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/

Share on Facebook

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

8 characteristics of good online video

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

Instructor-led video is a must in online learning, but not all videos are successes. Here are eight tips to help educators create effective online videos for their courses. video-online-learningAccording to a report published in the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, instructor-generated video can have a positive influence on student satisfaction with, and engagement in, online courses. But not all videos are created equal. Research conducted by the American Academy of Neurology also reveals that “watching videos helps boost brain plasticity,” or the ability of the brain to undergo physical changes at any age. Learners who were trained to perform a particular task through videos performed better than those who learned through images and text, the researchers found—and they concluded that video has a “higher impact on the brain.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/good-online-video-552/

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14324

Internet of Things devices will exceed 6 billion

By Laura Devaney, eCampus News

Gartner, Inc. estimates connected devices in 2016 will jump 30 percent internet-of-things. Estimates indicate that 6.4 billion “connected things” will be used across the globe in 2016–a 30 percent increase from 2015, according to IT research firm Gartner, Inc. In 2016, approximately 5.5 million new “things” will become connected each day. Gartner also forecasted that the number of connected things would jump to 20.8 billion in 2020.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/internet-of-things-587/

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14321

It’s Not the Device; It’s What the Device Can Do

By Daniel Owens, THE Journal

When choosing the right computer for your district, our expert suggests focusing on what you need rather than what you want. The potential for technology to improve K-12 education in the United States is immense, though this change can only happen at scale with a focus on the right priorities. Devices for eduction have become symbolic of the efforts to transform education through blended and personalized learning. Desktops, laptops and tablets are quickly becoming ubiquitous in education. They are tangible examples of change and, with the exception of few dazzling products, nearly indistinguishable. When we are shown images that are supposed to reflect how technology is enhancing education, they are rarely pictures of particular software or data systems. They are students smiling and holding devices. Devices are crucial as a conduit for content; however, they do not directly improve learning outcomes.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/27/its-not-the-device-its-what-the-device-can-do.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14317

Google Just Open Sourced TensorFlow, Its Artificial Intelligence Engine

by Cade Metz, Wired

The app uses an increasingly powerful form of artificial intelligence called deep learning. By analyzing thousands of photos of gravestones, this AI technology can learn to identify a gravestone it has never seen before. The same goes for cats and dogs, trees and clouds, flowers and food. The Google Photos search engine isn’t perfect. But its accuracy is enormously impressive—so impressive that O’Reilly couldn’t understand why Google didn’t sell access to its AI engine via the Internet, cloud-computing style, letting others drive their apps with the same machine learning. That could be Google’s real money-maker, he said.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/google-open-sources-its-artificial-intelligence-engine/

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14314

Opinion: To online, or not to online? That is the question

by Rivka Saydman, Lariat

It really is a small world, after all. Technology has opened windows and doors connecting just about everyone, especially students. When it comes to learning about foreign languages and cultures, the Internet has helped a great deal. Statistics show that by 2018, one in four students will enroll in an online foreign-language class. In a quantitative study conducted in 2012 by the NEAD, it showed 80 percent of students achieved a B or higher and a concurrent qualitative study showed students felt confident in reading, writing and speaking the foreign-language. However, a recent survey by U.S. News of professors shows that “nearly half of those who had taught an online course felt that online students received an inferior education” compared to lecture-based courses.

http://lariatnews.com/opinion/to-online-or-not-to-online-that-is-the-question/

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14312

The shape of classrooms to come

By Beth Marlowe, Washington Post

These days, education is swinging from intimate in-person seminars to massive online open courses. Georgetown University’s come up with something in between. The school’s master of science in finance (MSF) program, which launched in 2014, uses what faculty call a “blended classroom” to teach students either in-person and online — or both. The result is a program with many of the community and networking aspects of a traditional classroom, but one that students can access from anywhere. “We started utterly from scratch,” says Allan Eberhart, a finance professor who leads the program. He and colleagues started planning for it in early 2012. “We never had the MSF here before. It’s an entirely new program and we certainly had never done anything like this, technology-wise.”

http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/new-lessons-from-learning-com-to-prepare-https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2015/11/09/the-shape-of-classrooms-to-come/

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14302