News
STEM education key to the final frontier
October 16, 2013 | By Kevin Robinson-Avila | Albuquerque JournalEmerging space technology is fueling a second industrial revolution, but the U.S. needs to educate a new generation of scientists to keep the momentum going, a Lockheed Martin executive told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
Ken Washington, vice president of the Advanced Technology Center at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., was the keynote speaker at the chamber’s 96th-annual meeting and luncheon at Sandia Resort and Casino.
Why Aren’t Companies Getting Graduates With the Skills They Need?
October 14, 2013 | The Wall Street JournalFirms often complain about the difficulty of finding recent college alumni who have adequate training for available jobs.
With this issue in mind, we posed the following question to The Experts: Companies often complain they aren’t getting graduates with the skills they need. Why is that—and what should be done about it?
Sajan Pillai: STEM ‘the prosperity mechanism’ for the world
October 9th, 2013 | The Washington PostThe Washington Post’s Mary Jordan talked to CEOs about how critical a stronger STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) pipeline is to their companies. Sajan Pillai, CEO of IT service provider UST Global, said his company was hiring and training young people in inner cities in the United States, along with thousands in Mexico and India, for high tech jobs.
What College Will Be Like in 2023
October 9th, 2013 | By GABRIEL KAHN | The Wall Street JournalTen years from now college might not look too different from the outside—the manicured quads, the football games, the parties—but the learning experience students receive will probably be fundamentally different from the one they get today.
Textbooks. Lecture halls. September-to-spring calendars. Over the next decade, technology may sweep away some of the most basic aspects of a university education and usher in a flood of innovations and changes. Look for online classes that let students learn at their own pace, drawing on materials from schools across the country—not just a single professor and a hefty textbook.
Faculty Coalition: It’s Time to Examine MOOC and Online Ed Profit Motives
October 9th, 2013 | By Dian Schaffhauser | Campus TechnologyA coalition of faculty groups has declared war against online learning, particularly massive open online courses (MOOCs), because it said it believes that the fast expansion of this form of education is being promulgated by corporations — specifically for-profit colleges and universities and education technology companies — at the expense of student education and public interest.
Colleges Mine Data to Help Students Stay on Course
October 8th, 2013 | By Melissa Korn | The Wall Street JournalAlert: You will fail this class.
The warnings may not be quite so blunt, but students at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., are now able to see how well they might do in any single course before ever enrolling.
When students register for classes each semester, they see a list of classes that are ranked on a scale of one to five stars, based on how useful each course is likely to be for their major or their graduation requirements, and how difficult it might be for them.
This feature reflects a growing reliance on predictive analytics in higher education to increase retention and graduation rates at a time when outcomes are under scrutiny and funding for additional academic support is hard to come by.
Stubborn Skills Gap in America’s Work Force
October 8, 2013 | By EDUARDO PORTER | The New York TimesOne of the few things that nearly everyone in Washington agrees on is that American workers are the best.
“More productive than any on earth,” President Obama has said of them. They “build better products than anybody else.”
Republicans, somewhat less exuberant, are nonetheless sure that American workers “can surpass the competition” on any level playing field. Even the United States Chamber of Commerce — not always a worker’s best friend — asserts that, along with the nation’s entrepreneurs and companies, America’s workers “are the best in the world.”
Fact is, they are not.
Sociology, Economics Researchers Receive Grant to Study How STEM Education Contributes to Workforce Success
Oct. 7, 2013 | The University of Texas at AustinAUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin sociologist Chandra Muller and economist Sandra Black have received a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate how science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education contributes to career success.
The goal of the study, titled “STEM Education Effects on a Diverse Workforce’s Development over the Life Cycle,” is to identify which skills learned in high school and college help people to adapt, learn and succeed in the rapidly changing workforce.
HOW ADULT ONLINE GRADUATES PORTRAY THEIR DEGREE
October 6, 2013 | Distance-Educator.comThis qualitative case study investigated how adult graduates of online Bachelor’s degree programs describe the online aspect of their degree. Online education is promoted as a method for adult students to access the benefits of a college degree. Therefore, it is important for prospective online students, higher education institutions and policy makers to understand how online degrees are valued in society and by online graduates.
Where’s the teacher? Online college debuts self-paced courses
October 5, 2013 | By MAURA LERNER | Star TribuneImagine a college program where there’s no required reading or weekly assignments. Where teachers no longer teach class or hand out grades.
Welcome to FlexPath, a new twist in online education, which is making its debut in October at Capella University in Minneapolis.
The program, one of the first of its kind in the country, is built entirely around the idea that people should be able to earn a degree by proving what they know, not by sitting in class.
It’s part of a trend called “competency-based” education, which is putting a provocative new spin on what it means to go to college.
Revenue not likely, MOOC faithful say
October 3, 2013 | By Jake New | eCampus NewsWhile MOOC platforms and providers hope the verdict on revenue is still to come, a new study indicates that college leaders and faculty may have already made up their mind, and they’re not seeing dollar signs on the horizon.
Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?
October 3, 2013 | By EILEEN POLLACK | The New York TimesLast summer, researchers at Yale published a study proving that physicists, chemists and biologists are likely to view a young male scientist more favorably than a woman with the same qualifications. Presented with identical summaries of the accomplishments of two imaginary applicants, professors at six major research institutions were significantly more willing to offer the man a job. If they did hire the woman, they set her salary, on average, nearly $4,000 lower than the man’s. Surprisingly, female scientists were as biased as their male counterparts.
How to Build a University in 7 Months
October 1, 2013 | Carl Straumsheim | Inside Higher EdWhen Florida Governor Rick Scott on April 22 signed Senate Bill 1076, he tasked a “preeminent state research university to establish an institute for online learning” that would “offer high-quality, fully online baccalaureate degree programs” by January 2014. A few weeks later, the Florida Board of Governors granted the University of Florida that designation.
Competency-Based Education Goes Mainstream in Wisconsin
September 30, 2013 | By Scott Carlson | The Chronicle of Higher EducationTwenty years ago, Aaron Apel headed off to the University of Wisconsin at Platteville, where he spent too little time studying and too much time goofing off. He left the university, eventually earning an associate degree in information technology at a community college.
