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Welcome to our periodic Worthy of Note!
SREB Educational Technology Cooperative
Worthy of Note: July 2016   
 
                                             

This issue of Worthy of Note focuses on all 10 of the ETC’s Critical Issues in Educational Technology — data systems, data privacy, predictive analytics, bandwidth, emerging technologies, new learning models, student digital literacy, technology security, accessibility and policy.


Data Systems, Data Privacy and Predictive Analytics
  • New Data Reveals 10 Stunning Facts on National Attainment Rates
  • TechTarget, June 13, 2016, Jesse Scardina
    • The facts: 1. Postsecondary attainment rate is at 45.3 percent nationally, but far short of what is needed for national goals. 2. In 2014, 40.4 percent of working-age Americans (ages 25 to 64) had a two- or four-year degree — an increase of only 0.4 percent from 2013. Just 3. 71 percent of Hispanic Americans and 70 percent of black Americans believe a degree is important, but only 5 million of the 15.2 million students in postsecondary programs are Hispanic, black or Native American. 4. Of working-age Americans with degrees, 9 percent hold associate degrees as their highest credential, 20 percent hold bachelor’s degrees as their highest credential, and 11.5 percent have graduate or professional degrees. 5. Of these adults, 26 percent have high school diplomas or equivalent, and 21.5 percent have some college but no degree. 6. Of those surveyed, 24 percent think education is affordable to all. 7. Seventy percent believe a degree is essential to get a good job, and 71 percent think employers value a degree. 8. Twenty-six states have rigorous educational-attainment goals. 9. Of the five states with the highest educational-attainment rates, none are in the South. 10. Of the five states with the lowest educational-attainment rates, three are SREB states.
 
  • Why Is Data Science So Hot Right Now?
  • eCampus News, May 19, 2016, Eric Haller
    • “The data scientist was named Mashable’s hottest professions of 2015 and Glassdoor’s most popular job of 2016 — and its popularity is only growing.” Yet students graduating with data scientist skills are in short supply, especially considering the potential for -10-fold growth in data by 2020. Only 80 or so of the more than 3,000 four-year institutions offer graduate degrees in data science. This is not enough to fill the need.
 
  • Student Data Privacy: Moving From Fear to Responsible Use
  • Brookings — The Brown Center Chalkboard blog, May 23, 2016, Brenda Leong
    • Fear of how data will be used and the risk of security breaches have prompted numerous bills across state legislatures. However, the risk of not using student data puts the nation at an even greater risk of falling further behind globally in education attainment. The United States ranks 21st in science despite millions of dollars spent on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Data mining, predictive analytics, deep learning and the right types of intervention are needed to make a difference in education.
 
  • Microsoft-LinkedIn Deal to Benefit Office 365, Dynamics CRM
  • TechTarget, June 13, 2016, Jesse Scardina
    • “Microsoft plans to acquire professional network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion to provide a more comprehensive system of information for Office 365 and Dynamics CRM.
    • ”The purchase of LinkedIn is more about the data than the 433 million member accounts. The data behind the systems could prove very beneficial to the Office 365 and CRM Dynamics platforms.
      "The company plans to implement Microsoft's machine learning capabilities in users' LinkedIn newsfeeds and to use profile information on LinkedIn — integrated into Microsoft's artificial intelligence assistant Cortana — to provide information for upcoming business meetings." Combining LinkedIn and Dynamics CRM, allows the system to build a social and professional profile of business associates, with Cortana as the assistant to tell you what you need to know about them before you walk into a business meeting. The purchase also combines hiring and professional skills development with Lynda.com and Microsoft products for professionals.
 
