The library cooperative OCLC recently ran a conference at the University of Pennsylvania for academic librarians entitled, “MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?” and the Chronicle of HIgher Education was there to report on this convening. In this article, the Chronicle points to one librarian from Duke University who mentioned that the popularity of MOOCs has caught people by surprise. Additionally, “She’s been hearing from instructors that ‘the…
A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
January 24, 2013EdSurge discusses a Bill of Rights and Principles, newly developed by a group of people passionate about learning, serving today’s students, and using every available tool to respond better to the needs of students in a global, interactive, digitally connected world....
Digital Content: What Does the Future Hold for Education Systems?
January 23, 2013GETideas.org hosted this GooglePlus hangout on the future of digital content. The online discussion featured a panel of education experts, including Nicole Allen, affordable-textbooks advocate, Student PIRGS; Una Daly, communication college outreach director, OpenCourseWare Consortium; and Cable Green, director of global...
Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement: A Realist Analysis
January 22, 2013In Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement, author Roy Nash argues that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of educational group differences can, and must be, constructed. A move to such an explanatory framework will allow society to take into account the...
Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools
January 14, 2013In Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools, renowned educator and technology expert Jim Lengel provides a refreshing and hopeful picture of what schools should look like, including a groundbreaking seven-step process for envisioning and building them that draws on the...
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April 19, 2013This is the first of two new reports from Project Tomorrow using data from their widely heralded 2012 Speak Up Survey. Part 1 starts out stating the importance of digital considerations in education, “We are at a cosmic moment in K-12 education. The conflux of the impeding implementation of Common Core State Standards (and other new state standards) with the advent of new, high quality, educationally rigorous and innovative digital tools…
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April 19, 2013Project Tomorrow hosts the annual Speak Up Survey in which school administrators, teachers, students, and parents offer their views on educational technology. The 2012 results are now available, and Project Tomorrow has put together this very useful and informative infographic.
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April 16, 2013On April 12, 2013, educational technology advocacy groups including the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SEDTA), and SIIA’s Ed Tech Government Forum held the Washington Educational Technology Policy Summit. At this meeting, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel noted that the requirements for Common Core online assessments require better broadband connections. E-Rate was originally put into action…
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April 12, 2013Technology-driven innovation is alive and well in the US and beyond, according to EdSurge‘s Tony Wan who recently penned a column for Fast Company magazine. In this piece, Wan gives us an idea of who is playing in the ed tech incubator space and speculates on implications for further growth. Tech incubators have traditionally been hubs where start ups can work, collaborate and learn from each other and experienced professionals…
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April 11, 2013DMLcentral has published another useful blog post; this time from the Mozilla Foundation’s Doug Belshaw. With support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation has been busy developing an open badging system that allows people to get recognition for skills learned in formal and informal learning environments. According to the Open Badges web site, “It’s free software and an open technical standard any organization can use to create, issue and…
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April 10, 2013Here’s an audio recording of a recent piece broadcasted on KQED in San Francisco. Guests include Amanda Lenhart of Pew Research Center, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media, and Madeline Levine, a psychologist based in Marin County, CA. During this conversation, the participants discuss current research, trends, and implications for parenting in the 21st century.
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April 9, 2013The New York Times reports on a new tool that may help publishers and educators gain insight into the reading habits of college students. Silicon Valley-based CourseSmart tracks data points such as skipped pages, neglecting not to highlight key passages in the text, lack of note taking and how many times a digital textbook has been opened. Using this data, CourseSmart creates “an engagement index” for individual students. The theory…
