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Higher Education
Online education at USC leads to opportunities for Venezuelan (USC)
Venezuela native Alejandro Lerza is one of many with a tale to tell about online education at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Lerza is a reservoir engineer for Chevron, one of the world�s leading global petroleum companies. He�s spent a significant portion of his time split between a heavy oil expansion project in the Orinoco Belt and an offshore dry gas field project in Trinidad and Tobago. The projects require frequent travel and come with high expectations to deliver results on time and on budget, especially since South America is a key region for Chevron.
Universities ahead for technology in education, finds OECD (Times Higher Education)
According to the Measuring Innovation in Education: A New Perspective, Educational Research and Innovation report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, �innovation intensity� is greatest in higher education, and well above the rate in primary and secondary education. The report, published on 21 July, draws on an OECD survey of university graduates working in 38 countries, and finds that 80 per cent of those employed in higher education believe their employer is at least �sometimes� at the forefront of adopting innovations, compared with 70 and 67 per cent for the primary and secondary school sectors respectively.
Industry
Why Duolingo (And Google) are Entering the Standardized Test Game (Fast Co.)
Free language-learning app Duolingo has had a wild ride. In just over two years on the market, the company�s main product has racked up 30 million users, taking on entrenched giants such as Rosetta Stone. Founder Luis Von Ahn has repeatedly stated its business plan: to offer a quid pro pro where users help translate content for sites like BuzzFeed and CNN in exchange for free learning. Now Duolingo is tackling a new challenge: online standardized tests. This past April, Fast Company�s Alice Truong wrote about Duolingo�s plans to offer online language certification. Now Duolingo is revealing more details of the ambitious program today, called Test Center. Available in an Android version on the Google Play store and a version for Google's Chrome web browser, it puts Google in the standardized testing sphere.
OpenCurriculum Looks To Foster Open-Source Education By Releasing Free Online Library (Tech Crunch)
Aimed at providing teachers with educational materials by making them open and competitive, OpenCurriculum, which launched in Pittsburgh, curates and organizes material from sites such as teacher blogs and lesson material publishers. Teachers can create lesson plans and more through OpenCurriculum.org. In its effort to provide high-quality learning and an openness in K-12 education, OpenCurriculum released a 5,000-document library on its website for math teachers to use as lesson materials. Anyone can use the material on the website without logging in, but to get access to tools such as the lesson plan builder, you need to create an account. The tools aren�t tailored for a particular subject matter.
Start-Ups
Eight NYC startups part of Kaplan's ed-tech accelerator class (Business Journals)
Digital gaming and online learning plays dominate the new class of startups selected to join the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, which begins its second 12-week program in Midtown Thursday. 500 companies applied for one of the 12 spots in this year's class, which comes along with a $20,000 investment from Techstars in exchange for equity and the option for a $150,000 convertible debt note from Kaplan. Senior executives from Kaplan will serve as mentors and speakers to the class, and the students will have access to Kaplan Inc.'s large network of online learning business lines and tools. After the first year of the Kaplan accelerator, the 10 participating startups raised $15 million in outside investment.
Online School for Girls puts focus on connection, collaboration (LA Times)
Much to English teacher Ed Raines' surprise, his students had never heard Puccini's soaring melodies that inspired David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," nor the way Louis Armstrong could make a trumpet talk in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." In the middle of a faculty meeting at Westridge School in Pasadena, he passed his colleague, a music teacher, a note. "What if we could build an entire curriculum based on pairing music and English together?" recalled Leo Kitajima, the music instructor who had visited Raines' classroom to discuss musical references in literature. Last year, the teachers found a way to make their dream course a reality when Westridge became part of Online School for Girls, a nonprofit consortium of independent schools dedicated to educating girls. It's grown to include more than 80 schools that will offer about 1,050 enrollments this year to middle and high school students.
Maker Movement
Maker Faire at the Henry Ford attracts hundreds of inventors (Detroit Free Press)
There were dicycles with their giant wheels, a time machine and Robo Crop, a water-spraying robotic scarecrow. Maker Faire Detroit descended on the Henry Ford in Dearborn over the weekend, bringing in hundreds of inventors and crafters of everything from robots to planters made from recycled books. �I like the fact that you got all sorts of people, just tinkering and building cool things and you see something new every time,� said David Kittell, who came from Millington, a town near Frankenmuth. �It�s not something you�re going to see in a store.� Kittell and his 7-year-old son Elijah cooled down under the shower of water sprayed by Robo Crop. �He�s the robot that watches over your urban farm or urban garden,� said one of its inventors, Ted Hansen, with i3 Detroit, a collaborative workspace in Ferndale. The robot, clad in blue overalls, has a point-of-view camera and squirts water for irrigation or to chase away pests, he said.
International
Reimagining Education Through Technology (Wired)
I didn�t know what to expect when I traveled to Malaysia for the very first time. I knew my mission: connect zero client technology � desktop solutions composed of a screen, a keyboard and a mouse that function entirely by remotely connecting to a central server � in rural and urban classrooms that had never been equipped with computers. But I never could have imagined just how life changing the process of executing that mission would be. My journey to a particular school in the jungle of Sabah, the easternmost state of Malaysia located on the island of Borneo, started with a five-hour car ride down a dirt road. We then loaded all of our equipment onto long boats, on which we rode for another hour and a half, before finally reaching our destination. Upon arriving at the school I saw classrooms full of simple desks and chairs and dormitories with beds stacked three high, all protected by window bars. Why, you may be wondering? To keep away the orangutans.
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SHEC Member Profile: Dr. Scott T. Massey of the CumberlandCenter
 The STEM Higher Education Council (SHEC) is proud to announce, Dr. Scott T. Massey, Chairman and CEO of CumberlandCenter, will be a member of the Council. Cumberland center is a university- business alliance to transform innovation into prosperity through the growth of regional innovation hubs. The Center implements its mission through the Global Action Platform, a neutral collaborative platform to align resources and mobilize global corporations, universities, government agencies, NGOs, investors, and entrepreneurs focused on creating abundance in food, health, and prosperity.
22 States Committed to Mentoring 140,000 Girls in STEM Skills
 This week, the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), a founding partner of the Million Women Mentors (MWM) initiative, will announce over 100,000 new STEM mentor commitments from more than 20 states. 45,000 additional pledges will come in from the Lt. Governor for Iowa, several other MWM State leader networks and The National 4-H Council. The goal of the movement is to garner one million mentors in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professions over the next four years, to collectively increase the interest and confidence of girls and young women in these academic areas.
SHEC Member Profile: Dr. Chad Womack of the United Negro College Fund
 The STEM Higher Education Council (SHEC) is proud to announce, Dr. Chad Womack, National Director of STEM Education Initiatives and the UNCF Merck Fellowship Program at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), will be a member of the Council. Dr. Chad Womack is a science educator and technology entrepreneur, researcher, and scholar. In his current capacity at the UNCF, Dr. Womack leads the organization�s strategic direction to address unmet educational needs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) college and career pipeline for African American students.
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