Now, as a longtime staff member in the registrar’s office at Wisconsin’s Madison campus, he has advanced as far as his education will let him. “I have aspirations to climb the ladder in administration, but the opportunity isn’t there without a four-year degree,” he says.
Technology and the College Generation
September 27, 2013 | By COURTNEY RUBIN | The New York TimesAs a professor who favors pop quizzes, Cedrick May is used to grimaces from students caught unprepared. But a couple of years ago, in his class on early American literature at the University of Texas at Arlington, he said he noticed “horrible, pained looks” from the whole class when they saw the questions.
Getting businesses on board
September 17, 2013 | By Times Staff | Community College TimesTo ensure education systems are teaching students the skills they will need to land well-paying jobs, businesses need to become better partners. That was one of the messages delivered during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s education and workforce summit on Tuesday.
In Higher Education Social Media Is Your Job
September 16, 2013 | By Dr. James Michael Nolan | Huffington Post CollegeI have altogether too many friends and colleagues in higher education who seem to think that being active in social media is a choice, on par with, say, choosing to watch Breaking Bad, or taking up golf.
A few still try to collect “cute points” for not being active in social media and remaining ignorant about it. “I wouldn’t know the difference between a blog and a Tweetle,” one told me. He was really pleased with himself.
Today’s typical college students often juggle work, children and bills with coursework
September 14, 2013 | By Jenna Johnson | The Washington PostWhen President Obama talks about the cost of higher education, his mentions of “college students” might often evoke images of teenagers who spent senior year of high school searching for the four-year institution that best matched their personalities, then enrolled and moved into the dorms while Mom or Dad paid the bills.
That idea of a college student spending four luxurious, carefree years studying is passe. Of the more than 20 million students enrolled at thousands of two- and four-year colleges and universities across the nation, only about one-third fit that traditional description.
Astonishing MOOC Success More Complicated Than It Seemed, Raising Questions for UW
September 10, 2013 | By Nina Shapiro | Seattle Weekly NewsLast fall, an engineering professor at San Jose State University named Khosrow Ghadiri tried something radical in his Introduction to Circuits course. He made a MOOC a central part of the his class curriculum. MOOCs are free online courses that have become a worldwide sensation, both wildly popular and controversial. They are prompting a shake up of higher education, including at the University of Washington, as this week’s cover story details.
Better Data Can Help Colleges Fight Cheating
September 9, 2013 | By Frank Bi | The Chronicle of Higher EducationAfter the answers to a final examination in psychology at the University of Texas at Austin surfaced on an unofficial class Facebook group last year, 20 charges of “academic collusion” went on the record.
In what remains an unusual practice, administrators at UT-Austin began collecting data on cheating in the 1980s. Since 2003, they have published the information online. Hundreds of incidents each year are broken down by gender, ethnicity, age, college, and grade-point average, as well as type of violation (the university defines 12).
Technology Will Not Replace Teachers
September 4, 2013 | By Karen Cator | The Hudson GroupThere, I said it. And with these words, I am jumping with both feet into a debate that has alternately raged and simmered since computers first began appearing in schools in the 1980s.
The debate was reignited recently when Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), online courses designed for large-scale global participation, became one of the hottest topics in education. I wrote about MOOCs in my last LinkedIn Influencer post, “Education is Having Its Internet Moment.” MOOCs have huge potential to increase access to education, and especially to expert explainers. But we know that explaining represents just one aspect of teaching. Even as technologies for learning become more evolved, they will not replace teachers — anymore than commercial airliner cockpit technology has replaced pilots.
Ideas for Improving Science Education in the U.S.
September 2, 2013 | By CLAUDIA DREIFUS | The New York TimesIf you could make one change to improve science education in the United States, what would it be? Science Times asked that question of 19 Americans — scientists, educators, students — with a stake in the answer. Their responses follow.
Top 3 solutions to cheating in online education
August 30, 2013 | By Denny Carter | eCampus NewsOnline learning advocates, in their advocacy for more investment in web-based courses, have run into a counterargument time and again: cheating among online students drains legitimacy from the nontraditional classes.
Why (And How) Distance Learning Needs To Change
August 30, 2013 | By Nina Hassing | EdudemicThe amount of knowledge and information that must be taught to the leaders of tomorrow is expanding at a tremendous rate. The high school graduating class of 2008 will be exposed to more new information in one year than their grandparents were in a lifetime. Memorizing facts will have a much lower value, while utilizing information for analysis and decision making will be a critical skill for educational and professional advancement.
Adaptive learning technology comes to STEM courses
August 30, 2013 | By Jake New | eCampus NewsThe education giant Pearson and the adaptive learning company Knewton have been working together for nearly two years, launching a product powered by Knewton’s technology in the fall of 2012 to help college students in math, reading, and writing courses.
Report: Digital Badges Help Learners Demonstrate Accomplishments, Need Documentation for Credibility
August 29, 2013 | By Leila Meyer | Campus TechnologyDigital badges can help students pursue personal learning pathways and provide a standardized platform for learners to demonstrate their accomplishments, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Mozilla Foundation.
$2 Million NSF STEP Grant Funds STEM Student Retention Efforts at UC Riverside
August 28, 2013 | By David Nagel | Campus TechnologyUniversity of California, Riverside is receiving about $2 million to support efforts to retain students in science, technology, engineering, and math, especially underrepresented students. The funding is being provided through the National Science Foundation’s STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP).
A Map of Education Technology Through 2040 [#Infographic]
August 26, 2013 | By JIMMY DALY | EdTech MagazineWhat will education look like in the future?
Considering that 10 years ago very few students carried smartphones, and tablets didn’t even exist, it’s impossible to look 20 or 30 years into the future. It is likely, however, that cloud-based technology will be the foundation for educational technology and that remote, online learning will continue to grow at a faster pace.
American InterContinental University Integrates Adaptive Learning Technology into Curriculum
August 21, 2013 | By Leila Meyer | Campus TechnologyAmerican InterContinental University (AIU) has completed a pilot program that integrated adaptive learning technology into online math and English courses and, based on the program’s success, it is now integrating the technology into other courses.
LinkedIn Enters the College-Marketing Fray
August 19, 2013 | By Lawrence Biemiller | The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe business-networking behemoth LinkedIn said on Monday morning that it was making a play in global college admissions, unveiling LinkedIn University Pages and welcoming school students as young as 14 as members.
