Education Groups Applaud New Ed-tech Legislation
Laura Devaney, eSchool News, June 14, 2011
Educational technology stakeholders are applauding the U.S. Senate’s introduction of a bill called the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act and note that, if passed, the legislation will work to bolster technology literacy and will increase access to educational opportunities through online learning.
“The ATTAIN Act recognizes that technology literacy is an essential skill our children need to be college and career ready and prepared to navigate and succeed in the competitive 21st-century environment,” said 11 leading education and ed-tech organizations in a joint statement.
An interesting note: I did a search for the Act and found this article: Education Leaders Applaud the Introduction of ATTAIN Act in the Senate. It was introduced in the Senate in 2007!
FCC Seventh Broadband Progress Report
US Still Hasn't Gotten its Act Together on Broadband Deployment
Matthew Lasar, ars technica, May 20, 2011
The Federal Communications Commission is sticking to its guns when it comes to the state of high speed Internet deployment in the United States. Despite last year's protests from the cable industry, the agency's Seventh Broadband Progress Report reiterates the conclusion of its sixth survey. As many as 26 million Americans dwell in cities, towns, and counties in which there is no broadband capable of delivering video, graphics, data, and high quality voice services at affordable prices.
Find out how areas in your state fare.
NCES New Report: The Condition of Education 2011
The Condition of Education 2011
NCES, Released on May 26, 2011
The Condition of Education 2011 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to a closer look at postsecondary education by institutional level and control. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2011 print edition includes indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.
Articles of Interest from Innosight and Ed Week
New Higher Education Regulations Discriminate, Block Established Organizations from Innovating
Michael B. Horn, Innosight, June 10, 2011
Michael Horn presents a good summary as things developed and a prognosis of what may be in store. In higher education, there are signs that this modular world may be emerging. More and more, traditional non-profit universities are partnering with for-profit actors that bring the know-how to take the traditional universities’ offerings online and reach many more students with innovative and modular revenue-sharing models.
Gainful Employment' Rules Leave Many Disappointed
Caralee Adams, Education Week, June 10, 2011
Ninety thousand comments and numerous meetings later, a yearlong effort to draft new regulations for career-college programs has resulted in scant satisfaction, from supporters and critics alike, though the programs clearly gained more time to change their ways.
Online/Mobile Learning
CLRN Launches Online Course Review Web Site
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, June 2, 2011
The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) launched an online course review project on June 2, to provide K-12 educators, students, and parents with detailed information about online courses.
5 Surprising Perspectives About Online Schools
Sara Bernard, MindShift KQED, May 25, 2011
Interviews with Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe; Maureen Cottrell, a science teacher at iHigh Virtual Academy in San Diego, California; Rian Meadows, an economics instructor at Florida Virtual School; Patti Joubert, the mother of two full-time Florida Virtual School students; and Carylanne and Christiane Joubert, her two daughters.
Expanding STEM Education with Virtual Labs
eSchool News notes that virtual labs can help higher-education institutions meet the challenges of space, time, and budget. eSchool News and Dell have put together this collection of stories from the archives to help you learn how virtual labs can help your college or university.
iNACOL June 2011 Webinar
June 16, 2011
Cyberbullying: Trends and Law
Accessbility
The following four articles discuss the new guide released from the U. S. DOE on May 26 that dictates laws and rules colleges (and K-12) must follow to insure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students.
Education Department Clarifies E-Reader Accessibility Rules
Ben Wieder, The Chronicle, May 26, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education today released a new guide to laws and rules colleges must follow to ensure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students. It focuses on students with vision problems, a group whose access issues have triggered official complaints against colleges. The document, in the form of “Frequently Asked Questions,” was published in response to the department’s “Dear Colleague” letter to college presidents on the subject last June.
Elaborating on Online Accessibility
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2011
Further comment on the U. S. DOE guide: While the original “Dear Colleague” letter focused on recent controversies over the accessibility of classroom devices such as electronic readers. Thursday’s addendum made it clear that online courses and their content also must be accessible to disabled students -- even if none are currently enrolled.
