TechEd News

Student skills: Are we doing enough?
By Charlie Osborne, ZDNet.com

With the global expansion of computer technology, social media and internet platforms are now used for a variety of tasks from study to shopping.

There is a widening shortage of a work force that possesses valuable computing skills that extends no further than personal use. Students are saddled with increasing costs of living, and it’s more commonplace for the younger generation to be juggling financial worries than being clear of debt.

But are we doing enough to educate the next generation in both skills that can improve their future prospects?

Information and advice that centers on issues like cyber-bullying, privacy and how information shared online may affect future career prospects is slowly finding its way in to some school curricula. But are we doing enough to equip children in a more complicated, digital economy?

Diane Doersch, director of instructional technology Neenah Joint School District said: “Kids see the Internet as a tool to communicate with their friends, but neglect to see how that might be used against them.”

If they don’t learn now, then this may be detrimental for future prospects.

More than half of employers are using the Internet to research potential future employees, and there have even been cases of employers refusing to hire someone based on their online information, or fire them thereafter.

The next generation needs to learn a new mode of behaviour, and how to conduct themselves carefully online.

It’s now not only about teaching children not to talk to strangers, it’s about educating them on what they should post online, and what they should keep private. Privacy borders have changed, and the next generation needs to become more aware of it.

Generation Y are known to be sophisticated in their use of technology, but not necessarily understanding its impact. However, their expertise generally lies within personal use rather than the study of technology outside of the home. They know how to use Twitter, but don’t necessarily know how it works.

Learn more: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/student-skills-are-we-doing-enough/13696

Online Classes Accelerate Math for Middle Schoolers, Research Finds
Dian Schaffhauser, T.H.E. Journal

Eighth-graders who take an online Algebra I course score higher on end-of-year algebra assessments than other students who take the standard instructor-led math program offered by their schools and are twice as likely to follow an advanced course sequence in high school as their peers. Those results came out of a multi-year study done in 68 mostly rural schools in Maine and Vermont and could influence decisions by more middle schools to begin offering Algebra I classes.

The research was conducted by a team at Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), one of 10 laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences at the United States Department of Education to perform research for informing policies and educational practices in the area of improving student achievement.

As described in "Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students," a team of eight researchers randomly assigned a group of volunteer schools in both states to offer either an online Algebra I course to their "algebra-ready" students during the 2008-2009 school year or to serve as a control school by offering their standard math curriculum. At the end of the school year, the researchers collected results of an algebra achievement test and a general math achievement test for each of the 440 students who participated.

In spring 2009 they also collected information from the students about what high schools they planned to attend and which math classes they planned to take. Then the researchers followed them into high school to collect additional data, including which ninth grade math classes they took and what grades they earned and what 10th grade classes they were enrolled in.

"We used that information to determine whether students were participating in an advanced course sequence or not, which was really a proxy for a successful completion of Algebra II by 10th grade, which has been shown in prior research to indicate the likelihood of calculus by the end of high school," explained lead author Jessica Heppen in a short video on the project.

The online course used in the study was provided by Class.com. Students would take the online courses on devices at the back of the classroom during regular math classes. An online instructor would communicate with students via online messages, and students would receive immediate feedback via automated scoring on problem sets and quizzes. Schools would also provide proctors--usually the teacher of the general math class--to support students taking the online course.

The Maine schools made use of the state's one-to-one laptop initiative. Vermont's students used computers provided on a cart or in a lab.

The experiment focused especially on rural schools for a reason. As the researchers pointed out, many public middle schools in rural areas are just small enough to lack the funding, staffing, or enrollment to offer Algebra I to their algebra-ready eighth graders.

Read the results: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/16/online-classes-accelerate-math-for-middle-schoolers-research-finds.aspx

8 Top Apps for Autistic Learners
By Margo Pierce, T.H.E. Journal

Maureen Watson, the mother of two children “on the autism spectrum,” says apps on mobile devices have changed the world for her sons, ages 17 and 14. Starting with the iPod Touch, Watson migrated to iPads.

“A big problem is trying to get my other kids or family or friends or people to want to communicate with the boys,” she said. “My two sons were the first to get the iPad. Now these kids, who are not normally the cool, in-kids, everybody wanted to be around them and play with them and use the devices.”

One benefit is portability. Family members can download apps to their phones, making communicating at a restaurant or at a park as simple as taking out the phone.

Watson's sons attend Giant Steps School in Southport, Connecticut, which uses mobile devices and apps to expand and improve the quality of education.

In the following slideshow, Watson and Lindajeanne Schwartz, Giant Steps' head of school and program administrator, share their favorite apps for autistic learners.

Continue reading at: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/05/apps-for-autistic-learners.aspx

Broadband, Social Networks, and Mobility Have Spawned a New Kind of Learner
By John K. Waters, T.H.E. Journal

Students are different today because of technology. Every educator knows this, of course, but this change is about much more than agile thumbs, shriveling attention spans, and OMG'd vocabularies. According the Pew Research Center, the combination of widespread access to broadband Internet connectivity, the popularity of social networking, and the near ubiquity of mobile computing is producing a fundamentally new kind of learner, one that is self-directed, better equipped to capture information, more reliant on feedback from peers, more inclined to collaborate, and more oriented toward being their own "nodes of production."