Kaplan 2.0
August 15, 2013 | By Paul Fain | Inside Higher EdKaplan’s fortunes are looking up. The education company no longer has to pick up the slack for The Washington Post, the venerable newspaper and loss leader that Kaplan’s corporate owner, the Washington Post Co., just sold off. Even better, Kaplan is back in the black itself after years of tumbling enrollments and profits, which were driven in part by the weak economy and the for-profit sector’s scandal-fueled regulatory woes.
How to Make Online Courses Massively Personal
August 14, 2013 | By Peter Norvig | Scientific AmericanEducators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one tutoring and mastery learning—working on a subject until it is mastered, not just until a test is scheduled. Success also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents, mentors or peers. Will the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs) quash these success factors? Not at all. In fact, digital tools offer our best path to cost-effective, personalized learning.
Education Department Approves Competency-Based Program at Capella U.
August 12, 2013 | By Lee Gardner | The Chronicle of Higher EducationThe U.S. Department of Education has granted its approval of a Capella University program offering degrees on a competency-based model. Students enrolled in the for-profit online university’s FlexPath program, which offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business via a self-paced, direct-assessment method, will be eligible for federal student aid, Capella announced today.
Hagerstown Community College, Washington County Schools Partner on STEMM Ed
August 12, 2013 | By Leila Meyer | The JournalHagerstown Community College (HCC) and Washington County Public Schools (WCPS) in Hagerstown, MD have partnered to launch a new STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medical) Technical Middle College (STMC). The program will let qualifying high school students in the district earn college credits, associate degrees, or certifications in STEMM subjects.
Empty classrooms and online learning
August 9, 2013 | By Jake New | eCampus NewsThe University System of Georgia’s buildings are empty about 75 percent of the work week, a study conducted by the system has found. The findings have already prompted some system building projects to be halted and other universities to consider similar studies on their own campuses.
Competency-Based Transcripts
August 9, 2013 | By Paul Fain | Inside Higher EdStudents who enroll in a new competency-based program at Northern Arizona University will earn a second transcript, which will describe their proficiency in the online bachelor degree’s required concepts. The university will also teach students how to share their “competency report” transcripts with potential employers.
The MOOC Business Plan
August 7, 2013 | By David Raths | Campus TechnologyName a product sold in stores for thousands of dollars that can be obtained for free online. If you’re struggling for an answer, don’t be surprised–no company would last very long under those circumstances. Yet that’s exactly the predicament in which higher education finds itself as MOOCs begin to disrupt the traditional post-secondary model. Schools are giving away what was once their most valued treasure–the intellectual property of their faculty–for nothing.
Setting Limits for Outsourcing Online
August 5, 2013 | By Paul Fain | Inside Higher EdThe shuttering of Ivy Bridge College could dump cold water on the online aspirations of some colleges, particularly ones that prefer to play it safe with their regional accreditor. A growing number of colleges are teaming up with outside firms to ramp up their online offerings. Those unaccredited partners include companies like Academic Partnerships, 2U, Udacity, Coursera and Altius Education, which jointly managed Ivy Bridge.
The Biggest Online Learning Trends Of The Year
August 3, 2013 | By Katie Lepi | edudemicWe’re more than halfway through the year now, and we all know that everyone makes predictions about what will happen each year in the realms of technology, education, and education technology. And since many of you are on summer break, relaxing and recharging before having to go back and think too much about any of the aforementioned topics, we thought it would be a good time to reflect a bit on what the trends have been so far this year. The handy infographic below takes a look at some of 2013′s biggest “e-learning”, which really just means how education and technology are intersecting these days. Keep reading to learn more.
MOOCs & Beyond: Update on California Government-Driven Online Initiatives
August 1, 2013 | By Phil Hill | WCETAs part of our current series on MOOCs, we had planned to have Phil Hill (co-founder of MindWires Consulting and co-publisher of the e-Literate blog) as a guest blogger to update a January 2013 post for WCET in which he outlined how the California government was trying to drive higher ed. Given today’s news about the controversial bill (regarding MOOCs, third-party providers, and credit), the additional insight is timely. Phil Hill is a consultant and industry analyst covering the educational technology market primarily for higher education. Catch Phil on twitter @PhilonEdTech.
Does research support flipped learning?
July 30, 2013 | By Meris Stansbury | eSchool News Both the review and the shortened white paper based on the researchers’ review discuss some of the learning theories that underlie flipped learning, as well as describe limited empirical research findings.3 Universities Will Grant Credit for 2U’s Online Courses
July 30, 2013 | By Steve Kolowich | The Chronicle of Higher EducationWhen undergraduate students at Southern Methodist University peruse their course catalogs this fall, several listings may strike them as odd.
First, the courses will be taught entirely online—an option that Southern Methodist has never before offered to undergraduates.
Second, the courses will be taught by professors at other universities—including Emory University, the University of Notre Dame, and Washington University in St. Louis, among others.
NSF Awards $24 Million in Grants To Promote STEM Workforce
July 24, 2013 | By Tim Sohn | Campus TechnologyThe National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $24 million in grants for science and engineering researchers to look at infrastructure improvements in Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, South and North Dakota, Vermont, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Examples of projects include research on the creation of bioprocessing technologies for alternative energy production, health of coastal lands, and sustainable, efficient water use.
Students want more class assignments available on mobile devices
July 24, 2013 | By Jake New | eCampus News“Who completed the reading?”
It’s a question some instructors likely ask every week. If students are being honest, only 10 percent of the class would raise their hands, according to a new survey. But a majority of students believe that response would be very different if the material was available on mobile devices.
Research: Students Increasingly Comfortable with E-Texts
July 23, 2013 | Campus TechnologyAlmost all, 99 percent, of current students have at least one digital device and 68 percent use at least three devices each day, according to a new survey from Wakefield Research.
Desire2Learn Integrates Wiggio To Streamline Collaboration
July 16, 2013 |By Joshua Bolkan| Campus TechnologyDesire2Learn has integrated its newest acquisition, Wiggio, into Learning Suite, to enable students to more easily manage file sharing, group messaging, scheduling, and task management.
