Excerpt from the tech.ed.gov/developers/ page:
For Developers
Excellent opportunities exist for software designers and developers who want to use their talents to create impactful tools for teachers, school leaders, students, and their families. Our goal is to connect you to the resources needed throughout the cycle of a project – from concept ideation, to generating seed funding, to research and development and evaluation, and ultimately to scalable impact in education.
I originally saw this at “Ed tech must do more to ‘advance equity,’ U.S. Secretary of Education says” — from hechingerreport.org by Nichole Dobo
Excerpt:
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona—The U.S. Department of Education unveiled a new education technology developer’s guide [on 4/7/15] during the annual ASU+GSV Summit conference here.
In remarks at the conference, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged developers to consider the needs of disadvantaged students, so that they are not left behind as more schools adopt new tools that advance teaching and learning.
“If the technology revolution only happens for families that already have money and education, then it’s not really a revolution,” Duncan said.
Duncan announced the developer’s guide during a speech at the ASU+GSV Summit, , a gathering of about 2,500 people interested in innovation in education. The free guide, available for download at tech.ed.gov/developers, is the result of two years of research by Department of Education officials, who interviewed educators, entrepreneurs, parents and students. Its goal is to help technology developers better understand the key needs of the nation’s school system. It identifies 10 “persistent problems in education,” among them increasing family engagement, improving professional development for teachers, creating tests that accurately measure what students have learned, and closing achievement gaps.
My thanks to Mary Grush at Campus Technology for her continued work in bringing relevant topics and discussions to light — so that our institutions of higher education will continue delivering on their missions well into the future. By doing so, learners will be able to continue to partake of the benefits of attending such institutions. But in order to do so, we must adapt, be responsive, and be willing to experiment. Towards that end, this Q&A with Mary relays some of my thoughts on the need to move more towards a team-based approach.
When you think about it, we need teams whether we’re talking about online learning, hybrid learning or face-to-face learning. In fact, I just came back from an excellent Next Generation Learning Space Conference and it was never so evident to me that you need a team of specialists to design the Next Generation Learning Space and to design/implement pedagogies that take advantage of the new affordances being offered by active learning environments.
From DSC:
It seems like there’s been an increase in the number of “boot camps” that I’m seeing — below are some examples:
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New MOOC Platform Provides Free IT Certification Courses — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
People offering their own bootcamps / building their own brands; such as this Two Week Web Development Bootcamp for Beginners by Adam Stanford.
Some other approaches that are occurring:
Simon & Schuster to sell online courses taught by popular authors — from nytimes.com by Alexandra Alter; with thanks to Sidneyeve Matrix for her Tweet on this
Excerpt:
Simon & Schuster is making a push into paid online video, with a new website offering online courses from popular health, finance and self-help authors.
The cost of the first batch of online courses ranges from $25 to $85, and includes workbooks and access to live question-and-answer sessions with three authors: Dr. David B. Agus, the best-selling author of “The End of Illness”; Zhena Muzyka, who wrote the self-help book “Life by the Cup”; and Tosha Silver, the author of the spiritual advice book “Outrageous Openness.” The courses will be available on the authors’ individual websites and on the company’s new site, SimonSays.
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But there is a new wave of online competency-based learning providers that has absolutely nothing to do with offering free, massive, or open courses. In fact, they’re not even building courses per se, but creating a whole new architecture of learning that has serious implications for businesses and organizations around the world.
It’s called online competency-based education, and it’s going to revolutionize the workforce.
…
The key distinction is the modularization of learning.
…
Here’s why business leaders should care: the resulting stackable credential reveals identifiable skillsets and dispositions that mean something to an employer. As opposed to the black box of the diploma, competencies lead to a more transparent system that highlights student-learning outcomes.
From DSC:
Though several of the items above have a slant towards IT/coding/programming, other disciplines may be impacted by these types of trends as well.
These developments are meant for consideration for those of us working within higher education. What do they mean for us? Should they inform more of our strategies? Our visions? Our responses?
Addendums on 2/17/15:
Addendum on 3/27/15:
Addendum on 4/1/15 — with thanks to Mr. Cal Keen at Calvin College
Addendum on 4/7/15:
Addendum on 5/1/15:
Addendum on 5/18/15:
From DSC:
We continue to see more articles and innovations that involve the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Internet of Everything (IoE). This trend has made me reflect upon what I think will be a future, required subset of needed expertise within the fields of Instructional Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Product Development, Programming, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and likely other fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality(VR) as well.
And that is, we will need people who can craft learning experiences from the presence of beacons/sensors and that integrate such concepts as found in “If This Then That” (ifttt.com) whereby one is putting the Internet and cloud/mobile-based applications to work for you. Certainly, those involved in retail are already busy working on these types of projects. But those of us involved with learning, human computer interaction (HCI), and interface design need to get involved as well.
For example, this potential scenario of a K-12 field trip might be fodder for such a learning experience.
