inside higher ed

It’s that time of year. Review what I’ve done. Think about what I want to do next. Make note of what remains undone and incomplete before I take on new projects in the new year.
Here, in no particular order, are the projects I have on my plate for the upcoming months:

You guys have to stop me from writing headlines where the answer is likely “duh” or “hellz yeah.”
Over at Inside Higher Ed, I take a look at Microsoft’s new social network for students, So.cl, and I ask the obvious question…

Earlier this week, Inside Higher Ed’s Steve Kolowich looked at the success Stanford University has had this fall by offering 3 of its engineering courses online.

From Harvard to the mainstream and back again to higher ed?
Facebook is apparently experimenting with Groups for Universities, a way for students to share class, event, and party information with their fellow students. Lots of universities have created Facebook Pages, but this is something else entirely, a more student-generated online campus network.

Google let me have a peek at its quarterly report on education-related searches.
It seems that people are still searching for liberal arts degrees and PhD programs. I don’t know whether that makes me happy or heartbroken, honestly.
Read the whole story on Inside Higher Ed

Part 4 in my Top 10 Ed-Tech Trends of 2011 series
If data was an important trend for 2011, I predict it will be even more so in 2012. That’s the world we’re living in. That’s the world we’re moving into.

Unaffiliated me… over on Inside Higher Ed.

Last week, the City University of New York (CUNY) unveiled its plans to create a “Commons in a Box,” an open-source toolkit to help colleges and universities “roll their own” academic networks. The project will help replicate CUNY’s Academic Commons at other schools.

If I had to make an early prediction about a hot trend for 2012, I’d point to “data.” It’s an easy pick: big data is poised to be a big deal regardless of industry in the coming year. Thanks to the data from sensors, cell phones, Web browsing, social media updates, photo and video uploads, credit card transactions, online purchases, e-book readings — you name it — we are producing a mind-boggling amount of data.

The release of the new Amazon Kindle Fire last week has prompted a new round of interest and excitement about the potential for students to lighten the load in their backpacks, so heavily weighted down with heavy textbooks. The Kindle Fire, cheaper than the iPad and an Android tablet to boot, is the latest new hope for digital course materials.