Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

First-ever Israel EdTech Summit brings a global reach

Debut event featured ed-tech entrepreneurs, educators, and more

The first-ever Israel EdTech Summit has just wrapped, bringing together a decidedly global group of educators, startup founders, and other critical stakeholders to discuss innovations in the future of ed-tech. The event, held June 8-9, took place at the Tel Aviv Cultural Center.

Throughout the two days, more than 500 attendees from around the world — including China, Brazil, Germany, and the United States — listened to panel discussions on topics such as personalized learning and big data, improving STEM education, and the role of capital in ed-tech investment success. Other sessions focused on closing the skill gap, bridging tech inequality among students, and building out a successful company.

The keynote was delivered by former president of Intel Israel Mooly Eden.…Read More

Law school updates lecture capture, online collaboration

Campbell Law School selects Citrix collaboration and workflow solutions

collaborationCampbell Law School, recently ranked as the No. 1 most underrated law school in the U.S., has standardized on Citrix for lecture capture/recording, hosting, online collaboration and file sharing.

The campus supports the educational needs of the students, as well as the research and teaching demands of the faculty and staff due in large part to workflow and communications cloud technology through Citrix ShareFile, Podio and GoToMeeting products.

For example, professors and students utilize Podio, a cloud-based collaboration tool, as a single, integrated environment to procure -information in an accessible, integrated manner. Likewise, as Campbell Law offers students a flexible learning environment, GoToMeeting allows students to form group discussions and meetings from any location and device, as well as share notes, assignments and review work – all in a collaborative setting.…Read More

Tools help video collaboration go mobile

Solutions offering on-demand video conferencing collaboration are helping university faculty, students connect.

video-collaborationIt’s not hard to spot technology on campuses across the nation, and unified collaboration tools are quickly becoming essential to teaching and learning at institutions of higher education.

With more students turning to online courses, MOOCs, BYOD, and more, collaboration tools offer a way for students to connect with their peers and professors without worrying about geographical barriers.

And as learning has gone mobile, universities are seeking ways to make it as easy as possible for users with laptops or tablets to access video conferencing and collaboration capabilities. Tools such as Cisco Jabber or Adobe Connect offer ways for faculty and students to connect and collaborate from different locations.…Read More

Partnership highlights increasing use of digital credentials

DeakinDigital, Credly team up to offer digital credentials for professional skills.

digital-badgingDeakinDigital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deakin University, is partnering with Credly in the delivery of its new credentialing program, which it touts as an alternative to traditional education models.

The move could drastically reduce the time it takes to attain certain degrees, university representatives said.

Credly, which offers platforms for managing lifelong credentials, will enable DeakinDigital users to manage and share the digital badges they earn in places where they want to be recognized for the full spectrum of their skills and knowledge.…Read More

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A multi-modal approach to emergency alerts

A free workshop on emergency alerts will be presented at the EduComm Expo this fall.

emergency-alertEduComm Expo (ECE) will feature a free half-hour on-floor workshop entitled, “Emergency Alerts: A Multi-modal Approach to Reaching the Entire Campus,” at its educational conference taking place at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

The Wed., Sept. 30 workshop, to be presented by Amanda Grabowski, Business Systems Analyst, University of Michigan, from 2:30-3:00p.m., will discuss the variety of ways in which to broadcast emergency alert notifications to effectively reach the entire university community, specifically:

• How to assess audience needs and set goals for wayfinding directories and off-screen takeaways, as well as where touchscreens should reside.
• What assets are required to get started with a wayfinding design and how to map out wayfinding paths and network considerations for hosting and maintenance.
• A review of project phases including needs assessment, asset validation, location and mapping, creative design/build, implementation, testing and maintenance.…Read More

5 tips for communicating with the campus community

Communications director says knowing who to target, and with what tools and platforms, could help ease communication with minimal resources.

jared_padgettModern technology has provided a multitude of communications platforms in our increasingly digital world. While this has brought the world to our finger-tips, it has also created a challenge for an organization wanting to reach its audience: how can an institution compete with all the white noise and provide opportunities for meaningful interaction with its campus?

As colleges and universities face the ever-present threat of budget cuts, and enrollments fluctuate, the answer to this question may be critical. Consider, however, that this may not even be the right question – or at least the only question.

Think about the makeup of your institution. Think about the students, faculty, admin, stakeholders, and the general public who might interact with your school on a daily basis. Is this a homogeneous group? Likely, you pictured a set of distinct audiences, a heterogeneous blend of unique subsets, all of whom have different needs, wants, and expectations.…Read More

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Extron SMP 351 automates lecture capture

System integrates with media server to better facilitate lecture capture

lecture-captureExtron Electronics’ SMP 351 now integrates with Opencast Media Server to create end-to-end solutions for lecture capture in the classroom, from scheduling to publishing.

Opencast is a free, open-source platform for the management of AV media recorded in training and education environments.

The Extron SMP 351 Streaming Media Processor serves the role of a “capture agent” in an Opencast system.…Read More

UNC tool tracks state educator prep programs

New dashboard uses SAS software to track teacher, school leader impact; tool monitors quality and quantity of public school educators.

unc-educatorThe University of North Carolina system’s new Educator Quality Dashboard provides public access to the university’s research and trend data on the performance of North Carolina’s public school educators.

Built with SAS data visualization software, the interactive online tool enables citizens to analyze and display data on the UNC system’s efforts to prepare more and higher-quality teachers and school leaders for the state’s public schools.

Creating an Educator Quality Dashboard for educational institutions, policymakers and the public was a key recommendation of the UNC Board of Governors Subcommittee on Teacher and School Leader Quality. The result is a way to monitor, track and assess the performance of the UNC system and its 15 nationally accredited teacher education programs. The dashboard uses SAS Visual Analytics to display multiple years of data collected for the university’s educator quality research efforts.…Read More

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App brings social collaboration to cloud storage

New, free web and mobile app lets users socially collaborate on documents, photos and videos within their Dropbox or Google Drive.

social-cloud
Courtesy of FileChat.

To help make the cloud a social experience, FileChat announced that it has launched its platform, which delivers features that allow users to chat, “like” and vote on any of their files to harness the power of cloud based storage like never before.

FileChat is currently free and will be adding premium services/levels in the coming months. FileChat has secured a $3 million round of funding from private investors to support the development and launch of the platform.

(Next page: How to access FileChat)…Read More

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