EdTech & Innovation

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Policy & Reform

Why schools need to introduce computing in all subjects

Uri Wilensky, Northwestern University

In his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said schools need to offer every student hands-on computer science classes to be better prepared for the workforce.

President Obama is right: the next generation of learners will require a high level of fluency with modes of thinking in which computers act as interactive partners.

The question is: how best to make sure they acquire that thinking? Are computing classes the only way to do this?

More computer classes

There is widespread agreement that computing should play a more prominent role throughout our education system. For this reason, there have been more concerted efforts to increase computing classes in the K-12 grade levels.

The STEM Education Act of 2015 was recently passed into law, expanding the definition of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to include computer science and encouraging more STEM education efforts.

Seven of the nation’s largest school districts are adding more computer science classes. The Chicago Public School District, for example, plans to have computer science classes at all levels of education and make it a requirement of high school graduation by 2018. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently said the city will ensure there is computer science (CS) instruction in every public school by 2025.

I have been researching efforts to bring computing to schools and have participated in national efforts to design CS classes, train CS teachers and implement CS curriculum at a variety of grade levels.

I know that efforts to implement CS courses have encountered many challenges, particularly in teacher preparation and retention.

In contrast, efforts to train teachers to meaningfully employ computing in their own disciplines, for example, in biology or history classes, have met with significantly fewer difficulties.

So while I believe these efforts to add CS courses are good and necessary, they are not enough.

Shortage of students

The fact is that the success of such initiatives depends heavily on schools’ ability to hire and retain qualified teachers, and on students’ ability to make room for new coursework in their already-packed schedules.

Here’s what the current picture looks like:

Currently less than one high school student per 1,000 takes Advanced Placement computer science, which is the standard course for CS education for high schools.

In fact, according to Code.org, a leading nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, the number of high school computer science classes – both introductory and AP – has significantly dropped in the past decade. Since 2005, introductory classes have dropped by 17 percent and AP classes by 33 percent. Only 25 percent of high schools have any offering at all in CS, and less than 5 percent have an AP CS course.

Even in the best financial environments, not all schools offer or plan to offer courses in computing. In most of the schools that do, the courses are elective-only and reach a small percentage of students.

According to the College Board, which tracks AP exams, only 20,414 students took the AP computer science exam in 2014. By comparison, about 263,000 took U.S. history, and 438,500 students took English language. Of those who did take the computer science exam, only 18 percent were girls. And only 3 percent were African American.

There is a shortage of teachers for computer science.
Berkeley Lab, CC BY-NC-ND

Lack of qualified teachers

In addition, there is an acute shortage of teachers qualified to teach computing courses.

In 2010, the National Science Foundation launched the CS10K project, with a goal to train 10,000 CS teachers by 2015. However, at a recent meeting, the NSF reported that they were able to train only between 200-600 teachers per year, which is approximately 2,000 teachers, and vastly short of the goal.

There are other issues as well with the training: the project has not ascertained how many of the trained teachers are still teaching CS. We do know that the trainee population has shifted from mostly senior teachers to mostly younger teachers, meaning that the project could be training teachers, who are more likely to leave for industry and less likely to stay.

In addition, most states do not have certification for computer science, and among most of those that do, the certification is weak and doesn’t make them qualified for teaching high school CS.

All this makes the task more daunting.

What can schools do?

So a preferable strategy is to incorporate computing into every school subject.

Recent studies from my lab and at a few other university labs in the past 10 years show that it is much easier to train subject area teachers in computational thinking in their subject areas – such as chemistry or history – than to train and retain full-time computing teachers.

In this way, teachers learn the computing in the context of materials they already know and see the value added of the computing. Furthermore, since this strategy involves all subject areas, it ensures that all high school students, including traditionally underrepresented groups, will have access.

Using this strategy, a host of studies have found that a range of students – not just the “geeks” – can not only learn these computational skills, but they can learn them quite easily compared to print or mathematics literacy. And these skills can help them improve their learning in other areas.

Why does this matter?

Students who are exposed to computation think more deeply about their subject areas and are able to deal with complex content at significantly younger ages.

For example, computer modeling allows middle schoolers to understand many complex patterns of the world.

