Graduation rates for American college students are depressing, with only 57 percent of students who enroll in a bachelor’s degree program earning a degree within six years, and fewer than 25 percent of students who begin at a community college graduating with an associate’s degree within three years.

The College Board issued a report last Thursday showing that although the United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees, it now ranks 12th among 36 developed nations.

The College Completion Agenda 2010 Progress Report recommends the following 10 ways to improve the state of higher education in the US:

• Provide a program of voluntary preschool education, universally available to children from low-income families
• Improve middle and high school college counseling
• Implement the best research-based dropout prevention programs
• Align the K–12 education system with international standards and college admission expectations
• Improve teacher quality and focus on recruitment and retention
• Clarify and simplify the admission process
• Provide more need-based grant aid while simplifying and making financial aid processes more transparent
• Keep college affordable
• Dramatically increase college completion rates
• Provide postsecondary opportunities as an essential element of adult education programs

I am impressed by the focus on early education as a major contributor to college completion rates. The first five recommendations directly address PreK-12 education. Without a strong foundation, students flail when they reach the college classroom.

President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative, calls for five million more college graduates by 2020. What changes in our educational system do you think need to be made in order to reach this lofty goal?

Conference highlights included:

·      12,792 registered attendees

·      4,781 exhibit personnel

·      16,500-plus simultaneous wireless connections

·      801 international attendees from 63 countries

·      More than 600 concurrent sessions plus additional showcases, galleries and poster sessions

·      Dozens of workshops with more than 2,660 tickets sold

·      More than 1,500 presenters from around the globe

·      More than 19,000 concurrent users on the Wi-Fi network

·      An exhibit hall featuring 1,282 booths and 456 companies displaying hardware, software, equipment and services focused on the use of technology to improve learning, teaching and school administration

·      118 registered journalists from around the globe

·      Numerous social media channels tracking, tweeting, blogging and live-streaming ISTE 2010 activity with thousands of participants from nearly 100 countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, South Africa and Turkey.

ISTE’s 2011 conference and exposition will be held next year in Philadelphia, June 26 through 29. See you in the City of Brotherly Love!

Without a doubt, some of the ubiquitous digital video on the Internet can be powerful in the classroom. Students can view human and natural events they may not otherwise ever see, including events reenacted from history. An abundant supply of sophisticated animations can simulate action that is too fast, too slow, too small, too large, too far away, or too abstract to see, as well as illustrating forces that are invisible or merely theoretical.

The problem with all this motion in dynamic presentations, however, is that students may consider watching it to be a passive activity. After all, that’s what they most often do with TV shows, movies, and YouTube videos.

A significant body of learning research indicates that passive watching—even of well-designed video and animation—can lead to disappointing levels of learning. Surprisingly, the difference is not found merely in one-to-one computing vs. whole class teaching with a computer projector. In either instructional setting, the action in a dynamic presentation can take place too quickly or can contain information too complex for students to comprehend in a single viewing. Without sufficient background knowledge, students may not know how to interpret the active elements or know which elements are worth paying attention to.

The key to better learning is interactivity and engagement, elements that can be incorporated in both instructional settings. The research recommends a number of strategies you can use to promote students’ active participation in learning with dynamic presentations, and we’ve summarized a few of them here.

Prioritize the most important footage.
If students will be viewing digital video, you can eliminate the temptation for them to mentally check out by presenting only the sections of video most salient to the targeted learning goal. Clips that are thirty seconds to three minutes long are most likely to keep students’ peak attention focused. Edit, edit, edit.

Prepare students for an active learning experience.
Before students view digital video or animation, they need to understand its purpose and possess adequate background knowledge. Show screenshots in advance and make sure students understand what underlying elements are represented by any illustrations, as well as their salient features and characteristics when appropriate. Encourage students to “observe,” rather than merely watch. You may even present a short list questions for students to answer based on their observations.

Pause for reflection at natural breaks in the action.
Students need opportunities to stop and absorb or make meaning of what they are seeing. They should describe and explain what they are observing, sometimes even make predictions about what will happen next and why. Student misinterpretations should be clarified up before resuming the presentation. Rewinding and repeating complex segments can help improve comprehension. To improve retention and demonstrate their understanding, students might print out screenshots and make annotations (or draw what they’ve seen if printing isn’t a viable option).

Polish off the lesson.
Never assume that because a video or animation was shown in the presence of students that learning has occurred. Even with a seconds-long dynamic presentation, students need to reflect on what they observed, explain it, critically analyze it, and discuss how the principles might apply to other situations.

Research shows that learning is never automatic even with today’s state-of-the-art dynamic technologies. To help students overcome the tendency to turn off their brains when watching a screen, facilitation by a skilled teacher is critical.

Lynn Bell & Glen Bull are authors of the recently release book: Teaching with Digital Video: Watch , Analyze, Create and Teaching with Digital Images: Acquire, Analyze, Create, Communicate

I’d like to extend a big “thank you” to Mario for taking time out of his busy ISTE 2010 schedule to talk to ISTE Connects about this great resource.

