The Professors Behind the MOOC Hype - Technology Dave Chidley for The Chronicle Paul Gries, of the U. of Toronto, has taught MOOCs on computer science. By Steve Kolowich What is it like to teach 10,000 or more students at once, and does it really work? The survey, conducted by The Chronicle, attempted to reach every professor who has taught a MOOC. Hype around these new free online courses has grown louder and louder since a few professors at Stanford University drew hundreds of thousands of students to online computer-science courses in 2011. Princeton University's Robert Sedgewick is one of them. Like many professors at top-ranked institutions, Mr. His online course drew 80,000 students when it opened last summer, but Sedgewick was not daunted. It paid off. The Chronicle survey considered courses open to anyone, enrolling hundreds or even thousands of users (the median number of students per class was 33,000). But the participants were primarily longtime professors with no prior experience with online instruction. Why They MOOC Mr.
The Evidence on Online Education WASHINGTON -- Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education. The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. The Education Department examined all kinds of instruction, and found that the number of valid analyses of elementary and secondary education was too small to have much confidence in the results. A meta-analysis is one that takes all of the existing studies and looks at them for patterns and conclusions that can be drawn from the accumulation of evidence. On the topic of online learning, there is a steady stream of studies, but many of them focus on limited issues or lack control groups. Using technology to give students "control of their interactions" has a positive effect on student learning, however.
Why School? TED ebook author rethinks education when information is everywhere. The Internet has delivered an explosion of learning opportunities for today’s students, creating an abundance of information, knowledge, and teachers as well as a starkly different landscape from the one in which our ideas about school were born. Traditional educators, classrooms, and brick-and-mortar schools are no longer necessary to access information. Instead, things like blogs and wikis, as well as remote collaborations and an emphasis on critical thinking skills are the coins of the realm in this new kingdom. In Why School? Why must schools change how they teach? Every generation seems to think its students are different. Students in the K-12 system have never known a world without the Internet. With so much information out there, it seems that finding information is easy but assessing it is tricky. What can schools do to implement some of your ideas? The educational process is pretty slow-moving and sclerotic. Why School?
That's Great!: Why Not MOOseums? I have been interested in museums for a long time, with a special concern for museum effectiveness in offering open, informal or free-choice learning for the visitor. I've recently written about this (Barr 2013: online at "There are plenty of fascinating things about museums. And one of the most intriguing is that during the 20th century anyway, museums have been one of the few places where adults (and children) could experience informal or free-choice learning. During that century, the educational mandate rose to become one of the primary goals of most museums." But that museum focus has been almost entirely onsite. "In spite of the speed with which museums embraced the world wide web, few of them seem to have become equally enthusiastic about the prospect of expanding their on-site educational activities into the online environment. The new MOOC experience should function as an "extension of the visitor experience for museums.
LabSpace - The Open University The 22 Milestones Of Education Technology How Teachers Can Best Use Education Technology 8.67K Views 0 Likes Edtech isn't the final solution for education's problems. It's a powerful addition to classrooms though, so it's time to ask: what is the point of education technology? The Current State Of Technology In K-12 8.12K Views 0 Likes What is the next device most students will soon purchase? How Online Education Has Changed In 10 Years
Ten Myths About Technology some of the best moments are low-tech Sometimes my view on technology seems paradoxical and messy. Sometimes it feels like cognitive dissonance. I hang with Luddites and Technophiles. I join #chats and write blogs and yet I frequently criticize technology. So, this list might seem conflicting. The following are ten myths I have found myself believing over the years: Myth #1: Technology Dehumanizes This is an oversimplification of Luddites. Myth #2: Technology is Neutral Technology is never neutral. Myth #3: Technology Makes Us Relevant On some level, this is true. Myth #4: We Can Use It Wisely We need to think about the pros and cons of the tools. Myth #5: Technology Saves Time Technology cannot save time. Myth #6: Technology Is Just a Tool Seeing technology as merely a tool is a dangerous mindset. Myth #7: Technology Happens in a Vacuum People rarely say this. Myth #8: Technology Equals Innovation Technology can lead to new developments. The bottom line: Technology has its place.