Computational thinking can make kids smarter.
hackNY.org, CC BY-SA

Students engaged in computer modeling can understand the fluctuations of populations of predators and prey in an ecosystem. For example, more than 50 years of data on moose and wolves in Isle Royale Michigan show fluctuating population levels. When there are a lot of wolves, there are fewer moose, and when there are a lot of moose, there are fewer wolves.

Such phenomena are usually studied at university level, using advanced mathematics of calculus and differential equations. Using computer modeling enables much younger students to have access to the ideas and calculations without needing to master the advanced mathematics.

At the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) at Northwestern University, we have done extensive research with children and adults, asking them to explain complex patterns in the world such as traffic jams, changes in the fauna and flora in a habitat, the flocking of birds or the housing segregation patterns of cities.
The overwhelming majority did not understand the causes of these phenomena.

In the CCL’s work developing computer-modeling-based curriculum, we have found that computationally literate students can use their computational thinking to make sense of complex patterns and understand the role of randomness in generating complexity.

Understanding the constructive role of randomness enables us to harness it, for example using computer algorithms to let self-driving cars react to changing traffic patterns to prevent congestion, or enabling groups of robots to “swarm” together to accomplish a goal.

Some may argue that we can’t afford the resources to transform subject-wide curriculum so extensively, and some others may feel schools first need to improve reading and mathematics skills, before adding yet another literacy.

I certainly agree there are always competing priorities, but we cannot ignore computing, especially in our increasingly complex world. These are the skills students will need to thrive as adults, and moreover, these skills help students with their other subject areas. By integrating computing across all classes, we can make it a true literacy.

The Conversation

Uri Wilensky, Professor of Learning Sciences, Computer Science and Complex Systems, Northwestern University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

A Digital Future: K-12 Technology by 2018

Rapidly changing technology continues to make its mark on K-12 learning. Last fall the New Media Consortium Horizon Report released a report that details six up-and-coming technologies in the next five years for K-12 classrooms. Let’s take a closer look.

Horizon #1: In the next year, or less.

Mobile learning. Tablets and smartphones in the classroom are no longer a matter of “if,” but “when, and how quickly?” Administrators and educators can tap into the convenience of mobile technology in the classroom and the potential for student learning adaptation. Over half of school administrators say there is some form of mobile technology in their classrooms and that they plan to implement more when it is financially feasible. School districts should keep in mind that the purchase of mobile devices for K-12 use is only one piece in the learning puzzle. There must be funding for teacher training and maintenance of the devices too.

Cloud computing. When it comes to greater educational collaboration, cloud computing has unlimited potential. This is true for teacher-to-teacher, teacher-to-parent and teacher-to-student applications. By using a common location, academic expectations can be better accessed, along with actual student work. Instructors can also share learning materials and experiences through the remote opportunities that cloud computing provides.

Horizon #2: Within two to three years.

Learning analytics. This evolving concept in K-12 classrooms is different from educational data mining in that it focuses on individual students, teachers and schools without direct implications to the government. Learning analytics is the education industry’s response to “big data” that is used in the business world for improvements and redirection of focus. Learning analytics essentially show students what they have achieved and how those goals match up with their peers. If implemented correctly, this technology has the potential to warn teachers early of academic issues while keeping students more accountable. Using the mobile and online technology already in place, students can better track and tailor their academic experiences.

Open content. The rise of MOOCs, or massive open online courses, in terms of college learning is having a trickle-down effect on K-12 education. The idea that all the information that exists on any given topic already exists, and does not need to be re-created or purchased, is gaining steam among K-12 educators. Within the next three years, expect more shared content available to teachers and to students. Open textbooks, resources and curricula are not the only benefit of an open content push; shared experiences and insights are also valuable teaching tools.

Horizon #3: Within four to five years.

3D printing. Also known as prototyping, this technology will allow K-12 students to create tangible models for their ideas. Many fields, like manufacturing, already make use of this technology to determine the effectiveness of ideas on a smaller, printable scale. In education, this technology will bolster creativity and innovation, along with science and math applications. The STEM Academy has already partnered with Stratasys, a leading 3D printing company, to start integration of the technology in programming classes.