Online Learning Continues to Prove Beneficial to College Students
July 13, 2013 | By Samantha Gordon | U.S. News University DirectoryTechnology is very rapidly becoming integrated with almost every aspect of life, and higher learning is no exception. Whether students are pursuing associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees or doctorates, having access to the Internet is proving very useful in a variety of ways. In addition to having the ability to learn remotely via online classes, students are able to conduct thorough research more easily, stay connected with peers and explore their subjects in a more interactive manner. Google compiled data in its Digital & the New College Experience survey, which details just how far-reaching technology is for students.
The Future of Higher Education Looks Nothing Like the Present
July 10, 2013 | Niraj Chokshi | National Journal More and more students are attending two-year colleges instead of four-year schools. Within five years, minorities will make up more than half of the country’s under-18 population. And, by 2020, two thirds of all jobs will require education beyond high school—up from roughly a quarter 40 years ago. There are major changes in store for the nation’s higher-education system, and it needs to adjust accordingly.Blackboard Announces New MOOC Platform
July 10, 2013 | By Jeffrey R. Young | The Chronicle of Higher EducationLas Vegas — Blackboard, a company that makes software that many colleges use to run their classroom and online courses, announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its support for MOOCs, though it is relatively late to the much-talked-about trend of massive open online courses.
Faculty Satisfaction with Teaching Online Courses
July 5, 2013 | By Robin Bartoletti | Faculty eCommonsThe demand for online courses has increased dramatically–so has the number of faculty teaching online. Online pedagogy has evolved over a short period of time, creating challenges with changing delivery methods, training, support, and course development.
Closing the Gap: Addressing STEM Workforce Challenges
July 3, 2013 | by Cameron Evans, Madeleine McKenna, and Beneva Schulte |EducauseFew people know better than higher education professionals about the power of technological innovation to reinvent the ways in which we learn and work. With advances in mobile technology, online learning platforms, and open-course content, colleges and universities can now bring education to students’ fingertips, literally. Moreover, IT-skills-heavy jobs are some of the fastest-growing and best-paying jobs available, and technological know-how is becoming increasingly important for performance in any job. In order to harness the promise of technology to deliver improved educational outcomes and sustained economic growth, however, the United States must face a critical workforce-development challenge: in the country today, there are simply not enough people with the high-tech skills needed to fill open positions in tech-dependent fields. Innovative recruiting and training strategies are not enough to address these workforce challenges. Innovative policies are needed too.
An Important STEM Experiment to Watch
June 26, 2013 | By James M. Gentile | Huffington Post CollegeEducation in Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics (STEM) at all levels is critical to the U.S. future because of its relevance to the economy and the need for a citizenry able to make wise decisions on issues faced by modern society. Calls for improvement have become increasingly widespread and desperate, and there have been countless national, local, and private programs aimed at improving STEM education, but there continues to be little, if any, discernible change in either student achievement or student interest in STEM. Articles and letters in the spring and summer 2012 editions of the National Academies of Science publication Issues in Science and Technology extensively discussed STEM education questions from many angles. Largely absent from these discussions, however, is attention to learning.
STEM education: Obstacles still getting in the way of success
June 26, 2013 | By John Benson | VoxxiSTEM education may be gaining steam across the nation but educators are finding plenty of hurdles still exist. Various pros and cons of academia were discussed in detail last week at the 2013 U.S. News STEM Solutions conference in Austin, where educators and advocates detailed the current state of empowering U.S. students to compete with their international peers.
Penn to Implement AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative
June 25, 2013 | Penn NewsThe University of Pennsylvania has been named a project site for the Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, a multiyear, multimillion dollar project that aims to improve the quality of education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Developed by the Association of American Universities in 2011, the project called for proposals from member universities, looking for those best able to demonstrate the effectiveness of evidence-based teaching practices in these disciplines.
4 ways in which higher education has changed in the wake of the Great Recession
June 24, 2013 | By Associated Press | The Washington PostMore urgent. More crowded. More expensive. Also, more flexible and accessible to millions. That, in a nutshell, is how higher education has changed around the world in the wake of the global financial crisis that struck five years ago, and the Great Recession that followed.
STEM Scholarships Abound for Aspiring Scientists
June 20, 2013 | By SCHOLARSHIP AMERICA | U.S. NewsYou’ve probably heard the acronym STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – over and over again during the last decade. This blog has covered the topic on a handful of occasions, as careers in the STEM fields are hotter than ever right now. Selecting a major in one of the STEM fields often leads to a lucrative job straight out of college. And even though you may be looking forward to big money after college graduation, chances are you could also use some extra cash for tuition in the fall. If you have a love for science, technology, engineering or math, and you’re thinking of majoring in a related field, you have access to fantastic scholarship opportunities.
McGraw-Hill to Buy Adaptive-Learning Company
June 20, 2013 | By Sara Grossman | The Chronicle of Higher EducationMcGraw-Hill Education, one of the largest textbook publishers, announced on Thursday that it would acquire the ALEKS Corporation, a developer of so-called adaptive-learning technology. The goal of adaptive learning is to create online textbooks that can analyze a student’s reading habits, answers to quizzes, and other details to customize the content that it shows to the student. Several major textbook publishers have embraced the approach in recent years.
MOOC-Skeptical Provosts
June 19, 2013 | By Ry Rivard | Inside Higher EdThe provosts of Big 10 universities and the University of Chicago are in high-level talks to create an online education network across their campuses, which collectively enroll more than 500,000 students a year. And these provosts from some of America’s top research universities have concluded that they – not corporate entrepreneurs and investors — must drive online education efforts.
Colleges Fight to Retain Interest of STEM Majors
June 18, 2013 | By KELSEY SHEEHY | U.S. NewsExperts estimate that less than 40 percent of students who enter college as STEMmajors actually wind up earning a degree in science, technology, engineering or math.Those who don’t make it to the finish line typically change course early on. Just ask Mallory Hytes Hagan, better known as Miss America 2013.
