Educational Technology & eLearning

The problem is that the decision makers often don’t have the marketing skills to differentiate between different addressable audiences. External adult learners may not want a long-winded, over-engineered, six to ten week course on anything. Life’s too short. Yet academics are used to producing courses of this semester length. What many may want are mini MOOCs. They may want them to be asynchronous starting and ending when convenient for them. This, of course, is exactly what’s happening. All in all, however, the good news is that MOOCs are forcing HE institutions to change. MOOCs may very well be the force that makes them more open, transparent and relevant. There will, of course, be a backlash, but the digital genie is out of the bottle - MOOCs are here to stay.

Who among you in the developed world would abandon all teaching and install ‘hole-in-the-wall’ learning for your own children? We are being asked to believe that the solution to the lack of opportunities in third world education are computers in walls?

Of course, the “gamification” of educational generally refers to the idea of incorporating gaming elements in instruction and instructional tools, such as the use of digital badges in an online learning application. But with findings such as those below indicating that game playing can enhance the learning process, it is logical to assume that the use of gaming mechanics and concepts in educational tools and processes can also yield benefits. Naturally, it is left to the reader to draw their own conclusions after perusing this content and the original published sources cited.

Of course, more and more of the Web was experienced on smartphones and tablets in 2012. The first time smartphones and tablets outsold personal computers was 2011, and that trend continued in 2012. Mobile Internet usage has been rising quickly

So virtual reality applications have the potential to transform our social and learning reality. They have the potential to transform the way we read and interact with text. They have the potential to transform the way and the places where we teach and the relationship between teachers and learners.

I tried to write a single piece on raising digital kids at home -- but childhood is just too epic a journey for a single piece. Still, the overall strategy for technology in the home is the same from

Unesco estimates that half of the world's 6,000 languages will have disappeared by the end of the century - but new research shows that social media and text messaging in particular are promoting and supporting language diversity.

Texting is now conducted by speakers of around 5,000 languages.

"Text messaging is the most linguistically diverse form of written communication that has ever existed," says Munroe.

"It's also become the first form of written communication of many of the world's languages," he says.

"Most have only ever been spoken. But the technology and economics of text messages and the proliferation of cells phones means it's the most economic option of communication."

Online learning used to be synonymous with shady diploma mills that offered a questionable product. Now it suggests something much better and more technologically sophisticated.

12 Principles Of Mobile Learning...Another from TeachThought, which is becoming a real go-to site for direct ideas.  This one is one mobile learning, and what learning looks like and what if can afford.

While the amount of technology school boards and administrators purchase increase with each passing year, the amount allotted for professional development for the teachers intended to use the technology has decreased or is non-existent.