Virtual laboratories. These Web applications give students the chance to perform physical science experiments over and over, from anywhere with Internet access. As in a physical lab, the performance of the student will determine the results of the experiment. While not a replacement for all in-lab exercises, the virtual version can provide extra practice and guidance. There is no pressure to “get it right” on the first run, and mistakes are allowable because the technology lends itself to no-cost repetition. It also may prove a smart solution to rekindling the American public’s interest in the scientific.

In coming posts, I will take a closer look at each of these technologies and their implications on K-12 learners. Which do you think will have the greatest impact?

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

How assistive technology is changing special education

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Philip Murphy

The advancing technological landscape in which we live is changing ways we educate our children, and assistive technology is creating a world that helps special education students learn just like everyone else.

Broadly defined, assistive technology is any device or piece of equipment that helps compensate for a person’s disability.

In special education, assistive technology could be audio books and screen readers for students with visual impairments, hearing aids and visual learning tools for the hearing impaired or voice dictation software for students unable to move their limbs.

All are examples of how this technology is changing modern educational techniques, and particularly special education.

Providing a more productive learning experience for students in need of these devices was part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) revision of 2004. The revision requires Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to consider what assistive technology can do for individual special needs students.

A variety of apps are available for iPad and iPhone serving as learning assistants and the number is increasing. Here are five popular ones:

Read2Go: Partnered with Bookshare, this software opens a digital library of over 170,000 books to students with dyslexia and impaired vision. The software requires a membership, but the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs can provide free memberships to students and schools meeting certain requirements.

Dragon Dictation: For students with disabilities that prevent them from being able to write, this free app enables the students’ mobile device to capture what they say.

Draw Free for iPad: Teachers say this software works well for kids who struggle with fine motor skills. It is a tool that can be used on any project that entails an artistic element.

Talking Calculator: Featuring large colorful buttons and a voice that informs the student which buttons they are touching, this interface makes using a calculator easier for children with visual disabilities. Performing a calculation on this app leads to a vocalized answer, turning math into a more enjoyable experience for the user.

Notability: A note-taking app that includes an audio recording function that can help visual and audio learners. It also allows users to mark-up photos, PDFs and store notes on iCloud.

Where assistive technology once caused special education kids to stand out, the integration of mobile devices that use apps is actually causing the opposite to happen.

“It has changed the way people look at people with disabilities,” Karen Gorman, director of Assistive Technology for New York City Public schools said in a 2014 interview with NPR.

She went on to say parents of children with special needs now feel that because their kids are using something that looks cool and modern, the social playing field is more level and “other kids will come over to them and interact with them.”

The number of devices is growing to the point that students have a wider variety of innovative electronics at their fingertips. A 2013 Arizona Republic story highlighted an 11-year-old’s use of assistive technology to compensate for her struggles holding a pencil. Her use of a $200 word processor called The Forte provided the freedom to keep up with a fast-paced sixth grade class.

Jan Cawthorne, director of special education for Mesa Public Schools in Arizona is well-versed in assistive technology and how far it’s come. She cited a coolness factor to these devices since the iPad came out that wasn’t there before.

“Assistive technology used to mean big, clunky things that kids were embarrassed to be seen with,” Cawthorne said. “Now, it’s a cool thing to use.”

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_____

Philip Murphy works at Bisk Education with the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He writes about topics relating to Special Education, specializing in Austism Spectrum Disorders.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

Poll: Majority of children admit to online risk-taking

From VoicED

A new poll of 2000 11-16 year olds carried out for BBC Learning has found that almost three in five (57%) have done something ‘risky’ or anti-social while online. In addition, almost two in three (62%) said that they felt under pressure from peers to act in this way on the internet. The research was released to coincide with Internet Safety Day, which takes place on February 10th and utilized a combined CATI and online methodology.

In terms of accessing the internet, all those surveyed were active internet users. 94% accessed the internet from a PC or laptop, 83% from a smartphone, 72% from a tablet and more than half (51%) from an online games console.

The activities described included saying negative things about other people, viewing unsuitable websites and, perhaps most worryingly, sharing unsuitable videos or pictures of themselves. Moreover, a fifth of those surveyed admitted to having pressured someone else to act in a negative way online (this rose to 32% in London).

