Educational Technology News

"The Internet is rapidly changing the way people learn. eLearning tools and LMS software can be used together to create online courses that will captivate and motivate students while providing the ultimate in accessibility and convenience.... Use these 5 online learning strategies to jumpstart your elearning development."

"Online learning stands to disrupt every corner of traditional education models, through MOOCs, video and new forms of credentialing. There's just one thing standing in its way—security. An online student can simply use information readily available on the internet to ace their course. A student could hypothetically pay someone to take their exam for them without getting caught. Because, on the Internet, it's nearly impossible see what students are doing—unless you're in the business of online proctoring, that is. "

"Many schools are connected, but they lack the resources to follow through and truly digitize. The learning technology is there, but in many schools it’s broken, blocked, out of use, or not what anyone wanted to begin with, so it sits."

"Students do equally well on a test whether reading from a digital book or a printed one, a new study has found. Research by an Indiana State University doctoral student surveyed more than 200 students. Half of the students used a tablet to read a textbook chapter while the other half of the students read from a printed textbook chapter."

On the heels of President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative launch, the bipartisan Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission released a five-point blueprint outlining specific actions to accelerate the expansion of K-12 digital learning.

Need more computers for your school? Loaner machines from parents and other contributors might fill the need.

"Whether it’s a mom-and-pop coffee shop, a Fortune 500 firm, or a health care nonprofit, well-run organizations employ technology as a way to improve their performance... Educators, however, generally do not take this approach to technology. Far too often, school leaders fail to consider how technology might dramatically improve teaching and learning, and schools frequently acquire digital devices without discrete learning goals and ultimately use these devices in ways that fail to adequately serve students, schools, or taxpayers."

In a speech at the group's annual meeting, its former president, Cary Nelson, warned of a broader battle over intellectual property being waged on college campuses.

"In the meeting's opening address, Mr. Nelson characterized the debate at colleges over who owns the rights to faculty members' MOOCs as part of a broader battle over intellectual property that's being waged on America's campuses."

"With all of the hype surrounding fast-growing tech startups, as well as discussions about improving our education system, teaching kids how to code is top of mind for many people these days. Large scale change is in our future, and I look forward to a day when coding is as integral a part of early education as reading, writing, and math. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for 'someday' to get your kids coding—here are 6 tips to help you spark and sustain a child’s interest in programming..."

Tablets accounted for more than one-third of all client devices shipped to education institutions in the United States in the last calendar year. That volume represents a doubling of tablet purchases from the previous year, according to a new report.

"Colleges of education are "an industry of mediocrity" that churns out unprepared teachers to work in the nation's elementary and secondary schools, according to a highly anticipated report."

The Rules of 1, 3 and 7 can guide eLearning course developers in crafting their material and enabling more eager minds to learn.

"The Android vs. iPhone battle rages on every day—on blogs, in court and even on college campuses. If you have been reading Education Dive over the past two weeks, you know that we just published the full results of our 2013 "Mobility in Higher Education" survey, and smartphone and tablet choices took center stage. After asking 50CIOs at universities and colleges about their mobile devices, we saw three key categories where Apple is winning."

"Shortly after beginning her career as a technology journalist, Watters became frustrated with the lack of coverage of education technology in both technology and education publications. This led her to devote her spare time towards creating the type of blog she would want to read herself. Her insightful and honest posts, as well as her no-nonsense writing style have earned her a spot as one of the most influential education-technology bloggers on the Web today."

"The role of technology in learning isn’t entirely clear–or rather, is subjective. While it clearly is able to provide access to peers, audiences, resources, and data, it also can be awkward, problematic, distracting, performing more strongly as a barrier to understand than anything else.

Why this happens also isn’t clear, but there are some common patterns and missteps to look for while designing or evaluating a learning process."

"Mobile access around the world continues to expand, yet access to educational materials is still largely limited in developing countries. What’s the hold up?... Shipping books is costly – and more often than not – the material is outdated, culturally disparate, and/or linguistically incompatible with the end users. In short, the books being sent aren’t beneficial if the kids are unable to understand what they’re reading. Library For All wants to change this reality by launching a digital library platform in Haiti this Fall."

California state senators voted unanimously last Thursday to pass Senate Bill 520, despite opposition from faculty at California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California.

"Given that the youngest schoolchildren are part of the touch-screen generation, the question of whether they're too wet behind the ears for online learning has shifted to a more complex concern: making sure the technology they're using in school is developmentally appropriate."

"ClassDojo is simple to use. You set up a class, or classes. Each class has avatars assigned for each of your students. Once your class is set up, you have the ability to award points, affectionately known as "dojos" in my classroom, for positive or negative behavior. You can award individual or multiple students."

The e-textbook revolution is still waiting to start.

"Students and professors are still not adopting the use of digital textbooks in any great numbers, according to the latest data from Bowker Market Research, presented today in a Digital Book World webcast. Further, the percentage of students who are using them has remained flat over the past few semesters."