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For-Profit Education, FTC Warnings
After Being Unfairly Characterized by Regulators, For-Profit Institutions Slowly Rebranding Image | Jeff Ifrah - JDSupra: " . . . Most recently, the FTC has launched a campaign to warn veterans about for-profit education: “Colleges are there to help you, right? Hmm, not so fast. Not every school has got your back. Some for-profit schools may care more about boosting their bottom line with your VA education benefits. Some may even stretch the truth to persuade you to enroll, either by pressuring you to sign up for courses that don’t suit your needs or to take out loans that will be a challenge to pay off.” (http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/veterans-dont-get-schooled) “[S]ome schools manipulate the data or lie about how well their graduates fare.” (http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0395-choosing-college) . . ."
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LAUSD, every student with iPads
LAUSD launches its drive to equip every student with iPads - latimes.com: "Two local elementary schools became the first to roll out tablet computers Tuesday in a $1-billion effort to put iPads in the hands of every student in the Los Angeles Unified School District. For Broadacres, in Carson, the tablets were an exhilarating upgrade for a campus that had no wireless Internet and few working computers. Technology was only marginally better at Cimarron, in Hawthorne, where the computer lab couldn't accommodate an entire class. "This is going to level the playing field as far as what schools are doing throughout the district," said Principal Cynthia M. Williams of Cimarron, where 70% of students are from low-income families. L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy has pushed for the technology, which will cost about $1 billion — half of that for the Apple tablets and about half for other expenses, such as installing a wireless network on every campus. The vast majority of the cost will be covered by school construction bonds, a payment method that has sparked some concerns and legal and logistical hurdles. Not everyone is sold on whether the tablets will improve learning...." (read more at link above)
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Tablets with Google Play for Education
Introducing Tablets with Google Play for Education
Published on Nov 13, 2013
Schools in Hillsborough, New Jersey were among the first to try out Nexus 7 tablets with Google Play for Education. See the difference it made for students, teachers, and administrators. Learn more at http://google.com/edu/tablets
"Google Play for Education is basically Google Play, but curated specifically for kids by teachers, with apps sorted by age and genre. So, for example, users can find math-based applications that are appropriate for their kindergartener, who wants to learn more maths. It also contains educational videos and classic books for the classroom. The special edition Google Play will ship to schools on the Nexus 7 from today, while the 10″ ASUS Transformer Pad and the 8″ HP Slate 8 Pro will be added early in 2014. Tablet pricing starts at $229, with management costing $30 per device." (source: The Next Web)
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Using technology against cheating in online education
Using technology to fight cheating in online education - Los Angeles Times: " . . . defeating the ingenuity of computer-savvy students is a huge challenge that has attracted much investment and attention in the last year. The whole system can be corrupted with something as low-tech as a cheat sheet tucked out of camera sight. "Online courses are under scrutiny to show evidence of integrity in ways that face-to-face courses aren't," said Teddi Fishman, director of the International Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University in South Carolina. William Dornan, chief executive of Phoenix-based Kryterion Inc., which monitors tests for several schools and companies, said technology is up to the task. He contends that his webcam system reduces cheating far below its occurrence in regular lecture halls. "Security is incredibly important," he said. "If it's known you can cheat, that completely dilutes the brand."" (read more at link above)
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Private Schools, Foreign Satellites
Some of England’s best-known private schools are rushing to set up satellites abroad. But the market may be reaching saturation point - "Most of the new breed of schools are run by local management companies. Some are even considering franchising entire regions to education providers, including American chains" Read more at On the playing fields of Shanghai
Colleges Complicit In Raising Tuitions
How colleges are complicit in raising tuition - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet: "GW just built a new $130 million "super dorm" and $33 million textile museum. It is not alone. The University of Pennsylvania's gym recently underwent a $10 million renovation to include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, co-ed sauna, juice bar, golf simulator, and climbing wall. Kenyon College, a liberal arts school, has a $70 million athletic center with similar country club features. While these amenities are definitely an attractive proposition to prospective students at face value, what they really end up doing is spiking tuition costs, further contributing to America's $1 trillion student loan debt crisis. Additionally, these facilities are inconsistent with the core competency of higher education institutions. To be quite literal about it, the mission of GW is to "commit itself to excellence in the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge." Are super dorms inherent in this thesis?" (read more at link above)
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Shanghai, Better Schools
The Shanghai Secret - NYTimes.com: " . . . In 2003, Shanghai had a very “average” school system, said Andreas Schleicher, who runs the PISA exams. “A decade later, it’s leading the world and has dramatically decreased variability between schools.” He, too, attributes this to the fact that, while in America a majority of a teacher’s time in school is spent teaching, in China’s best schools, a big chunk is spent learning from peers and personal development. As a result, he said, in places like Shanghai, “the system is good at attracting average people and getting enormous productivity out of them,” while also, “getting the best teachers in front of the most difficult classrooms.” China still has many mediocre schools that need fixing. But the good news is that in just doing the things that American and Chinese educators know work — but doing them systematically and relentlessly — Shanghai has in a decade lifted some of its schools to the global heights in reading, science and math skills. Oh, and Shen Jun, the principal, wanted me to know: “This is just the start.”" (read more at link above)
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Seniors Learning New Technology
Computers and the Internet can open up new worlds for the elderly--
