AACE 2018 Winter/Spring News Roundup
The AACE Review News Roundup is a periodical summary of educational technology themes and debates in the blogosphere. For the review, we scan the latest posts of several blogs, and we constantly add new voices in the mix.
2018 Key Issues in Teaching and Learning
After the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) surveyed members of the higher education community, more than 900 individuals voted on 15 key issues in Teaching and Learning for 2018. These key issues become the focus for the ELI’s discussions and programming for 2018. The 2018 Key Issues in Teaching and Learning are as follows: Academic Transformation, Accessibility & Universal Design, Faculty Development, Privacy & Security, Digital & Info Literacies, Integrated Planning & Advising, Instructional Design, Online & Blended Learning, Evaluation of Tech-Based Instructional Innovations, Open Education, Learning Analytics, Adaptive Teaching & Learning, Working with Emerging Technology, Learning Space Designs, and NGDLE & LMS. Further resources on these 15 themes can be found in the info graphic summary.
Mona Chalibi: TED talk and Blog
In February 2017, data journalist Mona Chalibi gave a TED talk entitled: “3 ways to spot a bad statistic.” In this talk, Mona highlights the importance of being skeptical of statistics, and provides her audience with tools to help determine which numbers are reliable and which ones are not reliable. In this talk, Mona provided her audience with three questions to help spot bad statistics: Can you see uncertainty?, Can I see myself in the data?, and How was the data collected?. Access Mona’s TED talk
Mona wanted to demonstrate the uncertainty of the numbers, and to highlight how imprecise data can be. In order to do this, Mona creates data visualizations so that people can remember important facts, be reminded of significant statistical concepts, and relate data to their everyday lives. Some of these illustrations include the Most Popular Dog Names in New York, Decapitated Animals Found in New York Parks from 2004-2014, and the percentage of sexual harassment incidents that go unreported. Mona posts some of her illustrations on her website’s illustration collection.
NMC Roller Coaster
In December of 2017, the New Media Consortium (NMC) shut down abruptly and filed for bankruptcy, citing errors made by its former Controller and Chief Financial Officer. Some perceived this closure as an opportunity to do the work that the NMC did in an improved way. This included the Horizon Report, with some considering creating a new process (and perhaps a new publication) that could build on the strengths of the Horizon Report, while making changes as needed. In February of 2018, Educause successfully acquired the NMC and it’s intellectual property. Blogger Bryan Alexander followed the process in a series of blog posts under the hashtag #nmcliquidation. All NMC reports are archived in AACE’s LearnTechLib digital library in the section ‘reports’.
Journal of Interactive Learning Research
In January of 2018, the Journal of Interactive Learning Research Published Volume 29, Number 1. One article in the issue, titled Online Interactions and Social Presence in Online Learning, looked at aspects of a successful online learning experience, and reports findings that more interaction opportunities helped students develop higher social presence, specifically group cohesion. However, there was no relationship found between social presence and learning outcomes.
Call for Papers
The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology has two calls for papers relevant to edtech. One call is for a special issue entitled: Designing, Using and Evaluating Learning Spaces: The Generation of Actionable Knowledge, with a submission deadline of May 1, 2018. The second call is for a special issue entitled: Re-examining Cognitive Tools: New Developments, New Perspectives, and New Opportunities for Educational Technology Research, with a submission deadline of August 1, 2018. Access the call for papers