"These three elements together have changed the context of learning," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. "Today, knowledge is literally at your fingertips."

Rainie spoke to attendees at the 2011 State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. The Pew Center's Internet and American Life Project is a non-profit, non--partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the Internet. Rainie is a co-author of Up for Grabs; Hopes and Fears; Ubiquity, Mobility, Security; and Challenges and Opportunities--books focused on the future of the Internet. He's also co-authoring a book, expected to debut in early 2012 from MIT Press, on the social impact of technology.

"I don't have to have an opinion," Rainie joked during his keynote. "I just have to find out what's true."

The Pew Center conducted its first survey of Internet behavior in 1999 and watched what Rainie called "the broadband revolution" unfold.

"We watched as the world moved from a dial-up world to a broadband world," he said." The spread of broadband made it possible for students to become content creators. We know that three-quarters of Internet-connected teenagers now create content and share it online. It's not necessarily profound stuff--it's not War and Peace. They're sharing status updates; they're telling stories about their lives; they're reacting to things; and they're rating and ranking things. But that's the way people are using these new tools to tell stories about themselves."

According to the Pew Center, 95 percent of teenagers now use the Internet, while 78 percent of adults use it. And 82 percent of teenagers (ages 12-17) have broadband at home, as opposed to 62 percent of adults.

There’s more at: http://thejournal.com/Articles/2011/12/13/Broadband-Social-Networks-and-Mobility.aspx?Page=1

Teacher takes students around the world through technology
By Brian Bullock, Mansfield News Journal

Students at Richland Academy School of Excellence travel around the world and through the pages of history -- all without leaving the classroom.

Middle school teacher Dan Jones uses green-screen technology to transport his social studies students to the places they study.

I can take them on location to Egypt and they can do a presentation in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza," he said.

The technology, made by a company called Yoostar, allows his students to appear on a computer screen, in real time, as if they are somewhere else. It is one of many different high-tech tools Jones uses to compliment his instruction.

Using technology in the classroom, he said, gets students excited about learning.

"It's a lot more interesting for them and it makes them want to dig deeper into a project," Jones said.

Jones was selected to speak about integrating technology into the classroom at the National Middle School Conference in Louisville, Ky., last month. He said he was honored to give a presentation at the conference, noting very few applicants are accepted. Jones invited representatives from Yoostar and Microsoft to discuss educational technology during his presentation.

Jones, who is in his seventh year of teaching, said every teacher can find creative ways to use technology in class. He said he picked up most of his strategies by experimenting with a variety of online tools.

Read more: http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20111213/NEWS01/112130315/Teacher-takes-students-around-world-through-technology

7 key questions to ask about ed technology, online learning
By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post

The outcry against exploitative online for-profit education is growing at roughly the same rate as the clamor for increasing amounts of educational technology — laptops, tablets, smart boards — from preschool to life-long learning. Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation is sliding into the “pro” and “con” mode of contemporary punditry. What we most need right now is to pause before we pontificate and to patiently untangle the many intertwined strands in the arguments for and against ed tech. By separating out different threads in this conversation, we can make better decisions about if, when, and in what situations we can really learn effectively online.

Here are seven key questions designed to help any parent or student sort out the competing interests that currently drive technology into our schools — or keep technology out of some other schools.

1. Who profits from the online learning? 

If online learning is being championed because it enriches knowledge, we then have to ask if it really does.  However, if it is being championed because it enriches shareholders, then we have to raise an entirely different set of concerns.    This is one of most fundamental educational questions of our moment. Until we know the benchmark for success in any given situation—whether we are measuring student success or a healthy bottom line for the company’s owners--then the question of technology or no technology is basically irrelevant.   Since so much online education is also for-profit, it is important not to blur the method with the motive.  

2. What is the cost-cutting motive behind using technology?

This is a less cynical variation of the profit question.  For public schools or even non-profit private schools, the issue often isn’t who gets rich off the students but whether or not using technology will save money, presumably by hiring fewer teachers. Here again we have to ask if the benchmark is student success.   There is evidence that replacing a teacher with an online course can save money; there is no evidence that students taking an online course perform as well on either standardized testing or in subsequent retention tests for the content. 

3. Is there innovative thinking behind a school’s adoption of technology in the classroom?

If the institution (whether non-profit or for-profit) is simply dropping expensive technology into the classroom without rethinking  pedagogy — teaching methods, rules, models, content, and modes of student-teacher interaction — then students are not getting their money’s worth.   Parents should not ask what devices are available to their students but how the devices are being used to enhance learning.

Learn more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/7-key-questions-to-ask-about-ed-technology-online-learning/2011/12/14/gIQAZ8XouO_blog.html

Bringing Speech Recognition to Reading Instruction
By Marilyn Jager Adams , Education Week

As everyone who follows such things knows, U.S. students, as a group, do not read very well. Yet, if you are among those who have read about this—indeed, if you are among those who are reading this Commentary, then you (and most of your friends, neighbors, relatives, and colleagues) are very likely a member of that subset of Americans I would term the “hyper-educated.”

