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Ecampus News reports that the new .xxx web address domain is causing a new headache for colleges trying to preserve their organization's reputation.
In what amounts to a defensive maneuver, schools across the nation are snapping up the .xxx domain names that match their federally registered trademarks. It’s simply a matter of trying to keep them out of the wrong hands.
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At a symposium in Indianapolis virtual education advocates responded to criticism about aspects of the movement - particularly accountability and quality of instruction as well as the influences of commercialization and politicization. Concerns have been raised about students achievement and lack of socialization in a totally online experience versus a brick and mortar education. Blended learning with a combination of both was seen as more desirable and that more research is needed to properly assess online programs.
Against this backdrop, educators who gathered at the Virtual School Symposium held early this month in Indianapolis appeared eager to strike a balance between working to address what they see as valid criticisms of their field and rebutting others they see as misconceptions. They also seemed largely to agree the burden is on them to tell their own story and prove their effectiveness.
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Video games are being developed to serve a whole host of educational issues - thinking skills, individualized delivery of content, engaging students, etc.. The National STEM Video GamesGames Challenge is one effort to promote this.
In tandem with the Digital Promise rollout, our organizations—the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and E-Line Media—announced the second year of the National STEM Video Game Challenge. This video-game-design competition is intended to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, learning among America's young people by tapping into students' natural passion for playing and making video games.
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An eLearning caucus has been formed in Congress to respond to the lack of knowledge by lawmakers about the multiple aspects of digital learning at all levels of education.
One has to hope that this will not result in too much federal overreach.
Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., a conservative House member, and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., among his party’s most liberal members, created the eLearning caucus Oct. 5 to “promote research on successes and failures in eLearning so that federal education funds are used prudently, and to ensure policy is aligned with practice,” according to a “dear colleague” letter written by Noem and Polis.
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Wunderkind Thomas Suarez wowed TEDxManhattanBeach with his iPad apps and his company CarrotCorp. He has started an app club at his school and noted that there are clubs and sports teams for kids in other areas, but not so much for kid computer designers.
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"60 Minutes" report on "Hrabowski: An educator focused on math, science" broadcast on November 13th is an inspirational look at a school that emphasizes math and science and eschews a big football program - refreshing, given the terrible Penn State sex abuse scandal.
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"Silicon Valley Wows Educators and Woos Them" from November 5th's New York Times reports on the aggressive efforts being made by Silicon Valley companies, particularly Apple, in pitching to the lucrative educational market, despite the unavailable cash flow to schools during the recession.
However, grabbing present and future consumers while they are young is a good way to grow and retain a market share. Given that Apple has been a favorite of the education world it is a good strategy for them and to take from it a good one for their competitors.
The demand for technology in classrooms has given rise to a slick and fast-growing sales force. Makers of computers and other gear vigorously court educators as they vie for billions of dollars in school financing. Sometimes inviting criticism of their zealous marketing, they pitch via e-mail, make cold calls, arrange luncheons and hold community meetings.
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Bookshare.org is making literature available in a variety of formats for children with special needs.
Inspired by Napster, the music-sharing service, Bookshare turns books into a format that can be read aloud by computers, magnified, and spaced differently so that students with vision problems or learning disabilities can read them. They’re even available at the same time new releases reach bookstore shelves, unlike typical audiobooks.
Its services are an example of how e-book technology, taking off with consumers, has powerful potential for students who previously relied on more cumbersome and more difficult-to-obtain alternatives to the traditional book.
For schoolchildren, Bookshare is free, underwritten by a $32 million infusion from the U.S. Department of Education four years ago that’s led to 150,000 student Bookshare memberships across the nation.
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Amazon is launching a lending library of e-books on Thursday - with some catches and caveats. The program is called Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
For example, the library will be available only to owners of its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices who are also subscribers to its Amazon Prime program. None of the six largest publishers in the U.S. is participating. Amazon will restrict borrowers to one title at a time, one per month. Apps for other devices won't work with this program.
So if the educators and their students buy Amazon e-book readers and programs, they can participate - at a price.
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In "Social Media Savvy: The New Digital Divide?" by Angela Maiers points out that new algorithms used by Google, Yahoo and Bing now sort data including social media from searchers, yielding different results iwth the same search engine input keywords, depending on who is submitting the words and what's on their social media sites.
“Until now, [a website’s] data rank was untouched by social elements,” Maiers wrote. “Today, there is no separation—social engagement impacts [the] rank [and] value of data.”
This subtle but powerful shift, which Maiers defines as “social search,” has come about as the web has evolved “to meet our need for personal, relevant, and customized info,” she explained. “We want our search engines to be find engines. In order for that to happen, the web needs to know us.”
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