by Janelle Vreeland, College News

CDW Government LLC—a corporation aiding educators and the government in IT solutions—has released the results of its 21st-Century Campus Report for 2010, and found that, for 63 percent of current college students, technology was an important factor in making their college selection. It also found that it was an important factor for a whopping 93 percent of current high school students. Students also emphasized the importance of wireless networks, off-campus network connections and course management systems in the report. The study showed that students want online learning to take a larger role in the classroom. Three-quarters of the students surveyed believed that their campus understands how they want technology to be used in the learning process, but non tech-savvy faculty members seem to be the biggest obstacle keeping technology out of the classroom.

http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/technology_a_factor_in_choosing_schools_students_say_07202010301555/

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_784') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_784') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_784') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_784'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_784') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

by Rahul Gaitonde, Deputy Editor, BroadbandBreakfast.com

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the creation of the Online Learning Registry which will provide access to the thousands of documents, photos and other data housed at the Smithsonian. This online registry was one of the many recommendations made by the National Broadband Plan. “No technological innovation in our lifetime has greater potential to transform education than high-speed Internet,” said Chairman Genachowski. “But computers and connections alone are not enough to seize the opportunities of broadband for education. The National Broadband Plan recommended that the federal government increase the pool of high-quality digital resources that educators can easily find, access, and combine with other content to help their students learn. I am very pleased to see this recommendation being adopted. The Learning Registry will put a library of world-class educational content at the fingertips of every American student and teacher.”

http://broadbandbreakfast.com/2010/07/smithsonian-fcc-and-usda-announce-online-learning-registry/

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_782') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_782') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_782') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_782'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_782') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

By Sophia Li, Chronicle of Higher Ed

A new player entered the field of open online education last week: Nixty, a Web site that allows any user to take and create courses for free. The new learning platform started up with over 200 course offerings culled from open-source content already available online, such as courses from the Khan Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare Project. Nixty’s users have begun developing about 120 new courses since its launch, said Glen Moriarty, the company’s chief executive.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Online-Course-Construction/25732/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_780') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_780') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_780') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_780'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_780') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

If you want some heady reading for the weekend, this post on cognition and representation is the ticket. It offers a good development of the physical symbol system hypothesis and "the attempt to identify the code, or the codes, in which knowledge is supposedly represented." In particular, "What all of them appeared to have in common is the idea that mental representations are coded symbolically and are structured and computable." This is a view with which I disagree. To the extent that I am willing to countenance representations at all (and I'm sceptical here) I am more inclined to Searle's line of reasoning, "the most radical criticism of the classical view is the claim that the mind/brain is indeed a representational organ, but that the nature of representations is not that of a formal code." It's not a long paper, but it will keep you working for a while. Maurizio Tirassa and Marianna Vallana, Cogprints, July 30, 2010 4:26 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

David T. Jones makes the good argument that the very people calling academics Luddites are themselves Luddites. He argues that they employ an old-style top-down methodology that takes no account of the context of application. "Rather than tell academics what to do, you need to create contextualised experiences for academics that enable appropriation of new models of teaching and learning. What most senior managers at universities and many of the commentators don't see, is that the environment at most universities is preventing academics from having these experiences and then preventing them from appropriating the new models of teaching." David T. Jones, The Weblog of (a) David Jones, July 30, 2010 4:19 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Randall Munroe, XKCD, July 30, 2010 4:13 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

If alternative data storage systems geeks you out, you'll enjoy this discussion of non-SQL databases. "Brian Aker lists the features found in No-SQL, as well as the method of organizing and creating data within it. He also describes the general use of schemas and correlational systems in everyday language. His critical analysis of SQL as a whole encompasses several faults, too, including limitations on efficiency, organization, and the encoding language; it quite possibly has an element of satire to it. In this lecture, there is also a glimpse into data collection as a whole." Brian Aker, IT Conversations, July 30, 2010 4:11 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Nice video explanation of Metaweb. "If you are interested, you can join the freebase community that is part of Metaweb. Through Freebase users can add content to the open database, creating entities. Although I signed up as a member, the registering process had a glitch in Firefox at first, I could access it through Internet Explorer. When I tried a bit later, Firefox was working ok as well for accessing Freebase.
" Inge de Waard, Ignatia, July 30, 2010 4:09 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

I’ll be giving a talk for UMassOnline on the morning of Thursday, August 5th in Shrewsbury, MA. The title of the talk is “W(h)ither the LMS?” You can read my guest post on the UMassOnline blog here and register for the event here.

Share/Bookmark

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

© michael.feldstein for e-Literate, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: UMassOnline

This is a guest post by Jim Farmer. Jim is Chairman of instructional media + magic.

Analysis of data recently released by PayScale Inc. and published in Bloomberg Business Week show starting salaries for graduates of Party Schools begin fifth of seven sectors moving up to third place by mid-career. Party Schools have a rate of salary increase exceeded only by graduates of Ivy League universities:

The data comes from 611,000 surveys completed as profiles on the PayScaleWeb Site.

PayScale also has data by college major and job title. This has been matched with data about U.S. colleges and universities from the U.S. Department of Education’s IPEDS surveys and colleges costs from the College Board. Bureau of Labor Statistics costs of living may also have been the source of data used for cost of living by city or state.

The rates of increase from starting to mid-career may be a better, though questionable, proxy for the quality of collegiate education.

These data could be cited supporting the view that graduates from Liberal Arts have lower starting salaries—bottom of the list—but increasing rapidly during their career.

These are aggregate statistics; the starting salaries and increases depend upon the individual student and student choices. PayScale offers disaggregated data for specific colleges and areas of study on their Web site (wwww.payscale.com). The data for an individual profile or specific college or university and area of study would be more reliable than the aggregated statistics given here.

