March+30,+2011+-+Reports+and+Publications,+Cloud+Computing,+Technology+Trends,+Surveys,+etc.;+Online+Learning,+Resources,+Open+Textbooks,+and+Accessibility



=**Worthy of Note: March 30, 2011**=

**New Reports and Publications**
2010 Horizon Report The annual Horizon Report sponsored via a grant from Hewlett-Packard, is produced each fall using a process that is informed by both primary and secondary research from New Media Consortium (NMC). It describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. It predicts six technologies that will become prevalent in five years or less: mobile learning, cloud computing, game-based learning, open content and personalized learning environments.

Read more about these six technologies here: CoSN Crystal Ball: Get Ready for Mobile Learning, Cloud Computing (Meris Stansbury, eSchool News, March 16, 2011).

New Report Details Children’s Media Consumption //Jenna Zwang, eSchool News, March 16, 2011// While children’s use of mobile media devices and computers is on the rise, they still use television as their primary media source, according to a report released March 14 by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. The report, entitled "Always Connected: The new digital media habits of young children," examined media usage patterns in young children. Almost nine out of 10 children over the age of five watch television at least three hours a day. The center also found that media consumption patterns alter considerably around age eight, when children are developmentally able to participate in activities for longer and have more advanced motor skills.

K-12 Seeks Custom Fit; Schools Test Individualized Digital Learning //Education Week, March 17, 2011// This annual report investigates how educators are turning to technology and different teaching and learning approaches to provide more personalized learning experiences for students. Download the digital edition here.
 * Technology Counts 2011 **

**Cloud Computing**
SIIA Cloud/Gov 2011 Sponsored by SIIA, this conference focused on an audience of government IT purchasers (Federal, State and Local), ISVs, system integrators, and other influencers at the 5th annual industry conference addressing the government's movement towards SaaS and Cloud Computing. Presentations, media coverage, attendees, etc. and included here.

The Public Cloud ... Why Bother? //Nathan Coates, The A Register, March 9, 2011// Given the amount of noise around cloud computing at the moment, the signal can be difficult to discern. One question that tends to be forgotten in the debate is – why should you bother? Is it just about the money, as some pundits would have you believe? Given that the public cloud is not going to be right for everything, when does it make sense? To answer this question, we need to first consider how ‘the cloud’ has evolved, into three quite distinct models. Read more….

Gartner: Platform-as-a-Service Gaining Traction //Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal, March 16, 2011// Application building is moving to the cloud and will come into its own as a major category this year. That's the latest forecast out of Gartner. The IT consulting company recently researched this lesser discussed cloud segment, called "platform-as-a-service," or PaaS. Gartner predicted that several large vendors would deliver new or expanded PaaS offerings throughout the rest of the year.

Cloud Computing //Educause// A comprehensive list of 245 resources on cloud computing – presentations, publications, podcasts and blogs.

**Technology Trends, Surveys, Mobile Phones, Apps and Such**
Seven Technologies That Will Rock 2011 //Erick Schonfeld, Tech Crunch, January 2, 2011// Erick gave us Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010 where he predicted among other things the Tablet and Android. How would you like to have Web video on your TV…or the Streaming Cloud? What technologies do you think will make it big this year? Check these out….

Survey Finds Strong Support for Educational Technology //Leila Meyer, Campus Technology, March 14, 2011// Most educational leaders around the world support technology in education and believe it is increasingly transforming teaching and learning, according to an international survey commissioned by Cisco and conducted by Washington, DC-based Clarus Research Group. The survey revealed that education is transitioning to the new "connected learning" networked economy, which requires technological skills development for increased global competitiveness in education. Read lengthy press release here. Student Employability and Preparation for Networked Economy cited as top issues.

