Amazon Writing Tool Taps AI to Help Students Become Better Writers

By Sri Ravipati, THE Journal
Amidst back-to-school season, Amazon Education today released TenMarks Writing, a new online curriculum designed to help students improve their writing skills. The company back in 2013 acquired TenMarks, an ed tech startup that allows individuals to develop easy-to-understand mathematics curricula for students. For the last year, Amazon has been working with teachers to develop a writing version of TenMarks that employs the same underlying artificial intelligence technology: natural language processing that can detect spelling and grammatical errors, as well as argument and story structure, and provide students with automatic and differentiated feedback.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/08/23/amazon-writing-tool-taps-ai-to-help-students-become-better-writers.aspx

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Teachers and Historians to Develop Free, Open Online Curriculum

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
Teacher Laura Rangel, left, works with a group of other educators to plan a world history lesson using primary sources during a summer teaching event at the University of California, Davis. Historians and teachers in California are working together to develop free, open, online instructional materials for teaching history and social sciences in K-12. Scheduled to be available by July 1, 2019, the new content will adhere to a history-social science framework adopted by the state’s Department of Education in 2016. The curriculum will include digital versions of primary and secondary sources, lesson plans and related instructional materials.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/08/25/teachers-and-historians-to-develop-free-open-online-curriculum.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=31224

Smartwatches Take Up Nearly a Third of All Wearables Sales

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Wearables generated $30.5 billion this year, with smartwatches raking in roughly a third of total sales, according to a new Gartner forecast. In 2017, there will be approximately 41.5 million smartwatch units sold, compared to 34.8 million units last year, according to the market research firm. Gartner researchers predict smartwatches from Apple and Fossil will take the lead in sales for the segment. “We expect other consumer electronics brands such as Asus, Huawei, LG, Samsung and Sony to sell only 15 percent of smartwatches in 2021, because their brands do not have as strong an appeal as lifestyle brands for personal technologies,” according to a news release. Notably, smartwatches for children ages 2-13 are forecast “to represent 30 percent of total smartwatch unit shipments in 2021.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/08/25/report-smartwatches-take-up-nearly-a-third-of-all-wearables-sales.aspx

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TCC Offering Online, Free Textbooks For Some Classes

by Emory Bryan, News on 6

Students at Tulsa Community College can now get free textbooks online for some classes. This can save students several hundred dollars a semester. Biology Professor Jennifer Kneafsey has 24 years in the classroom and knows a thing or two about her students. “I used the traditional publisher’s books for many, many years, but I could see what a burden it was for my students to come up with the 200 or so dollars,” she said. So, after watching that struggle, she jumped at a new option. Kneafsey said, “When the students access the textbook online, it’s completely free.” The textbooks are from an online publisher named OpenStax.

http://www.newson6.com/story/32844649/tcc-offering-online-free-textbooks-for-some-classes

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17706

The Future Of Educational Technology: How Edtech Is Still Ignoring Its Biggest Market

by Svetlana Dotsenko and Thomas Hwang, Forbes

Educational technology is booming. Technology is helping to redefine how we learn, obtain skills, and get credentialed. That value proposition has captured public attention and attracted record amounts of venture capital funding. But the vision for edtech is, and should be, much broader. After all, the education market serves not only to instruct but also to invent. And educational technology can transform the “other half” of this equation by streamlining the research process. The need for research innovation is arguably strongest at universities.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2016/08/23/the-future-of-educational-technology-how-edtech-is-still-ignoring-its-biggest-market/#17d81cb3640b

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5 Higher-Ed Innovators Share Challenges, Ideas for the Future of Digital Learning

By Charlie Chung, EdSurge

In a Meetup hosted by EdSurge on Aug. 17, more than 100 people gathered to hear speakers present how their organizations are embracing the future of digital learning. Held at NovoEd’s headquarters, five speakers gave their six-minute lightning talks and then led a smaller group discussion with attendees. Researcher Candace Thille of Stanford University, notable for developing the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie-Mellon University, now at Stanford, emphasized starting with the learner when we consider edtech research and products. Collaborating with her Stanford colleagues, Thille has been looking for ways to take additional learner factors into account, particularly social-psychological components.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-08-23-5-higher-ed-innovators-share-challenges-ideas-for-the-future-of-digital-learning