I often start introductory level communications classes by showing the video Did You Know: Shift Happens. Produced by education bloggers Karl Fisch who writes The Fischbowl and Scott McLeod, author of Dangerously Irrelevant.

Public relations expert Carri Bugbee recently directed me to another popular video that shows the changes happening in the world. Social Media Revolution by Socialnomics provides a compelling argument for the continued integration of Web-based media in education.

By simply pointing out basic facts about the national and international shifts playing out today, these two short videos offer a powerful message to the graduates of the class of 2010 and the educators responsible for their academic preparation. It’s not enough to teach students the basics of how to use new media tools, they must also understand the way media shapes the global social, economic and political climates.

How are you helping graduates thrive in the flatter, more connected world?

Google Sky Map

This nifty application takes full advantage of the phone’s orientation sensors to show a star map for just about every location on earth at any given time. Are you wondering what that really bright thing is just on the horizon? Find out if it’s a star, a planet, or maybe a low flying plane just by pointing your camera toward the object. Google Sky Map provides detailed maps of over one thousand stars and all of the planets in our solar system.

Formulas Lite

This simple application houses a vast collection of the most important and oft used formulas in math, physics and chemistry. The app also features a scientific calculator and a very basic translator. While Formulas Lite won’t get you through advanced calculus without studying, it is a useful reference guide to keep easily accessible.

The Elements

This highly addictive game uses low-tech, abstract graphics to represent various elements such as fire, sand, water and salt. Want to know what happens when you mix fire and sand? Set up the scenario and press play. Voila! You’ve made glass.

PlinkArt

As a company that specializes in visual searches, Plink has created a beautiful application for art scholars. Users can browse art by timeline, movement, or gallery, or hit random and check out a new masterpiece. The coolest feature of this app is the visual search function. Just snap a picture of a work you’re admiring and if the piece is one of the thousands of paintings in their database the system will find it.

Trippo Mondo

With more than 30 different languages supported, Trippo Mondo has you covered. Not sure how to ask how to find the bathroom in Italian? Not sure if your Spanish pronunciation is up to snuff? Use this application to translate any given phrase. Type or speak into the phone and hear it repeated back in the local language.

Doodledroid

Yes, this is another smartphone painting program. But 21 different brushes, a three part color palette, simulated brush dynamics, and unparalleled control over design, this feature-heavy app is definitely worth the $.99 price tag. Just check out these sample images created with the program:

Layer Reality Browser

Last but definitely not least is an app that was one of the featured products at Google’s Zeitgeist event in May. The augmented reality program, which by the way is available for iPhone 3G users as well, augments the real world as seen through your phone’s camera lens. Several different layers can be applied over phone images to show aspects of your location. For example, if you wanted to know about crime in your area apply the SpotCrime layer and see a real time recording of crimes that have happened in your area. Although still in it’s early stages, the potential for augmented reality education using mobile devices is astounding.

What’s your favorite Android application for education?

Geography:

Want to show your students the world?  Try Beautiful Planet HD, which features more than 570 images from celebrated travel photographer Peter Guttman. Spanning seven continents and 160 countries, this app makes full use of the iPad’s HD capabilities. This breathtaking collection of images, arranged across a simple map format, provides a beautiful visual encyclopedia of the world.

Mathematics:

Packed with tools to teach students about how the world markets function, the Bloomberg app could be a great asset for middle and high school students interested in learning basic investment practices. The program interface is clear and intuitive, making a sometimes intimidating process much more fun. And best of all – it’s completely free.

Art:

Budding Monets and Picassos can paint their masterpieces using the new iPad app Brushes. Think a digital pain application can never compare to paint and ink? Check out the June 1, 2009 issues of The New Yorker, which artist Jorge Colombo created using the Brushes app. for the iPhone.

Astronomy:

Google Earth may have mapped the world, but to track the movements of the heavens you can’t beat GoSkyWatch Planetarium. Locate celestial bodies with a quick touch, or by simply pointing the iPad screen at the sky. One of the coolest features of this program is the ability of the user to direct the night sky image backward and forward through time, allowing students to check out the arrangement of the stars on the date of their birth.

Music Appreciation:

Magic Piano turns an iPad into a handheld keyboard. Like other music apps for Apple products, users can play songs both independently and through application-guided selections. However, the unique aspect of the app is the “piano roulette” function, which makes it possible for players to join in duets with performers from across the world. What a way to build interest in music among reluctant young students.

Science:

You’ve never seen the periodic table like this before. The Elements: A Visual Exploration is one of the first ebooks developed from the ground up for the iPad. The opening image in The Elements shows every element as a rotating sample. To learn more, users can zoom in on the element and see razor-sharp images and up-to-the-minute facts about the chosen sample. The awe-inspiring features of this app must be seen to be truly appreciated. Check out the video below to see more.

Early Reading:

While not an entirely new app, I include Dr. Seuss’s ABC on this list because the iPad version shows Suess’s whimsical illustrations to much greater advantage than the iPhone or iPod Touch versions. A perennial favorite of children and adults alike, Dr. Seuss’s ABC is sure to delight.