Enterprise Mobility: 10 Essential Mobile Apps to Invest in 2011: Gartner //Clint Boulton, eWeek.com, February 21, 2011// A quick scan of the many tech blogs show a preponderance of mobile gadget coverage. Numbers from researchers bear this out. Gartner said worldwide mobile device sales hit 1.6 billion units in 2010, a 31.8 percent increase from 2009. Smartphone sales to users were up 72.1 percent from 2009 and accounted for 19 percent of total mobile communications device sales in 2010. If 2010 was the year of the smartphone, a quick perusal of the show floors at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show indicates 2011 will be the year of the tablet, with more than 80 models of the flat, touch screen-accessible computers were on display from vendors large and small. That's just the devices ; there is a huge market brewing for mobile applications. Gartner Feb. 10 put forth new prognostications for the mobile market, estimating that mobile apps will account for $16 billion in user spending in 2012. "Gartner expects brand companies to increasingly shift their marketing budget to the mobile channel and experiment with cutting-edge apps to capture marketing and sales opportunities," noted Gartner analyst Sandy Shen. To that end, here is a list of the top 10 consumer applications Shen and her Gartner colleagues expect to fuel smartphones and tablets in 2011.

Study: University Students Pick iPads Over Textbooks //Jill Duffy, PC Magazine, January 24, 2011// Students at the University of Notre Dame who ditched their textbooks in favor of an iPad to use as an e-reader for seven weeks said they learned more and enjoyed the class more. Notre Dame is the first to publish such results.

U.S. Teen Mobile Report: Calling Yesterday, Texting Today, Using Apps Tomorrow //nielsenwire, October 14, 2010// While not new, this appears to be the most recent look at teen mobile phone usage. If it seems like American teens are texting all the time, it’s probably because on average they’re sending or receiving 3,339 texts a month. That’s more than six per every hour they’re awake – an 8 percent jump from last year. Using recent data from monthly cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers as well as survey data from over 3,000 teens, The Nielsen Company analyzed mobile usage data among teens in the United States for the second quarter of 2010 (April 2010 – June 2010). No one texts more than teens (age 13-17), especially teen females, who send and receive an average of 4,050 texts per month. Teen males also outpace other male age groups, sending and receiving an average of 2,539 texts. Young adults (age 18-24) come in a distant second, exchanging 1,630 texts per month (a comparatively meager three texts per hour).

An earlier study, Teens and Mobile Phones, was done in 2010 (Amanda Lenhart, et al, Pew Research Center, April 20, 2010).

Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle? //nielsenwire, March 3, 2011// The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company. When it comes to consumer marketshare by operating system, Android (29%) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27%) and Apple iOS (27%). But an analysis by manufacturer shows RIM and Apple to be the winners compared to other device makers since they are the only ones creating and selling smartphones with their respective operating systems.

Among Mobile Phone Users, Hispanics, Asians are Most-Likely Smartphone Owners in the U.S. //Don Kellogg, The Nielsen Company, February 1, 2011// As of December 2010, nearly a third (31%) of all mobile consumers in the United States owned smartphones, cellphones with app-based, web-enabled operating systems. But smartphone penetration is even higher among mobile users who are part of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S. – namely Asian/Pacific Islanders (45%), Hispanics (45%) and African-Americans (33%), populations that also tend to skew younger. Meanwhile, only 27 percent of White mobile users reported owning a smartphone. @http://www.wiredlatinos.com/mobile/new-study-by-neilsenwire-finds-latinos-among-top-smartphone-owners/

iPad competitors Xoom into stores //Brigid McCarthy, The Poway High School Iliad (California), March 16, 2011// How many competitors to the iPad can you name? With devices such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab already on the market and new ones such as the Dell Streak7, LG G Slate and the Vizio Tablet expected to arrive soon, there will be opportunity for competition both at the manufacturer and retail level, which will drive the tablet to have a higher quality and hopefully a lower price.

Also, check out the top five tablets in 2011 at CNET TV (Tablets to Beat the iPad).

