Education 2.0 & 3.0

Technology is not a replacement for great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational. #edtech #education #technologyineducation

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Stamping out student plagiarism is big business. How big? $1.735 billion, to be exact. That’s the price that Advance, a privately held media, communications, and technology company, will pay to purchase Turnitin, the 800-pound gorilla of plagiarism-detection services. Although not the largest ed-tech deal ever made, it is, in the words of one analyst, “massive.”

 

So what does the deal, announced on Wednesday, mean for higher education and for education technology? We talked with a few ed-tech observers, as well as senior officers at Turnitin and Advance, to sort it all out. Their takeaways:

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Special librarians need to keep our eye on the Internet of Things, since it not only reduces the friction between user and their goals for turning on lightbulbs, meeting with each other, and managing their viewing habits, it’s already a long way into exploring the content universes that they rely on.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

I’ve been trying to write this post, or a more accurately a version of this post for the last couple of weeks. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I attended  the City of Glasgow College Digi…

Via Elizabeth E Charles

"Over the last two years, Knight Foundation has funded 36 library innovation projects through two Knight News Challenges. As we closed our review of entries last spring in Miami, the library leaders in the room voiced a desire to learn more about what innovation means in a library context. It seemed like a good idea to us, too, so we took on the task. Today, we’re introducing some of the results of that work and our efforts to strengthen the capacity of public libraries to meet digital age demands."

Via John Shank, Elizabeth E Charles

With insight gathered from over 1,500 educators in the UK, we look at the current technologies, attitudes and trends shaping pedagogy. Download your copy of the report now and find out what UK teachers really think about edtech in schools.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

It’s amazing what we can do with a series of ones and zeroes. Modern technologies consisting of databases connected to interfaces that deliver functionalities that improve our day to day lives. The creative and imaginative ways in which we make meaning, offer services, engage, and even make predictions for future success are all predicated on a variety of technology-based solutions. In higher education, our use of technology has always run in step with the world around us. From the days of old when punch cards held reams of research to the present day when information is stored in data-rich, mobile accessible clouds, the student experience is directly connected to an institution’s technology.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Do a bit of research on the impact that the Web has had on writing, and you will find plenty of articles moaning about millennials and their use of ‘text speak’. It’s a shame that the conversation on this topic has been so rather narrow, because the truth is that the web has changed our expectations in some very profound ways. These changing expectations mean that the definition of literacy itself is changing. Educators who focus on simple literacy instead of digital literacy may be leaving their students at a disadvantage.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Privileging BYOD can certainly help colleges’ leverage the devices that students already have and teach them to use them for academic pursuits. I’ve noticed that this is something that is missing among members of the generation that has grown up with mobile devices. As faculty and administrators in higher ed, we assume that they understand how to use their devices when, in reality, their understanding and ability is limited to certain uses.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

 

Keynote for @MELSIG Social Media for Learning

A Social Media for Learning framework was presented clarifying how social media is being used to enhance and transform learning. Key ideas, examples and questions about the use of social media use in higher education will be mapped to the framework which will provide a reference point to consider ideas, opportunities and challenges.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

IFLA has submitted a response to a call from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism concerning the impact of new technologies, sharing experience and highlighting the need to respect the key library value of equal access to education. 

Via Elizabeth E Charles

The technological imperative is writ large across university campuses – helping to create spaces and places for our students to flourish, as we flip, blend and merge our pedagogies to engage the generation “Z “ students – the first ones to arrive in HE with internet access from an early age.

 

The big data affordances of learner analytics with algorithms to monitor, log, and prompt us to intervene has the potential to automate our progression worries and responses. The drivers for change are evident. The current polarisation of the UK “politick” is reflected in policy for higher education in the UK. The needs of employers are paramount, and education for “public good” has been swept away in pressures to have digital savvy and knowledgeable graduates.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Disinformation and 'fake news': Final Report Contents

Conclusions and recommendations  Regulation and the role, definition and legal liability of tech companies

 

1.Social media companies cannot hide behind the claim of being merely a ‘platform’ and maintain that they have no responsibility themselves in regulating the content of their sites. We repeat the recommendation from our Interim Report that a new category of tech company is formulated, which tightens tech companies’ liabilities, and which is not necessarily either a ‘platform’ or a ‘publisher’. This approach would see the tech companies assume legal liability for content identified as harmful after it has been posted by users. We ask the Government to consider this new category of tech company in its forthcoming White Paper. (Paragraph 14)

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Perhaps the main reason for this disappointing impact is that the inclusion of technologies in schools has done little to change the ‘tell and practise’ approach to teaching and learning – the predominant pedagogical practice of our time.

In this model, teachers tell students what knowledge is and what is worth knowing; meanwhile, students invest their limitless capacity for investigating, thinking critically, creating, hypothesising, and collaborating by memorising and practising what they’re told.

Via Nik Peachey, Elizabeth E Charles

Via Elizabeth E Charles

To lead or not to lead? That is the question. How radical can you be? That’s also a question. How much change is too much? That’s another question. To find our professional equilibrium we need to find the answers to these questions.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Becker of NMC says just as the role of the teacher is switching from “sage on the stage” to one of a coach or guide, there is a shift from rote to active learning. To foster skills of teamwork and collaboration, online education is incorporating group projects and hands-on labs to help students think more critically and retain the content.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Even 20 years ago, some of the technological perks we have available in the classroom couldn’t have been anything more than a figment of the imagination. How can educators and students make the most out of all these novel technologies? Here are just a few technology-powered trends in education, and a brief note on how these trends affect K-12 education today.

Via Elizabeth E Charles