Purdue University North Central Elementary Education students who were enrolled in the fall semester online section of the course, Integrating Technology into the Classroom have created a variety of inquiry-based web resources for use by the teachers and students of Lake Hills STEM Magnet Elementary School in Michigan City. During the fall 2011 semester, Erin White, PNC coordinator of Learning and Technology and continuing lecturer in Education, who taught the “Integrating Technology into the Classroom” online course, initiated the WebQuests project. It was decided that the class would create WebQuests to highlight the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines in response to the statewide emphasis placed on the STEM curriculum in the elementary grades. White and Shelley Deutscher, Lake Hills STEM coordinator, agreed to have the technologically-savvy PNC students apply their newly acquired skills to produce 18 different Indiana Standards-based WebQuests.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/valparaiso/pnc-students-develop-webquests-for-elementary-students/article_d2055585-99f7-5e0e-bd90-0db49c1b3f48.html

An online course for women in science, engineering and technology jobs (SET) that helps them return to work after a break has been praised by one of its organisers. Run by the UKRC and Open University, the course aimed to address the issue of the large number of women who fail to return to their career and stem the gender gap in the industry. While many participants returned to their SET career, author of a report into the course, Clem Herman from the Open University, said that many ’soft outcomes’ also came about from the project, such as increased confidence and self esteem.

http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/news/online-it-course-for-women-returning-to-work-praised-news-801281884

For the past two years, Faculty Focus conducted a survey on Twitter usage in higher education, this year we expanded the survey to include Facebook and LinkedIn, while changing a number of the questions as well. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are considered “the big three” in social media, and we thank those who recommended we take a broader look at the landscape.  All three platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, and are better used for some things than others. But how are the three being used in higher education today? It’s our hope that these survey results provide at least some of the answers while lending new data to the discussion.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2011-social-media-report.pdf

Education administrators block social media because they believe it threatens the personal and emotional safety of their students. Or they believe social media is a distraction that diminishes student engagement and the quality of the learning experience. Schools also block social media to prevent students from accessing inappropriate content. I have often wondered what are schools really blocking when they block social media. Working in a high school this year has given me added perspective. In one class my graduate assistant and I are working with a teacher in a Technology Applications class. Our goal is to reinvent the classroom and, more important, the learning that takes place. We structured the learning to be autonomous, self-directed, creative, collaborative, and networked. We decided to let the student teams pick which digital media project they wanted to pursue. Some students elected to team together to produce a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that target teens. These students liked the idea of using digital media to tell compelling stories about the challenges of teen life. Other students wanted to produce short narratives. They were excited about creating worlds, characters, and narrative dilemmas that allowed their artistic identities to flourish.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-watkins/what-schools-are-really-b_b_1245209.html

Westerville North junior Noel Hilling uses her cellphone in her U.S. history class. Students were tweeting about the lesson; teacher Damon Mollenkopf keeps an eye on his tablet computer to watch their dialogue. “I can say, ‘Hey, this person makes a good point,’” he said. Teachers in some classrooms confiscate smartphones from students caught texting or surfing social-media websites. amon Mollenkopf doesn’t bother. The teacher at Westerville North High School actually encourages students to chat with one another on social-networking websites, with the hope that they’re talking about history. The kids can be having a separate conversation, but it can be quiet, on Twitter,” said Mollenkopf, who keeps an eye on his tablet computer to watch their dialogue.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/01/schools-link-smarts-phones.html

The Khan Academy has pioneered the use of technology to encourage unstructured learning outside the classroom and now provides teaching supplements in 36 schools around the country. For instance, recent reports describe a San Jose charter school using Khan’s instructional videos in ninth-grade math classes to tailor lessons to each student’s pace.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/02/03/essay-massive-online-courses-not-game-changing-innovation

Google has revamped its site for educators, creating a redesigned repository for all its educational tools and resources for teachers, schools, and students. The newest feature is News and Calendar, a listing of all events and deadlines for Google’s education endeavors. Google also created an online booklet called Google in Education: A New and Open World for Learning, which lists the company’s initiatives and programs within the education realm, such as the Computer Science for High School program — university-created workshops for local high school and middle school computer science teachers teachers.

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/01/google-launches-new-education-site/

Apple’s announcement last week about its new iBooks2 and authoring app created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books. How educators think of content curation in the classroom is enough to change their reliance on print textbooks. As the open education movement continues to grow and become an even more rich trove of resources, teachers can use the content to make their own interactive textbooks. It might seem daunting, but the availability of quality materials online and the power of tapping into personal learning networks should make it easier. Here’s how to create a digital textbook and strategies for involving the students in its development in three steps.

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/01/how-to-create-your-own-textbook-with-or-without-apple/

Asking families to buy their own educational technology runs counter to the normal way of doing things in public education. But Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools say that’s the best hope for embracing the digital age, which moves faster than government budgets and bureaucratic decisions. They say kids whose families who can’t afford the latest gadgets – an iPad, for instance, runs about $500 to $700 – won’t be left out, but parents and PTAs that can pitch in will step up the pace of going wireless. It’s not a new concept to private and charter schools. For instance, Carolina International School, a K-10 charter in Harrisburg, recently decided that all students above third grade should have tablets to use in class, and asked families to do their part. About two-thirds bought their kids tablets, and the school paid for those who couldn’t. Even in high-poverty schools, such as Cochrane Collegiate Academy, many students already have smartphones. In the new Bring Your Own Technology era, they’ll be able to use those for Internet research and sharing information in class.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/29/2967994/in-some-schools-parents-and-ptas.html

The U.S. Department of Education’s Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance proposed the creation of a national online textbook database to reduce costs of course materials. The cost of attending college is rapidly rising, and with it are the escalating costs of textbooks. The College Board has predicted that the average student at a four-year public university will spend $1,137 this year on textbooks alone. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education’s Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance proposed the creation of a national digital marketplace that would reduce costs by uploading textbooks online. This idea is a necessary step towards affordability, as any reduction in textbook costs will provide welcome relief to already financially burdened students. With its ease of access and promises of slashed prices, a national textbook database will discourage students from skimping on their required texts. The online system would allow students to do all the same things that can be done in a printed textbook, like highlighting passages — with the added plus that it would be much easier to search for key terms. Professors would also be able to create custom texts online, so students would not have to spend copious amounts of money on purchasing custom course readers.

http://www.ucsdguardian.org/home/item/25286-quick-takes-national-online-textbook-database