Online classes give students a digital edge | K-12 - Education Dive

"As online learning options grow, students exposed to digital classes may have an advantage" says Lauren Barack, Journalist & writer.

Photo: Flickr; Tanel Teemusk

Dive Brief:

• Summer school for students in California’s West Sonoma County Union High School District is now entirely online starting this year, a financial decision that shaved costs down by half.
• Students will be able to test out of lessons they don’t need, letting them finish more quickly — in some cases in two weeks instead of six, wrote The Press Democrat.
• The savings will be used to boost budgets at schools with a higher enrollment of English language learners and students from low-income families.

Dive Insight: 
Summer school is the punishment no child wants — forced to sit in a classroom during the warm months, as friends swim, bike and play outside. Shifting summer courses online — either remedial classes or electives — may help school districts save money (always appealing to budget-strapped educational departments), but also let children have some fun, without missing out on the extra learning they need. 

Knowing how to even take an online class is a digital skill itself, one every student should master, as the likelihood of them taking an internet-based course at some point in their education is growing. The number of students enrolled in some kind of distance learning course in college increased from 29.8% in the fall of 2015 to 31.7% in the fall of 2016, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. 
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Source: Education Dive

6 digital tools that are a must-have for any entrepreneur | Opinion - YourStory

"It’s definitely amazing to have your hands running over new furniture, facing new challenges, wrapping up records with accountants and lawyers, and planning new strategies for your business, says Vartika Kashyap, Marketing Manager at ProofHub.

But are you prepared for what lies ahead?"

Photo: Pexels

Being an aspiring tech entrepreneur, you will come across rewarding and risky paths to reach your dreams. For all your experiences and pitfalls, the technology could be your ultimate saviour. Your dream will fade away if you know nothing about technology. So if you have no clue of what tools you need for your business, I have put together an amazing list of digital tools that no entrepreneur can abstain from to help you prepare for the rollercoaster to come. 
Take a look:
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Source: YourStory

Using digital technology to Inspire the young | New Straits Times

Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman is the first Malaysian
woman to earn a PhD in physics at the
University of Otago in New Zealand.

"SAMSUNG is providing digital education solutions to make learning exciting and interesting for the young, and giving teachers a creative and efficient way to teach" according to NST Online.

It’s Samsung Smart School initiative, to nurture the young via digital education, has supported over 3,200 schools around the world.

Providing a fun and interactive learning environment for more than 1.4 million children, it focuses on low income communities and uses IT technology in education to provide these communities access to smarter learning environments.

In collaboration with Samsung Smart School, Malaysia's first astrophysicist Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman, is sharing her story in a short video.

The story of Malaysia's first Astrophysicist


She talks about her experiences that have shaped her into becoming the country’s first astrophysicist.

She was the first Malaysian woman to earn a PhD in physics at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Following her appointment as Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna in 1999, she returned to Malaysia in 2002 to serve for five years as the founding director general of Angkasa, the Malaysian National Space Agency. Her work led to the launch of the first Malaysian astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

“Some people follow the rules, some people live by them. But I questioned every single one of them. It started in the 1960s, when there was plenty of things to do in science.But nobody here in Malaysia to do it,” she said.

Mazlan said as a student, she questioned everything and because no one knew the answers, it led her on a quest to learn and to understand the universe.

She also speaks about helping to launch the world’s first remote sensing satelite that orbited the equator and putting Malaysian on the map in space research...

For more information on the Samsung Smart School initiative, and to view the videos, visit www.samsung.com/my/aboutsamsung/ sustainability/corporatecitizenship/ education/smart 
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Source: New Straits Times and SamsungMalaysia Channel (YouTube)

Rethinking Teaching: How K-12 and Higher Education Leaders Can Facilitate Collaborative Learning with Technology | Government Technology

Technology is transforming teaching and learning, and preparing students for the future of work. But educators must learn to leverage teaching tools to engage students and support their personal growth, continues Government Technology.

College students collaborate on mobile devices.
Photo: Shutterstock.com 

K-12 schools, colleges and universities are awash in technology that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. Interactive tools have transformed online and blended learning from passive experiences to active, engaging environments that allow students to work together on projects tailored to their specific needs and interests.

Next-generation education emphasizes collaboration and interactivity, whether students are in the classroom, learning from outside experts or working on their own time. But they’re only as effective as the educators who use them.

We are going to explore ways in which technology is transforming teaching and learning, and preparing students for the future of work. We will also offer suggestions on how district and higher education leaders can help educators innovate.

THE CONNECTED CLASSROOM 
The 4Cs — critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity — are the cornerstone skills learners of all ages need to be successful in life.