Smartphone App Makes Book Citations a Snap //Ben Wieder, Wired Campus, February 14, 2011// A new smartphone application takes most of the grunt work out of citing books in scholarly papers.

**Opinion**
Google's Gadfly //Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, February 16, 2011// “Uncomfortably familial.” That is how Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, describes the relationship between higher education and Google. While Google has given much to higher education, the genetic differences between higher education and Google are more striking than their similarities. Beneath the interdependence and shared hereditary traits, tensions creep. And like an awkward Thanksgiving dinner, Vaidhyanathan’s new book, //The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)// (University of California Press), provokes these tensions to the surface. Read more….

**Online Learning and LMSs**
10 Strategies to Improve the Quality of Online Learning //Tom VanderArk, EdReformer, February 17, 2011// Most of the 100 advisors that contributed to the 10 Digital Learning Now (DLN) recommendations mentioned an interest in quality education and actively debated measures to ensure it as online learning continues to expand. However, creating the ideal policy set that encourages both innovation and quality is no small feat. He discusses this with Erin Dillon and Bill Tucker of Education Next.

Virtual Education Boom Hits the States //David Harrison, Stateline, March 4, 2011// A look at K-12 online learning across states.

Comparing Online Programs //Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, March 24, 2011, March 30, 2011// Much of the debate about online higher education turns on comparing online courses to face-to-face ones. But with colleges of every type increasingly venturing into the fray of online teaching regardless, some have turned toward the practical question of comparing online programs with other online programs. Kay Shelton co-authored An Administrator's Guide to Online Education with George Saltsman. Now, with help from the nonprofit Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) and dozens of veteran online education administrators, Shelton has developed a “quality scorecard” that she hopes will serve as a standardized measure for comparing any type of fully online college program, regardless of discipline.

Fed Rule Could Have ‘Major Chilling Effect’ on Online Education //Dennis Carter, eCampus News, March 10, 2011// A federal rule first discussed last fall could force colleges to pass added costs to students or shut down their online education programs in some states. Colleges that offer online instruction nationwide would have to get approval from every state in which they operate, or those online courses could be shut down, after the Education Department (ED) proposed a controversial rule that has drawn the ire of educators and distance-education organizations. The regulation, known as the state-authorization rule, is scheduled to take effect July 1.

Blackboard's Next Phase //Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, February, 22, 2011, March 30, 2011// Blackboard built its e-learning empire on its learning management system, trading legal blows with some competitors and gobbling up others as it raced to satisfy demand for a technology that had rapidly become de rigueur in higher education. That period of conquest is now over. Last fall, close to 95 percent of institutions had some learning management system in place, according to the Campus Computing Project. Accordingly, Blackboard’s business strategy is changing: with the company adding four new, separately licensed products to its menu in the last three years.

Why LMSs Aren’t the Answer //Jim Shimabukuro, ETC Journal, February 22, 2011// Well, here is a different perspective. Today, when we think of completely online college classes, we think LMS (learning management system). Period. End of discussion. Then we wonder why there’s so little innovation occurring in these classes, why so many innovative college teachers have tried and abandoned online classes and returned to blended, and why online offerings are growing at such a slow rate. The reason is simple – at least from my perspective. Compared to the blended classroom, the LMS-based online classroom is stale and sterile. Like little boxes on the hillside, they all look just the same. Boring.

Moodle Tackles LMS Security Vulnerabilities //David Nagel, Campus Technology, March 29, 2011// Moodle's developers have released an update to the popular open source learning management system. The latest Moodle 2.0.2 and 1.9.11 releases address several major security vulnerabilities and also include some bug fixes and performance enhancements. = =

Resources
Free Wikis, K-12 through PhD //Carole, Wikispaces Blog, February 28, 2011// Wikispaces has begun offering free wikis to higher education. They have been doing it for five years for K-12 and given away 980,000 free classroom wikis. With this whole new audience for our wikis, we’re extending our commitment to give away 2 million total free wikis for education. The features in these free educational wikis normally cost $50 per year, but are completely free when used for K-12 or higher education.