  • All Stakeholders Must Engage in the Learning Analytics Debate”
  • Campus Technology, May 31, 2016, David Raths
    • It is important for education stakeholders to be at the discussion table when it comes to analytics, algorithms, transparency and access. Publishers are capitalizing on the added value of analytics to digital learning content as they are losing the battle on textbook affordability and the abundance of open educational resources (OER). The potential for long-term impact that analytics may have on education, from resource allocation to teaching and learning practices, indicates that education stakeholders must be engaged in the conversation or suffer the consequences of data as a commodity that is bought and sold. Not that they need to be experts, but education stakeholders should have some background knowledge about analytics, algorithms, transparency and access of content data in order to fairly represent the interests of the students, faculty, and staff. George Siemens of University of Texas at Arlington states, "The textbook companies lost the battle for openness to the OER movement, but they have won the war because they have dropped the object being the content and instead have turned their attention to the intelligence around that content.” Stakeholders should be aware of where the data is located, who owns it, what data points are collected, who has access to it, how it is used, to whom it is provided, either in aggregate or detail, and the nuances of the analytics and algorithms used to draw conclusions about the data.
  Bandwidth
  • Net Neutrality Won Big Today, But Don’t Celebrate Just Yet
  • Wired.com, June 14, 2016, Klint Finley
    • An appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to classify Internet Service Providers as common carriers. However, AT&T is vowing to fight the decision and let the Supreme Court settle it, if they will take the case. Other options for lessening the impact of this decision are being exercised as well.
 
  • Are School Internet Connections Fast Enough to Support Personalized Learning?
  • Brookings, The Brown Center Chalkboard blog, June 15, 2016, Joshua Bleiberg
    • Few would argue that technology-enabled personalized learning has tremendous potential to transform education, but do our schools have enough bandwidth to support it? Based on Education SuperHighway e-rate data, perhaps not. Few have reached the 100 kbps per student rate recommended by the FCC, and that rate is not fast enough for personalized learning (SETDA recommends at least 250 kbps for personalized learning). There is a large disparity among school districts even within states that have met the average speed, leaving many districts far behind the minimum requirement.
 
Emerging Technologies
  • Deep Learning Isn’t a Dangerous Magic Genie. It’s Just Math”
  • Wired.Com, June 15, 2016, Oren Etzioni
    • Deep learning is a new term for neural networks — meant to mimic the human brain and used to achieve computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, facial recognition and even expression recognition. Basically, it is just math. “In particular, deep learning is a class of algorithmic methods for ‘tuning’ neural networks based on data.” Deep learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence, which is an approximation of functions based on a collection of data points. Rather than using supervised data points (labeling of data points typically by humans or modified by humans and based on hypothesis and outcomes), reinforcement learning is a lengthy process that uses unsupervised data points (determined by the machine choosing actions repeatedly and observing the different iterative outcomes). “However, many problems require additional analysis before they can even be represented to a machine in a form that it can manipulate.” Defining a problem in machine-understandable language can be difficult, solving it can be timely and expensive, and the magic is in understanding intelligence. It could be decades or centuries before the human-level artificial intelligence genie springs from the bottle.
 
  • Flight of the RoboBee
  • National Science Foundation,
    • Harvard and MIT have used NSF Expeditions in Computing funds to create robotic bees capable of sustained independent flight. About the same size as a real bee, just lighter, the robots can swim and perch on surfaces. Researchers are working on better energy storage and lasers that would help the bees sense their environments. Collaboration across disciplines was critical in making breakthroughs. “Experts from neurobiology, evolutionary biology, materials science, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and bioengineering all worked together toward a common vision, with results that would be difficult to achieve with a smaller group.”
    • This type of cross-collaboration of disciplines is important for success in educational achievement. Bright minds with different perspectives can solve problems better when working together toward a common goal.
 
 New Learning Models
  • 38 Community Colleges Launch Entire Degree Programs With Open Educational Resources”
  • EdSurge, June 14, 2016, Marguerite McNeal
    • With the cost of textbooks climbing 73 percent in the past 10 years, open educational resources can drastically reduce the total cost of a student’s education. To combat the rising cost for students, 38 community colleges in 13 states created entire degree programs without textbook fees, using only open educational resources (OER). Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Hewlett foundations will support the program, which should reach 76,000 students at the institutions.
 
