Online learning is increasing in popularity. Colleges are noticing this trend, and traditional universities are making more classwork available online all the time. Many have gone so far as to offer students the opportunity to complete their degree without ever setting foot on campus or in a classroom.

Education  

Students today may finish their degrees without ever setting foot on campus or in a classroom. This is no surprise to those who have taken online classes and seen firsthand the benefits these programs provide. Here are three important advantages of online learning that a traditional classroom setting simply doesn't provide.

Flexibility

In a traditional college setting, students must attend classes at specific times and locations. This can be inconvenient and even prohibitive for those who work full time or who take care of aging parents or young children. Online classes allow much more flexibility than those held at brick and mortar locations. Some online courses are completely self-paced. Others let students complete their studies whenever they wish, so long as they meet course deadlines and due dates. There are many different programs, including an online bachelors degree, that you can choose from.

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Diversity

Online classes let students share a virtual classroom with others from around the world, making it much more likely that they will encounter someone from another country or culture. Virtual classrooms also allow American students to attend foreign universities without relocating. Perhaps most importantly, online classrooms help eliminate prejudice and fear. Wallflowers are more likely to speak up in an online environment and students are less likely to respond to one another with bias. Because students can't see each other, skin color, religious head wear and visible physical disabilities are taken out of the interactive equation.

Computer Practice

Online classes up the ante when it comes to getting computer practice. Every class discussion happens online and assignments are uploaded to the instructor via a drop box. Group assignments, too, must be managed in cyberspace, teaching students about the tools used to collaborate with others around the globe. The Open Education Database points out that online students learn many real world computer skills, such as "creating and sharing documents, incorporating audio/video materials into [their] assignments,[and] completing online training sessions." In an online setting, these skills are incorporated into every class and practiced daily. Computerized courses also teach students to communicate effectively without immediate feedback from their audience. Online communication is frequent in the real world but robs us of the ability to see the facial expressions and other reactions of our listener. Without these social cues, we must develop other ways to ensure we are communicating in an acceptable way. Online classes offer students a chance to practice this skill in a safe environment.

Online courses offer other conveniences as well, such as eliminating the need to commute or pay for on-campus housing. Diversity, flexibility and computer practice, however, are three benefits that continue to help students after graduation. Though some students still prefer a traditional learning environment, many are embracing the benefits of online learning and thriving in a virtual environment. If you're looking to expand your horizons and further your education, now is a great time to consider doing it through an online learning opportunity. You'll be glad you did.

By  Emma Sturgis	Embed
Emma is a freelance writer currently living in Boston. When not writing, she enjoys baking and indoor rock climbing. Find her on Google +.

Education  

There are more options for college today than ever before in history. Increasing costs has forced many college students to work while they attend school, and many older adults are returning to school to get degrees they need for a changing career.

The traditional college experience often does not work very well for busy adults with full-time jobs and families at home. The education system has responded by offering online classes and even entirely online degree options. The question remains if these online classes deliver the same quality of learning as the traditional college experience.

Increased Flexibility and Speed

The biggest advantage to online classes is that they give students a much greater amount of flexibility. Students can do work at their own pace anywhere. If a student's only option is to work late at night or very early in the morning, they may not be able to attend a traditional class without sacrificing their income or family responsibilities.

Sometimes online classes are integrated into a schedule with traditional classes so that a student takes both types of classes. Scheduling conflicts for required classes may delay a degree or force a student to choose a class they otherwise wouldn't. Online classes can solve important scheduling problems and allow students to get the credits they need without waiting.

Speed and getting a degree as fast as possible has also become paramount in the modern college scheme. Since online classes are student-paced, they also allow for the option of completing those classes faster than would be possible otherwise. A student may be able to take more credits online than they would be able to if they had to attend physical classes. As long as they can handle the workload, they may finish their education much sooner.

Less Connection With Peers and Teachers

A major downside to online classes is that students are not going to join a classroom community of peers they can meet and interact with. While it is true that many online classes integrate discussion boards and some forms of peer interaction, this is often minimal or secondary, and students may not need to do hardly anything with the other members of the online class in order to pass it. This robs the student of potential professional connections to others in their field. They may go as far as graduation without developing the career relationships a more traditional student would have.

