Group items tagged

From the non-academic side of the issues, this article outlines emerging technology trends in business. The article solidifies arguments for technology awareness, adoption, implementation and support in higher education because it supports the theory that technology adoption in education is not the same as educational technology adoption. IT governance is about the technology that higher professionals need to do their jobs - to run the business of higher ed. General project management principles apply, as well as general awareness of consumer technology trends because, after all, higher ed professionals are consumers and the university is a consumer and a B2B partner with vendors and services for mobile tech, cloud technology, hardware and software, and more.

CEIT - Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology. University of Queensland resource. Multiple areas of important. Some access is limited but provides a very good foundation of their areas of development as applied to ed tech.

Eric Stoller, a student affairs blogger for Inside Higher Education, discusses the need for technology proficiency within student affairs departments. During his time as an academic advisor, Stoller used his knowledge of technology to spend more time with students and less time working on organizational tasks. While academic affairs departments have slowly begun adapting with technological advances, student affairs departments appear to be left behind. Technologies exist to help streamline student services processes. If student affairs departments invested in learning and using new technologies, their efficiency would increase. Stoller also explains student affairs offices need to meet students where they are: on social media. Student affairs departments deal with a variety of issues and utilizing social media and other communication channels to reach students is beneficial. Regardless of how it is done, Stoller believes student affairs employees need to adapt to technological advances before being left behind in higher education.

Best technology site you will find - gets my endorsement for all-around ed-tech site.

This article explains how one institution, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has focused on mobile phones and how they are successfully changing the classroom and data collection efforts. This is one example of how the traditional teaching and learning model is becoming more collaborative and interactive, now that instructors and students have equal and flexible access to information. ACU does regular self-reporting surveys of students and teachers to assess their opinions and evaluations. Based on the data collected since using devices in their courses, students are participating more during class and communication between faculty and students has increased. This article also describes how this institution has incorporated "mobile learning fellows", faculty who are given time to work on and evaluate a mobile learning project of their choice. The author is the Senior Editor of Network World magazine and this information would be helpful for faculty and administrators in information technology or instructional technology, in order to successfully implement curriculum onto mobile devices.

This article describes the value of having a "service lens" in strategic implementation of technology in higher education. The authors view higher education as a co-created set of activities and experiences, having value only in their use over time, which is a shift from traditional thinking. They share that this strategy requires a belief in service systems existing in order to serve consumers, employers, and society at large. A service lens puts the consumer (the student) at the center of improvement and innovation initiatives, considering the consumer's experience to be a foundation for looking at how to make important changes in higher education. The authors argue that service blueprinting can be used to transform a traditional course to an online course while enhancing efficient delivery of content, the student experience, and student learning outcomes. Several examples are shared from the authors' institution, Arizona State University, with evidence pointing to an increase in student success, achievable learning outcomes, and reducing cost. This article would be most helpful for faculty and staff looking to take a strategic approach in making decisions about technology based on the student experience.

The New Media Consortium is an international research project developed by practitioners and educational technology visionaries, established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large influence over the next five years, both in education and globally. It is important to note that a previous Horizon Report (2009) has been frequently mentioned in other articles and websites related to current educational technology trends. In the 2012 report, the one year or less prediction focuses on mobile apps and tablet computing being the most prevalent, with increased utilization by college students. The two to three year forecast includes game-based learning and learning analytics, explaining that the ability to tailor educational activities as content becomes easier to manipulate with the benefit of education becoming more open to change. In four to five years, the authors emphasize gesture-based computing and the "internet of things" or objects producing their own information will both have a significant impact on education. The group expects that educational trends influenced by these technologies will be collaborative learning, working in teams, and a shift towards more challenge-based and active learning. This article provides a helpful summary reflecting the expected realities in higher education and in the larger society, acting as a guide for educators to follow technology trends, challenges, and relevance for teaching and learning.

the mother of clearinghouses -  universal design (and UDL) and accessibility in higher education.  

The author of this article is a staff reporter for an information technology blog geared towards higher education professionals. The author shares how the University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science provided free data storage to all incoming students who were interested in 2011. The service offered by LifeTime Library, works on students' personal computers and allows them to automatically archive their files and folders. The data is then housed on a website, where students can search for files by name or by date saved. Students can continue to use the online storage after they graduate, which remains free for these students. The author shares that at this college, dealing with large amounts of online data is a big part of what students learn at the School of Information and Library Science and they intend for the LifeTime Library services to act as a teaching tool for students to figure out the best ways to organize their own digital information. This college also provides courses to focus on ways to make the service more useful, by incorporating data collected from students. The author interviewed the Dean of the College, who reported that eventually the program should be able to save every version of a file, even if it has been edited multiple times, archive mobile phone data, or save social media pages. The author explored the legal ramifications, sharing that the college has the right to scan any information housed in the data storage, and that students must agree to an acceptable-use policy. The author shares that this college anticipates the program to grow, having students store more information than they would have otherwise. The challenge for administrators to anticipate how much storage will be needed will likely dictate how much the school will have to pay to maintain a service like this one. This article would be most useful for technology administrators looking to implement a similar service at their institution.