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Classroom Digital Assistants: Teachers' Aides or Privacy Threats?

8/13/2018

The internet-enabled devices listen to what users say, send audio recordings to the cloud, translate that information into commands, and respond accordingly—providing users with a personal digital voice assistant such as Amazon's Alexa, which teachers are now using to help with everything from setting a classroom timer to leading a group of 3rd graders through a spelling test.
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"When you make decisions about using these tools, you're making them on behalf of everyone in the room," Gillmor said by way of advice to K-12 leaders. "Think about your most vulnerable, most marginalized students and the impact these kinds of surveillance technologies can have on them and their families."
Source: Edweek

How Harvard Is Trying to Update the Extension School for the MOOC Age

5/15/2018

Extension schools were the original attempt by higher education to offer a low-cost version for the non-elite. Thanks to a recent push towards online courses, Harvard University’s Extension School now has more students than the rest of Harvard combined. Well, unless you count the students in MOOCs, those free online courses, which are offered through a different division of the university. Let’s face it, the number of different types of degrees you could get from Harvard is getting confusing, and the same could be said for many other universities as well.
Source: Edsurge

New Study Finds Discrimination and Bias in Online Course Forums

4/23/2018

[W]hen it comes to the instructors answering students, a clear anomaly came to light. Instructors were 94% more likely to respond to comments made by white male students. Significant evidence supports the presence of such bias in brick-and-mortar education. According to the authors, “boys generally receive more attention and comments from instructors than girls in primary education … There is also evidence that teachers treat Black students more negatively than White students … and reinforce social aspects of behavior for Black girls while highlighting academic behaviors of White girls.” These biases have been documented in all levels of education.
Source: Elearninginside

The Future of College Looks Like the Future of Retail

4/17/2018

As online learning extends its reach, though, it is starting to run into a major obstacle: There are undeniable advantages, as traditional colleges have long known, to learning in a shared physical space. Recognizing this, some online programs are gradually incorporating elements of the old-school, brick-and-mortar model—just as online retailers such as Bonobos and Warby Parker use relatively small physical outlets to spark sales on their websites and increase customer loyalty. Perhaps the future of higher education sits somewhere between the physical and the digital.
Source: Theatlantic

Online Charter Schools: 3 Reasons Why They Fail And What Could Be Done About It

4/3/2018

Many parents confess that studying at home has a negative impact on their children’s behavior: they become moody, sad and even, depressed. No wonder! After all, it’s a public school where you make first friendships. Thus, kids who learn at home, go out less often and have fewer possibilities to meet kids in their age, play together, socialize and make friends.
Source: EmergingEdTech

How Apple Lost Its Place In The Classroom

3/30/2018

Apple designed a heap of devices over the years specifically for use in the classroom. For generations of American school kids, learning to type, write papers, and research school projects was something you did on a Mac. Not anymore. Today’s classrooms are powered by Chromebooks and, to a lesser extent, Windows laptops. These are sturdy, versatile, and inexpensive machines that have revolutionized how schools incorporate technology into their classrooms. Steve Jobs wanted to put a computer in the hands of every student. But Chromebooks—not Macbooks—have made that vision a reality.
Source: Wire

Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking

3/23/2018

Students, employees, and CEOs alike may wish to maximize their productivity by defining windows of time during which they plan to be separated from their phones, allowing them to accomplish tasks requiring deeper thought. Moreover, asking employees not to use their phones during meetings may not be enough. Our work suggests that having meetings without phones present can be more effective, boosting focus, function, and the ability to come up with creative solutions. More broadly, we can all become more engaged and cognitively adept in our everyday lives simply by putting our smartphones (far) away.
Source: HBR

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