7 Common Barriers That Obstruct Tech Adoption in Education

It’s hard to imagine human existence without technology. From smartphones to VR headsets to virtual tutoring, there’s so many ways that technology has revolutionized the way we communicate, learn, and do our jobs. How is it that technology has moved so quickly in healthcare, finance, and other big industries, but has taken longer to take shape in the education world? At a fundamental level, the American education system is built according to a model that’s hundreds of years old. There’s a dire need for education to change, and for pioneering innovations to break ground. However, trying to integrate new technology…
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The K-12 Mobile Classroom: 4 Tough Tech Choices

Are the days of banning phones in the classroom a thing of the past? There’s a growing movement toward innovative learning models in K-12, where educators are starting to embrace smartphones and mobile devices, seeing them more than just a distraction in the learning environment. In recent years, researchers found that most American students between the ages of 13 and 17 own smartphones and are using them at school (as high as 71 percent in certain districts). The prevalence of mobile devices is true everywhere, even in schools that ban them entirely. So many teachers have to grapple with the question…
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Technology and the At-Risk Student: 3 Ways to Change Their Learning Outcomes

Students who are labeled “at risk” face a unique set of learning challenges than their peers. They run a wide variety: ones who belong to ethnic minorities, those who are academically disadvantaged, those who are disabled, those with a probationary status, and those from low-income or poverty-stricken households. For example, for the 16 million students who live below the poverty line in the U.S., many do not own computers or have Internet access. In high-poverty schools, only 3 percent of teachers agreed that students had the digital tools they needed to complete assignments at home. For students coming from a single-parent…
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Video and Mobile Learning: What the Research Says

Digital learning is getting a major boost – great news for education. A 2017 report from the Fosway Group, one of Europe’s top HR and learning analyzers, pointed out that there are fast-growing investments in digital learning platforms and content. Of the learning and development professionals surveyed, the biggest demands they are seeing in new technologies have been focused in video learning (77 percent) and mobile learning (76 percent). Today, video and mobile are dominating as optimal ways that people consume content and learn. They’ve have been on the rise for a few years, becoming much more than passing trends. Let’s…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

A few days before the presidential inauguration, the U.S. Dept of Education released their national plan on the future of education technology. In it, they propose a vision that radically reshapes the discourse by focusing less on the use of ed tech in classrooms and more on how it can contribute to the development of a student-centered higher ed ecosystem. Read about their technology report and other major issues taking place in K-12 and higher education below. U.S. Department of Education Releases New Report on Ed Tech Challenges In the National Higher Education Technology Plan, the department highlights the need…
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The 3 Big Changes That Students Want in Higher Education

As they look to the future, college leaders have to take in a variety of perspectives. What big changes should they be making over the next few years? All over the college campus, everyone has different priorities. Faculty need more resources for their department, CIOs are focused on supporting BYOD on campus, presidents want to improve their school rankings, and academic officers are prioritizing innovation of the curriculum. Today, we’ve taken a look at some of the improvements that are on the top of college students’ wish lists. Increased Use of Student Data Higher-ed experts anticipate that predictive analytics will be…
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Top 5 Technology Trends to Watch in 2017

In 2016, a number of technology trends took off and made a big impact in K-12 and higher education classrooms. Competency-based education and other types of blended learning created a fundamental shift in the learning model, data analytics helped educators learn how to better serve their students, and BYOD technology policies have grown to accommodate the every-growing ecosystem of tablets and other individual devices in schools. As the year is coming to end, we’ve put together a watch list of 2017 technology trends and predictions for education. Mobile Learning Mobile devices will continue to impact teachers and students in the…
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4 Big Ideas in Machine Learning That Are Changing Education

Machine learning is a hot topic in the current technology landscape, and in the coming years, it is expected to bring about new breakthroughs. Can machines do what humans can do? In the 1950s, Alan Turing published a paper on the idea of a thinking machine, and now machine learning has made a tremendous impact on  every imaginable industry. In the past five years, news stories talked about how computers lacked the ability to do complex tasks requiring seasoned judgment (e.g., driving a car) – only computers are getting faster than most predicted. Pedro Domingos, a computer science professor at…
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Columbus Saves $800k in Textbooks with New Teaching Framework

As K-12 school districts face stagnant and shrinking state budgets, there’s a greater need to find creative solutions to ensure the success of every student. Like many other districts, the Columbus Municipal School District (CMSD) have continued to employ traditional teaching models, relying on textbooks to drive learning. By partnering with Fishtree, CMSD was able to implement a new K-16 Instruction and Technology Integration Model that contributed to $800,000 in savings and increased the  district’s graduation rates by 20 percent. Their Innovative Approach Eliminating textbooks and integrating technology into the classroom doesn’t happen overnight. The K-16 Instruction and Technology Integration…
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Future Classrooms and the Power of Big Data and Little Data

Data has been growing on a massive scale, in everything from business, engineering, science, entertainment, and policy, transforming the way we think about the world. On the education front, many initially viewed data as a disruption, and not an ally, to the classroom. And as the American higher-ed system has faced a myriad of post-recession challenges, such as shrinking budgets and increased competition, educators have had to rethink and reimagine what they do – including embracing the potential of technological “trends” like data analytics in the era of the digital classroom. Check out four key facts behind the big data…
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