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17676

E-Texts and the Future of the College Bookstore

By Rand Spiwak, Campus Technology

The acceptance and adoption of digital content in the classroom has been a slow, but, progressing evolution. Until all of the components of a successful conversion were available to higher education, adoption had been limited and digital content experiences less than desirable. Now, these components (interactive digital content, fully functional learning-experience platform software, hardware, connectivity and affordability) are readily available and are being piloted and implemented at increasing rates of acceptance and success. Students are demanding lower-cost alternatives to the current printed textbook and are seeking those alternatives through various means. Out of a hundred students, 50 percent or more don’t acquire a textbook because of cost, rather than availability; another 30 to 35 percent seek less expensive used textbooks from college bookstores, online sources, other students or anywhere they find a source.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/08/26/e-texts-and-the-future-of-the-college-bookstore.aspx

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Can Blended Learning Solve the US Teacher Drought?

by Vinoth Chandar, EdSurge

In education, technology is being proposed as a possible solution to the widespread teacher shortages reported across the country. While some propose higher pay to encourage more of America’s brightest college graduates to enter the profession, others are looking for answers in blended learning, asking how districts can use online technologies to refashion classrooms and make the teachers we already have more effective. One supporter of the latter idea is Mallory Dwinal, a fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute, a nonprofit think tank that conducts research on education innovation. In a report published earlier this year (PDF), she argues “disruptive technologies” can make the classroom more flexible, productive, and perhaps even more attractive to young professionals.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-08-26-can-blended-learning-solve-the-us-teacher-drought

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13686

Codementor is Changing the Landscape of Online Education with the Launch of Live Classes

by Codementor

“Unlike existing MOOCs where students learn via pre-recorded videos, Codementor Live Classes enable students to learn how to code with a live instructor in a small group setting,” said Weiting Liu, Founder & CEO of Codementor. “With Live Classes, we’re expanding our product line beyond more than just 1:1 mentoring. Students can now learn new technologies from a live code mentor at a much more affordable price range, starting from $99 for an 8-hour class series.” Codementor Live Classes are now available in some of the most popular programming languages today. In the Live Classes, students will receive live instruction and hands-on coding exercises. Students will also have the opportunity to ask questions and participate in discussions for more enhanced and effective learning.

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/08/27/codementor-changing-landscape-online-education-launch-live-classes#axzz3k2gJeRht

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13684

Ten Steps to Using Twitter in the College Classroom

by Jason Llorenz, Huffington Post

Having experimented with social media for learning — especially Twitter — across my courses, I am convinced that social media offers powerful opportunities to connect with students, by providing new ways for them to own the learning. But doing it well takes a good deal of planning and structure, especially if social will be part of your graded class activities. Below are 10 strategies and tactics for integrating Twitter into your college course.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-a-llorenz/ten-steps-to-using-twitte_b_5692021.html

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Parents warned over the use of ‘educational’ mobile apps

By Emily Bryan, Australian Broadcast News

Parents been warned by an expert that some mobile apps that claim to help children learn have little educational benefit. Recent national test results showed Tasmanian students were well below average in literacy and numeracy. And educational researchers have said teachers and parents embracing technology could be one way to turn that around. However, they have warned that not all educational technology is as useful as developers had hoped.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-26/parents-warned-about-27educational27-technology/5698528

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University of Southern Maine Will Teach Students How to Hack, and How to Stop It

BY J. CRAIG ANDERSON, Government Technology

University of Southern Maine students are preparing to infect networks with malicious software, hack into hardware, secretly monitor user activity and lure Web surfers to predatory Internet sites. And they’ll even get credit for doing it.

That’s because it will all happen within a controlled setting as part of a new cybersecurity curriculum in which they will examine technical, legal and ethical issues surrounding the collection, sharing and theft of sensitive data. USM’s new Cyber Security Lab, which officially opens at the Portland campus Tuesday, will be a playground for hackers and other students seeking jobs in the booming high-tech industry. But the interdisciplinary curriculum developed in the lab will extend far beyond information technology into areas such as corporate communications, law and even philosophy.

http://www.govtech.com/education/University-of-Southern-Maine-Will-Teach-Students-How-to-Hack-and-How-to-Stop-It.html

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