So for those individuals who are involved with the aforementioned disciplines…we need to pulse check what new affordances are coming from the rollout and further development of the IoT/IoE.
Hour of Code — also see #HourOfCode on Twitter
Programming for Students — Listly by Jon Samuelson
Here is a list of apps and sites to help kids get started programming, learning code, in elementary school and beyond.
First take: Apple’s Swift speeds programming — from gcn.com by Sean Kosanovich
Excerpt:
Over the summer, Apple introduced a new programming language for creating applications for iOS and OS X devices. As the first alternative to Objective-C, which has powered Apple application development since the mid-1990s, the debut of Swift is a noteworthy event. In a nutshell, Swift is designed to simplify development while enabling more responsive and robust applications.
The World’s Largest iOS 8 + Swift eLearning Bootcamp — from deals.cultofmac.com
Build 70+ apps throughout the 80 hours of content in 24 in-depth courses
From DSC:
There’s been a lot of conversation, debate, and questioning about whether all of our youth should learn to code. While a noble endeavor, I don’t see it working well given most of our current programming languages. Most of our programming languages use syntax/methods/constructs that many of us normally don’t think in terms of; that is, it’s a different way of thinking that doesn’t come naturally for many of us. One only needs to look at the salaries for software developers/web developers/programmers to see that they are paid pretty well. Why? Because it’s definitely not for everyone and the salaries encourage people to go down that path.
So if we are going to go down the path that says that all youth should learn how to code, then we will need much easier-to-work with tools and programming languages…easier to create something quickly…easier to understand. I don’t know enough about Apple’s Swift programming language, but it seems to be a step in the right direction. But again, my guess is that even Swift doesn’t go far enough for the majority of us to pick it up.
Finally, The World’s Largest iOS 8 + Swift eLearning Bootcamp item made me reflect upon the need for institutions of traditional higher education to keep their curricula up to date. We need to be responsive to market needs – otherwise, these types of alternatives can become a real threat. Though not an easy task, we need to ask: “Are we being responsive enough with our course offerings? Are such alternatives going to represent a significant way that many people obtain skills in a shorter amount of time?”
Addendum on 12/11/14:
Addendums on 12/15/14:
Excerpt from Context: Your Work Enriched by the Smartest Minds — from blog.evernote.com
Good research happens in three phases. You recall what you know. You consult with someone. You search external sources. We’re applying our machine learning and augmented intelligence expertise to present you with all three research phases automatically, at the moment you need them, without ever leaving your workspace. As you work, Evernote is automatically looking for other information and content that might help you connect the dots/see the big picture. This content can take the form of other notes, people you might talk to or even relevant news sources.
In Evernote, every phrase informs our algorithms about what other content might help you further your project. We call this Context. It’s an extremely powerful new Premium feature coming soon to Evernote.
…
Your knowledge
Your team’s knowledge
Your network
The professionals: Possibly the most powerful new benefit that Context brings is a look at related information from premier news and information sources, including…
Also see:
11 things we just learned about how the Apple Watch works — from theverge.com by Ross Miller
Excerpt:
As of [11/18/14] , developers can now make apps for Apple Watch. Well, they’re not separate apps so much as they are extensions of pre-existing iPhone apps, and there isn’t a lot of flexibility in the WatchKit toolset — but it looks like that’ll change next year.
Excerpt from IBM grants UK universities unprecedented access to AI system Watson — from information-age.com by Ben Rossi
The University of Southampton and Imperial College London have today announced partnerships with IBM to offer students and staff cognitive computing education with unprecedented access to IBM‘s Watson technology and experts.
Imperial College London will offer new courses to provide students with opportunities for hands-on learning as they work to develop cognitive computing solutions to address business and societal challenges.
The partnership extends cognitive systems activities in Imperial’s Department of Computing as well as in other college departments already involved in related interdisciplinary research.
Does Studying Fine Art = Unemployment? Introducing LinkedIn’s Field of Study Explorer — from LinkedIn.com by Kathy Hwang
Excerpt:
[On July 28, 2014], we are pleased to announce a new product – Field of Study Explorer – designed to help students like Candice explore the wide range of careers LinkedIn members have pursued based on what they studied in school.
So let’s explore the validity of this assumption: studying fine art = unemployment by looking at the careers of members who studied Fine & Studio Arts at Universities around the world. Are they all starving artists who live in their parents’ basements?
Also see:
The New Rankings? — from insidehighered.com by Charlie Tyson
Excerpt:
Who majored in Slovak language and literature? At least 14 IBM employees, according to LinkedIn.
Late last month LinkedIn unveiled a “field of study explorer.” Enter a field of study – even one as obscure in the U.S. as Slovak – and you’ll see which companies Slovak majors on LinkedIn work for, which fields they work in and where they went to college. You can also search by college, by industry and by location. You can winnow down, if you desire, to find the employee who majored in Slovak at the Open University and worked in Britain after graduation.