Of the 2000 respondents, almost half (47%) said that they had viewed something on the internet that they did not think their parents would want them to view, whilst around one in seven (14%) said they had sent images of either themselves, or of someone else, that they did not think their parents would want them to send.

A tenth had signed up to online sites or services which were not meant to be viewed by their age group.

In terms of cyber-bullying, almost three quarters (72%) of respondents aged 14-16 had witnessed some form of online bullying, or had been subjected to it. While this is a bleak statistic, there are positive signs. Three quarters had blocked another user of an app or on a website, two thirds (68%) had supported someone else who had suffered cyber-bullying and 74% had ‘stood up for themselves’.

According to a different survey, YouTube is the most popular website used by children aged 11-16, with almost four fifths (78%) using it weekly. Three quarters use Facebook the most (74%), around half cited SnapChat (46%) with a similar number mentioning Instagram (43%). Twitter and WhatsApp were mentioned by more than a third (37% each) with Skype and Minecraft both garnering just less (32%). The BBC Learning survey largely corroborates this data – with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and SnapChat all featuring among the most used apps.

This post originally appeared on VoicED.org.uk and has been republished with permission. 

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

Are massive open online classes still the wave of the future?

With a steady stream of news that the price of college is quickly becoming too high for many Americans to afford, an alternative form of higher education may be how some future students learn. MOOC, or massive open online classes, offer free lectures and web based courses by some of the world’s best universities.

But according to NPR.com, MOOCs popularity never really took off. Because the courses are free and open to anyone with an internet connection, many believed that this type of offering would soon be the death of college.

Not so, or at least not yet.

According to a paper produced by Harvard and MIT for MOOC courses that both institutions offer, more than one million participants entered a HarvardX or MITx course between 2012 and 2014.

While those numbers may seem high, it is important to remember that each course is free, though participants may choose to purchase a certificate of completion at the end.

The paper also found that nearly 40 percent of those surveyed who took one of the MOOC courses had a teaching background.

Overall, the study showed that MOOC is growing at a steady pace but not enough to pose a serious or significant threat to brick and mortar institutions.

That doesn’t mean that these free courses will soon be de-funded or that they will go away, this simply shows that it needs more time to cultivate and to figure out its appeal.

MOOC may still represent a new wave of how students will digest education in the future. Free may be good but quality has to be attached to it. As long as institutions that offer MOOC continue to give valued information through these courses, our future workforce and economy may be better because of it.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

Is Boston poised to be the ed-tech capital?

With its combination of Ivy League and prestigious tech schools, and some of the best K-12 systems in the country, Massachusetts is poised to be a leader in the much-anticipated educational-tech explosion that is expected in the next few years. An article in the Boston Globe highlights many of the reasons this area of the country is in a position to really make an impact on educational technology and its innovation.

So what will educational technology really look like as it evolves? In the case of Boston, traditional materials providers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill with a strong presence in the area will need to step up their own technology games if they want to stay in the conversation. The bright minds and innovators at the colleges and universities in the area will need to find ways to blend technological advances with important student privacy issues, without overstepping any legal confines. The technology targeted at children, after all, is much different from that targeted at adults and brings with it a whole host of privacy and legal issues.

Despite the potential pitfalls, I’m happy to see that educational tech is getting so much attention lately and that innovators are stepping up to the plate to improve K-12 and college classroom experiences. I expect great things out of the Boston area — perhaps it will become the Silicon Valley of education tech? — and hope that the strides made there impact the entire industry in the rest of the country.

What ed-tech advances would you like to see in the next 5 years? The next 10?

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Teachers

Emails and Teacher Morale

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Megel Barker

I overheard a conversation a few days ago between two of my colleagues. The text of the interchange was the concern with the frequency of emails and more importantly there was some doubt about the relevance of most of them. The conclusion centered round the idea that emails were a major distraction to the serious issue of teaching. One colleague signed off with a retort that maybe we were all better before emails.

This final utterance really made me think. I pondered what the world of teaching was like before emails became the daily deliverer of information. How did we get by? A cursory check with other teachers conveyed a similar annoyance with the uninvited intrusion of email on their daily duties. Another task added to the ever burgeoning list of ‘to-dos”.