Online Courses and Accessibility, Part 1
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, CLRN, May 27, 2011
The June 29th letter noted that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)/Department of Justice had entered into a settlement with colleges and universities that had used the Kindle DX in their classrooms. OCR’s concern was that students with visual disabilities did not enjoy the same access to content since the Kindle did not have a text to speech function and the colleges had not provided a reasonable accommodation…”
Here are a couple of questions Brian answers on his blog:
Does this apply to K-12 schools that are piloting e-readers in the classroom?
Oh, you bet. According to the FAQ (and common sense), “equal opportunity, equal treatment, and the obligation to make accommodations or modifications to avoid disability-based discrimination also apply to elementary and secondary schools…”
Does this apply to online courses?
Yes.
Read more….
Online Courses and Accessibility, Part Two
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, CLRN, May 31, 2011
How do you know if an online course provides the same experience? What features should courses include to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act? Glad you asked…..
My Web My Way
BBC
This site provides accessibility help, enabling computer users to make the most of the Internet whatever their ability or disability.
Literacy (mainly information literacy)
A sense of urgency about the need to teach information literacy both at the K-12 and higher ed levels permeates recent writings about this topic. These are just a few.
d-Convergence: A Digital Literacy Mashup
Literacy 2.0: Ruth Small, Center for Digital Literacy, Syracuse University
From the interview with Ruth Small:
You frequently use the word “information” in between digital and literacy. Isn’t that redundant given that most information is now in digital form?
I use that term because when I say “digital literacy” to people, they look at me like they know what I am talking about. When I say “information literacy”, they look at me like I’m wearing a funny hat. So I compromise with digital information literacy.
Information Illiteracy: A National Pandemic
Literacy 2.0: Glenn Warren, Classroom Teacher and Librarian, Orange County, CA
He is the co-creator of FBI-SOS, The Woogi World Cyber Hero Program, and Web Wise Kids (programs designed to enhance students’ information literacy skills).
In your view, what’s the most pressing issue right now?
There is a crisis of critical thinking in this country. We have a desperate need for kids—and adults for that matter—to be better critical thinkers.
Critical thinking has always been an important life skill. What makes it so urgent now?
The difference is the Information Age, or whatever you want to call it. More information equals more critical thinking. In my field we refer to the set of skills necessary for accessing, evaluating, integrating and using information as information literacy. Critical thinking, discernment and judgment are the underpinnings of information literacy.
Literacy in the Digital Age: Part V
Tracy Mitrano, Inside Higher Ed, May 26, 2011
In these five short blogs (the other four are linked from this page) the author expresses concern that literacy in our culture is at risk. Or at least a certain kind of literacy, one that is essential to the quality of society most of us believe in: reading and writing, critical thinking, incisive intelligence and verve grounded in civic discourse. Simply stated she makes the case for why higher education must invest meaningfully in information literacy. (Shouldn’t we also do this in K-12?)
Littered with Literacies
Literacy 2.0, February 05, 2011
How many literacies can you name? There are more than you may think, I’ll bet.
Teach Information Literacy & Critical Thinking!
Esther Grassian is retiring from UCLA Library. She has moved all materials on this topic from the UCLA site to a freely available Google site Website: under the same Creative Commons license as applies to all UCLA Library sites: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.
Digital Textbooks, Tablets, and iPads
Digital Textbooks Slow to Catch On
Natalia Rachlin, New YorkTimes, June 8, 2011
Although sites like CourseSmart , a collective effort among the five biggest American academic publishers to offer digital content, have made e-textbooks widely available at prices that are as much as 60 percent lower than the print editions, sales have yet to catch up; e-textbooks made up only 2.8 percent of total U.S. textbook sales in 2010, according to the National Association of College Stores.
But a new study by the nonprofit arm of the Pearson Foundation shows that while 55 percent of students still prefer print over digital textbooks, among the 7 percent of students who own tablets devices like iPads, 73 percent prefer digital textbooks.
McGraw Hill and Pearson are moving to recreate their higher education textbooks for the iPad. In the process, Inkling has become the front-runner in the tablet-textbook market.
The Impact of the iPad on K-12 Schools
Tanya Roscorla, Classroom Technology, February 9, 2011
This article features school systems that have piloted iPads. Device advantages and limitations and challenges are discussed.
