of that success to the real-time feedback system he’s using in his flipped classroom. His students watch short lecture videos at home, and then they log on to Learning Catalytics to answer a few questions about the concept covered in the video lecture. When the students return to class the next day, they get together in small groups to discuss the same questions and submit group answers. “It makes for some really interesting discussions,” said Austin.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/10/15/real-time-classroom-feedback-enhances-flipped-learning-at-temple-college.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/mBzRq1IARPs/

Overcoming the top barrier to school connectivity

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Funding remains the largest and most-cited obstacle when it comes to updating schools’ infrastructure and installing high-speed broadband internet access, according to a survey from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). CoSN’s second annual E-rate and Infrastructure Survey, conducted with AASA and MDR, reveals that 58 percent of school districts said monthly recurring and ongoing expenses are their biggest barrier to connectivity. In all, 60 percent of surveyed districts said funding is their biggest challenge when it comes to meeting the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) short-term goal of 100 Mbps/1,000 students.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/21/barrier-to-connectivity-030/

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