The State of STEM
June 17, 2013 | By MICHAEL MORELLA | U.S. NewsOne of the most astute synopses of the state of science, technology, education and mathematics education in the United States came in a 500-word feature earlier this year from the ever-careful chronicler of our day: the Onion. The piece, headlined “Report: Chinese Third-Graders Falling Behind U.S. High School Students in Math, Science,” explained how stunning new – and fictional – results from international exams demonstrated “that in mathematical and scientific literacy, American students from the ages of 14 to 18 have now actually pulled slightly ahead of their 8-year-old Chinese counterparts.”
Crusader for Science Teaching Finds Colleges Slow to Change
June 17, 2013 | By Paul Basken | The Chronicle of Higher EducationStudies have piled up in recent years, making clear that newer, hands-on methods of teaching science—emphasizing discussions over lectures, practical applications rather than rubrics—can significantly improve student success.
And if anyone could be expected to make a convincing case for the wider adoption of those methods, it’s Carl E. Wieman. Winner of a Nobel Prize in Physics, he has made a second career of studying and promoting such overhauls, even founding his own center at the University of British Columbia for developing and validating new teaching approaches.
The Sub-Bachelor STEM Economy
June 13, 2013 | By Jonathan Rothwell | Brookings
To make it in this economy, you have to have skills that customers or employers value. The need for skilled workers is at the heart of debates about immigration policy, innovation, education, and opportunity. It raises questions about how to better prepare students, spark entrepreneurship, and spur innovation as part of the broader quest to revamp our stagnant economy and bring more Americans into the middle class.
STEM Graduate Education Challenge Prompts Hundreds to Offer Ideas for Improvements
June 13, 2013 | National Science FoundationToday the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the winners of theInnovation in Graduate Education Challenge, launched in February 2013 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The challenge invited graduate students from across the nation to submit innovative ideas to prepare them for tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges. Entrants were encouraged to submit ideas with the potential to improve graduate education and professional development. Ideas could be oriented to students, faculty, departments, institutions, professional societies, and/or federal agencies. Participation in the challenge was limited to currently-enrolled STEM graduate students. They were invited to submit by April 15, 2013, a 1,000- to 1,500-word response to this challenge.
Tech, education leaders talk STEM challenges
June 12, 2013 | By BOBBY CERVANTES | PoliticoEducation and tech leaders on Wednesday lauded the Obama administration’s efforts to open the science, technology, engineering and math fields to more students — but said the resource challenges in underfunded schools remain a major hurdle.
Tom Kalil, the White House’s deputy director for technology and innovation, said the Obama administration’s efforts include preparing and recruiting 100,000 new STEM teachers and opening opportunities to get more younger students interested in STEM.
Academic Partnerships Publishes Guide to Quality in Online Learning
New Research Effort Aims to Examine Effectiveness of MOOCs
June 10, 2013 | By Sara Grossman | The Chronicle of Higher EducationAs more and more colleges experiment with massive open online courses, or MOOCs, a new project hopes to cut through the hype and gauge the effectiveness of the courses.
The MOOC Research Initiative, financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will award grants of $10,000 to $25,000 to researchers seeking to explore issues such as student experiences in MOOCs and the free courses’ systemic impact.
Investing in STEM education at two-year colleges could fill skills gap, GRCC says
June 10, 2013 | By Brian McVicar | Michigan LiveGRAND RAPIDS, MI – Amy Koning knows that jobs in science, technology, engineering and math are a major driver of West Michigan’s economy.
As associate dean of operations at Grand Rapids Community College’s school of workforce development, she often hears from employers – such as advanced manufacturers – who can’t find applicants with enough STEM skills to fill vacant jobs.
Immune No More: How the Principles of Econ 101 Are Shaping the Future of Higher Education
June 6, 2013 | By Bradley Safalow | The Online Learning CurveBradley Safalow is the founder and CEO of PAA Research, a leading independent investment research firm with a particular expertise in higher education. Hear him speak in person at Connect 2013, our online higher education conference.
The laws of supply and demand, utility, and elasticity of demand are some of the key concepts taught in almost every single Economics 101 course around the country. Despite the ubiquity of these concepts, rarely have they ever been discussed in the context of total enrollment trends in the U.S. higher education system.
California Bill Allowing Credit for MOOCs Passes Senate
June 6, 2013 | By Leila Meyer | Campus TechnologyCalifornia state senators voted unanimously last Thursday to pass Senate Bill 520 (SB 520), despite opposition from faculty at California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California. The bill establishes incentive grant programs for the state’s public universities and colleges to develop online courses on massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, such as Udacity and Coursera, as a way of reducing the bottleneck for required gateway courses.
The New ‘New Normal’
June 4, 2013 | By Kevin Kiley | Inside Higher EdMandatory tuition and fees at the University of California system have about doubled since 2007, but this year, if the state’s governor has his way, they will stay flat.And the University of California is far from alone. Purdue University is freezing tuition for the first time since 1976. Iowa’s three universities will also probably hold tuition prices constant for the first time in more than 30 years.
How online learning is reinventing college
June 2, 2013 | By Laura Pappano | The Christian Science MonitorStudents at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are not automatically required to go to class. So you notice when, on a lousy midwinter evening in a driving 45-degree rain, 98 show up at Room 46-3002 in Singleton Auditorium. They come not for the free Thai takeout (though it’s appreciated), but because everyone in Eric Lander’s introductory biology course is needed. In person.
Open University: Coursea Partners with 10 Major State Schools
May 30, 2013 | By Anya Kamenetz | Fast CompanyIn the nine months since Fast Company profiled the launch of online learning platform Coursera, MOOCs–aka massively open online courses–have taken both themainstream media and the world of higher education by storm. MOOCs typically consist of a series of short lecture videos interspersed with comprehension questions, assignments and discussion forums–sometimes with crowdsourced assessments. Many people are debating how MOOCs will, for better or worse, vaporize the university system as we know it.
Read More Here >>Half Of College Grads Are Working Jobs That Don’t Require A Degree
May 28, 2013 | By Susan Adams | ForbesAs the mother of a child who is finishing his junior year in high school, I am, like many parents in my shoes, in the throes of anxiety about where my son will go to college in 2015. Occasionally, between obsessing about his slipping grades in pre-calculus and Spanish and trying to figure out whether a school like University of Chicago should be on our “target” or “reach” list, I get a fleeting but deep pit in my stomach about a much more serious issue: where, and more importantly if, he will find a job when he finally gets his degree.