Twilight Zone

But how could we arrive at this place? How is it that in the age of information, teachers are feeling overwhelmed, confused, tensed and lost when confronted with an inbox of school e-mails? Rather strangely, we seemed to have entered a twilight world of either under-information or over-information. The former, occurs when important emails become swamped or lost in your inbox, while the latter manifesting as being told everything happening in school. So where did we go wrong? Do we all need to know that someone’s goldfish died? Do we all need to know that a new student has joined the school, when I won’t teach him this year?

A quick survey among my colleagues, gleaned a similar sentiment. Emails are the bane of teacher communication in fact it is even being touted as having significant contribution to teacher morale. How could such a technological improvement, one that enhances the sharing of information and is proven to improve time become the sore thumb in a school environment? I have even heard the words “detest” and “hate’ being associated with some teachers’ feelings toward this mode of communication.

Staff Morale

Knowing that email must be a good thing, I decided to look at email from a purely mathematical perspective and see if it was possible to determine an optimal solution to this dilemma. The common thread that I identified from my simple survey was that email had two variables affecting the environment in which it operates. These variables were Email Volume (EV) and Email Relevance (ER). Email Volume was literally the number of emails received daily, while relevance referred to the impact the email had on the teacher carrying out their daily functions effectively.

The graphic shows four possible situations that teachers can encounter in their work environment. Each scenario has, I believe, a tremendous impact on teacher morale.

Situation A

Situation A is the case where there is a high volume of emails in the school environment. Everyone emails and everything is emailed. All important documents are shared by emailed and all official communications are disseminated by this medium. Staff is expected to read emails but is also expected to read and respond in this way. The reality of this is that the emails are all important! They have high relevance to staff’s daily work but the volume is quite high. This type of environment is quite pressured, where staff feels compelled to read emails but is strapped for time. The morale in that environment is

Situation B

A full inbox is the daily expectation. In this scenario, everything is shared and important emails get lost in the traffic. Teachers are constantly informed about every event in school with numerous follow-ups and communiques that involve issues that require no action. Social events and social notes are posted without concern for who might want to know. The bulk group “all teachers” is used with impunity. This creates an environment that makes teachers disconnect from the emails. They adopt a system that involves requiring them to be reminded that an email was sent. This disconnection can lead to a level of apathy among teachers and paradoxically also a level of tension. This tension, coming from the sensation, that they might be missing something that has great importance.

Situation C

An almost empty email inbox is the daily fare. Numbers of messages in your inbox is small and is irrelevant. This is not a common scenario for most teachers however it is an all too familiar experience for new teachers. This situation plagues the newcomer mostly and can be traced to not being added to main mailing lists. The natural outcome of this is that the teacher is less informed about important and relevant issues and is constantly left to find things out at the coffee bar or in the staff room. Teachers can either disengage from the system or they can complain that they do not know what is going on. Morale is indeed low here; a feeling of detachment persists and can affect performance especially if high relevance information is not shared.

Situation D

The only emails received have high relevance to the teacher’s practice. There is a very low volume of email but each email is entirely impacting on daily practice. Even though the volume is low, the information shared is current, composed and clear. In this scenario, it would be expected to have other means of sharing information such as Google Drives or folders kept on a local server with vital forms and archived information. Essentially, there is an expectation that the only people who get the emails are the ones who will be able to do something about it. Morale here is high and teachers feel valued, they feel their time is being recognized as truly important and so they respond by being energized and motivated. Work gets done and communication is valued.

The table above shows my summary of the four potential dimensions of email in the workplace and the prevailing morale. Despite the clear cry from all I interviewed for situation D, none of my respondents felt they had experienced this Utopian world. In fact they feel it is impossible to have this outcome at their current workplace. This is worrying. Emails should make us more efficient. I propose that Situation D is the optimal solution and I believe that schools should strive for this to materialize. So how do they do this?

An email protocol?

While there will be positives and negatives regarding this, schools should engage with their staff and collaborate on an email protocol. Some key features of this would include:

  1. Clarity on who is copied on emails
  2. Who uses the bulk email features such as “allstaff@….com
  3. The frequency with which emails are shared from admin
  4. Other means of sharing information such as cloud drives
  5. Use of “reply all”
  6. The frequency of social emails
  7. How the subject line of the email is worded

So, which of these scenarios best describe your current email climate? Is my description of staff morale correct? Please respond to my survey by clicking on the link: http://goo.gl/forms/I7y6P9hPXh.

