education

COVID-19 Resources for Higher Ed — from EDUCAUSE
With the help of the higher ed community, EDUCAUSE continues to compile resources to help you manage the implications of COVID-19, including information on working remotely, online education, campus advisories, and higher ed continuity planning and emergency preparedness.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Also see:

9 strategies for effective online teaching — from pearson.com

K-12 resources for teaching remotely

On 03/27/2020, in distance education, education, education technology, elearning, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, online learning, online media, online tutoring, student-related, teachers, Technologies for your home, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

Updated: Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

(Updated March 26; originally published March 13) In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students over the next several weeks in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. In many cases, the companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; in other cases, they’re lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what’s free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made.

Also see:

EducationDive.com
Getting Through from gettingsmart.com
Edutopia.org

My thanks to a friend for causing me to further reflect on this article: “Can computers ever replace the classroom?” [Beard]

On 03/26/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Asia, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data mining, digital learning, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, Law Schools, leadership, learner profiles, learning, Learning Agents, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning preferences, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, more choice more control, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, policy, political science, programming, society, teachers, teaching & learning, the downsides of technology, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, vision, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I’d like to thank Mr. Eric Osterberg — a fraternity brother and friend of mine — for sending me the following article. I wrote back to him. After thanking Eric for the article, I said:

Such an article makes me reflect on things — which is always a good thing for me to try to see my blindspots and/or to think about the good and bad of things. Technologies are becoming more powerful and integrated into our lives — for better at times and for worse at other times.

I’m wondering how the legal realm can assist and/or help create a positive future for societies throughout the globe…any thoughts?

Can computers ever replace the classroom? — from theguardian.com by Alex Beard
With 850 million children worldwide shut out of schools, tech evangelists claim now is the time for AI education. But as the technology’s power grows, so too do the dangers that come with it.

Excerpts:

But it’s in China, where President Xi Jinping has called for the nation to lead the world in AI innovation by 2030, that the fastest progress is being made. In 2018 alone, Li told me, 60 new AI companies entered China’s private education market. Squirrel AI is part of this new generation of education start-ups. The company has already enrolled 2 million student users, opened 2,600 learning centres in 700 cities across China, and raised $150m from investors.
…
The supposed AI education revolution is not here yet, and it is likely that the majority of projects will collapse under the weight of their own hype.

The point, in short, is that AI doesn’t have to match the general intelligence of humans to be useful – or indeed powerful. This is both the promise of AI, and the danger it poses.

It was a reminder that Squirrel AI’s platform, like those of its competitors worldwide, doesn’t have to be better than the best human teachers – to improve people’s lives, it just needs to be good enough, at the right price, to supplement what we’ve got. The problem is that it is hard to see technology companies stopping there. For better and worse, their ambitions are bigger. “We could make a lot of geniuses,” Li told me.

DC: Yes! Perhaps teachers will gain some very well-deserved respect from this whole thing!!!

On 03/26/2020, in education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, parents, society, student-related, surviving, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Yes! Perhaps teachers will gain some ***very well-deserved respect*** from this whole thing!!!

Eric Chilton talks about how homeschooling his own children has given him a deeper understanding and respect for what teachers do daily.

Learning ecosystems across the globe are going through massive changes! [Christian]

On 03/25/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Asia, Australia, business side of he, Canada, change, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, Content aggregration, content development, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, Europe, face-to-face, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, India, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, Law Schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning spaces, Michigan, Mobile learning, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, Smart/Connected TV, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, Technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual reality / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Due to the impacts of the Coronavirus, learning ecosystems across the globe are going through massive changes!

Each of us has our own learning ecosystem, and the organizations that we work for have their own learning ecosystems as well. Numerous teachers, professors, and trainers around the world are now teaching online. Their toolboxes are expanding with the addition of several new tools and some new knowledge. I believe that will be one of the silver linings from the very tough situations/times that we find ourselves in.

Expanding our teaching toolboxes

At the WMU-Cooley Law School, our learning ecosystem is also fluid and continues to morph. This blog posting speaks to those changes.

Learning from the Living [Class] Room: Due to the impacts from the Coronavirus, this is happening today across many countries. But this vision is just beginning to develop. We haven’t seen anything yet.

