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Devices
Chromebook Sales Predicted To Grow 27% This Year, To 7.3M Units (TechCrunch)
Google?s cloud-based Chromebooks continue carving a niche for themselves ? predominantly in the education sector, as a less expensive alternative for this group of users than the iPad, but also making inroads in the U.S. consumer market. Analyst Gartner has just put out a new forecast for the Google OS laptops which predicts that worldwide sales of Chromebooks will grow 27 per cent year on year ? with 7.3 million forecast to be purchased in 2015. Last August, the analyst suggested Chromebooks would remain a niche market for the next five years, although its forecast then ? of 5.2 million sold in 2014 ? proved to be an underestimate. Its latest report notes 5.7 million of the devices being purchased last year. 
Higher Education
Fixing the Online Plumbing (Inside Higher Education)
Columbia University?s engineering school is experiencing a surge of interest in its online programs after partnering with a start-up that promises to find universities the online students they should be enrolling in the first place. The Columbia Video Network, the online education arm of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, is this month on the way to recording ?triple-digit? percentage growth in the number of people requesting information about its online certificate and degree programs. The CVN is crediting Ranku, a Seattle-based ed-tech start-up, for that growth.
Six Ohio colleges touted for veteran-friendly online degrees (Dayton Business Journal)
Six Ohio schools are among the top-ranked schools on U.S. News & World Report's 2015 Best Online Bachelor's Degree Programs for Veterans list. To qualify for the ranking, an online degree program had to report participation in two key programs that offer educational benefits to people with military service. The rankings methodology required programs to belong to institutions that are certified for the GI Bill, and they must also belong to schools participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program or to public institutions that charge in-state tuition for all out-of-state veterans.
Reports
Report: Technology, collaboration can personalize education for American students (Univ. of Kansas)
Harnessing technology to personalize education for all students has the potential to transform education and prepare students to live and work in a global society. In 2014, more than 100 experts from the fields of education, research, academics and technology, as well as policy makers, gathered to discuss the future of education and ways to personalize it for each student. This week the group released a report detailing challenges and offering solutions for a new approach to education. A University of Kansas professor was a leading contributor to the work. James Basham, associate professor of special education, co-authored a report, ?Technology-Enabled Personalized Learning," issued by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University.
K-12 Education
Favorite Tech Tools For Social Studies Classes (Mind/Shift)
Educators are looking for ways to help students participate in a digital world, but the choices for digital engagement in the classroom can be overwhelming. Many teachers have little to no money to pay for premium versions of apps and are looking for quick and easy ways to determine how an app works. They must also consider why it might be useful for their teaching practice. Rachel Langenhorst helps teachers in her district find solutions for those issues. She used to teach social studies, but is now the K-12 Technology Integrationist and Instructional Coach at Rock Valley Community Schools in Iowa. She put together a list of favorite digital tools for the social studies classroom and shared them during an edWeb webinar.
Industry
Sterling Partners' launches new $200 million education fund with Shoshana Vernick at the helm (Bizwomen)
If your company helps globalize education, offers technology to improve how students learn and instructors teach, or uses analytics to improve education services at colleges and universities ? Sterling Partners? Principal Shoshana Vernick may be looking for you. Vernick is one half of the new management team overseeing the Chicago-based private-equity firm?s new $200 million Education Opportunity Fund. The fund ? the firm?s first with a sector focus ? will likely invest in about 10 to 12 ?industry-defining? growth-stage companies in the U.S. that serve colleges and universities. ?Right now, we are on the hunt,? Vernick said in an interview with Bizwomen. ?My schedule is full of meetings and interactions to try to find a combination of ideas, talent and companies.?
Jimmy Leach: If You're in EdTech, Then Hoping Someone Buys You Is Better Than a Business Model (
For quite some time now, entrepreneurs have been looking to the EdTech market as one where money will be made. The inevitable transformation of the schools model by technology will open up vast possibilities for innovation. Vast fortunes will be created, as these technologies are laid in front of millions and millions of users. It's a dream that Venture capital companies have certainly bought into, with half a billion pumped into EdTech start-ups in the first half of last year alone, although not always successfully. Many of those think that, one day, they'll get a smooth ride, as with the Facebook model. Get to a point where they just grow and grow and grow. Ubiquity is the target. Billions of dollars the result.
Can Technology Get Kids to Play Outside? [subscription] (Education Week)
Would you pay $230 for your toddler to take formal classes on making mud pies, catching bugs, and climbing trees? That's the hope of Tinkergarten, a Northampton, Mass.-based startup that aims to use technology to re-connect young children to the outdoors via community-based classes led by instructors who have been recruited and trained online and given access to the company's extensive web-based curriculum. "Ultimately, we want to be able to recreate the childhood that we had and that you most likely had: Go out the door, explore the world, and come back," said co-founder Meghan Fitzgerald. |
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Watch, Re-Watch or Share our How the Internet of Things (IoT) is Changing Business and Our Future Workforce Town Hall!
 Thank you to everyone who joined us on Google+ for last week's #STEMIoT TownHall. We'd especially like to thank our excellent panel of speakers: John Stuart (Senior VP of Global Academic Program, PTC) Rob Atkinson (President, The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation), Jim Shertzer (FARMserver Lead, Beck's Hybrids), Ben Varghese (Emerging Technology Consultant, Cisco Systems), Danny Williams (Platform Architecture Lead, Monsanto), Earl Newsome (Corporate CIO and Vice President, Digital, TE Connectivity), and Lenworth Gordon (New Product Development Strategic Solutions, Verizon). You can watch, re-watch, or share any of the videos from our TownHall series on the STEMconnector YouTube Page!
Does Your Organization Need STEM Mentors? Does Your Company Mentor?
 During these two calls, Million Women Mentors will offer a strategic overview of the movement, including our five suggested pathways to mentor, an update of the State of the States (30 teams mobilizing across the nation), and a deep-dive on the new MWM web-portal, powered by Tata Consultancy Services. Hope you can join us for whichever call is most aligned withy our needs. For Non-Profit Organizations and Higher Educational Instructions: Need STEM Mentors TownHall will take place on May 26th at 2PM ET. The TownHall for Corporations and STEM Professionals: Utilizing the Web-Portal for Corporate Mentoring Initiatives will take place on June 3rd at 3PM ET.
North Carolina Recommends Accelerate Learning's STEMscopes K-12 Science Curriculum for State Science Adoption
 Accelerate Learning today announced that STEMscopes(TM) North Carolina, its comprehensive, digital K-12 science solution built specifically to meet the North Carolina science standards, has been recommended by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for use in science classrooms across the state.
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