____

Megel Barker is a Google Certified Educator that has taught mathematics for 21 years. He’s currently Assistant Principal at an International School in Oman and has written two workbooks that support the Oman GED Exams. You can follow him on Twitter @mathter.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

BYOD, Customized Learning and Virtual Academics: K-12 Trends for 2014 — Part II

On Monday I wrote about what lies ahead for K-12 schools in 2014 when it comes to life skills programs, expansion of cloud technology, and a greater emphasis on individual school branding. In all three cases, the trends have been part of classrooms for some time but are sure to see rapid growth in the coming year.
I want to continue that conversation today with three more trends I think we will see emerging, or expanding, in the U.S. K-12 classrooms of 2014:

BYOD: This movement which embraces mobile technology through the devices that students already own has already gained momentum in many districts across the country, but expect it to move rapidly towards mass adoption within this calendar year. Places like Chesapeake Public Schools are already allowed to use privately owned electronic devices to access the wireless network on the school system’s filtered Internet. In Chesapeake, as in the other public and private schools where BYOD policies exist, students must sign a responsibility form that says they will only use the mobile device for academic enrichment while on school property. Students who bring their own devices into the classroom eliminate the initial costs and are also already comfortable with the technology. The downside of course is that not all students can readily afford such technology but look for schools to develop technology financial assistance programs for families to help offset the full cost and maintenance of school-owned devices.

Customized learning experiences: Self-initiated and self-directed learning experiences are based upon individual needs, preferences and abilities of students who are then the masters of their own success. The traditional way to look at learning is through teachers creating and assigning all work for students in a one-size-fits-all approach. By contrast, customized learning that students help direct focuses on feedback techniques that provide strategies for improvement during the process, instead of waiting until much further down the road to see if the methods are working. Customized, or personalized, learning is often met with hostility, especially as teachers must relinquish some classroom control for this trend to really work.

On the flip side, customized learning has the ability to incorporate a variety of resources, such as virtual learning, to aid in the learning process while making it a way for teachers to moderate one-on-one learning experiences in practical ways. I think that the idea of handing control to students is hypothetically frightening to some educators and administrators but once they’ve actually tried it on a small scale, personalized learning actually looks more attractive from an adult’s perspective.

Online learning: Virtual learning is certainly not new to the K-12 scene, but its increasing popularity can’t be ignored. It used to be that online learning was associated only with distance learning, or students who went through the academic process off of school grounds. Today, online learning is more segmented and often just one part of a more traditional learning experience. Virtual learning is no longer all or nothing; it has become mainstream and will continue to transform in-classroom learning in the coming year.

Virtual learning also makes it possible parents, teachers and students have access to information they may need no matter where they are physically located. This, in essence, expands the classroom and gives students more time and space to complete and comprehend their lessons. There are many spinoffs of online learning, like the increasing availability of Massive Open Online Courses, which make virtual academics a returning trend for K-12 learning in 2014.

On Friday I will wrap up my list of K-12 trends for 2014. Has your school embraced any of today’s trends fully?

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Policy & Reform, Teachers

Education and esafety: Why You Shouldn’t Believe Everything You Read in the News

Note: The following guest post comes to us courtesy of Keir McDonald, Chairman of EduCare, a company that provides bespoke training solutions for schools. Their courses are available both online and on paper, and cover child protection and duty of care issues.

Media horror stories bombard us daily when it comes to students and esafety, but is going online really as dangerous for children as some journalists would have us believe? A new report from the London School of Economics has found that children might be better at self-regulating their internet usage than we usually give them credit for.

The influence of news stories on children is particularly strong when it comes to stranger danger and bullying, but do media representations of the internet empower children, or destabilise their development of effective online risk-management skills?

After speaking with 378 children about esafety, academics from LSE found that many children actively seek out ways to stay safe online by “planning” and “reflecting.” For example, when using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, older children take precautions such as changing their privacy settings to protect themselves online.