By “hyper-educated,” I do not mean extraordinarily highly educated, though many are. By “hyper-educated,” I mean that you accept that becoming educated is part of the fabric of life; you never questioned that your children would be educated, and you raised them accordingly from the start. In fact, most of the children of hyper-educated Americans read quite well; that is good. Not so good, however, is a resulting tendency for too many of the hyper-educated to think of children with reading difficulties as the exception.

To the contrary, among U.S. students, it is good readers who are the exception. As documented yet again by the recently released National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, report on reading for 2011, only one in three U.S. students is able to read and understand grade-level material. Still worse, this statistic holds across school grades and has barely budged over as many years as NAEP has tracked it. Moreover, the degree of the literacy deficit is tightly correlated with the extent to which children depend on school (as distinct from home) for their formal education. The irony, of course, is that the fundamental mission of public schooling is to offer educational opportunity—including laying the foundation for reading well—to all children, regardless of what their homes might offer.

Lots more of this article here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/29/13adams.h31.html?tkn=TOCFt6GJBisoYEWrd%2FhtqZYnHYeeegEhT3bL&cmp=clp-sb-edtech

More Than Half of U.S. Districts Have Students in Distance Learning Programs
By David Nagel, T.H.E. Journal

A majority of public school districts in the United States have students who participate in distance education courses at some level, according to data released by the National Center for Education Statistics. But the most of those districts aren't delivering the education themselves.

The report, "Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2009-10," indicated that a full 55 percent of districts have students who were enrolled in distance education courses in the 2009-2010 school year (the latest full school year for which such information is available). Half of those districts reported that students were participating in distance courses provided by a higher education institution, 47 percent from independent vendors, and 33 percent from state virtual schools.

Three-quarters of those respondents indicated that all distance courses in which their students were enrolled were developed by organizations independent of the district itself.

Student Enrollments
Of those districts, 96 percent reported they had students at the high school level enrolled in distance education programs; 19 percent at the middle school level; and 6 percent at the elementary level. Another 4 percent reported enrollments of students at combined or ungraded levels.

The total number of public students enrolled in distance education courses, however, was significantly less than half, with about 1.82 million course enrollments, all told (with multiple enrollments counted individually for students enrolled in more than one course). The total population of public school primary and secondary students was approximately 49.3 million during that period, according to ED's published statistics.

Read more: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/01/more-than-half-of-u.s.-districts-have-students-in-distance-learning-programs.aspx

MIT unveils computer chip that thinks like the human brain, Skynet just around the corner
By Chris Barylick, engadget.com

It may be a bit on the Uncanny Valley side of things to have a computer chip that can mimic the human brain's activity, but it's still undeniably cool. Over at MIT, researchers have unveiled a chip that mimics how the brain's neurons adapt to new information (a process known as plasticity) which could help in understanding assorted brain functions, including learning and memory. The silicon chip contains about 400 transistors and can simulate the activity of a single brain synapse -- the space between two neurons that allows information to flow from one to the other.

Researchers anticipate this chip will help neuroscientists learn much more about how the brain works, and could also be used in neural prosthetic devices such as artificial retinas. Moving into the realm of "super cool things we could do with the chip," MIT's researchers have outlined plans to model specific neural functions, such as the visual processing system. Such systems could be much faster than digital computers and where it might take hours or days to simulate a simple brain circuit, the chip -- which functions on an analog method -- could be even faster than the biological system itself. In other news, the chip will gladly handle next week's grocery run, since it knows which foods are better for you than you ever could.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/15/mit-unveils-computer-chip-that-thinks-like-the-human-brain-skyn/

PBS Kids launches augmented reality game for iOS, says all the cool kids are counting sushi
By Chris Barylick, engadget.com

It's official: Kids today have way cooler toys than you did when you were growing up. PBS Kids has just outed its first augmented reality mobile app for iOS -- a game called Fetch! Launch Rush that aims to take the sting out of learning to do addition and subtraction in your head. If you're up on PBS' children's programming (and why wouldn't you be?), you'll recognize that pooch Ruff Ruffman as the game show host in the animated show Fetch! Here, he's a legendary movie director trying to make sure there's enough sushi for his movie crew (grown-up problems, right?).

That's where the augmented reality comes in: bits of raw fish floating around screen. Though it's worth noting that this isn't augmented reality in the strictest sense of the term, in that you have to print out game cards to use with your iPhone or iPod touch's camera. The free app requires an iPhone or iPod touch (fourth-gen or later) or an iPad / iPad 2 running iOS 4.0. While we can't say we're a bit envious of those six- to eight-year-olds with their very own iPod touches, but then again, will they ever know the sheer joy of hunting in Oregon Trail over and over again?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/15/pbs-kids-launches-augmented-reality-game-for-ios-says-all-the-c/