One of the best things about technology is the different ways it enables change in institutions. But that change isn’t necessarily taken as a good thing by everyone involved. Take, for instance, the massive amounts of technology that have been developed and are now being used in the world of higher education. In some cases, that new tech is being put to use to make life easier for both teachers and students.
Class materials, syllabi, and educational opportunities can all be found online using one of the apps like Blackboard that most higher education institutions have been working with for some time now. Students can communicate with each other, as well as with the professor, quickly and easily while using this technology.
Take the flipped classroom system, where students study course materials on their own, and then spend time solving problems and discussing material in class, rather than being taught the material and engaging in problem solving at home by themselves. This isn’t a new idea by any means, but it’s easier to accomplish with the help of online material and resources.
Another revolution that has begun with the help of new technology is the rise of online classes. For students enrolled in college, many classes are offered online, and interactions with the students and professors are all done online, or with periodic meetings.
In turn, that has led to MOOCs—Massive Open Online Classes—which anyone with an internet connection has access to. Some students can get credit for the courses, but most offer a certification of completion, rather than actual college credit.
The pushback to all of this has come from those who don’t see a great benefit coming from the digitization of classes and coursework. In many cases, they do have a valid point. Some people, students included, feel that they work better with real interactions with their professor in a classroom environment, rather than an entirely virtual classroom.
But no one is suggesting going entirely virtual, and ignoring the benefits that these kinds of innovations bring can be dangerous for a university’s bottom line, as well as their reputation. What we need to see happen is for faculty to be encouraged to use new technology, and given some time to experiment and find what works best for them and their students.
That means administrators are going to have to be the ones who encourage organizational change by investing in technology and rewarding faculty who take on the challenges of teaching with it. The road to better education through innovation won’t always be easy, but it will be worthwhile to pursue.
More higher education institutions are developing and nurturing these kinds of programs because they see where higher education is headed. If you want your school to stay on the cutting edge, then adopting new and useful educational tools is only the beginning. Give us a call today if you’d like to hear more about how N2N can bring your campus into the future.
At N2N, we pride ourselves in being on the cutting edge of education and technology, and we’re constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help students learn and professors teach. That’s why we pay close attention to the best edtech bloggers and their ideas. Edtech blogs are useful for both faculty and administrators, and there are quite a few of them around. There are plenty of great edtech blogs out there for you to follow, but we’ve brought together some of our favorites. So take a look at these edtech bloggers and see what you’ve been missing out on.
ProfHacker
ProfHacker is an engaging and informative blog with an entire team of higher ed experts as contributors. Readers get a great look at fresh, varied content on teaching, technology, and everything in between. Edited by Jason B. Jones, Director of Educational Technology at Trinity College, and George H. Williams, Associate Professor of English at the University of South Carolina Upstate, ProfHacker provides an insightful look at edtech, from a the point of view of a slew of different writers who know it best.
The blog is published by Anthony Salcito, a vice president of education at Microsoft. Salcito uses the blog to highlight inspiring educators, as well as break down technology and policy in classrooms around the world. Salcito also encourages readers to submit names of inspirational educators, and explores the issues surrounding accessibility to education around the world.
Hack Education
Audrey Watters blog is one of the most thought-provoking and insightful blogs in edtech. A “recovering academic,” Watters offers thoughts on the future of technology and education, from someone who’s both finished degrees and dropped out of them. Frustrated by the lack of edtech coverage, Watters began Hack Education in 2010 with the goal of, “trying to create the sort of publication that I’d want to read: one that’s smart and snarky, one that’s free of advertising and investor influence.”
College Web Editor
Blogger Karine Joly sums up College Web Editor as, “News, tips and, hopefully, some good ideas for people taking care of websites and online marketing in colleges and universities.” Begun in 2005, the blog now boasts more than 10,000 unique page views each month, as visitors come to learn about the Web, marketing, and PR in higher education. Joly is the founder of Higher Ed Experts and author of the capstone graduate course for the MBA in social media marketing at Southern New Hampshire University.
These bloggers all share one common trait—a passion for education, and a desire to see technology improving the lives of students, teachers, and administrators. When you work with N2N, you’re getting a partner that shares those same passions. We see an opportunity to use edtech to create a fully integrated campus that works for everyone. So contact N2N Services today if you’d like to learn more about the intersection of education and technology, and what we can accomplish together.
At N2N, our goal is to solve the systems integration challenges of educational institutions and support an integrated digital campus. We achieve this by helping our partners and their clients with all of their integration needs, using our state-of-the-art Integration Platform as a Service. Now, colleges and universities are able to easily integrate new, cloud-based apps with their existing IT apps and systems in a cost-effective manner. Illuminate acts a translator for these disparate apps and systems, allowing them to integrate seamlessly with each other.
Students and faculty may not know it, but when they use their mobile apps, they’re accessing information from several different departments, and this information has to get to them quickly and securely. At N2N, we want those apps to be as safe and effective as possible, and that’s why we’ve teamed up with Modo Labs to combine our services and make it easier than ever for colleges and universities to develop and implement their own mobile apps.
Using their Kurogo Platform, Modo Labs is putting powerful mobile implementation and development capabilities directly into the hands of non-developers. So instead of hiring costly app developers or expensive consultants, higher education institutions can develop mobile apps that are ideal for their campus’without the traditional costs. Kurogo’s unique combination of data access, powerful pre-built functionality, and ease-of-use dramatically reduces mobile development time and costs.
The combination of Kurogo and Illuminate provides colleges and universities with the ability to design mobile apps that fit their needs, and to make sure that those apps will be effectively integrated with their present systems. The broad range of disparate data sources faced by most universities can be easily integrated and accessed through N2N’s powerful Illuminate data engine, and in turn, quickly mobilized into a rich mobile experience through the Kurogo mobile app assembly platform.
Kiran Kodithala, President and CEO of N2N Services, puts it like this. “Students, Administrators and Faculty at campuses have been looking for a comprehensive mobile app that they can use for student engagement and student success. This partnership gives institutions of higher education the best of all worlds. While N2N provides secure enterprise data access, Modo Labs offers the best-of-breed front-end mobile experience that makes it possible to quickly leverage that data on any device.”
The partnership between N2N and Modo Labs is a dramatic step towards our goal of a fully integrated campus, where students can access their information at any time, and be sure that their personal data is safe and secure on the app they are using. Kurogo and Illuminate are two powerful platforms that together are changing the way colleges and universities think about their options for mobile applications.
At N2N, we pride ourselves on our partnerships with some of the most innovative companies in higher education, and we’re not done yet. If you’d like to hear more about how partnering with N2N Services can help your business, then contact us today.
At N2N, we're proud of our background in higher education and the service we provide to colleges and universities arou
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