Northern Arizona U Launches Online Competency Based Degree Programs
May 28, 2013 | By Joshua Bolkan | Campus TechnologyNorthern Arizona University (NAU) has launched a competency-based online degree program using a subscription model for tuition. Dubbed “Personalized Learning,” the program’s first degrees include Computer Information Technology, Liberal Arts, and Small Business Administration, offered for $2,500 per six-month term, with costs such as books and lab fees included.
Higher Ed in 2018
May 23, 2013 | By Jeb Bush and Randy Best | Inside Higher EdRising tuition, declining government subsidies, stagnant endowments, and increased competition are challenging higher education like never before. College and university leaders are struggling to understand where these changes will lead and how they can make higher education more affordable, more accessible, and of greater quality for an increasingly diverse and aspiring student. Based on our interaction with university leaders and policy makers, we believe that the timeline for transformational change has shortened to five years. During this time, higher education will have moved from a provider-driven model to a consumer-driven one and, in so doing, upend a system that had endured for centuries.
Georgia Tech To Launch MOOC-Based Master’s Degree in Computer Science Through Udacity
May 15, 2013 | By Leila Meyer | Campus TechnologyGeorgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing will offer a Master of Science degree that can be completed entirely online through the massive open online course (MOOC) format. The university will offer theOnline Master of Science in Computer Science (OMS CS) degree program to select students during its pilot program, set to begin in the next academic year, with enrollment gradually expanding over the next three years.
Southern New Hampshire, a Little College That’s a Giant Online
May 9, 2013 | By John Hechinger | BusinessweekSouthern New Hampshire University’s quaint red-brick New England campus is home to 2,750 undergraduates, making it the size of some high schools. A casual visitor would never suspect that another 25,000 students are also enrolled online. That’s roughly how many are in the bachelor’s program at the University of California at Berkeley.
MOOC Teaches How to Cheat in Online Courses, With Eye to Prevention
May 1, 2013 | By Jake New | The Chronicle of Higher EducationIn a few weeks, Bernard Bull, assistant vice president for academics at Concordia University Wisconsin, will ask participants in his new course to cheat.
There’s a caveat, though. They’ll have to disclose to the rest of the class exactly how they cheated. “Of course, if the assignment is to cheat, then you’re not really cheating,” Mr. Bull admitted.
The assignment will be one unit in his new massive open online course, “Understanding Cheating in Online Courses,” which begins on Monday through the Canvas MOOC platform, run by Instructure, a course-management company. The eight-week course will explore the vocabulary, psychology, and mechanics of what he calls “successful cheating” in online learning.
Flipping Student Services
May 1, 2013 | By Mary Grush | Campus TechnologyAdministrators of the online program at Southeast Missouri State University wondered why student support services are so often geared to residential students, leaving online students at a disadvantage. In a move to better accommodate the needs of online students, Southeast Online has “flipped” the nature of student services. Here, Southeast Online administrators comment on their strategies.
2 Potential Scenarios For Online Professional Development
May 1, 2013 | By Jeff Dunn | edudemicThe big news of the day is that Coursera is offering online professional development. I love the idea of Professional Development MOOCs and think it has a big place in the world of education. I think teachers could (and will) learn a lot in online courses dedicated to pedagogies, flipping classrooms, and other PD lessons. The Coursera-run PD will do gangbusters business, attract lots of attention from VCs and news outlets (MOOCs = sexy) for good reason. It’s useful.
MOOCs and the Quality Question
April 26, 2013 | By Ronald Legon | Inside Higher EdOvernight, MOOCs — with free tuition for all, attracting unprecedented enrollments reaching into the hundreds of thousands, and the involvement of world-class faculty — have captured the imagination of the press, public and even legislators looking for ways to expand the availability of higher education at minimal cost.
How to Improve Public Online Education: Report Offers a Model
April 22, 2013 | By Charles Huckabee | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Public colleges and universities, which educate the bulk of all American college students, have been slower than their counterparts in the for-profit sector to embrace the potential of online learning to offer pathways to degrees. A new report from the New America Foundation suggests a series of policies that states and public higher-education systems could adopt to do some catching up.
Ed Tech and the Establishment
April 22, 2013 | By Paul Fain | Inside Higher Ed
SAN FRANCISCO – Community college leaders haven’t exactly jumped on the “disruption” bandwagon. That may be understandable given the popular narrative that digital innovation will replace faculty members and even entire colleges. But the two-year sector’s wariness seems to be fading, if the annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges is any indication.
Innovative online developer to broaden college partnership
April 19, 2013 | By Susan Frey | EdSourceThe marriage of innovative online course developer Udacity and San Jose State University is going so well that the partners are offering for-credit summer classes to 10 times as many students per course.
“So far, so good,” said spokesperson Clarissa Shen, saying that the summer classes are considered an extension of the spring pilot, which offered three math classes, including Statistics. Based on the outcome of the summer program, Silicon Valley-based Udacity and San Jose State will decide in the fall whether to make the courses part of the university’s regular offerings. Udacity and the university chose courses that are in high demand, with wait lists, and feedback from students has been positive, Shen said.
California Universities Aggressively Expand Online Courses, Finds Failure Rates Drop
April 12, 2013 | By Gregory Ferenstein | TechCrunch
The largest university system in America is aggressively expanding its experimental foray into Massive Online Open Learning (MOOCs), based on an unusually promising pilot course. The California State University system will offer a special “flipped” version of an electrical engineering course at 11 more universities, where students watch online lectures from Harvard and MIT at home, while class time is devoted to hands-on problem solving.
Panel wants to end confusion over online learning standards
April 11, 2013 | By Sidney Van Wyk | The Washington Times
Seeking to bring more order to the exploding world of online college course work, state education officials and leading educational organizations Thursday released a proposal designed to speed up the expansion of “distance learning” while offering greater consumer protections for students.
Educators Pushing Data Collection Take Science Prizes
April 11, 2013 | By Dian Schaffhauser | Campus TechnologyAlong with two middle school teachers and four high school teachers, one college teacher will be recognized later this week as a recipient of the 2013 Vernier/National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) awardsduring the annual NSTA conference. Each winner receives $1,000 in cash, $3,000 in Vernier products, and up to $1,500 to attend the conference, which is being held this year in San Antonio.
