Education IT News For VARs — October 15, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, education technology issues are appearing on state election ballots, a data mining project raises student privacy concerns, and a new Google Glass pilot program allows students to watch paramedic and veterinary procedures from a new perspective.
11 States To Include Education Issues On Ballots, Including School Funding, Class Size, Technology
Education Week reported that November is an important month for education, as voters head to the polls in 11 different states to decide various education-related issues. Ballot items include funding — New York is looking for additional funding to increase access to technology and high-speed Internet.
Data-Mining Project Raises Privacy Questions
This blog post from Education Week investigates a recent project that was awarded a $4.8 million grant to build a repository to store, share, and analyze information generate by students while using digital learning tools. The award was granted by the National Science Foundation to a coalition of research institutions for a project called ‘LearnSphere.” And while the project underscores the potential for using educational Big Data to transform education, it has also raised new questions about student data privacy, as this post points out.
What Your Education Customers Need For Blended-Learning Classrooms
This article from Education Week examines some of the strategies for creating a successful blended-learning classroom. Author Bill Tolley provides some advice for integrating blended-learning techniques. Technology needs include the right infrastructure, online delivery, and video.
Google Glass Pilot Program Gives Students The Professional’s Point Of View
Campus Technology reports that The State University of New York Cobleskill has a new pilot program that uses Google Glass to provide point-of-view vide to students in their paramedic and animal hoof health training programs. Under this new pilot, students will be able to watch other as others perform a particular procedure, such as a minor hoof surgery or paramedic practice, and faculty will be able to perform student evaluations though the new point-of-view video. According to Jim Dutcher, Cobleskill’s CIO, the process also bolsters student performance by encouraging competition. Google provided SUNY Cobleskill with 15 to 20 free Google Glass devices, a number that was then matched by the school’s purchase.
Education IT Talking Points
The Association of American Universities created a clever interactive infographic to demonstrate the role of federally funded university research in developing the technologies involved in smartphones. Readers are asked to imagine a smartphone that lacked the innovations developed by university research, demonstrating that the resulting phone would be a small, empty, aluminum box. Among the features developed by university research are computer chips and memory, touch screens, GPS, and batteries.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Education IT Resource Center.