Even younger children, between the ages of 9 – 11, are competent at avoiding problematic websites or applications by simply clicking away. This is an obvious but “effective tactic” when it comes to staying safe on the internet. Most children were able to recognise both the risks and the symptoms of internet addiction, including health problems, losing interest in other things and losing friends.

Though girls are “more likely to seek social support […] than boys,” both sexes are generally reluctant to approach an adult for help when an incident of cyberbullying occurs. Children are commonly able to react proactively to abusive messages by blocking the send or disabling their own account, but sometimes this isn’t enough and internet conflicts escalate rapidly.

Why are children reluctant to seek support when faced with bullying?

Children are often reluctant to seek support, preferring instead to minimise or downplay the significance of cyberbullying. However, this is an inefficient tactic and schools can do more by harnessing the power of the peer-group for their anti-bullying and esafety lessons.

As adults, we can encourage children to feel comfortable sharing their online problems with us by being more reasonable, and less sensational, when it comes to the internet. For one thing, when we talk to children about the internet, we should acknowledge the many good points as well as cautioning against the dangers. Monitoring our children’s online activity is fine for very young children, but as they get older, we can earn their trust by respecting their need for a certain amount of privacy.

Parents and teachers can try to ban Facebook and other websites, or limit their children and student’s internet usage, but they should be aware of the potential consequences. Using social networking sites, among other online skills, has become almost mandatory both in the wider world and in the modern workplace. Banning children from social networking instead of teaching them how to network safely is doing them no favours in the long run.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Cloud Computing and K-12 Classrooms

Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm. Climate controlled rooms full of servers are quickly being replaced by remote storage technology, whimsically referred to as “the cloud.” Over half of U.S. businesses use some form of cloud computing to back up their important data and improve productivity. Instead of trying to find the capital to pay for a secure server structure, businesses are subscribing to cloud services and paying for more storage as their needs grow. The practical uses of cloud computing technology also translate to K-12 classrooms. Simply put, cloud storage saves space, money and time for teachers, parents, students and administrators.

A report by CDW Government found that over 40 percent of schools use cloud applications to store their data and by 2016, schools are expected to spend 35 percent of IT budgets on the cloud. The savings add up though. Right now K-12 schools report that their cloud initiatives are saving them an average of 20 percent on IT costs. By 2016, those savings are expected to reach 27 percent.

So how exactly are K-12 schools using cloud computing and what are the benefits? Let’s take a look:

Stronger communication through access. Through K-12 cloud platforms like Edline, teachers have better communication with parents and students regarding assignments, tests and projects. Parents can log in from anywhere (including their phones or tablets) and instantly know how their kids are progressing. Teachers can post important messages and keep an archive of completed work in one spot. Depending on the school, cloud forums may even allow parents and students to contribute in the application for a two-way dialogue.

Disaster planning. Schools collect a lot of information on their students and that data impacts decisions and the well-being of the kids. It takes a lot of time to build student databases and maintain them. If a man-made or natural disaster threatened the physical location of school records, whether hard copies or stored on servers, it could mean a catastrophe when it comes to student information. Using cloud computing ensures that student records are secure and accessible, no matter what happens to the physical school building.

One-stop shopping. Cloud platforms are able to bring together data pools that were previously unconnected so that educators and administrators have everything they need in one spot. Since there is no physical equipment that schools must purchase to get started with cloud computing, there is also a pay-as-you-go mentality. Schools do not need to pay upfront for infrastructure and can add cloud storage as their needs increase. It saves money, space, time and other resources.

Fast recovery of data. If you’ve ever experienced a server crash on a personal or professional level, it can be a long time while you wait for your information to come back. Cloud-based businesses recover data quickly and often handle any technical issues that might arise in a “crash” situation. A word that is often associated with all cloud applications is “redundancy” because the technology eliminates any chance of single-point failure.

Some peripheral benefits of cloud computing are decreased energy costs and high security features to ensure protection and privacy of student information. As K-12 schools move toward cloud computing, student information will be better preserved and shared content more accessible. While use of the cloud does not have a large direct impact on classroom activities it does improve teaching efficiency overall. It also has long-term savings attached which is always a bonus when it comes to K-12 technology spending.

Does your school use the cloud yet? If so, how has it improved your school efficiency?

 

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