Student Digital Literacy
  • UK Failing to Address Digital Skills Shortage, Says Lords Report”
  • Computer Weekly, February 17, 2016, Kayleigh Bateman
    • Digital technology is vital to the economy. Some called this report a wake-up call that the “approach to educating people of all ages needs a radical re-think. From an early age we need to give digital literacy as much importance as numeracy and literacy.”The report asserts that digital literacy should be a core school subject, just as math and English. Internet for all is also a mandate of the report, stating that in some areas of the United Kingdom nearly 20 percent of the population have never used the internet.
Technology Security
  • How Hackers Held a District Hostage for Almost $10,000”
  • eSchool News, June 15, 2016, Bridget McCrea
    • On February 8, 2016, hackers held data hostage in Horry County Schools of South Carolina for a ransom of almost $10,000 in bitcoin. With ransomware, hackers highly encrypt data systems and refuse to release the encryption key unless the ransom is paid. This type of malicious hacking has happened to individuals, hospitals, businesses and education. Approximately 6.3 million more of these attacks occurred in the first three months of 2016 than occurred in the same time period last year – nearly an eight-fold increase. One reason the hackers are so successful is the victims need access to their files in order to function, and in many cases, the cost of paying the ransom is cheaper than the cost of recreating the data from intermittent backups, if the backups are available at all.
Accessibility
  • Why You Can’t Discuss Online Learning Without Acknowledging This
  • eCampus News, June 22, 2016, Justin Beck
    • “The Harvard, MIT, and Netflix cases all make it clear that any public-facing materials must be properly captioned. This is no longer a nice-to-have: any campus that is not working on getting all of its public-facing materials captioned to ADA-508 compliance is sitting on a ticking time bomb. This isn’t just a matter of academic materials, either: schools should be looking at their marketing materials, alumni relations, and campus news videos as well.”
      eCampus News, June 22, 2016
      “This” in the article’s title is digital content accessibility, more specifically captioning for videos. When the U.S. Department of Justice filed statements in favor of the National Association for the Deaf against Harvard and MIT in 2015, universities realized the importance of making online courses accessible to all students. The ruling against Netflix in 2012, in which it classified its streaming service as a “place of public accommodation” and therefore required video captioning, made other public entities more aware of the necessity of captioning videos to make them more accessible to wider audiences. Based on the 2010 census, one in five Americans is classified with a disability, and 13 percent of public school students use special education services. Section 504 and 508 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II and Title III are the relevant regulations for institutions regarding accessibility of educational services and materials.
    • Captioning videos not only brings an institution into compliance with these regulations, it also benefits English-as-a-second-language students, makes videos searchable and makes it easier for all listeners to understand fast speakers and those with hard-to-understand accents. Essentially, captioning increases viewer engagement for many.

Policy
  • Record Number of Charter Schools Could Close in Ohio
  • Governing, June 20, 2016, Catherine Candisky
    • Because of a recent charter school sponsorship law, many failing charter schools in Ohio could be shut down. Private schools that run on public dollars cannot operate without a sponsor. Cleveland’s OAK Leadership Institute was denied a last-minute plea to remain open, and other schools will see the same fate due to failing test scores and failure to meet accountability measures. Ohio spends about $1 billion annually for 374 charter schools that serve about 120,000 students. That’s more than $8,300 per student or $2.67 million per charter school.
    • The article did not address how the students would be affected nor how public schools that have to absorb those new students would be affected.
 
  • Tension at the Top
  • Inside Higher Ed, May 20, 2016, Ashley A. Smith
    • Conflicts between governing boards and community college presidents have caused a run of resignations and terminations of presidents. The loss of these presidents has prompted worries about whether sufficient candidates with appropriate qualifications will be available. “Community colleges, perhaps more than ever, are on the front lines of policy discussions about rebuilding the nation’s economy and future. The position of community college leader, however, is in flux. A large number of leaders at two-year institutions are leaving the field, while the presidential pipeline has become narrower.” Last year, one in four community colleges had a presidential turnover (269 of 1132 colleges or 24 percent).
 
  • Two Leadership Models Link Technology, Academics and Instruction
  • Center for Digital Education, June 14, 2016, Tanya Roscorla
    • “Miami-Dade and Arlington school districts have created very different but successful organizational structures that enhance decision-making between superintendents, chief academic officers and chief information officers.” In Miami-Dade, the chief information officer reports to the chief academic officer. The two work together to ensure that technology supports instruction but is not the driver. The CIO indicates in the article, however, that she is not part of the cabinet and does not have first-hand information on all initiatives that could be affected by technology.In Arlington, the assistant superintendent of information services sits on the cabinet, and all parties work together as a team for instructional solutions. Both districts put student instruction first.
 
 
 
Prepared by Wanda Barker, director of SREB’s Educational Technology Cooperative
Wanda.Barker@SREB.org.
 
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