2020 Tech Trends Report [Future Today Institute]

On 03/18/2020, in 21st century, 3D, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Asia, augmented reality, Australia, Blockchain, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, education, global / globalization, ideas, India, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, legislatures / government / legal, Lifelong learning, Media/film, memory, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, platforms, science, smart classrooms, Smart/Connected TV, society, STEAM-related, strategy, Technologies for your home, technology (general), the downsides of technology, tools, trends, United States, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual reality / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Key takeaways of this report:

Welcome to the Synthetic Decade.
You’ll soon have augmented hearing and sight.
A.I.-as-a-Service and Data-as-a-Service will reshape business.
China has created a new world order.
Home and office automation is nearing the mainstream.
Everyone alive today is being scored.
We’ve traded FOMO for abject fear.
It’s the end of forgetting.
Our new trust economy is being formed.

My wife sent me this video from John Bennett, a math teacher. This was posted to YouTube back on 11/8/11.

In fact, if it were up to me, I’d would no longer require math to be taught…in middle school and high school.

NOTES:

300 million people in the U.S. (as John mentioned back in October 2011)
- 1.5 million engineers
- 1/2 of a percent; and you can add another 1/2 of a percent for other kinds of jobs that require that kind of math
- That leaves 99% of us in the United States who don’t use what we learned about in middle school and high school math classes. But the problem is, math has caused major stress for people in the last 40 years.
John Bennett had some major cognitive dissonance to the reasons WHY he was suggesting his students know the math concepts that he was trying to relay.
He came to ask, “When do most of us use math in real life?”
- Money. Financial stuff. Balancing checkbook. Tipping. Cooking and carpentry.
Why are we still teaching algebra? Because it teaches us about inductive and deductive reasoning. Math helps us develop that kind of reasoning.
So a better plan would be to:
- Let people who want to take math in middle school and high school take it.
- For the rest of the students, provide strategy games and logic puzzles that help develop those cognitive reasoning skills.

From DSC:
When this math teacher meets people out in society, people confess how much stress math brought to them in school….and they’re aren’t joking.

Given that we are all required to be lifelong learners these days, I love what John Bennett is saying here…because we really aren’t serving society at large by requiring math be taught in middle school and high school.

It causes stress and very negative learning experiences for many people.
We don’t use it. (By the way, I could plug and chug ok, but I had no idea what I was doing. No real understanding. I haven’t used algebra and/or calculus since my youth.)

What does it take to change our curricula like that?! Is it possible? I sure hope so.

For those of you who teach and/or give presentations, you might be interested in this new video regarding what’s called “cognitive load” [Christian]

On 03/10/2020, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, attention, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, Law Schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
For those of you who teach and/or give presentations, you might be interested in a new video that I put together regarding cognitive load. It addresses at least two main questions:

What is cognitive load?
and
Why should I care about it?

Transcript here.

How do I put it into practice?

Simplify the explanations of what you’re presenting as much as possible and break down complex tasks into smaller parts
Don’t place a large amount of text on a slide and then talk about it at the same time — doing so requires much more processing than most people can deal with.
Consider creating two versions of your PowerPoint files:
- A text-light version that can be used for presenting that content to students
- A text-heavy version — which can be posted to your LMS for the learners to go through at their own pace — and without trying to process so much information (voice and text, for example) at one time.
Design-wise:
- Don’t use decorative graphics — everything on a slide should be there for a reason
- Don’t use too many fonts or colors — this can be distracting
- Don’t use background music when you are trying to explain something

Healthy looks different on every body...and learning looks different with every mind.

From DSC:
What I mean by this is this:

While I certainly agree that research has produced excellent, proven, effective pedagogies that work with many students (the majority even), the fact is, learning is messy. When a child walks into a classroom, there isn’t even one other child with the exact same neural situation.

Nor is there even one other student with the exact same experiences, background, passions, motivations, interests, etc. I’ve experienced this with our daughter who isn’t a part of the 80% that the typical education train addresses. Look out if you are part of the 10% of either side of the bell curve! As your learning experiences are too costly to address and likely won’t be addressed in many cases.

All that said, I still agree that the teaching and learning strategies are still highly relevant across the masses. My point is that there is still a lot of diversity out there. They say that learning is messy for a reason. If you doubt that, go sit in on an IEP sometime.

Play is disappearing from kindergarten. It’s hurting kids. — from edsurge.com by Joe Martin

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In an increasing number of schools, teachers of very young students are pressured to pack every moment of the day with structured, academically rigorous tasks. One recent whitepaper linked the practice to preparing kids for the long road of schooling ahead, in which progress is measured through standardized testing starting in third grade.

