Online enrollment increased by almost 40 percent over the last 5 years at UMass.

By Mike Masciadrelli, WWLP

More students at UMass are going online to get their degrees. More than 75,000 students enrolled in UMass online courses last year, up 6 percent from the previous fiscal year. “Sometimes online classes can be a little less rigorous, you don’t have to go to class all the time,” said Hannah Boyd, Junior at UMass Amherst. “It just makes it easier to get those extra credits.”  UMassOnline offers 150 degrees and certificate programs, along with more than 1500 courses. One of their more recent online programs allows students to obtain a graduate certificate in business analytics at UMass Amherst.

http://wwlp.com/2017/08/29/more-umass-students-are-getting-their-degrees-online/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=31414

7 MUST-HAVE APPS TO MAKE STUDENTS LOVE READING

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

Let’s be honest: it’s exponentially more difficult in the digital age to keep students engaged! Because of the allure of apps, games and videos that are so easily accessible, many kids nowadays can’t quite summon the interest in picking up a good book. What if you could leverage children’s love of technology to help build a lasting love of reading? Does that seem like a paradox? You can make it a reality with these apps specifically for the purpose of making your students love reading.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/7-must-apps-make-students-love-reading/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=31404

So, What IS the Future of Work?

By Sydney Johnson, EdSurge

For many attending the Future of Work symposium on Wednesday, there wasn’t any question whether automation is going to take over jobs—but rather when, and how education should respond. Hosted at Stanford University, the day-long event brought together dozens of minds who are thinking about what careers and skills students need to prepare for, and how an increasingly digital higher-education system will need to adapt to help get them there. Speakers including edX CEO Anant Agarwal, associate dean and director of Stanford’s Diversity and First-Gen office Dereca Blackmon, and Deborah Quazzo, a co-founder of investment firm GSV, shared their ideas on what that might look like.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-08-31-so-what-is-the-future-of-work

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=31394

Report: Social Media a Top Cybersecurity Challenge in the Workplace

By Rhea Kelly, THE Journal

Safe social media use is the top cybersecurity challenge for employees, according to the latest report from Wombat Security Technologies on security awareness issues in enterprise organizations. The 2016 Beyond the Phish Report evaluated two years of assessment data from Wombat’s Security Education Platform and surveyed hundreds of security professionals to find out how well end users are able to identify and manage security threats. The data came from a variety of sectors, including finance, technology, healthcare and education. Overall, 31 percent of end users missed assessment questions related to using social media safely in the workplace.After social media, the least understood cybersecurity topics across all industries were protecting and disposing of data securely (30 percent of questions missed); identifying phishing threats (28 percent of questions missed); protecting confidential information (27 percent of questions missed); and working safely outside the office (26 percent of questions missed).

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/09/01/social-media-a-top-cybersecurity-challenge-in-the-workplace.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17901

How technology can make student onboarding faster and safer

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

EdTech Magazine offers a view into the benefits of automatic digital onboarding, the process of establishing email and single-sign on access for students, faculty and staff that can make IT development faster, easier and more secure for campus stakeholders. Programs like OneLogin are examples of how schools create and manage digital identities for student and academic access points, helping schools like Texas A&M University and Brown University save time in data processing. Cloud-based technology is a major deterrent in protecting institutional information from hacking, as a recent survey revealed higher education is among the most vulnerable industries to illegal system access.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/how-technology-can-make-student-onboarding-faster-and-safer/425581/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17886

Former superintendent details district’s blended learning transformation

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Cindy Elsberry, former superintendent of Horry County Schools in South Carolina, sees blended learning as a way to increase teacher capacity and impact by providing data to better understand student learning needs and the tools for individualized instruction. Elsberry writes for District Administration that there are six models at teachers’ disposal, including a classroom rotation model, where students get a mix of instruction types at various stations, and the face-to-face driver model, where online learning is supplemental and delivered in a traditional classroom. There is also the flex model, in which teachers provide in-person support for a primarily online curriculum; online labs, where students work from computer labs to take online courses; a la carte, which offers online courses to students as a supplement to other courses; and online driver, in which students take their classes remotely but come to a school building for extracurricular activities.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/former-superintendent-details-districts-blended-learning-transformation/425496/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17871

Flipping the classroom together—from 3,000 miles away

By Bridget McCrea, eCampus News

Who says you can only use the flipped teaching method in your own class or with other teachers in your school or district? Not Andrew Thomasson and Cheryl Morris, that’s for sure. For the last few years, this enterprising duo has been flipping their English classes, co-moderating a weekly Twitter education chat, presenting at conferences, planning lessons, and collaborating regularly from opposite sides of the country. The pair joined forces in 2012 after Morris, who teaches sixth grade English and History at Del Mar Middle School in Tiburon, Calif., was introduced to the flipped learning concept.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/09/01/flipping-together-394/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13734

How satellite technology can help close the digital divide

By Tony Bardo, eSchool News

As high-speed internet service becomes more ubiquitous in American households, some readers might be surprised to find out that a “digital divide” exists in many of our schools. According to a 2014 blog post from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, “Forty-one percent of America’s rural schools couldn’t get a high-speed connection if they tried,”— where a high-speed connection is defined as offering speeds of 10Mbps or higher. Whereas he may have been right that they don’t have it, he was wrong to conclude they couldn’t get it. Indeed, many individuals living in urban areas are typically well served by fiber-optic, cable or DSL providers, unaware that high-quality satellite internet is available virtually everywhere, nationwide, and at affordable prices— no matter where you live, work, or go to school. So the digital divide in fact is a misnomer; it’s really a terrestrial digital divide as the FCC itself has now concluded.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/09/02/satellite-technology-628/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13732

Snow Day Pilot Will Reveal the Potential of Online Learning Days for Massachusetts School District

BY ARIANNA MACNEILL, The Salem News

Someday soon when students get that automated message from the school district announcing a snow day, the news may not invoke the same jubilation it historically did. Instead of a day of frolicking in the snow, it may merely mean Beverly pupils will have to trudge through their schoolwork assignments at home. Local school officials aren’t making those plans now, but they are piloting a “virtual school day” Tuesday for Beverly High students in grades 10-12. Principal Sean Gallagher said students will log on at home for their first day, complete their assignments and file them online.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/k-12/Snow-Day-Pilot-Will-Reveal-the-Potential-of-Online-Learning-Days-for-Massachusetts-School-District.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13729

K-12 school students taking digital learning into real world

by EVA FERGUSON, Calgary Herald

Public school students will take their online learning one step further this fall in a new curriculum allowing them to have their digital projects assessed in the real world. Beyond existing initiatives around digital literacy in the classroom, from instructional YouTube videos to assignments done on PowerPoint, the Calgary Board of Education will encourage students to complete certain projects digitally and then send them to the private sector for feedback. “This will be a great opportunity to work with different experts in the field,” said Cathy Faber, superintendent of learning innovation and chief information officer.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Public+school+students+taking+digital+learning+into+real/10165853/story.html

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