October 30, 2011, 5:29 pm
By Josh Keller
Terminology: After recent announcements from Pearson and Blackboard that emphasized that their products were “free” and “open,” some observers responded by accusing the vendors of spouting marketing hype. But Michael Feldstein at e-Literate writes that the two companies’ approaches are actually quite different and should be evaluated more carefully.
Mobile: Dave Olsen at Mobile in Higher Ed summarizes and links to a number of useful presentations on mobile technology at last week’s HighEdWeb conference.
Arms Race: Will the educational-technology arms race among companies of all sizes lead to a mutually beneficial co-evolution, a superpower standoff, or a more troubling lurch toward monopoly? asks Music for Deckchairs.
EdSurge: If you’re interested in the gritty details of education technology, it’s well worth the trouble to sign up for EdSurge, an e-mail newsletter that…
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October 21, 2011, 4:42 pm
By Josh Keller
Educause Archive: Higher ed’s biggest tech conference is over, but Educause has posted a video archive of selected sessions. For those who missed them, be sure to check out Danah Boyd’s presentation on students and online privacy, a Pew presentation on trends in mobile learning, and The Chronicle’s panel on the challenges of the unbundled university.
Mobile Growth: Mary Meeker, a former Morgan Stanley analyst who is one of the most perceptive thinkers on the future of technology, made her annual presentation on how the Internet is changing on Tuesday (slides, video). The presentation emphasizes the rapid growth of mobile devices and global Internet usage.
The Hated CMS: Content-management systems, which typically help people organizations their Web sites, are typically among the least liked pieces of software. Among other faults, they age poorly, says Michael Fienen at .eduGuru. …
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October 14, 2011, 5:25 pm
By Josh Keller
Why Education Start-Ups Fail: Education is a big market for entrepreneurs and investors, but not in the way they often think, writes Avichal Garg. Many entrepreneurs think they can use technology to make education better for a relatively wealthy audience in the United States. They would have more success focusing on making education cheaper for poor Americans or students in Asia, and tempering their goals to grow quickly, Mr. Garg writes.
OpenClass Reviewed: Pearson Education announced last week that it would join with Google to start OpenClass, a free learning-management system. But how well does it work? A tester at the University of Wisconsin, Rovy Branon, says close integration with Google is what makes the product so intriguing. Another tester, Gary Ritter, praises the flexibility of OpenClass’s communication tools.
Software Skepticism: An article in The New York Times casts a…
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October 7, 2011, 3:29 pm
By Josh Keller
Appropriations: A spending bill released last month by House Republicans appears to stipulate that the federal government stop supporting a $2-billion program to develop freely available online resources, writes Audrey Watters at Hack Education. The bill would explicitly prohibit the Department of Labor, which runs the program, from spending money to develop courses or materials unless they are found to be not otherwise available in the commercial marketplace. Publishers have lobbied against the federal program, calling it an example of government overreach.
Stanford Online: Bill Keller, a former executive editor of The New York Times, profiles two efforts by Stanford University to move beyond the confines of its Silicon Valley campus. He predicts that if online learning can solve its quality-control problems, many colleges that depend on tuition could go the way of local newspapers…
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September 30, 2011, 3:40 pm
By Josh Keller
Frictionless PR: Dennis Miller, public-relations director at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, isn’t bothered that he didn’t learn about his president’s departure until 20 minutes before it was publicly announced this month. The new world of communications demands a different strategy than a week’s worth of meetings and press conferences, he says.
Broken Admissions: As part of The Atlantic’s excellent package on college admissions, Clay Christiansen and Henry Eyring argue that the Apollo Group’s $100-million purchase of Carnegie Learning, an adaptive-learning company, signals a revolution in higher education. The Chronicle‘s own Kevin Carey says a Match.com for college would be the best way to deal with the college-admissions crisis.
The Social Network: Facebook is making some major changes. The world probably won’t end. But colleges should be prepared to rethink how they …
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September 23, 2011, 5:13 pm
By Josh Keller
Crosstalk is a new weekly feature on Wired Campus that will link to some of the best online conversations and ideas about technology in higher education during the past week. Send ideas to josh.keller@chronicle.com.
Web strategy for small colleges: They can lack the resources or the will to put cutting-edge Web solutions into place. But being cutting-edge isn’t really the point, writes Ron Bronson at EduStir, who goes over how employees at colleges with fewer resources can realistically approach a Web strategy.
State authorization won’t blow over: Colleges must get serious about obtaining authorization to operate in each state where they enroll online students, writes Russ Poulin at WCET Frontiers. “Stop waiting for clarity,” he says. Yes, the recently issued federal requirement was vacated by a judge, but it will return, he says.
Students, seated: Skyrill, a design agency,
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