Less direct interaction with a teacher is also a possible downside. The majority of online classes provide information through reading or possible online videos provided by the instructor. However, this is not the same as the social interaction students get when they work with a teacher directly. Feedback about their learning and performance is less fluid and dynamic than it would be in a traditional classroom.

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The Importance of Learning Styles and Degree Type

A final issue to consider when deciding between an online or traditional class is the individual student's learning style and what degree they are pursuing. Online classes present students with a far different learning style and environment. A student who is highly self-motivated, requires little peer interaction and can absorb almost all of their information through reading and research is likely to excel online. In contrast, a student who is a social learner, or who must learn by doing things directly or watching others is likely to learn much less from an online environment. Students are wise to consider how best they learn before making the choice to go online. If you are interested in online classes and degrees, click here to learn more.

The desired degree is also important. Some degrees lend themselves more to reading-based online learning. While other degrees lend themselves more to classroom-based interactive learning. A degree in business or English, for example would probably thrive in the online environment. A degree in education or nursing, by contrast, may not.

Some students have little choice in whether they take an online or traditional class. For those that do have a choice, careful consideration of which classes to take online and which classes to take on campus may result in better learning overall.

By  Emma Sturgis	Embed
Emma is a freelance writer currently living in Boston. When not writing, she enjoys baking and indoor rock climbing. Find her on Google +.

Education  

The classroom of today increasingly needs to incorporate technology to prepare students for the world of the future. From the use of computer resources to a new collaborative approach, education is evolving.

Technology has become a vital part of most people's daily lives, and the culture of technology has naturally progressed into education. Almost all devices possess the capability to be educational tools, with many new devices being converted and manufactured. Here is a list of five ways technology and tech devices are being used to either enhance or change academics for the better.

Goodbye Textbooks

Textbooks are becoming extinct thanks to technology. Classrooms are taking advantages of mobile device readers capable of holding eBooks and other educational programs. The devices save quite a bit of space, hold a plethora of information, cost less, constantly updated, interactive and can be quickly used. This method not only saves on paper but tends to be less expensive as well.

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Teacher And Student Roles

Technology in the classroom has transformed the teacher into a facilitator for the student. The student's role has also changed. In years past, a student spent most time absorbing all the information the teacher dispensed. Now, the dynamic of student and technology has fostered more student engagement and activity.

Learning Is No Longer Confined Inside the Walls of the Classroom

Computer lab assignments no longer require students to be present within the lab or school. Mobile devices, like tablets and iPads, allow students to work on homework anywhere, essentially filling the gap between home and school.

Technology Facilitates Classroom Collaboration

Classrooms today are filled with collaborative efforts among student with each other and among students with teachers. Technology has assisted in fostering increased collaboration, and it has also done much to empower it. The various collaborative dynamics are even more impressive when the collaboration can take place outside of the school even if it is for school. This allows technology to create an educational environment anywhere and anytime.

Technology Enables Teachers to Offer Students a Personal Experience

All students have different learning styles and tend to progress at their own speed, and there are some subjects they may excel at, but they still have a custom pace set by their own brain and personality. The need to nurture individual learning styles and speeds is now being regarded as a fact when future teachers seek their masters degrees in education. Technology assists in providing learning tools and opportunities for teachers to utilize when educating students at the pupils' pace and level.

These are just five examples illustrating how mobile devices are being utilized to improve education. There are many more examples, and as time goes on, the list of mobile tech benefits for educational purposes will grow. The combination of education and technology is changing the landscape of learning for the betterment of students and society.

By  Meghan Belnap

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Artificial Intelligence  

In a recent TEDx talk, Dr. Bernhard Schindlholzer looked at the implications of ephemeralization - a term coined by Buckminster Fuller to describe the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing" - through artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Dr. Bernhard Schindlholzer is a technology manager working on Machine Learning and E-commerce. In this talk he gave at TEDx FHKufstein, Schindlholzer contemplated the implications of ephemeralization - a term coined by Buckminster Fuller to describe the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing" - through artificial intelligence and machine learning.

"Economic growth will come from non-routine creative knowledge work."

Schindlholzer explores the challenges that this technological approach poses to our economy and, furthermore, how they could be addressed by questioning established norms of our education systems.

