Susan Smith Nash's Blog, page 29

Interview with Matt Loper, Moonlyt.com: Innovators in E-Learning Series

One might argue that it's not necessary to have a special platform for online tutoring -- after all, free platforms such as Skype and Facetime are very effective. Further, opensource web conferencing such as Big Blue Button have many of the features (whiteboard, tools, etc.), of an Adobe Connect or Omnovia. However, when it comes to locating vetted tutors and subject matter experts, it's another

Competency-Based Education: Partnerships Are a Must

Many colleges and universities are moving toward
competency-based education, and developing opportunities for students to earn
credit based on demonstrated mastery of skills and knowledge areas. This

MOOCs, Mini-MOOCs, and Beyond

It is easier than ever to offer a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC), with platforms such as Coursera, which are designed to handle hundreds of thousands of users, and to export data in a way that can be easily used within the information systems of colleges and universities.  Coursera currently hosts and delivers content for 63 universities, and they content is in Spanish as well as in English.

Review of Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook

What makes much of Big Data extremely useful is the ability to integrate geospatial information, especially when tracked with time. To that end, ArcGIS is a "must have", and Python is a practical language that allows one to manipulate large data sets such as those found in databases, and that gathered via data acquisition module streams.

While the "cookbook" part of the title is a bit of a

Interview with Paul Forster, Intermission Theatre in Education: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Encouraging students to update Shakespeare for their new, urban contexts has been encouraged in theatre and in film. Baz Luhrman's Romeo+ Juliet, Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho immediately come to mind. It is doubly exciting to see students encouraged to update Shakespeare, make the ideas and concepts their own, and to do so in a hybrid approach that blends immersive and interactive

Interview with Patrick Horner, Fountain Quail / Aqua-Pure: Innovators in Technology Series

In the quest to put the puzzle pieces together to help convert the saltwater (brine) that is coproduced with gas and oil into a usable product, and help solve the problem of water shortages, polluted surface and ground water, and and a host of other issues, we are featuring interviews and technology profiles that relate to questions raised by our earlier post, Getting Started in Purifying

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

We could be on the verge of a new Industrial Revolution -- a Fourth Industrial Revolution -- and it will be one that will use new technologies to restore and revitalize earth resources, and it will start with water.

I believe that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be an outgrowth of planetary exigency rather than human convenience or greed, although we will most certainly witness the earlier

Getting Started in Purifying Produced Saltwater, the Overlooked Resource in Resource Plays

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Interview with Sameer Bhatia, ProProfs.com: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Thanks to improvements in access and bandwidth management, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are rapidly gaining in popularity. Two different types of MOOCs have emerged: the first, the x-MOOC, emphasizes content mastery and incorporates self-grading activities; the second, the c-MOOC, emphasizes learning through collaboration and incorporates connectivist learning theory. The x-MOOCs are

Interview with Harman Singh, WizIQ: Innovators in E-Learning Series

WizIQ has developed a solution that brings together synchronous web conferencing in a “live classroom” skin, with built-in utilities and tool sets that provide a robust learning experience, with assessment as well as additional course content. Instead of just two streaming windows, there can be up to 6 live video streams. Chat, whiteboard, breakout sessions, and on-the-fly uploading of