Teachers talk: 12 makerspace must-haves for back-to-school

BY SATISH SUBRAMANIAN, eSchool News
Four experienced “makers” and K-12 educators dish their top tools and advice to build a meaningful classroom makerspace from the ground up. Makerspaces are becoming a classroom staple. As these shared spaces for student-led learning continue to flourish, the concepts, tools and applications of makerspaces have reached a new level of variety. For those new to “making,” developing the blueprints for a classroom makerspace this back-to-school season can be intimidating.  The teaching and learning benefits of maker education are clear and simple. This practice enables students to exercise creativity and abstract thinking to see a problem from beginning to end. They test, analyze and modify ideas in both the design and production stages. Making offers our youngest generation a fluid model for approaching problems through trial-and-error, a skill that can last a lifetime.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/09/01/teachers-makerspace-must-haves/

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Surveys help align summer courses to the needs of students

by Sarah Hess, Lion’s Roar
University students now have a say in which classes are offered during the summer semester. With polls being distributed to gather opinions on which classes both in person and online should be offered during summer semester, students have the chance to decide which classes will be offered. Summer classes help students advance in their degree progress and save them money by reducing costs of undergraduate courses while offering more in-demand classes and more online courses. Along with the fact that summer classes are shorter than the normal fall or spring terms, credits can be earned in four to eight weeks in summer courses.

http://www.lionsroarnews.com/news/view.php/1029387/Surveys-help-align-summer-courses-to-the

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Nearly 2,500 students have left NC’s online charter schools: Why did they leave? Where did they go?

by Kelly Hinchcliffe, WRAL

Their first year, the schools enrolled nearly 3,900 students combined. By the end of the year, more than 1,200 students – more than 30 percent – left to seek education elsewhere, prompting one State Board of Education member to warn, “We need to monitor this closely.” This past year, the schools enrolled more than 4,400 students and lost nearly 1,200, or about 27 percent. Tracking how many students leave the schools has been a complex and controversial topic since lawmakers granted the schools four-year pilot programs beginning in 2015.

http://www.wral.com/nearly-2-500-students-have-left-nc-s-online-charter-schools-why-did-they-leave-where-did-they-go-/16719011/

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New AI Tool Helps High Schoolers with College Admissions

By Richard Chang, THE Journal

SchoolWise, an online platform for high school students interested in college, has launched GoSchoolWise.com, a new website that’s designed to help high school students and their parents during the often arduous college admissions process. The new site utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools such as IBM Watson, a platform that uses natural language processing and personality traits to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data, to help students find the right college for them. According to a report by the private, Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, only about 40 percent of high school students in the United States graduate from college. SchoolWise aims to improve that number by assisting students at the beginning of the college admissions process.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/29/schoolwise-launches-website-to-help-high-school-students-with-college-admissions.aspx

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Virtual Reality to Drive Rapid Adoption of 360 Degree Cameras

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Fueled by a growth in virtual and augmented reality, 360 degree cameras are expected to see rapid growth over the next five years. 360-degree cameras allow users to shoot spherical videos and still images, which can be shared on services like Facebook and YouTube and experienced as virtual reality using a phone, tablet or dedicated VR headset. The 360-degree video at the link below, for example, shows a Blue Angels flight from the perspective of one of the planes’ cockpits. On a phone or tablet, users can view the scene from different angles just by turning their devices left, right, up or down. (On a traditional computer, these movements are controlled using a finger or mouse.)