Virginia Shares School iPad, E-book Experiences
Tanya Roscorla, Classroom Technology, June 3, 2011
In four Virginia school divisions, a four-month pilot of e-books and iPads sheds light on the potential benefits and challenges these digital tools offer.
Cloud Computing
Campus IT Plans for Increased Cloud Adoption
David Nagel, Campus Technology, May 26, 2011
American colleges and universities are expanding their adoption of cloud technologies. According to new research recently released, higher education institutions will spend about a quarter of their IT budgets on the cloud within five years.
From Tactic to Strategy: The 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll
CDW's first Cloud Computing Tracking Poll surveyed 1,200 IT professionals in U.S. organizations to determine:
- Where organizations are with adoption
- What benefits are driving adoption
- What challenges hinder progress
- Recommendations for how organizations can successfully implement cloud computing
Charter Schools (and other comments)
Rocketship Education
Rocketship Education is a national, non-profit elementary charter school network that opened the nation’s first hybrid school in 2007. They are building a school model that delivers on these four ambitions; it includes exceptional classroom teaching and individualized learning to enable students to master basic skills and higher order thinking skills, and an operational approach that minimizes expensive, unnecessary redundancy, while supporting academic innovation and excellence.
Tom Vander Ark puts it on a par with Khan Academy. Read what he has to say: Personal Digital Learning Taking Off.
Speaking of Kahn Academy
I ran across some reviews of Kahn Academy where it is frequently mentioned as “revolutionizing education.” But then I found some objections to that characterization. See if you agree.
Revolutionizing Education – Interview with Sal Khan
Sal Khan's 2,200+ educational videos are starting to revolutionize education worldwide.
But this physics teacher has a different opinion:
Khan Academy Gets It Right. Twice. Sort of
Khan Academy: My Final Remark
Open Education
OERs: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Tony Bates, Blog, February 6, 2011
Prompted by several recent developments, such as the Walsh publication below and events and after 42 years of working in open learning. Tony Bates feels it’s time to provide a critique of the open educational resources “movement.” This is his take.
Unlocking the Gates: How and Why Leading Universities Are Opening Up Access to Their Courses (Book by Taylor Walsh) Ithaka
The research and analysis compiled in Unlocking the Gates captures some of the lessons learned in this young and evolving field. Drawing on specific examples from case studies of leading courseware initiatives—now-defunct for-profit initiatives like AllLearn and Fathom.com; free and open projects like MIT’s pioneering OpenCourseWare, Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, Open Yale Courses, and webcast.Berkeley; and the expansive NPTEL project by the Indian Institutes of Technology— this book provides insight into a number of relevant strategic questions, including:
- In a digital age, how can universities distinguish themselves in competition for reputation, students, and faculty?
- How will these projects continue to sustain themselves as they mature beyond the experimental phase?
- Can higher education institutions maintain the campus-based business model that has sustained them for centuries, while also leveraging new technology to expand access to the knowledge they produce?
- And, faced with fiscal uncertainty and the need to increase access to higher education while maintaining quality, could these projects eventually have more transformative applications than we are seeing at present?
A slightly modified, text-only version of the manuscript is available for download. The full version can be purchased at Amazon and other booksellers.
Other Resources
Horizon Topics
Check out the variety of topics addressed by NMC in their new well-known Horizon K-12 Project. The one featured is “What is Game-Based Learning?”
Gary’s Social Media Count
This flash app (which is in constant development) shows how active and dynamic the Social Web, Mobile Industry and Game Business are.
Bad News
Cutting the Cord
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2011
The National Science Digital Library had ambitious goals when it started in 2000: create a massive open repository of STEM learning materials culled from projects funded by its benefactor, the National Science Foundation; then organize these materials so that they could be easily cherry-picked and used by science and math instructors, from higher ed all the way down. The NSF poured well over $100 million into the project.
Just over a decade later, the science digital library is on death row. It is set to be stripped of all funds in 2012, “based in part on recent evaluation findings that point to the challenges of sustaining such a program in the face of changing technology and the ways educators now find and use classroom materials,” according to a foundation directorate issued in February.