Friedrich Froebel, a pedagogue of modern education, coined the term “kindergarten” in 1840 after recognizing the importance of play in the development of young children. Inspired by the idea of a garden, he designed a classroom where the teacher presented children with objects, which they were allowed to play with in any way they could imagine. When they lost interest in one object, they would be presented with a new one to spark curiosity and creativity. Children were encouraged to grow and flourish in this free form, play-based environment.

From DSC:
Given that we are all into a lifelong learning situation now, I vote for more importance being placed on whether someone enjoyed their learning experience. That said, I know there is struggle in learning…and learning in the struggle. But we focus so much on grades and standardized testing. This robs the joy from the teaching and learning environment — for the teachers as well as for the kids.

Also see:

Why aren’t we paying early childhood educators what they’re worth? — from edsurge.com by Rhian Evans Allvin

Doesn’t this look like a fun & engaging learning space? One that encourages collaboration?

On 03/02/2020, in active learning, attention, collaboration, communications, Daniel S. Christian, education, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning hubs, learning spaces, love of learning, maker movement, participation, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When I saw the learning space as pictured below, I couldn’t help but ask a couple of questions:

Doesn’t this look like a colorful, fun, engaging active learning space?
One that encourages communication and collaboration?

The natural light is wonderful. And the physical setup seems to let the students know that they will be collaborating with each other the second they walk into this learning space…and it does so without saying a word.

Helping grads tell their story: The case for extended transcripts [Midles]

On 02/22/2020, in career development, competency-based learning/education, consortiums, credentialing, education, education reform, education technology, higher education, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Helping grads tell their story: The case for extended transcripts — from gettingsmart.com by Rebecca Midles

Excerpt:

What is an extended transcript?
An extended transcript supplements a traditional list of course credits and grades. It could be as simple as a one-page addendum to the official transcript that includes additional endorsements such as certifications, badges earned and scholarships awarded.

An extended transcript can also include critical competencies demonstrated. ACT has assessments for cross-cutting capabilities like information literacy, collaborative problem solving, thinking and metacognition, and studying and learning, as well as behavioral skills such as self-regulatory and interpersonal skills. Adding recognized measures of certified work-ready skills to a transcript can differentiate a candidate.

For those involved with creating/enhancing learning spaces as they relate to pedagogies

On 02/22/2020, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, attention, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, expectations, face-to-face, faculty, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, IT in HE, Law Schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning spaces, lecture capture, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, platforms, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, vision, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC — and with a shout out to Brad Sousa for this resource:
For those involved with creating/enhancing learning spaces as they relate to pedagogies:

How Has Technology Impacted Higher Education?
In part one of this three-part series, AVI Systems CTO Brad Sousa talks with Jeff Day, Founder of North of 10 Advisors, to discuss the key ways education and, specifically, pedagogy differs from 10, 5, even 3 years ago.

Discussion Topics

The impact of active learning and the introduction of the internet of things (IoT) in the classroom
Recommendations for deploying modern learning environments with technology partners
Classroom systems design, then and now

Some timestamps (roughly speaking)

5:15 — changes in pedagogy
7:15 or so — active learning
15:30 design needs around active learning
17:15 DE rooms and active learning — software-controlled platform
21:30 — advice; look to outcomes & expectations that want to achieve/meet; uses cases

Media controller w/ intuitive interface to mimic the way someone teaches / way a classroom goes:

“Class start” — chaotic; mics on everywhere
“Lecture” — gates /mics closed and focus shifts to the professor
“Class interaction” — presents roster of who’s there (20:00 mark roughly)

Also see this introductory posting re: the implications of active learning in the higher ed market.

Measure for assessing how investing in spaces for learning results in a robust return for students, for the institution, & for the community beyond the campus [pkallsc.org]

On 02/18/2020, in assessment, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, education, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs, learning spaces, love of learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Measure for assessing how investing in spaces for learning results in a robust return for students, for the institution, & for the community beyond the campus — from pkallsc.org

Excerpts:

How do you make the case that the investment in institutional investment in the physical environment for learning makes a difference? How will you know? What evidence makes that case? From the LSC spaces that work collection II, some potential measures of success can be distilled. These stories about recent projects embrace but go beyond attention to impact of learners while students and alumni; they set forth project goals that are measurable, returns that will be benefit the institution in the future—in regard to increased enrollments and graduate rates, of collaborative research between campus and community and more.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy — from Iowa State University; with a shout out to Matt Miller for his blog posting entitled, “10 tips for lesson planning writer’s block” — where I saw this reference

Learning Ecosystems

Measure for assessing how investing in spaces for learning results in a robust return for students, for the institution, & for the community beyond the campus [pkallsc.org]

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