Are Learning Styles Useful?

By Kristen Hicks, Edudemic

Every teacher already knows that each student learn differently from his or her peers. In the last couple of decades a theory emerged that a few key learning styles could explain and define some of those differences in how children learn. We even published this infographic here a couple of years ago that explored the idea. The seven learning styles described are based on Howard Gardner’s idea of multiple intelligences. In defense of his work, Gardner himself emphasizes that what he described in his original work weren’t learning styles, but rather different facets of how each mind works. Nonetheless, his ideas have gone on to inspire discussions, infographics, teaching theories and quizzes all based around trying to pin down a clearer understanding of the different ways people learn.

http://www.edudemic.com/learning-styles-useful/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14343

Even With Flipped Classrooms, Teachers Still at Head of The Class

by Jane Swift, Huffington Post

Digital learning–online or classroom-based–is not a revolution in education, it’s the evolution of education. For all the talk of the flipped classroom, digital tools have not turned education on its head. But it does provide teachers with more resources and tools to help students and applies learning in a way that helps these digital natives connect with the subject matter. However, we are seeing the strongest growth in the blended learning model, which keeps the teacher at the front of the classroom. That gives teachers a lot of say over which products succeed and fail. This reality should spur edtech providers to bring teachers into the development process. Even if you win a contract at the district level, you need to show value at the classroom level or you won’t see future growth or long relationships with customers. But if you can engage teachers and add value for them, they will embrace your product and provide advice to make it better.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-swift/even-with-flipped-classro_b_8546074.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14340

Parents fire back at report critical of online charter schools

By Moriah Costa, Education Watchdog

The scathing report from CREDO found that students in online charter schools learn less in their first year than students in a traditional public school. It also found students had less one-on-one time with teachers. Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said she was “disheartened to learn of the large-scale underperformance of full-time virtual charter public schools.” While online charter schools “are meaningful and beneficial options for some students,” authorizers of these schools need to hold them accountable, she said. “While we know that this model works for some students, the CREDO report shows that too many students aren’t succeeding in a full-time online environment,” she said.

http://watchdog.org/247038/parents-fire-back-report-critical-online-charter-schools/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14337

HBCUs Developing Online Programs with the University of Phoenix to Survive

by Manny Otiko, Atlanta Black Star

Faced with a changing education landscape, some Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are looking at online education, reported BuzzFeed. Several HBCUs are partnering with the for-profit University of Phoenix, which seems to have developed a good track record for graduating Black students. According to BuzzFeed, almost a third of the students at the five largest for-profit colleges, who provide mainly online classes, are Black. In 2013, for-profit colleges had 275,000 black students out of a total of 877,000 enrollees. In that year, HBCUs enrolled 311,000 students. Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports most of the country’s public HBCUs, said Black schools have been slow to adopt online education, but it’s the future.

https://atlantablackstar.com/2015/11/12/hbcus-developing-online-programs-university-phoenix-survive-changing-education-landscape/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14335

Why I’m Against the Online Lecture

BY WILLIAM FENTON, PC Magazine

The venerable lecture has few allies today. While many in the humanities have long preferred seminar-style instruction, our friends in the sciences have begun to give the lecture a second look. A growing body of research suggests that lectures simply are not that effective, especially when compared to active-learning models. In a recent meta-analysis of some 225 studies of undergraduate STEM teaching methods, Scott Freeman, principal lecturer in biology at the University of Washington, and his colleagues found that active-learning methods both reduced failure rates and increased exam performance. However, reports of the death of the lecture may be exaggerated, to paraphrase a famous writer. Several recent pieces have advocated for the lecture as a source of active learning. While that might apply to some traditional college courses, it is far from the case among massive open online courses (MOOCs) where video lectures remain ubiquitous, to the detriment of learners.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2494971,00.asp

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14333

Lawrence educator named Blended and Online Learning Teacher of the Year

By Rochelle Valverde, Lawrence Journal-World

After having taught using traditional teacher-led instruction for 30 years, Lawrence elementary school teacher Paula Barr was about to try a different method — called blended learning — that also uses online material and individual or small-group work. “As a traditional teacher, all my 25 sponges sat at their desks and I poured into them everything that I thought they needed to know — I decided when, how and how much,” Barr said. “As a blended learning teacher, I take my sponges and throw them in the pool.”

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/nov/12/lawrence-teacher-named-blended-and-online-learning/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14330

NSF funds research on math software

by eSchool News

The National Science Foundation has granted $800k to North Carolina State University to use data mining techniques to study the game-based ST Math software program that’s currently used in 2,500 schools across the country. Researchers hope the findings will help improve MIND Research Institute’s ST Math and other digital learning platforms that have cropped up in a number of classrooms.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/11/12/nsf-research-math-432/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14327