Evaluating the value of higher education solely on the return of investment to the student may be limiting. Responding to these data, Pat Pike, interim provost and vice-provost for education at Biola University, writes: “If monetary Return on Investment (ROI) were the main purpose of education, most of us would make different career decisions. Biola’s education is not primarily about money. If you calculated the ROI for the society of a Biola education, compared to the average, it would be huge. The services and benefits accruing to the nation and the world from Biola alumni far outweigh the cost of the Biola education. When you focus on the wider picture of the impact alumni make in their community and across the world to serve (primarily in nonprofit and service-oriented organizations), you have greater rationale to praise the value of Biola education.” “Biola University is a nationally ranked private Christian university located in Southern California [LaMirada].”

Data for the tables was developed from PayScale data for 852 “most popular” colleges and universities. The data was prepared for Bloomberg Business Week and can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_collegeROI_0621.html

Share/Bookmark

Possibly Related posts:

1. More Corroborating Info on Cost of Sales
2. DIY U: Is There a Bubble in the Higher Education Market?
3. The Economics of the LMOS

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

© michael.feldstein for e-Literate, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DIY U, edunomics, PayScale

By Eric Jou and Wang Wei, Asia One

Ever dreamed of attending a top-notch university such as Harvard, Yale or MIT? Well now is your chance to sit in on lectures from some of the most esteemed universities in the world, as they start offering free online access. Many prestigious Western universities have been offering free lectures for the masses through the Internet since 2002 as part of the Open Courseware initiative funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. These videos include lectures from renowned US institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20100721-228109.html

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_778') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_778') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_778') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_778'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_778') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

This year, more than 1,000 at-risk students in Chicago graduated on time by taking online classes. While students drop out because of socioeconomic and academic reasons, they also drop out because of some bureaucratic reasons, said Robin Gonzales, manager of distance learning for Chicago Public Schools.

http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Online-Classes-Help-Potential-Dropouts-Graduate.html

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_776') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_776') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_776') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_776'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_776') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

by Stefanni Nolte, SC Now

Alice Peterson, said she knew her daughter was headed down the wrong path. “I might have been in jail and she might have been in the funeral home somewhere,” Peterson said. Instead, the cousins heard about Provost Academy, a free public online high school for South Carolina residents. They meet at Refuge Outreach Ministry in Lake City to take their lessons. “It’s all around the kids’ needs and maybe schools should have been doing that for a long time,” Provost Academy Executive Director Darrell Johnson said. “Our school is very student-centered. It’s all about the kids and success. We don’t allow them to fail, either.” Students spend an average of six hours a day working on their classes.

http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/local/pee_dee/article/online_high_school_turns_two_lake_city_students_lives_around/228983/

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_773') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_773') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_773') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_773'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_773') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

Wow, CoSN may have set a new record for claiming to lead while trailing badly. Ian Quillen writes of a new CoSN report released Wednesday "pushing for the educational use of new Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)." Or, writes Quillen, "or the acronym literate among us, a better summary might be: LMS + CMS = LCMS (FTW!)." Those of us who have been around long enough will recall Maish Nichani's article of almost exactly that name, LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs], first published May 02, 2001. That leaves CoSN just under ten years late in calling this "new." As for "FTW" (For The Win)? Well, your call. Ian Quillen, Education Week, July 29, 2010 4:16 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Have eBooks really come of age, or are bloggers just jumping on a recent media bandwagon. There's no question perceptions of eBooks are being helped along by advertising for the Kindle, Nook and iPad. But I think overall sales of these devices are still quite low - three million iPads sounds like a lot (I can't find Kindle sales figures) but in a world of seven billion people, and one billion internet users, it's a drop in the bucket. Christine Cupaiuolo, Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, July 29, 2010 3:56 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

David Wiley provides readers with a full summer of afternoon reading as most of his papers are now available. "My blog contains over 600 posts, but my longer writing typically goes to more academic outlets like journals. Thanks to the help of the amazing folks at BYU's Scholar's Archive (our institutional repository), much of my peer-reviewed work now has a stable home online, too. I've gathered up links to these peer-reviewed articles as well as whitepapers and other long pieces on a new page called Articles." David Wiley, iterating toward openness, July 29, 2010 3:40 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Mike Caulfield has a new post on Flattr, a micropayment service. From the post:

Here’s the neat part though — hopefully the vast middle is a bunch of people that are both consumers and producers, and those that write smaller blogs use their Flattr to support those that write the bigger blogs, or those that write the music they listen to while writing their blogs, or those making OER, etc., etc.

Tanika Cooper recaps recent textbook legislation and includes quotes from professors on textbook affordability. From the post:

White did not have to worry about new editions because he could simply adopt the new version from online. Through the publisher he used, which operates under the creative common license, White customized textbooks for his classes.

Cameron Parkins notes a post by Joi Ito on license proliferation. From Ito’s post:

Creative Commons is not just a single license “option”. We are a global conversation among lawyers, judges, academics, users and companies in over a hundred countries with extremely rigorous compatible license ports in more than 50 jurisdictions.

The first post in the new iPad Curriculum blog covers the topic of Go Sky Watch Planetarium (it's a bit revealing that there are no links in the article to the application; you don't get to link to it unless you're Apple). The new blog, writes the author, "I will post app and web app reviews, highlight educational tools that work seamlessly on the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, and give tips and tricks for using the iPad/iPod Touch in the classroom." I personally wouldn't dedicate a blog to a single platform, but I'm sure some people will find this new blog useful. Kelly Tenkely, don't forget to put your name on your new blog somewhere; I had to go back to your old blog to find it. Kelly Tenkely, iPad Curriculum, July 29, 2010 6:17 a.m. [Link] [Comment]