Education technology is a rapidly moving, sometimes divisive and always interesting field of study, especially to us working in Higher Education. Therefore, I will be posting a fortnightly round-up of some of the articles I found interesting, and thought you might too.
Do comment, recommend and share. That’s what blogging is all about after all!
General
40 Future Uses for Educational Technology [Infographic] – EdTech Magazine
http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/07/40-future-uses-educational-technology-infographic
Whilst aimed at K-12, concepts such as gamification and digitized classrooms also have implications for HE provision.
MOOCs
Moocs: From Mania to Mundanity – Times Higher Education
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/moocs-from-mania-to-mundanity/2007773.article
Written by the author of the recently released BIS report on the impact of MOOCs on HE provision, this article argues that MOOCs have moved beyond hype and hysteria, and are now becoming normalised into the teaching strategies of many universities.
Third-party credentialing
College Diplomas are Meaningless. This is How to Fix Them. Design specs for upgrading the communications device formerly known as the sheepskin – New Republic
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114692/college-diploma-time-upgrade
Whilst quite transparent in suggesting that LinkedIn could be a better alternative to demonstrating skills than a University degree, Reid Hoffmann, co-founder of LinkedIn, does make a point that the way graduates gain skills in future will involve a an unbundled format of course provision, allowing students to tailor skills to their own career aspirations. Central to this would be the ability for third-party course providers to be able to grant recognisable credentials to subscribers, e.g. Mozilla Open Badges.
Online mentoring
Internet mentors could supplant traditional lectures – Times Higher Education
One of the findings to come out of the Horizon 2020 report from the Observatory on Borderless Education. As information becomes more freely available via MOOCs and other platforms, support provided by junior-level lecturers at universities may be replaced by Online mentors, who may themselves be professionals in the topic or PhD researchers.
Education technologies
50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About – Edudemic
http://www.edudemic.com/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about/
A lot of technologies mentioned here will be familiar to many, but this is a useful round-up of the tools available to educators.