That’s why the most transformative use of connected classroom technology, whether in face-to-face learning or online and blended learning models, isn’t presenting lectures or material. It’s leveraging these resources to help students collaborate and problem solve in new ways.

Collaboration tools such as Cisco Webex blur the lines between synchronous and asynchronous models, making learning a hybrid, continuous experience for all students.
 
In a connected classroom, technology helps enable: 

• Collaboration. Students can securely connect and communicate with peers, teachers and experts.
• Flexibility. Whether in an online or traditional classroom, tools such as video, whiteboards and lecture capture give students the opportunity to access learning materials when and where they want. 
• Blended learning. Students use tools like Webex Teams to gather materials and collaborate in class, then return to their projects on their own time.
•  New connections. Video conferencing can help educators connect with parents in new ways.
•  Bringing the world to the classroom. Students can speak to experts and collaborate with peers in other classrooms, cities or countries across the globe...

To support educators in creating this kind of digital learning culture, leaders should start by shifting the lens. Rather than starting with students — who today are digital natives at all ages — focus on the adults who teach them.

For a complete look at rethinking teaching, download our free issue brief here to see suggestions on how district and higher education leaders can help educators innovate.
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Source: Government Technology 

New Summit to Explore Connected Learning | Events - Campus Technology

"A new Connected Learning Summit, taking place Aug. 1-3 at the MIT Media Lab, is focused on "harnessing emerging technology to expand access to participatory, playful, and creative learning."" inform Rhea Kelly, executive editor for Campus Technology.  
 

The event will bring together researchers, educators, developers and others interested in digital citizenship, equity and access, virtual reality, digital media and more.

On the event agenda: more than 200 talks, workshops and tech demos, as well as a keynote address from writer, comedian and commentator Baratunde Thurston. Other highlights include:

• A plenary session with middle school teacher Michelle King, speaking about "how to create empathetic institutions that remind us of our humanity, how to redesign for equity and social justice in and out of school learning and how to design learning institutions to build connections";
• A session on SciGirls CODE, a pilot program that "uses the principles of connected learning to provide 160 girls and their 32 leaders with computational thinking and coding skills";
• A workshop on STEAM projects from the Expressive & Creative Interactive Technologies Center at Drexel University;
• An e-sports symposium on "how competitive video games can enrich the academic curriculum";
• A community showcase event for "working papers, tech demos and ideas"; and
• A "hall of failure" featuring "honest post mortems on projects, programs and products."...

The new summit comes from the organizers of the Digital Media and Learning Conference, the Games+Learning+Society Conference and Sandbox Summit, and is hosted by UCI's Connected Learning Lab, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, MIT Media Lab and MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program. 
For more information, visit the Connected Learning Summit website.

Source: Campus Technology

Is technology delivering for special educational needs? | FE News

From interactive whiteboards that aid language learning to virtual reality headsets that allow visual content to be delivered in a compelling way, technology has the potential to yield strong results in the classroom - and to make learning more accessible; helping ‘level the playing field’ for students with special educational needs, as FE News reports.  

Deborah Millar, Group Director of Digital Learning Technologies, Grimsby Institute Group
Photo: Grimsby Institute Group
 

And yet the benefits are far from universal.
Some teachers struggle to get the most out of classroom tech, meaning that schools, colleges and universities risk investing thousands of pounds in hi-tech apparatus that fails to deliver.

Even with the best will in the world, tech that’s designed to open up opportunities for all risks not meeting its potential when implemented without proper planning.

To overcome these barriers, we believe that tech needs to be bought with accessibility and pedagogical objectives in mind, not because it’s an ‘easier or cheaper’ way to deliver learning.

Technology for technology’s sake risks not only reducing the effectiveness of tech-based teaching and learning, but also widening the accessibility gap for SEND students...

On of my favourite examples of this is a student I taught with ADHD, who had spent most of his school career struggling to keep up with his work.

He’d usually start his classes with 10 to 15 minutes of distraction, searching for books and pens or trying to find homework at the bottom of the bag; and by the time he’d settled down at his desk there wasn’t much time left to get stuck into the lesson.

Traditional methods of teaching weren’t working for him, so when he was tasked with making a poster he chose to do it on an online platform instead.

This meant there was no opportunity for it to get lost or forgotten, and crucially, his peers were able to give him immediate feedback which provided him with instant positive feedback.

The fact that this technology was available to him meant he could reach his full potential, and produce an excellent piece of work.
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Source: FE News 

Culture - Ten books to read in July | Books - BBC News

Looking for some weekend reading? Check out this from Jane Ciabattari below. 

