Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Annual Horizon Higher Educational Trends Report

Just released from the executive summary:
What is on the five-year horizon for higher education institutions? Which trends and technology developments will drive educational change? What are the critical challenges and how can we strategize solutions? These questions regarding technology adoption and educational change steered the discussions of 78 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition, in partnership with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). This NMC Horizon Report series charts the five-year impact of innovative practices and technologies for higher education across the globe. With more than 15 years of research and publications, the NMC Horizon Project can be regarded as education’s longest-running exploration of emerging technology trends and uptake. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six developments in educational technology profiled in this report are poised to impact teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in higher education. The three sections of this report constitute a reference and technology planning guide for educators, higher education leaders, administrators, policymakers, and technologists.
Full Report: http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2017-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf

Past reports 

Thursday, February 09, 2017

An iPad in every classroom and for every student

At Maryville College in Missouri, campus President Mark Lombari speaks to CHE about their recent initiative providing iPads to all students:
Well, we about outfitted our entire student body with iPads, 2,800 deployed thus far to our traditional and certain selected graduate programs, loaded with free apps, about 80 learning apps of all different types, around different disciplines.
And then we've provided training for our faculty. We actually added two weeks to every faculty-member contract so that one week in May and August would be faculty training in the use of all this technology. And thus far 90 percent of our faculty have gone through the training and then are applying it in the classroom.
So what happens in that classroom is we've got our students and our faculty engaged in this vibrant learning process, where the students own it. They're involved, they're engaged, they actually are a part of creating that content.
So an example of that would be in a science class, for example, we would be going through a smart textbook. And the students and the faculty would be downloading and bringing video and other materials and loading that in so everyone can benefit from what the students and the faculty are bringing in and learning.
And the other part of this that's crucial is it's based on learning theory and learning diagnostics. So we have a learning diagnostics profile of every student, and we also provide that and implant that into the class for the faculty member. So the instruction on a one to one can be very personalized.
So if you're an auditory learner, you might be listening to the faculty member talk about this while I may be sitting next to you watching a video on the same topic and learning. So it really gets at the multiplicity of learning styles that exist, that we know exist, in every student and in every classroom.
 Link: http://www.chronicle.com/article/One-Campus-s-iPad-Revolution/238942

Friday, February 03, 2017

The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words





And if that's not funny enough here's link to all of them (so far).

http://www.everysecondcounts.eu

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Eugene Schwartz - A Life.

My friend Gene Schwartz passed away this week aged 90.  Several years ago he returned to Del Mar, California where he had spent many years earlier in life and, as always with Gene, he seemed to be cheerfully loving the lifestyle.   Recently, he was using his new 'start-up' Worthly Shorts to document the tales and stories about the Del Mar community he seems to have cared a lot about.

I can't say I knew him very well since I only met him for the first time less than 10 years ago but he was a good friend and always had a positive view on life (including mine).  He was always supportive of PND and frequently had something to say about my photos.  I tried to encourage him to scan and catalog his own collection but he never got to it, but Gene always seemed to have a lot going on - especially for someone in his twilight years.  Back in 2009, Gene wrote a post for PND which happily got me a lot of traffic.

About a month ago, I asked him for some advice about reaching out to military communities to promote a new website I've been working on (TheGlassFiles) and his advice was perfect.  Gene was one of the 'great generation' who served in world war 2 which is why I wanted his advice.   We also occasionally spoke about politics and the world generally and I am happy to report that Gene's last sentences to me were of hope about our prospects under this new administration.

PS regarding the election, now that the results are in, thinking out of the box may be in order. I have great faith in the foundations of our republic that our founders left us with, and the ultimate common sense of human nature given the opportunity to exercise it. Given the poor choices we had, It may not be as bad as you fear.
 I hope he is right.

All the best Gene.