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