From a true-crime tale of 1930s Shanghai to a contemporary Native American poetry collection, these titles are worth your time, writes Jane Ciabattari, global Between the Lines book column for BBC Culture.
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Source: BBC News

How we discovered three poisonous books in our university library | Popular Science

This article was originally featured on The Conversation.

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"Arsenic and old manuscripts" inform Jakob Povl Holck, Research Librarian, and Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Associate Professor in Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy University of Southern Denmark.

One of the poisonous books.
Photo: SDU, Author provided

Some may remember the deadly book of Aristotle that plays a vital part in the plot of Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel The Name of the Rose. Poisoned by a mad Benedictine monk, the book wreaks havoc in a 14th-century Italian monastery, killing all readers who happen to lick their fingers when turning the toxic pages. Could something like this happen in reality? Poisoning by books?

Our recent research indicates so. We found that three rare books on various historical topics in the University of Southern Denmark’s library collection contain large concentrations of arsenic on their covers. The books come from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The poisonous qualities of these books were detected by conducting a series of X-ray fluorescence analyses (micro-XRF). This technology displays the chemical spectrum of a material by analysing the characteristic “secondary” radiation that is emitted from the material during a high-energy X-ray bombardment. Micro-XRF technology is widely used within the fields of archaeology and art, when investigating the chemical elements of pottery and paintings, for example...

Now, the library stores our three poisonous volumes in separate cardboard boxes with safety labels in a ventilated cabinet. We also plan on digitizing them to minimize physical handling. One wouldn’t expect a book to contain a poisonous substance. But it might. 
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Source: Popular Science

9 New Books We Recommend This Week | Book Review - New York Times

Follow on Twitter as @GregoryCowles

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times by Gregory Cowles, Senior Editor, Books. 
 

It’s been an active week, politically speaking — they all are, these days — and with the Fourth of July around the corner, politics are front and center in our recommended titles. From Terrance Hayes, there’s a poetry collection sparked by Donald Trump’s election; from Ben Rhodes, a memoir of his time as a key adviser in the Obama White House; and from Stephen Greenblatt, a pointed consideration of the political leaders in Shakespeare’s plays that might call to mind, reassuringly or not, the opening lines of Sonnet 59: “If there be nothing new, but that which is / Hath been before …”
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Source: New York Times

Suggested Books of the Week 26, 2018

Check out these books below by Cambridge University Press and Ancient Origins.

Photo: Storyblocks.com

The Cambridge Monographs on Applied and Computational Mathematics publishes expositions on all aspects of applicable, numerical and computational mathematics. The series represents the growth in applications of mathematical and numerical techniques to problems from all areas of science. 

Multivariate Approximation

Multivariate Approximation

This self-contained, systematic treatment of multivariate approximation begins with classical linear approximation, and moves on to contemporary nonlinear approximation. It covers substantial new developments in the linear approximation theory of classes with mixed smoothness, and shows how it is directly related to deep problems in other areas of mathematics. For example, numerical integration of these classes is closely related to discrepancy theory and to nonlinear approximation with respect to special redundant dictionaries, and estimates of the entropy numbers of classes with mixed smoothness are closely related to (in some cases equivalent to) the Small Ball Problem from probability theory...
Researchers will find that the many open problems in the theory outlined in the book provide helpful directions and guidance for their own research in this exciting and active area.

• Introduces readers to the theoretical foundations of the subject, at a level suitable for teaching graduate courses
• Describes open questions in the area, providing ideas for further research
• Shows the links between the study of classes of mixed smoothness and other areas of mathematics, offering deeper insight into both

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Partial Differential Equation Methods for Image Inpainting 

Partial Differential Equation Methods
for Image Inpainting

This book is concerned with digital image processing techniques that use partial differential equations (PDEs) for the task of image 'inpainting', an artistic term for virtual image restoration or interpolation, whereby missing or occluded parts in images are completed based on information provided by intact parts. Computer graphic designers, artists and photographers have long used manual inpainting to restore damaged paintings or manipulate photographs. Today, mathematicians apply powerful methods based on PDEs to automate this task...
This book introduces the mathematical concept of PDEs for virtual image restoration. It gives the full picture, from the first modelling steps originating in Gestalt theory and arts restoration to the analysis of resulting PDE models, numerical realisation and real-world application. This broad approach also gives insight into functional analysis, variational calculus, optimisation and numerical analysis and will appeal to researchers and graduate students in mathematics with an interest in image processing and mathematical analysis.

