MIT will be collaborating with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to examine teacher and school leadership education, reports Jacqueline Thomsen for Inside Higher Ed. “The research will be part of a new institute at MIT, called the MIT PK-12 Initiative, which will provide support to STEM teachers in all levels of K-12 education."
NPR reporter Claudio Sanchez reports on the new collaboration between MIT and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation aimed at helping teachers use new technologies in the classroom. Sanchez explains that MIT researchers will focus on conducting studies to “guide the new curriculum and develop technologies focused on digital learning.”
TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington writes about WaitChatter, a program developed by researchers at MIT CSAIL that leverages unoccupied time by teaching users a new language. WaitChatter “uses a Google Chat extension to offer up quick vocabulary learning lessons right in your IM chat window.”
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston about WaitChatter, a new application developed by MIT students that could help teach users a foreign language while they chat online. “The application uses the brief window when the ellipses dominate the screen as an opportunity to spring a vocabulary quiz,” Subbaraman explains.
MIT has launched the Online Education Policy Initiative to investigate and make recommendations about the future of online learning, Inside Higher Education reports. The initiative “will over the next nine months release reports, host workshops and lecture series, and eventually make recommendations about online learning.”
Anya Kamenetz reports for NPR on a new MIT-Harvard study examining data compiled from two years of courses offered by edX. Researchers found that a large number of Greek and Spanish citizens took MOOCs, leading them to wonder if austerity measures in these two countries led students to “look online for an education alternative.”
Mark Shanahan writes for The Boston Globe that the organizers of HUBweek, an innovation-themed festival designed to showcase Boston’s leadership in education, medicine, technology and the arts, gathered at a launch party last week. As part of HUBweek, MIT will host “Solve,” an event designed to bring together leaders in a variety of areas to tackle global challenges.
A new MIT-Harvard study examining two years of edX courses found that nearly 40 percent of online learners are teachers, reports Kirk Carapezza for the PBS NewsHour. The findings have researchers wondering how to better design online courses "to meet teachers’ needs.”
MIT and Harvard have released a comprehensive new report examining MOOCS offered by edX over a two-year period, reports Carl Straumsheim for Inside Higher Ed. The researchers found that while more than half of total enrollment was in edX computer science courses, “learner demographics and intent vary by the courses they take.”
A study examining courses offered through edX, the nonprofit learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT, found that teachers are enrolling in MOOCS in large numbers, reports Casey Fabris for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Of the 200,000 participants who responded to a survey about teaching, “39 percent of them said they were current or former teachers.”
Senior Lecturer Otto Scharmer writes about the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) ‘U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self’ that connects students in 350 hubs across the world: “[I]n the U.Lab, we didn't try to replace the classroom. Instead, we decentralized it, then took the learning out of the classroom altogether.”
The Cambridge Chronicle reports that alumnus Samuel Tak Lee has donated $118 million to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. The lab will have a particular focus on China, and “will promote social responsibility among entrepreneurs and academics in the real estate profession worldwide.”
Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, speaks with Jeremy Hobson of WBUR’s Here and Now about edX and the future of massive open online courses and digital learning. “Our aim is to increase access to learning to people all over the world,” says Agarwal.
Tech reporter Amy Wang writes about the recent gift from alumnus Samuel Tak Lee that will establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. “Real estate and urban planning is very interdisciplinary to begin with, so this donation already is incredibly well positioned to generate opportunities across all fields,” says Prof. Albert Saiz.
Robert Olsen of Forbes profiles MIT alumnus Samuel Tak Lee, who recently made one of the largest gifts in MIT’s history to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab. “Now that he’s achieved such success, he’s helping others to follow a similar path by supporting the schools he attended,” writes Olsen.