Students Become Immersed in History with Augmented Reality Games

// Tina Barseghian, KQED, February 21, 2019 //
The next generation of learners will have access to an astounding array of tools — including augmented reality games. What’s the purpose of this high-tech approach? To use “the world as the hook to get students interested in learning,” says Kurt Squire, the associate education professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, in an article by Heather Chaplin in Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning. With the game “Dow Day,” middle school students are able to see footage of Vietnam War protests on their mobile phones wherever they’re standing on the UW-Madison campus. Check out the video of the game.

Art Project Powered by Google Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.

Social Media: A New Format for Learning? //Posted by Jason Przypek, Learning Diversity.org, February 9, 2011// When Matthew Leeb of collegehumor.com created a faux Facebook page for World War II he may have had his tongue planted firmly in cheek, but it demonstrated a whole new range of possibilities for presenting material to students. There’s no doubt that this format appeals to young people, and the possibility for adapting the idea to other subject matter is practically unbounded.

Teaching to the Text Message // Andy Selsberg, NY Times Opinion Pages, March 19, 2011 // This college professor takes his clues from Twitter to teach writing to college freshmen.

Proposed Course: The Learning Universe of Curtis J. Bonk //Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, March 16, 2011// The author proposes a new course: The Learning Universe of Curtis J. Bonk Course Description: This course examines the intersection of higher education, learning theory, and technology through the lens of the writing and media of Curtis J. Bonk, professor of instructional systems technology (IST) in the School of Education at Indiana University at Bloomington. He lists course units, text supplements, resources and video materials. Read more about the course.

Microsoft Releases Math 4.0 Free //Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal, March 03, 2011// Microsoft Mathematics 4.0, designed for students in middle school, high school, and early college, is intended to teach users how to solve equations while bolstering their understanding of fundamental math and science concepts. Although the company charged for its last version, this latest edition is free.

**Open Textbooks**
7 Things You Should Know About Open Textbook Publishing //Judy Baker and Jacky Hood, Educause, 03.08.11// The open educational resources model, including textbooks, has emerged as a response to rising text prices, a need for greater access to high-quality learning materials, the proliferation of e-reader devices, and a trend in publishing toward electronic media. Many contend that educational resources should be open and that instructional models increasingly depend on open content. Open textbooks can be offered by commercial publishers or found in open repositories. Open resources can promote active learning through student interaction with the text, particularly when they contribute to authorship. Although open textbooks face questions about the accuracy and reliability of their content, they allow higher education instructors to design content for their courses on an as-needed basis, choosing from an array of books, articles, videos, audio recordings, and readings.

**Accessibility**
Adoption of Google Apps Program Discriminates Against the Blind //Chris Danielsen, Press Release, National Federation of the Blind, March 15, 2011// Baltimore, Maryland: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind people in the United States, today requested that the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, investigate civil rights violations committed by New York University (NYU) and Northwestern University against blind faculty and students. The NFB made the request because the schools have adopted technology that is not accessible to the blind. Both universities have recently adopted Google Apps for Education as a means of providing e-mail and collaboration tools to students and faculty.

Web Accessibility: What **Will It Take to Sustain Online** Accessibility? //Cyndi Rowland,// //WebAim// //for WCET, March 16, 2011// The 2010 Managing Online Education (WCET) survey had a very disturbing finding considering that distance education has moved beyond its nascent years. They learned that many campuses do not have formal policies and procedures to assure that their online courses and programs are compliant with mandates of the American Disabilities Act (ADA). More than a third of campuses responding to the survey reported that ADA compliance for online courses resides with each individual faculty member. Cyndi Rowland of WebAim responds to these claims as well as presents breaking news about Web accessibility. (See press release from National Federation of the Blind in this WON.)

**Just for Fun**
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