• Serves as an introduction to the use of partial differential equations (PDEs) for digital image restoration
• Provides insight into mathematical modelling, partial differential equations, functional analysis, variational calculus, optimisation, and numerical analysis
• Targeted at readers with a basic knowledge in functional analysis, partial differential equations, measure theory, and convex optimisation

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Multiscale Methods for Fredholm Integral Equations 

Multiscale Methods for  
Fredholm Integral Equations

The recent appearance of wavelets as a new computational tool in applied mathematics has given a new impetus to the field of numerical analysis of Fredholm integral equations. This book gives an account of the state of the art in the study of fast multiscale methods for solving these equations based on wavelets. The authors begin by introducing essential concepts and describing conventional numerical methods...
The book is an essential reference for practitioners wishing to use the new techniques. It may also be used as a text, with the first five chapters forming the basis of a one-semester course for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduates.

• Provides a wide selection of stable, fast and accurate algorithms for solving integral equations 
• New techniques may be applied to other integral equations used in applied mathematics and engineering 
• Opens up the history of the subject for those entering the field
  

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Forbidden Configurations in Discrete Geometry 

Forbidden Configurations in  
Discrete Geometry

This book surveys the mathematical and computational properties of finite sets of points in the plane, covering recent breakthroughs on important problems in discrete geometry, and listing many open problems. It unifies these mathematical and computational views using forbidden configurations, which are patterns that cannot appear in sets with a given property, and explores the implications of this unified view...
The topics range from abstract issues of collinearity, convexity, and general position to more applied areas including robust statistical estimation and network visualization, with connections to related areas of mathematics including number theory, graph theory, and the theory of permutation patterns. Pseudocode is included for many algorithms that compute properties of point sets.

• Proposes a unified view of problems in discrete geometry, helping readers understand the connections and commonalities between problems in the area 
• Combines mathematical and computational views of the subject, and pseudocode for numerous algorithms, providing a readable introduction for computer science and mathematics students 
• The book is accessible and motivating, featuring both recreational puzzles along with recent breakthroughs and open problems  

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Statistical Inference for Engineers and Data Scientists 

Statistical Inference for
Engineers and Data Scientists

This book is a mathematically accessible and up-to-date introduction to the tools needed to address modern inference problems in engineering and data science, ideal for graduate students taking courses on statistical inference and detection and estimation, and an invaluable reference for researchers and professionals... 

The password-protected solutions manual and the image gallery from the book are available online.

• Presents the core principles of statistical inference in a unified manner which were previously only available piecemeal, particularly those involving large sample sizes 
• The book is mathematically accessible, and provides plenty of examples to illustrate the concepts explained and to connect the theory with practical applications 
• Contains a wealth of illustrations to emphasize the key features of the theory, the implications of the assumptions made, and the subtleties that arise when applying the theory
  

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The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican 

The Sistine Secrets:  
Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages
in the Heart of the Vatican

Five hundred years ago Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world—the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.
The Sistine Secrets tells the fascinating story of how Michelangelo embedded messages of brotherhood, tolerance, and freethinking in his painting to encourage "fellow travelers" to challenge the repressive Roman Catholic Church of his time... 
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Blood of the Celts: The New Ancestral Story 

Blood of the Celts:
The New Ancestral Story

From prehistory to the present day, an unrivaled look deep into the contentious origins of the Celts.
Blood of the Celts brings together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic evidence to address the often-debated question: who were the Celts? What peoples or cultural identities should that term describe? And did they in fact inhabit the British Isles before the Romans arrived? Author Jean Manco challenges existing accounts of the origins of the Celts, providing a new analysis that draws on the latest discoveries as well as ancient history...
102 illustrations 
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The Maurya Empire: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire 

The Maurya Empire:  
The History and Legacy of
Ancient India’s Greatest Empire

During the last centuries of the first millennium BCE, most of the Mediterranean basin and the Near East were either directly or indirectly under the influence of Hellenism. The Greeks spread their ideas to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia and attempted to unify all of the peoples of those regions under one government. Although some of the Hellenistic kingdoms proved to be powerful in their own rights – especially Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire, which encompassed all of Mesopotamia, most of the Levant, and much of Persia during its height – no single kingdom ever proved to be dominant. The Hellenic kingdoms battled each other for supremacy and even attempted to claim new lands, especially to the east, past the Indus River in lands that the Greeks referred to generally as India. But as the Hellenistic Greeks turned their eyes to the riches of India, a dynasty came to power that put most of the Indian subcontinent under the rule of one king.
The dynasty that came to power in the late fourth century BCE is known today as the Mauryan Dynasty, and although the ruling family was short-lived and their power was ephemeral, its influence resonated for several subsequent centuries and spread as far east as China and into the Hellenistic west.

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Enjoy your reading!   

Source: Cambridge University Press and Ancient Origins