Social Media in Education: Pros and Cons About ETR Community EdTechReview (ETR) is a community of and for everyone involved in education technology to connect and collaborate both online and offline to discover, learn, utilize and share about the best ways technology can improve learning, teaching, and leading in the 21st century. EdTechReview spreads awareness on education technology and its role in 21st century education through best research and practices of using technology in education, and by facilitating events, training, professional development, and consultation in its adoption and implementation.
Clinton: Moocs may be key to a more efficient US system | News Former president says online courses could drive down costs The way higher education is delivered in the US needs to undergo a “dramatic change”, which could be driven by the accreditation of massive open online courses, according to the nation’s former president Bill Clinton. At public colleges and universities, the cost of tuition has been rising above the rate of inflation for more than a decade, and although the federal government has increased its funding for students in a bid to reduce levels of student debt, this has been negated by a drop in average family incomes. “A lot of people will have student debt that goes beyond the federal student loan programme. I think the only sustainable answer is to find a less expensive delivery system,” Mr Clinton told Times Higher Education. “[Reducing college costs] has become more urgent because so many public schools have lost a lot of their public aid because of the budget problems in various states.” chris.parr@tsleducation.com Click to rate
I’m having a blogsistential crisis! I am a blogger. And I am an academic. But am I an academic blogger? Lynne Murphy‘s blog began life as a ‘limbering up exercise’ before she wrote work for peer-review. A somewhat accidental academic blogger, she notes that her online presence has become part of her professional profile… even if it occassionally serves as a distraction. Lynne also questions whether she is working for the University when she blogs, but doubts a future model of higher education that involves timetabling blog time for academics. I’m not sure that I would have agreed to write a post for the LSE Impact blog if I had known that it would send me into the depths of a blogsistential crisis. But here I am: I am a blogger. I am a successful blogger, even. Before I address or sidestep these questions, let me introduce myself. The blog is a success – I’m not going to be particularly modest about that because I do get a kick out of it. I love both of those kinds of blogs -but mine is neither. What I blog is educational, though. I am an academic. I would hope that there could be (is?)
Open online courses – an avalanche that might just get stopped These days there are plenty of prophets preaching hi-tech and digital solutions to the problems of expanding access to knowledge and higher education. Barely a week goes by without some new hymn to education technology, open-source software or open-access publishing. In the US, the growing chorus for online education through massive open online courses, or moocs, has been deafening. Across the Atlantic, the debate about online courses and their potential to restructure higher education has been raging for some time. Historically, the University of California has often proved a weathervane for global trends in higher education. And yet when a Californian senator outlined a bill that would allow students in the state to take online classes from a private provider for credit, it unleashed a storm of criticism. Those who teach in California's system of higher education are not luddites. This might just be one avalanche that gets stopped – events in California may well be the test of that.
Nathan Heller: Is College Moving Online? Gregory Nagy, a professor of classical Greek literature at Harvard, is a gentle academic of the sort who, asked about the future, will begin speaking of Homer and the battles of the distant past. At seventy, he has owlish eyes, a flared Hungarian nose, and a tendency to gesture broadly with the flat palms of his hands. He wears the crisp white shirts and dark blazers that have replaced tweed as the raiment of the academic caste. Nagy has published no best-sellers. This spring, however, enrollment in Nagy’s course exceeds thirty-one thousand. Many people think that MOOC s are the future of higher education in America. Some lawmakers, meanwhile, see MOOC s as a solution to overcrowding; in California, a senate bill, introduced this winter, would require the state’s public colleges to give credit for approved online courses. But MOOC s are controversial, and debate has grown louder in recent weeks. Nagy has been experimenting with online add-ons to his course for years. The answer is c).