Students’ class notes available online for a fee

By Teresa Mackin, WISH TV

It was named one of the 12 companies “transforming education” to watch this year by Forbes. Flashnotes.com is a start-up company started several years ago that allows students to buy and sell their notes from classes online. It’s one of several note-sharing websites. As finals week wraps up at many Indiana colleges, company officials say when those exams are done, officials say students can actually make money off the work they did this semester. Some Indiana University-Bloomington and Purdue University students are among thousands of students participating across the country. In March, Barnes and Noble invested in the fast-growing company. Flashnotes.com officials say it’s another way to share original notes by students taken in class, essentially a “student to student” marketplace. Students set a price to sell their notes and earn 70 percent of those sales.

http://wishtv.com/2015/05/07/students-class-notes-available-online-for-a-fee/

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Tuscaloosa City Schools to get online courses for some middle and high school students

by Jamon Smith, Tuscaloosa News

In April, system leaders signed a one-year $50,000 agreement with Edmentum Online Learning Programs for Educators to provide online courses for students. According to its website, Edmentum is a leading provider of online learning programs designed to drive student achievement for academic and career success. The agreement allows students to take online classes in core subject areas, advanced placement, electives, career technical, remedial courses and standardized test preparation. All online courses will be taught by Alabama-certified teachers. Though the selection of available courses are abundant, all students won’t be able to take online classes.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20150505/NEWS/150509843/1007?Title=Tuscaloosa-City-Schools-to-get-online-courses-for-some-middle-and-high-school-students

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3-D Fossil Scans, Virtual Visits To Archeological Sites And Simulated Excavations Are Highlights In Wellesley edX Course

by Wellesley College

Wellesley biological anthropologist Adam Van Arsdale, who instructs Anthropology 207X, said the virtual fossil library is a new course feature that excites him most. “Students will have access to a library of 3D fossil scans, giving them–and me–greater ability to examine and compare specimens we are discussing in the course of the class, as well as independently explore fossil morphological variability,” he said. Van Arsdale, associate professor of anthropology at Wellesley, developed the course and is teaching it for the second time. Anthropology 207X, which was first offered in September 2013 and has been available in the edX archive since, has welcomed over 22,000 learners. “One of the things that most amazed and surprised me about the course’s first run was the extent to which some students organized face-to-face meetings and events with other students in the course,” Van Arsdale said. “When people think of online learning they often associate it with one person sitting alone with their computer, but it does not have to be that way.”

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/3-d-fossil-scans-virtual-visits-to-archeological-sites-and-simulated-excavations-are-highlights-in-wellesley-edx-course-300077274.html

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What’s The Secret To Effective Learning?

by Nick Morgan, Forbes

What’s the secret to effective learning? A recent study by a group of neuroscientists from the University of California, the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University found that the less you work your brain when learning, perhaps, the better. The researchers studied subjects learning a simple game over a six-week period. Those who used the part of the brain least associated with conscious planning, the frontal cortex, did the best. It’s better, it turns out, just to practice and not over-think what you’re doing. You learn faster. The results were published in the journal Nature Neuroscience recently, and one of the researchers noted, “It’s the people who can turn off the communication to these parts of their brain (the frontal cortex) the quickest who have the steepest drop-off in their completion times. It seems like those other parts are getting in the way for the slower learners. It’s almost like they’re trying too hard.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2015/05/05/whats-the-secret-to-effective-learning/

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University develops cyber security curriculum for middle, high schools

By Julie Ferrell, Ames Tribune

Free program aims to increase students’ awareness about security threats. Researchers at Iowa State University are hoping to bring the subject of cyber security to grade school classrooms. The team is releasing the nation’s first computer literacy curriculum aimed at middle and high school students, and it is expected to be ready as early as this fall. Teachers were introduced to the free program during a workshop at the IT-Olympics computer competition on ISU’s campus.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/05/university-cyber-security-784/

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Quiz Scores Go up When Students Feel Physics

By University of Chicago

Students who physically experience scientific concepts understand them more deeply and score better on science tests, according to a new study. Brain scans showed that students who took a hands-on approach to learning had activation in sensory and motor-related parts of the brain when they later thought about concepts such as angular momentum and torque. Activation of these brain areas was associated with better quiz performance by college physics students who participated in the research.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1344919-quiz-scores-students-feel-physics/

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The ed tech trends on the cusp of mainstream

By Stephen Noonoo, eSchool News

First preview of K-12 Horizon Report notes big ed tech shifts. This year, BYOD and makerspaces have their stars on the rise—they could be in 20 percent of classrooms by year’s end. And over the next few years, 3D printing, adaptive software, and even wearable technologies in schools could do the same, according to an advanced preview of this year’s K-12 Horizon Report, an annual trendsetting look at the current state of technology and learning produced by the New Media Consortium

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/11/horizon-report-trends-844/

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