Helping Seniors Learn New Technology - NYTimes.com: "Several years ago Garrison Phillips, a retired actor, bought himself a Dell computer. He soon recognized that he didn’t know what to do with it. “I needed instruction,” he told me in an interview conducted — perhaps surprisingly — by e-mail. “The technology of the Internet, cell and iPhones was like a foreign language.” Mr. Phillips then attended one of the first classes offered by OATS, a New York City nonprofit (the acronym stands for Older Adults Technology Services) that provides free tech training for seniors. Despite serious hearing loss from an injury in the Korean War, Mr. Phillips learned his way around his desktop, went on to more advanced OATS classes and now, at 83, uses his computer (his third) to blog, write stories and theater pieces, and to communicate with friends and family from England to California. It’s become “the most important activity and creative outlet in my life,” he wrote. . . . " (read more at link above)
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Helping Seniors Learn New Technology - NYTimes.com: "Several years ago Garrison Phillips, a retired actor, bought himself a Dell computer. He soon recognized that he didn’t know what to do with it. “I needed instruction,” he told me in an interview conducted — perhaps surprisingly — by e-mail. “The technology of the Internet, cell and iPhones was like a foreign language.” Mr. Phillips then attended one of the first classes offered by OATS, a New York City nonprofit (the acronym stands for Older Adults Technology Services) that provides free tech training for seniors. Despite serious hearing loss from an injury in the Korean War, Mr. Phillips learned his way around his desktop, went on to more advanced OATS classes and now, at 83, uses his computer (his third) to blog, write stories and theater pieces, and to communicate with friends and family from England to California. It’s become “the most important activity and creative outlet in my life,” he wrote. . . . " (read more at link above)
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Schooling-Education Gap
Schooling does NOT equal Education -- ever hear of "credentialed" but "uneducated"? That's how you get high school graduates in the US who can't read! --
The Gap Between Schooling and Education: (NY Times) - "The world has made dramatic gains in getting children — even very, very poor children — into school. But are they learning? The discomfiting conclusion from Lant Pritchett, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, is, in many cases, no. . . . “Good governments do schooling, but nearly all bad governments do it, too,” Mr. Pritchett writes. But that does not mean that all that schooling has translated into much education, he says. For instance, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, less than half of surveyed children in fifth grade could read a story intended for second graders. About one in six students in fifth grade recognized letters but could not read words. What can schools and countries do to make sure students are learning while they are in school? What are the consequences of this schooling-education gap? . . . "(read more at link above)
The Gap Between Schooling and Education: (NY Times) - "The world has made dramatic gains in getting children — even very, very poor children — into school. But are they learning? The discomfiting conclusion from Lant Pritchett, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, is, in many cases, no. . . . “Good governments do schooling, but nearly all bad governments do it, too,” Mr. Pritchett writes. But that does not mean that all that schooling has translated into much education, he says. For instance, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, less than half of surveyed children in fifth grade could read a story intended for second graders. About one in six students in fifth grade recognized letters but could not read words. What can schools and countries do to make sure students are learning while they are in school? What are the consequences of this schooling-education gap? . . . "(read more at link above)
The Threat to American Prosperity
Lack of skills, knowledge, declining quality of human capital --
A Threat to American Prosperity Worse Than Congress - Bloomberg: " . . . the survey measures the quality of human capital, one of the crucial drivers of long-term economic success. The U.S. performance in these rankings isn’t just poor, it’s pitiful. Comparing Scores - The average literacy score for Americans ages 16 to 65 places the U.S. 18th out of 22 participating countries. In numeracy, the U.S. ranks 20th out of 22. In “problem-solving in technology-rich environments” -- a measure of the capacity to interact productively with computers -- the U.S. comes in 14th out of 19. Those results are actually quite good when compared with the performance of adults ages 16 to 24. In literacy, young Americans rank 20th out of 22; in numeracy, 22nd out of 22; and in problem-solving, 19th out of 19. The only glimmer of good news in these figures, if you can call it good news, is that U.S. standards of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving aren’t falling in absolute terms as fast as the poor relative performance of U.S. youngsters might suggest. Young Americans have slid to the bottom of the rankings mainly because young adults in other countries are doing much better than their predecessors did, whereas their American counterparts aren’t. The fact remains, the capacities of the U.S. labor force are consistently well below average, and those of the youngest segment rank (on two out of three measures) dead last. . . ." (read more at link above)
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A Threat to American Prosperity Worse Than Congress - Bloomberg: " . . . the survey measures the quality of human capital, one of the crucial drivers of long-term economic success. The U.S. performance in these rankings isn’t just poor, it’s pitiful. Comparing Scores - The average literacy score for Americans ages 16 to 65 places the U.S. 18th out of 22 participating countries. In numeracy, the U.S. ranks 20th out of 22. In “problem-solving in technology-rich environments” -- a measure of the capacity to interact productively with computers -- the U.S. comes in 14th out of 19. Those results are actually quite good when compared with the performance of adults ages 16 to 24. In literacy, young Americans rank 20th out of 22; in numeracy, 22nd out of 22; and in problem-solving, 19th out of 19. The only glimmer of good news in these figures, if you can call it good news, is that U.S. standards of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving aren’t falling in absolute terms as fast as the poor relative performance of U.S. youngsters might suggest. Young Americans have slid to the bottom of the rankings mainly because young adults in other countries are doing much better than their predecessors did, whereas their American counterparts aren’t. The fact remains, the capacities of the U.S. labor force are consistently well below average, and those of the youngest segment rank (on two out of three measures) dead last. . . ." (read more at link above)
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Education start-ups, technology, exploding
Education start-ups are exploding: "At the Education Nation summit over the past few days a recurring theme has been how new tech tools can improve education and tackle soaring costs. A relatively new category of "EdTech" start-up looks to use technology to make education more effective and accessible to hundreds of millions of people. "Anyone in the world should be able to take high-quality courses, whether at the college or high school level," said Anant Agarwal, the president of nonprofit EdX, which makes college courses available online. "They should be able to take it freely, maybe pay a small amount to get a credential.". . . ." (read more at link above)
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