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Schindlholzer argues that while artificial intelligence and technology like self driving cars will certainly lead to many jobs being lost in the future, new jobs will take their place.  "Future economic growth will come from non-routine creative knowledge work," he claims. He further defines this as work which designs solutions that solves problems in the world.

This type of work is already done today by scientists, physicists, computer programmers and engineers, argues Schindlholzer, and the good thing about this, he argues is that there is an unlimited number of problems in the world. "There will always be work for someone who can solve real problems," he says.

The challenge for the future is preparing the workforce for the transition to a problem solving economy. "No one will hire you anymore for what you know," says Schindlholzer on the principle that AI, will increasingly put knowledge right at our fingerprints.

The mode of education we use today is not conducive to this future, he argues. Institutions today are already pushing the new way of teaching, including more collaboration between educators and students on concrete problems. Design Thinking education is another key example of the form education of the future must take to produce creative knowledge workers for the future economy.

Schindlholzer breaks down the requirements for education in the future into the need for problem based learning, immersion and simulation. Problem based learning means students are challenged to apply their learning and re-frame their questions to real-world problems. Immersion involves reworking solutions over time.

With simulation, students are free to experiment in a safe environment where they can learn and build upon failure. All of these components will push education beyond pure knowledge transfer, argues Schindlholzer.

SOURCE  TEDx Talks

By 33rd Square

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Education  

With technology increasingly being part of the classroom, do we need new standards to give all students a basic understanding of what they now depend on in their everyday lives. 

One of the biggest challenges in technology is coming up with a good way to train new users in its proper use. The lack of consistent documentation in desktop and mobile applications is one of the best examples of this problem. If a school wanted to teach a technology subject like software development, where would they start? What is the computer programming equivalent of grammar or algebra? Should there even be such standards?

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Why It Works

The basic question posed by the absence of technology standards in school curricula is, why aren't we teaching such standards? The most important part of any mechanical or electronic subject is the basics of how a particular mechanism works. Understanding software and electronics is very much like understanding mechanisms and energy. They are subjects that, while not necessary for everyone to specialize in, should be introduced to all students so they can develop a basic aptitude.

Realizing the Promise of Technology

So much innovation has been introduced in the last 25 years it is difficult for most people to keep up. For example, almost everyone is carrying a fully functional computer in their pocket, yet most only use that computer for text communications. What other kinds of functions might such a device offer, and more importantly, which of the people carrying one will invent those functions? These are important questions because both are answered by education. The great inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries were the result of bright, motivated people who had knowledge about their tools and trade.

Using Technology to Educate

One of the possible solutions to the dearth of standardized education in technology may be solved by online instruction. The advancements in digital instruction technologies have recently made it possible for nearly anyone to pursue and obtain an advanced degree like an online masters degree in education from the comfort of their own personal computer. If such technologies can be employed to establish and advance a standard curriculum for other subjects like software development, electrical engineering and certain sciences, then it might be possible to give all students a basic understanding of the technology they depend on in their everyday lives.

Technology is not as complex and obscure as most people think. Like all subjects its more advanced precepts depend on a few basic principles which can be taught in the context of basic principles from other academic disciplines like language and mathematics. This is the primary justification for a comprehensive technology curriculum in public and private education. Without it, we risk becoming a society that does not understand its own tools.

By Rachelle Wilber

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Education  

Students used to be inspired by colorful textbooks, fun notebooks and flashy pens. Today, they are interested in the lectures only when they are provided through slides, videos, and other visual presentations. What does all of this technology mean for the classroom?

With the great contributions technology has made to the educational process, even the most traditional teachers agree that it has changed the face of learning in a very positive way. Students approach education with much more enthusiasm when they know they can use their favorite devices in class. The times have changed. Students used to be inspired by colorful textbooks, fun notebooks and flashy pens. Today, they are interested in the lectures only when they are provided through slides, videos, and other visual presentations.

Have you ever thought about the specific ways how technology has changed the way students learn? We present 12 of them in the continuation.

1. Plain Poster Boards Evolved into Multimedia Posters

Older generations remember the science or history presentation boards they used to create. They were considered fun, but they cannot be compared to today’s multimedia posters. Advanced tools, such as Glogster, changed the way these projects are being created. Students can now create personalized and interactive multimedia posters that add another level of enthusiasm to homework assignments.

