The Knight Center's MOOC on data visualization was a bit smaller than traditional MOOCs (it actually capped enrollment at 2000), but the second version of the same class already has 4000 students registered. It sounds like the professor gave a lot of attention to the students and the projects, and the fact that the numbers went up is a good sign.

For those interested in innovation in higher ed, NCIIA is hosting their annual conference in March in DC. Generally the theme is how to teach technology entrepreneurship, but some of the topics this year are a bit more general. Examples: -- Team-based Learning Pedagogy: Transforming classroom dialogue and learning --Learning space design for creativity and innovation --Simplifying / packaging creative engineering education

Just thinking about Professor Dede's experience with the Bush Foundation, I found this interview with Jeb Bush interesting. He talks some about the Bush Foundation's recent Education in Excellence conference and what kinds of issues are at stake for education reform to stick. Obviously a little bit political, but not too much. Building on some of the previous posts, politics does impact change in education so I think it's important for us to keep these things in mind.

An interesting article on how resistant to change different types of organizations are. Educational institutions rank pretty highly resistant. Though it is interesting to note that businesses rank the most adaptive (non resistant)--so the education technology and startup trend may be a good sign!

For the business-type folks in the class, McGraw-Hill just sold its Education division to a private equity company. They think that education will continue to be a good investment.

Yeah, I thought it was weird. I looked into that--I think the sale is to a different "Apollo" group. UPhoenix is something like "Apollo Group" whereas McGraw Hill sold their division to "Apollo Global Management". I think they are different entities, but it is hard to tell. If they are the same organization, it is definitely a weird sign of shifting investments.

One of the big problems for MOOCs and other online platforms has been cheating. These five technologies can be implemented to counter online cheating.

The state of Michigan has allocated some funding to upgrade technology in K-12 schools. The expectation is that all students will take standardized tests online within a couple of years.

Another article about MOOCs and some general criticisms. I haven't heard the "groupthink" argument before (if everyone took the same MOOC on economics, we would all have the same opinion of economics instead of generating healthy debates), so that was interesting to see.

Interested in researching more what we talked about in class today, I found that some universities are actively trying to promote civic engagement in youth. Illinois State University students created a documentary to help them reflect on their learning. This is not at K-12, and maybe shows that (as we talked about in class), districts have less freedom to implement things like this...

MIT just appointed a new Director of Digital Learning. I guess edX and the impact of educational technology at MIT has become official and institutionalized--and probably not just a fad.

A report by the Alliance for Excellent Education says that public education will face four challenges in adopting education technology: 1) preparing kids for college / career, 2) shrinking budgets, 3) teacher-centered to learner-centered, and 4) technology equality (especially for low-income students).

We had a discussion in class a month back or so about standards and international performance versus U.S. One of the talking points was, what can the U.S. learn from other countries (or more appropriate, what is the U.S. willing to learn from other countries). Some people mentioned that the U.S. tends to show an aversion to learning from other countries, but this article notes that the Common Core State Standards is actually based on best practices from other leading countries like Singapore, China, and Finland. So maybe we're not as stubborn as we seem...

The American Council of Education will review some Coursera classes to see if they will recommend them to other universities as "acceptable." This involves a review by existing professors for course quality. Other interesting tidbits: looks like Coursera will pilot remote-proctoring to verify identity of students; Gates Foundation just gave away $3 million to study MOOCs and create remedial / introductory classes.

This article looks at one case study in El Salvador where MOOCs have cracked open the door for university reform. Universities in emerging markets operate on really low budgets compared to U.S. universities, and MOOCs give them access to current content, especially important for high-tech subjects.

The MIT Technology Review just interviewed Khan and talked about his vision for the future, sustainability, and business models.

People have posted about the Star Wars sale before, but here is an analysis of what the impact means on "Tech Education"--kind of talks about it is more efficient to separate entertainment and education, but using the sale money to directly fund education is a good move.

So this is mostly an article by Clayten Christensen on types of innovation, but towards the end he mentions education and the kinds of skills we should be teaching future innovators and entrepreneurs to make sure our economy runs.

And in this article, they break down the big three MOOCs and what makes them different from each other.

One of two articles in the NYTimes they just posted about MOOCs. This one talks about the revolution!