Data on whether and how students watch screencasts
April 9, 2013 | By Robert Talbert | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Screencasting is an integral part of theinverted classroom movement, and you can find screencasting even among courses that aren’t truly flipped. Using cheap, accessible tools for making and sharing video to clear out time for more student-active work during class make screencasting very appealing. But does it work? Do screencasts actually help students learn?
The Minerva Moment?
April 5, 2013 | By Ry Rivard | Inside Higher EdThe Minerva Project, an airy-sounding venture in San Francisco aiming to create an elite university for the 21st century, just poached a top academic from Stanford University. The company made a splash last year for attracting $25 million in venture capital and vowing to transform global higher education. Now it’s going to need to raise more money, develop software, hire professors and recruit enough students to open its doors by fall 2015.
Read More Here >>McGraw-Hill Releases New Version of Adaptive Learning Tool
April 1, 2013 | By Kanoe Namahoe | Campus TechnologyMcGraw-Hill Education has debuted a new release of its adaptive learning software McGraw-Hill LearnSmart. The new version is designed to be used with any textbook as well as open source materials used in a course where the software is offered.
The Brave New World of College Branding
March 25, 2013 | By Kevin Carey | The Chronicle of Higher Education‘Dear Authentic Happiness Member,” the e-mail began. “Massage parlor,” I thought, and reached for the delete button.Then I noticed the phrase “Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program.” “Diploma mill,” I thought, and went for the spamfilter.Then I saw “University of Pennsylvania.” “Either a scam or something interesting,” I thought, and read further. Which one it was depends on your perspective. Most evident was the power of an institutional brand.
Marrying Into MOOCs
March 21, 2013 | By Linda L. Briggs | Campus TechnologyIn a Q&A, the CIO of the University of Maryland discusses his school’s involvement with Coursera, its institutional goals, and what it takes to create a MOOC.
The dirty little secret of online learning: Students are bored and dropping out
March 21, 2013 | By Todd Tauber | Quartz
Online education has been around for a long time. But massive open online courses are finally making it respectable. Maybe even cool. Let’s not forget, though, that they are still experiments. And despite being “massively overhyped” (even in the eyes of their most dyed-in-the-wool supporters), they are not actually having a massive impact on students yet.
16 Companies Working On E-Textbooks Of The Future
March 19th, 2013 | By Roger Riddell | edudemic
The e-textbook movement stands to reshape instruction as new education technologies continue to fill classrooms via tablets and other mobile devices.
Meanwhile, the e-textbook market continues to evolve, and though many of the publishers’ names have remained the same, new players have emerged, and old companies are adopting new strategies. Here are 16 names in e-textbooks that you should know about, as well as what each of them are doing to set themselves apart in a competitive new area of education:
California’s Move Toward MOOCs Sends Shock Waves, but Key Questions Remain Unanswered
March 13th, 2013 | By Lee Gardner and Jeffrey R. Young | The Chronicle of Higher EducationSupporters of newly proposed legislation in California hope to reduce the number of students shut out of key courses by forging an unprecedented partnership between traditional public colleges and online-education upstarts. But on Wednesday specific details of how the deal would work were hard to pin down.
Read More Here >>U California, Irvine Adds Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum to OpenCourseWare
March 12th, 2013 | By Joshua Bolkan | Campus Technology
University of California, Irvine (UCI) will launch Open Chemistry(OpenChem), a full undergraduate chemistry curriculum to be available online for free. A collaboration between UCI’s School of Physical Sciences and the university’s OpenCourseWare initiative, OpenChem comprises “15 quarter-length undergraduate and select graduate chemistry video lectures,” according to a UCI news release. Those courses represent all required lecture classes and some electives for undergraduate chemistry majors at UCI.
The ‘Sage on the Stage’ and the End of the Classroom Lecture
March 4th, 2013 | By Timothy M. Chester | EducauseI remain a traditionalist, a traditionalist in the sense that I believe the most important relationship on any college campus – the one with greatest potential to impact students in a positive way – is the relationship between students and faculty. I also believe that, at its core, this relationship has to be about the processes of discovery and innovation.
Columbia University Focuses on Big Data Analysis with Two Online Graduate Programs
February 27th, 2013 | By Chris Riedel | Campus TechnologyIn an effort to address anticipated needs in big data analysis, Columbia University will launch online versions of its Master of Arts in Statistics andMaster of Science in Actuarial Science programs. Beginning fall 2013, the programs will be offered on campus, online, or in hybrid format (with both on-campus and online elements), and represent a collaboration between the university’s Department of Statistics, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Continuing Education.
How Collaborative Learning Works in Closed Online Courses vs. MOOCs
February 20th, 2013 | By Debbie Morrison | online learning insightsMy previous post about the MOOC disaster at Coursera with the Fundamentals of Online Education [FOE] course generated constructive and worthy discussions among readers that focused on the value and purpose of the MOOC, the role of the instructor and student, and how learning happens within this type of course.
The 6 Biggest Challenges Of Using Education Technology
February 14th, 2013 | By Katie Lepi | edudemic
In an unplanned series of sorts, we’re showcasing a couple of posts about the 2013 NMC/EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Horizon Report for Higher Education. We’ve already talked about the key trends in the report, but it also addressed another important topic when it comes to classroom technology – the challenges involved with implementing new technologies.
Enough With the Talk. Let’s Start Fixing It.
February 11th, 2013 | By Jeff Selingo | The Chronicle of Higher EducationHillary Hill is one of the faces of the modern American college student. In her first two years at Sonoma State University, the sophomore communications major has already taken an online class and a hybrid class in addition to a typical slate of face-to-face courses.
6 Ways Campuses Are Scaling Up E-Learning in 2013
February 7th, 2013 | By Bridget McCrea | Campus TechnologyFor administrators in higher education, each new year presents a clean slate that they can use to consider, test out, and implement new technology projects. In 2013, campus technology leaders are focusing more of their efforts on academic computing.