2. Evolved Communication

Teachers can now assign homework through online tools and monitor their students’ progress as they are working on papers and assignments. When a student has to take some time off school due to any reason, the teacher can stay connected with him, so the gap in knowledge won’t be that great when he returns into the classroom.

3. Evolved Essay Writing Process

Essays, research papers, lab reports, and all other projects used to be the most torturous assignments for the students before the technology era. They had to spend days in the library to locate sources for a simple essay. Today, all information is available online, so the research process can be handled much more smoothly. Students can even rely on an essay writing service when they don’t have the needed skills to write a particular paper. They can collaborate with trained and experienced writers who guide them through the essay writing process.

4. Contemporary Education Meets the Needs of Individual Learners

The class is no longer perceived as a group; educators look at it as a collection of multiple intelligences. Technology enables a teacher to monitor the progress of individual learners, so they can adapt the teaching approach and assignments in a way that doesn’t make some students feel inferior to others.

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5. Learning Is No Longer Limited to the Classroom

Edmodo and other online platforms make learning possible at any time, from any place. The classroom is extended into the online community, so teachers and students can use these platforms to post and discuss assignments. In addition, students can collaborate with each other throughout the creation of a project without being limited by space and time.

6. Children With Special Needs Have Access to Appropriate Content

Speech-recognition programs are a big trend at the moment. Students with special needs, as well as those with below-average English proficiency can communicate effectively in language-based contexts.

7. Chalk Boards Are History!

Students are encouraged to engage in the learning process through much more powerful platforms like Smart Boards. New online tools and programs are being developed by the day. Teachers can explain the lectures much more effectively through videos and online presentations, so the chalk boards went to history.

8. eBooks Are Taking the Place of Textbooks

Let’s be realistic: textbooks are expensive, and it’s not easy for the student to store them once the course is over. He would surely need to refresh his memory at one point or another, but it would be hard for him to locate the right book in the pile, and discover the needed information in the text. Everything is easier with eBooks. The future of education is bright: students will no longer carry heavy backpacks around, and they will easily store all learning materials in a single device.

Now, most textbooks are paired with websites that provide additional educational materials, videos, animations, and interactive assessments that support the traditional content

9. No Need for Disorganized Notebooks

There is nothing messier than a student’s notebook. A laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone can serve as a note-taking device. The student can keep everything neat in folders with clean, searchable text.

10. More Learning Resources

Students of previous generations relied on the teacher and textbook as the main sources of knowledge. Today, the world is the source of knowledge. They can access any information they need with a single Google search.

11. iPad Educational Apps

The iPad is a real game-changer. There are tons of educational games that are taking place in the classroom. Stack the States, Math Ninja and iWriteWords are only three of the many successful examples. Students of all ages love learning through games, so the iPad has made education more appealing than ever before.

12. Interactive Learning

Today’s textbooks are not limited to the combination of text and images. Most of the contemporary textbooks are paired with websites that provide additional educational materials, videos, animations, and interactive assessments that support the traditional content.

The Advantages of Technology Outweigh the Drawbacks

Yes, students can get distracted when their teachers allow the usage of iPads and smartphones in the classroom. However, when the learning environment is under control and the teacher chooses the right EdTech resources, the students gain immense benefits and the educational process becomes more appealing.                     

By Melody Cleo

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 Education  

Education has and will continue to evolve and change as we develop new relationships with ourselves and our technology. Explore the latest infographic from Open Colleges that tracks the past and future of learning technology.

From Egyptian hieroglyphs. to the pencil, to the  use of computers and smartphones in the classroom, education and the tools of teaching have evolved over the centuries.

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Explore some of these changes in this interactive infographic from Open Colleges.

The infographic also explores the future of education, including the use of robots, 3D printers and the use of brain implants.



SOURCE  Open Colleges

By 33rd Square

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 Google Glass  

Google Glass has the potential to be a real game-changer in the classroom of the future. Students and teachers could both benefit from a more involved and interactive classroom experience as this infographic shows.

Although Google Glass has not emerged as a consumer product yet, and some are likening it to Apple's Newton, the idea behind the product does have a lot of promise.

Google Glass is still in its very early stage, with only the Explorer edition available for $1,500 in the United States. It's raised the possibility of a new class of personal apps and expanded the possibilities of wearable computing.