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/31/virtual-reality-to-drive-rapid-adoption-of-360-degree-cameras.aspx

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How to Revamp Your Learning Spaces on the Cheap

by David Weldon, Campus Technology

Often, the learning spaces that get the most attention are the big, flashy projects, complete with all the bells and whistles associated with cutting-edge technology-enhanced classrooms. But for many colleges and universities, those kinds of facilities are a dream, not a reality. With that in mind, Sutch and her colleague Mark Frydenberg, senior lecturer in computer information systems and director of the CIS Learning and Technology Sandbox at Bentley, presented the session “Spruce up Your Campus Learning Spaces without Breaking Your Budget” at the recent Campus Technology Conference in Boston, offering ideas on how campus technologists can outfit their learning centers “on the cheap.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/31/how-to-revamp-your-learning-spaces-on-the-cheap.aspx

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13 Keys to Successful Blended Learning

By Greg Thompson, THE Journal

Transforming a mishmash of educational technologies into a coherent “blended learning” model is fast becoming the holy grail of modern education. With so much software and hardware already in place, making blended learning work is less about acquiring technology, and more about changing mindsets. Susan O. Moore, supervisor of blended learning at Meriden Public Schools (CT), breaks the implementation of blended learning into five stages.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/09/01/13-keys-to-successful-blended-learning.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13742

At Harvard’s new ‘virtual classroom,’ students tune in to class from computers anywhere

By: Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

The newest classroom at Harvard University’s business school has no desks or chairs. Instead, the professor teaches facing a towering digital screen that stretches from wall to wall, filled with the live video feeds of up to 60 students tuned in from their computers. In the futuristic classroom, housed in a television studio 2 miles (3 kilometres) from campus, class plays out like a giant video conference. Students can jump in to ask questions or respond to their classmates. The professor can stop a lecture to quiz individual students, or send the group a quick online poll. The project, called HBX Live, is a departure from the genre of online courses that are recorded in advance to be taken later.

http://www.brandonsun.com/business/breaking-news/at-harvards-new-virtual-classroom-students-tune-in-to-class-from-computers-anywhere-323672331.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13739

Enhanced school technology enhances learning

by the Independent

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) announced Friday that all 173 of the state’s public school districts have met the national goal of 100 kb of Internet bandwidth for each K-12 student. It is believed to be the first state to do so. “This is just another way Kentucky is leading the nation in public education,” Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday said. “Our teachers told us they needed a faster, more reliable system to take advantage of all of the great digital instructional resources and other technology-based education tools and supports that are available. So, I’m glad we were able to meet the need and do what is best for student learning.”

http://www.dailyindependent.com/news/enhanced-school-technology-enhances-learning/article_06dfe47a-50dd-11e5-9070-abd4f63a66fc.html

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MIT brings top entrepreneurship students together in person

By Chi-Chi Zhang, MIT NEWS OFFICE

MIT has just concluded an experiment in blended learning that could reshape existing educational paradigms. A unique program held on campus Aug. 18-22 brought together students from around the world who had taken an online course in entrepreneurship and then immersed themselves at MIT — to learn how to create a startup. The Institute brought 47 out of 54,856 students enrolled in the MITx on edX course 15.390x Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer? to campus for the inaugural MITx Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. The bootcamp was an experiment by MIT to help edX students further their online education, to learn not only from MIT professors but also from like-minded people from around the world.

http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N34/bootcamp.html

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What does pedagogy mean when it comes to online learning?

by Carolyn Lewis, Training Zone

Effective online pedagogy is not exclusively applicable to delivery of formal qualifications it is equally important whether it’s social learning or short courses. The full extent of skills may not be required for all types of learning, but in my opinion we can pretty much apply the standards set out in the UK Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training to online pedagogy whatever the objective.

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/blogs-post/what-does-pedagogy-mean-when-it-comes-online-learning/187606

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SC State Education Department rebrands its online learning program

By Kelly Petty, ColaDaily

“While the name is new, its mission to provide personalized, online learning opportunities for South Carolina students remains the same,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Mick Zais. The website will feature a new Student Information System, which will allow counselors at participating schools to register students. VirtualSC will continue to offer courses for students in grades 7-12 and for adult learners in Adult Education programs who want to take courses for high school credit without seat-time requirement.

http://coladaily.com/2014/09/01/state-education-department-rebrands-its-online-learning-program-registration-ends-sept-5/

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