Value Evolution, Not Just Revolution, in Higher Ed
February 6th, 2013 | By Jeff Selingo | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Ever since the country’s top universities teamed up last year in loose federations to offer free online classes to the masses, MOOCs have become a household word in higher-education circles. They remain a sensation and a curiosity on the higher-ed conference circuit this winter, where nearly every meeting seems to feature the leaders of the various MOOC providers: Coursera, edX, and Udacity. The New York Times declared 2012 “the year of the MOOC.” The Chronicle dedicated its Online Learning supplement to the subject last fall.
How Educators and Schools Can Make the Most of Google Hangouts
February 1st, 2013 | By Mary Beth Hertz | Edutopia
What Is a “Hangout?”
A Hangout is a web-based tool created by Google for communicating through video. Up to ten people can “hang out” at one time in a virtual “room.” A Hangout can be as simple or as complex as needed for the task at hand. It can be used simply to converse or, through the use of extra apps and add-ons that Google provides, a Hangout can become a robust, virtual meeting space.
What MOOCs Will, Won’t, and Might Do
January 29th, 2013 | By Paul Glader| edudemicIvy League school officials suggest that one of the biggest impacts of massive online open courses – MOOCs – could be a renewed focus on teaching over research at elite American universities.
The Object Formerly Known as the Textbook
January 27th, 2013 | By Jeffrey R. Young | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Textbook publishers argue that their newest digital products shouldn’t even be called “textbooks.” They’re really software programs built to deliver a mix of text, videos, and homework assignments. But delivering them is just the beginning. No old-school textbook was able to be customized for each student in the classroom. The books never graded the homework. And while they contain sample exam questions, they couldn’t administer the test themselves.
Where Are the Learners?
January 25th, 2013 | By Anya Kamenetz | Inside Higher Ed
A bunch of educators, several of whom I know and respect quite a bit, got together last month to write a “bill of rights” for online learners. Viewable and editable here.
They included the rights to access, privacy, openness, to create public knowledge, to “pedagogical transparency” (to understand the ways you are being taught and the value of any credentials offered), “financial transparency” (Where is my tuition money going? How will this “free course” be paid for?), to have great teachers, and to become teachers.
I can’t find myself disagreeing with anything much that they had to say, except for one screaming contradiction that brings the whole thing down.
Desire2Learn Acquires Course-Suggestion Software Inspired by Netflix and Amazon
January 24th, 2013 | By Jake New | The Chronicle of Higher Education
If you watch a film on Netflix or buy a book on Amazon, those online services quickly provide suggestions of what else you might like. A service for college advising inspired by those recommendation systems is now entering the marketplace.
Cutting Out the Middlemen: Do Professors Need Universities Anymore?
January 16th, 2013 | By Jimmy Daly | Ed TechIf higher education is a business, then universities are the middlemen. Now that technology allows professors to deliver learning over the Internet to hundreds or even thousands of students at a time, do professors need universities any longer?
California State U. Will Experiment With Offering Credit for MOOCs
January 15th, 2013 | By Jeffrey R. Young | The Chronicle of Higher EducationState universities in California, looking for creative ways to reduce education costs at a time of budget stress, are turning to MOOCs to offer low-cost options for students.
Growth for Online Learning
January 8th, 2013 | By Doug Lederman | Inside Higher Ed
MOOCs may have snared most of the headlines, but traditional, credit-based online learning continued to chug along just fine last year, thank you very much.
22 eLearning Essentials to Boost 2013 Success
January 8th, 2013 | By karla gutierrez | SHIFT’s eLearning BlogAt SHIFT eLearning, we are so lucky to have the brightest contributors talking about everything from eLearning strategy to instructional design.
In case you need a refresher here are more than 20 eLearning essentials we learned in 2012, and we need to reinforce and keep in mind this year:
5 Apps To Keep You Better Organized
January 7th, 2013 | By Katie Lepi | edudemic
If your resolution for 2013 was to be better organized, these apps are recommended for you by the fine folks at Apple. They’ve assembled a sort of toolkit for teachers that aim to make you a better, more informed, and connected educator.
Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012: The Politics of Ed-Tech
December 19th, 2012 | By Audrey Watters | Hack Education
Education is political — inherently so and despite the protestations from some quarters when what happens in our schools, in our textbooks, in our brains “becomes politicized.” Education is political not simply because of the governmental role — federal, state, local — in school funding and policies. It is political because of the polis — the connections between education and community. Education is political because learning is at once personal (and, of course, “the personal is political”) and social; it is both private and public.
New Platform Lets Professors Set Prices for Their Online Courses
December 12th, 2012 | By Jeffrey R. Young | The Chronicle of Higher EducationProfessors typically don’t worry about what price point an online course will sell at, or what amenities might attract a student to pick one course over another. But a new online platform, Professor Direct, lets instructors determine not only how much to charge for such courses, but also how much time they want to devote to services like office hours, online tutorials, and responding to students’ e-mails.
Online Student Retention Strategies: A Baker’s Dozen of Recommendations
December 7th, 2012 | By Michael Jazzar | Faculty FocusDespite the tremendous growth of online education programs, student retention for online courses remains problematic. The attrition rate from online universities is often cited as 20% to 50% (Diaz, 2002). Studies also reveal that attrition from online programs can be as high as 70% to 80% (Dagger, Wade & Conlan, 2004).
New Guides Aim to Become the Yelp for MOOC’s
December 4th, 2012 | By Alisha Azevedo | The Chronicle of Higher EducationStudents looking for massive open online courses, or MOOC’s, have many options, with a growing number of providers and course titles. A handful of Web sites have popped up over the past few months to help students find courses they’re interested in, much as a restaurant-goer might turn to Yelp.
Online Learning: a Manifesto
December 3rd, 2012 | By Jesse Stommel | HYBRID PEDAGOGYOnline learning is not the whipping boy of higher education. As a classroom teacher first and foremost, I have no interest in proselytizing for online learning, but to roundly condemn it is absurd. Online learning is too big and variable a target. It would be like roundly condemning the internet or all objects made from paper.
Read More Here >>
The 100 Best Learning Tools Of 2012 As Chosen By You
November 5th, 2012 | By Jeff Dunn | edudemicIt’s a magical time of year. The time when we start seeing some of the best roundups of web tools and apps being used to enhance learning around the world. We’ll be doing our darnedest to bring you the most useful lists and guides created by the many amazing edtech enthusiasts to ensure you don’t miss a thing.