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In the classroom with Google Glass, teachers and students alike can display information in a smartphone-like hands-free format, while interacting with the Internet via natural language voice commands. With limitless possibilities at its fingertips, the education community can build closer working relationships with students, and allow children to get more involved with their learning experience.

Here's a look at how Google Glass, and similar products might be used in education.

(Click the image for a larger view).




SOURCE  Open Colleges

By 33rd Square

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 Robotics  

According to Dutch start-up Wiki WorkX, parents need a product that actively occupies their children, that delights and encourages them while supporting their cognitive development. That’s why they introducing the ixi-play robot.

A new interactive robotic owl called ixi-play may soon both entertain and educate your children.

Designed by Dutch tech start-up WittyWorX, ixi-play features a multitouch sensor on top of its head, dual microphones, dual video displays (the owl's animated eyes), a 720p video camera, a dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor, plus a tweeter and woofer that allow it to talk.

When it interacts with children, the ixi-play robot turns it's head and wiggles it's body.

ixi-play runs on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system, has 1 GB of internal memory (which is expandable via an SD card slot), and is both Wi-Fi and USB-enabled.

Apps are already available or in the works, for playing games with ixi-play. These games involve technologies such as face, color and voice recognition, and are designed to boost the player's development in areas such as math, language-learning, spatial awareness and motor skills.

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Unlike so many other products for kids, your child might not outgrow ixi-play too fast.  According to WittyWorX:

Children learn fast, especially in their first years. We know how hard it is to keep them interested in any plaything for a significant amount of time. That’s why ixi-play is built to accept upgrades as your child grows. Download and install new apps and games available on an app store. The games will have adaptive difficulty levels to keep pace with your children's age and skills, keeping them happy and challenged. 

ixi-play is also able to be used as a baby monitor. Using its camera, microphones and Wi-Fi, parents can check in on their young children with their iOS or Android mobile device.

WittyWorX is now in the process of crowd-funding the commercial development of ixi-play, and is taking pre-orders. A payment of US$299 will put you on the list to get one, when and if shipments begin late next year.



SOURCE  WittyWorX

By 33rd Square

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 Future of Education  

With school about to begin a new term, the founder and Executive Director of the Khan Academy recently examined what he thinks education might be like in the year 2060.

As students in North America are gearing up for a new school year, founder and Executive Director of the Khan Academy put on his futurist goggles to examine what education might be like in 50 years.

Khan says that already education is moving from a passive model to a more creative, collaborative environment. He says that the bulk of the time in the future students will be building things, creating things and exploring things.  "It doesn't just have to be science and technology, it could be painting a picture or composing a sonnet, or choreographing a dance," he comments.

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The progress from physical labor to mental labor will reach a zenith thinks Khan.  More and more technology is eliminating physical labor, freeing up more people to do mental labor.  By 2060, this will become an "extreme form" postulates Khan.  "Even the mental labor will be taken over more and more by automation," says Khan.

The bulk of society in 2060 will be in a "creative class," participating in research, innovation and creative pursuits.  Also, more and more the system will be achievement-based, not just a system based on the amount of time spent on an activity.  Khan says "If I get a 'C' in a calculus class, it is not clear that I understand calculus."  In the future, achievement will be at a higher standard.

Metrics will also include things like how well do you persevere, or work with others says Khan. This will be part of the much greater data-set captured from each student.  


Khan says he hopes the Khan Academy can bring about some of these changes, including dramatically raising the role of teachers and the importance of teachers in society.  "The profession of teaching is going to become even more prestigious - I'm  saying 2060, but I think by 2020 or 2025 you're going to have the teaching profession at parity with others like medicine, or law or engineering," he states.

For the most part the conclusions reached by Khan are conservative and do not acknowledge the technological Singularity, or much if any technological changes that will impact education.  Admittedly, Khan says much of his thinking is really only at the 2020's.  It would be great to see what this education innovator really thinks what can happen in fifty years, taking into account technologies like artificial intelligence, brain-machine interfaces, bionics, etc.  Combined with an exponential increase in our understandings of neuroscience, learning Matrix-style may not be out of the range of possibility.  It would even be interesting to hear what he thinks of Google Glass and other augmented reality applications will mean for education.

What are your thoughts on the longer term outlook for education?  Let us know in the comments.




SOURCE  Khan Academy

By 33rd Square

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