What’s your favorite iPad app for education?

The popular VARK model of learning styles identifies four different types of learners: visual, aural, reading/writing preference and kinesthetic or tactile. Find your learning style by filling out the online VARK Questionnaire.

My VARK scores:

• Visual: 13
• Aural: 2
• Read/Write: 13
• Kinesthetic: 2

Looking at my VARK scores it’s no wonder I enjoy working with PowerPoint and other presentations tools. Visual learners think in pictures and enjoy working with visual aids like diagrams, charts and graphs. Read/write learners are comfortable with words and like working with written, linear directions and communicating through text.

While aural learners easily pick up information presented verbally, without visual aids many other types of learners are easily lost. Read/write learners respond well to the linear nature of typical presentation tools, but even kinesthetic learners can be reached through the innovative use of presentation tools.

By putting activity instructions up on a slide, students are able to easily follow along while performing the activity. Presenting instructions using PowerPoint type of tool ensures that students don’t get too far ahead of their peers on their project. Instructions are doled out a bit at a time, rather than presented all at once in a handout.

Lately, I’ve been exploring ways to use Prezi, a new online presentation tool that allows the user to zoom from one idea to another on a limitless canvass of design space. Here’s a great example of a Prezi that shows a typical teacher’s day:

Prezi is currently free for students and educators, so give it a test drive if you’re tired of the same old slide shows.

Presentation tools can also be a great way for students to provide a gradable piece as the culmination of an individual or group project. Consider, for example, students who are asked to build a model bridge as part of a physics project. The end result of the bridge project could be a paper and series of diagrams describing various features of the model, or a student could present their project visually, using a program like Prezi to zoom in on certain features of the project and discuss the linear process of constructing the model.

How do you use presentation tools in education? Do you think they belong in the classroom, or do they get in the way of learning? Are you a PowerPoint addict?

Well, your smartphone is about to get a whole lot smarter. We’re pleased to introduceISTE Mobile, an iPhone application (and set of mobile pages) that keeps ISTE news, networks, and resources as close as your pocket or purse. ISTE Mobile includes a rich content library featuring ISTE Connects blog posts, a mobile version of the ISTE Community Ning, selected L&L articles, the NETS, ISTE podcasts, and ISTE 2010 news.

One of our favorite aspects of the ISTE application is its ability to give you a voice, including chatting, posting, friending, and tweeting. Share ISTE news and resources with your personal learning network via Twitter and Facebook—just look for the icons on shareable content throughout the application.

We’re proud of ISTE Mobile and its content, but keep in mind this is a beta version. Like many new technology tools, the app is a work in progress, and we want to incorporate the content you’d find most valuable. So have fun downloading and exploring the app, but also be sure to tell us what other ISTE tools and resources you want at your fingertips.

Learn more at www.iste.org/mobile and share your thoughts below in the comments section.

India as you see it on CNN: bustling, crowded, overwhelming. Throw in Mother Theresa, cricket, complex marriages, outsourcing and India’s computer engineers and you have a very complicated nation. Add two generations of highly successful immigrants now creating the new political grouping of “Indian-Americans” and the understandings of modern India become increasingly muddled.

India, the larger part of the Indian subcontinent is one of the BRIC countries of “Brazil, Russia, India, China,” which feature new emerging economies that are altering the economic landscape of northern America and Europe. India hosts a population almost three times larger than the United States of America in about one-third the space, and about 50% of Indians are under 25. This makes India one of the youngest countries in the world.

The primary and secondary school population in India is almost the size of the total population of the United States. India has some of the finest, as well as many of the worst, primary and secondary schools in the world. Educational opportunities range from elite residential schools to village government schools with one teacher. A new surge of private schools that teach in English wrestle with local language schools to set, and often degrade, standards.

In a speech in Calcutta on January 16, 2010, India’s recently re-elected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “Our Government has raised public investment in education steeply. Never before has so much of money been spent on education.”

This speech was part of his government’s commitment to make universal access to education one of the cornerstones for inclusive growth of India.

“I assure you that in the months to come we will pay even greater attention to the development of school education,” he said.

This may be indicative of speedier implementation of the Right To Education Act, which along with the previous amendment to the Constitution in 2002, will make free and compulsory education for children age 6-14 a fundamental right. It also aims to bring about a qualitative change in primary education to ensure schools have adequate teachers and reformed syllabi aimed at all-around development of children.

According to unofficial estimates, implementation of the new Act would require some 12 lakh (1.2 million!) for teachers and a provision of over 1.7 lakh crores rupees by the Centre and the states. (One crore rupees is around $225,000. A lakh is 100,000. Here’s the math: $225,000 x 170,000 = about $38.5 billion. Add in pricing parity, and you can add a zero to that to understand impact. Think what $380 billion in new money for education would mean in the US or Europe.)

I am delighted to learn that the literacy rate in India has gone up significantly in the past few years. Enrolment rates are rising and drop out rates are falling. I wish to see every child in our country become literate over the next decade. I would like to see a sharp increase in enrollment among women in schools, to help young girls fulfill their potential and become equal citizens of our great Republic.