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"Online learning has been hailed as a faster, cheaper way to provide education -- but it doesn't do half of what administrators think it will.      With the help of a few experts, we've compiled a list of major myths that administrators believe, how they match up against reality and why administrators believe them. "

"There are a multitude of ways that Google Hangouts can make learning more engaging and personalized for students, teachers and administrators. This free web conferencing tool can make a big difference for classrooms by connecting students to people outside of the classroom, and it can make regular communication and collaboration much easier for teachers and administrators."

"If administrators really wanted to improve the quality of any particular online course, they would cut the professor a check and walk away.  No, I'm not talking free money here.  There'd be a call for proposals, and reports at the end to demonstrate that the professors who got the money did what they said they'd do.  All the usual accountability measures.  If the professor needs help making this happen, then they can call the instructional designers rather than the other way around.  If administrators wanted to find a place to fund these checks, they could just cut out all the money going to for-profit Silicon Valley startups rather than the actual educational experience and give it to faculty instead."

"Righting the ship will require borrowing a page from the community-college playbook, by adding employment-ready programs like nursing (as Holy Family has done) and computing to entice disaffected degree-seekers. Developing online and hybrid teaching methods might also raise revenue from adult learners. Mostly, self-preservation will require both professors and administrators to accept cost-cutting, which will hardly be easy. Even though St. Joe's ended the year with a $7 million surplus by embracing some of these measures, its administration became cannon fodder for faculty. But if more schools don't follow suit, it could spell closures. "For those college presidents unwilling to reboot," Hartman warns. "I've got one word for them: Detroit.""

After completing the eight-week course, however, I am optimistic that this kind of MOOC will not eat my job because it and I are not really in the same business. At Ursinus College, where I teach, the faculty and administration work individually and collectively to help our students cultivate judgment, the capacity to decide what to think or how to act in areas, like health policy, where no formula can generate the right answer. While we cannot help our students without demanding that they take an active role in their education, we also assume that they do not come in with their judgments already cultivated. College should be a transformative experience for them, and they will need guidance.

"More and more I am reading articles like this one Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students. In it they talk about college professors and administrators who have or are considering unplugging student's access to the internet or banning technology altogether so students will focus. These learning institutions are moving in the wrong direction! When we blame or ban the technology,  we solve our issue temporarily, but we are ignoring the root of the problem.  "

Most of us recognize that schools should be helping students learn how to do deep, rich, technology-infused knowledge work that prepares them for future citizenship, college, work, and other life needs. Many principals and superintendents, however, are struggling to balance the need to technologically empower students with countervailing organizational concerns regarding safety, respectful behavior, and the law. In my conversations with school administrators about Internet safety and student technology usage, I use many of the talking points below. Use some of them to spark a conversation with your local educators and community.

If wanted to take a mooc - do you have any recommendations on what to avoid? I am interested in digital storytelling and all things video game (and gamification).

TCC Hawaii invites faculty, support staff, librarians, counselors, student affairs professionals, students, administrators, and educational consultants to submit proposals for papers and general sessions.

Sound like a super on-line conference. I won't be submitting a proposal but would love to join-in. I would not, in this case, having a on-ground session.

A true educational Commons would be a force for reducing academic hierarchy and income inequality. I'm all in favor of that. You say you are too. But is that what you are telling your partners in finance and university administration? Or are you telling them that they can accumulate even more of what they already have-money and prestige-while appearing to be giving it away? I will know my course has been successful when my students understand Coursera's business model behind offering free higher education globally (along with the promise of greater social equality) as an exciting venture capital investment opportunity through which to increase privately-held wealth and lock in existing educational hierarchies.

"Today at its I/O event, Google announced Google Play for Education: A version of the Play store that is aimed and curated for young kids. Applications that are in the Play for Education store are sorted by age and genre. So, users can find math-based applications that are appropriate for their kindergartener, who wants to learn more math. However, what is most interesting about Play for Education is the ability for administrators to send out applications to their entire tablet fleet. So, if a school wants to send an app to their 200 Nexus 7 devices, they can do so, by simply inputting the group's name. The app will be pushed out by Google."

"As much as I don't want to say this, I don't think there's a chance in hell that MOOCs will die on their own. I can't think of any trend which saved large institutitions money and trouble, then died a natural death. And faculty can't defend against them - we have been made powerless very slowly, over a long period of administrative takeover and public apathy (or even antipathy in our new era of anti-intellectualism). What happened at SJSU and Amherst is the exception  - an exception I applaud, but an exception. The public perceives faculty objections to MOOCs as an issue of job security rather than quality."

"The dramatic increase in online education, particularly Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), presents researchers, academics, administrators, learners, and policy makers with a range of questions as to the effectiveness of this format of teaching and learning. To date, the impact of MOOCs and emerging forms of digital learning has been largely disseminated through press releases and university reports, with only limited peer-reviewed research publication. The proliferation of MOOCs in higher education requires a concerted and urgent research agenda. The MOOC Research Initiative (MRI) will fill this research gap by evaluating MOOCs and how they impact teaching, learning, and education in general."

"Often times, as the principal goes, so does the culture of the school.  This is not to say that individual teachers can not be leading the way within the school themselves, but this goes back to the notion of "pockets of innovation" as opposed to a "culture of innovation".  It is unlikely for an entire school to be "pushing the edge" if the principal or administrative team is not helping to pave the way for their community as they learn alongside of them."

Partnering with Lumen Learning, a Portland, Ore.-based company that helps educational institutions integrate open educational resources into their curricula, TCC plans to offer a textbook-free associate of science degree in business administration based on Lumen's Textbook Zero model. For students who pursue the new "textbook-free" degree, the total cost for required textbooks will be zero. Instead, the program will use high quality open textbooks and other open educational resources, known as OER, which are freely accessible, openly licensed materials useful for teaching, learning, assessment and research. It is estimated that a TCC student who completes the degree through the textbook-free initiative might save one-third on the cost of college.

"Chester Ludlow, a pug dog from Vermont, has been awarded an online MBA degree (Masters in Business Administration) by Rochville University-an online college that offers life experience online degrees. Chester is believed to be the first dog to be awarded an online masters degree based on work and life experience credentials. But did he earn it-or did he buy it?"

"The Transportation Security Administration - better known as the TSA, or the folks who pat you down at the airport - has opened its own account on Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service. Yes, really."

"instructors and a large share of academic technology administrators say the efforts are mainly designed to satisfy accreditors and politicians -- not to increase degree completion rates."

"the reports really show that the shift to a contingent academic work force was motivated by economic (and, I would argue, political) concerns -- disempowering the faculty by making them economically precarious of course reduces their influence and weakens shared governance, giving administrators more power."

"Additional information for Apps administrators*: The classic version of Google Sites will remain fully functional for at least one year. In the future, we will provide options for moving content from classic Google Sites."

"Teachers see themselves as consumers, putting lawmakers, publishers, and administration in control. However, teacher are designers. Teachers hold an incredible amount of decision-making power. According to Marzano's work, teachers are the number one school-level factor relative to student achievement. So, stop choosing off the shelf. Design-- with your end users in mind."