The Teacher’s Guide To Google Glass

If you’re as excited as Katie and me about Google Glass, this post is for you. We like to take on the latest technology and see how it fits into education. If it doesn’t, we typically don’t write about it or will mention it in passing. But the potential for Google Glass in education is just too great. That’s why we thought it would be useful to compile an early-stages ‘Teacher’s Guide to Google Glass’

Once the expensive pair of glasses actually makes it into the hands of a teacher, the typical lecture will become something totally different. In fact, much of the education process will be flipped as students will be able to view the world through the lens of a teacher (literally) and get a new perspective on learning.

Before we start, let’s talk about what Google Glass is (and what it isn’t). Google Glass is a small device tacked onto a pair of glasses. It’s a bit dorky looking and some people are already saying that anyone wearing Google Glass is a, well, it’s not a nice word. Anyway, I think they’re cool, so there. Google Glass lets you record what you’re seeing, view a heads-up display of information (more apps coming out every day it seems) and has a touch pad on the right side of the glasses. That touch screen is one of the ways you control your pair of Glass(es). The other way is by verbal commands like “OK Glass” and that sort of thing. Make sense? Good. Let’s chat about how that seemingly simple tool could be used in education. That is the Edudemic way after all.

Rather than give you a lengthy description of the intimate details, I’ve decided to let the Googlers do that.

It’s actually a bit late to get in on the beta testing but you can still stay informed and get alerts about when it’ll be available for you. Check out this page for info on that.

However, there are reports that it’ll be available in 2014 for about $1,500 or so. We’ll see what actually happens though. There’s even talk of Google Glass-centric stores set to be opened. I could see that being pretty darned fun to check out. For now, we wait.

Create First-Person Video Guides
Teachers of all grades can use Google Glass in some manner. For the most part, you’re going to want to take advantage of the first-person recording functionality. That seems (to me at least) the most useful for a classroom whether it’s remote or in-person.

Flip Your Classroom With TED-Ed
Once you have built up a few videos, you can throw your Glass-recorded videos into the TED-Ed flip machine (that’s what I like to call it) and then add some additional resources and guides to your footage.

Have Students Use Glass
Students can throw on a pair of the glasses and record interactions with fellow students, on field trips, and while out of the classroom in general. A great way for students to start thinking strategically about their everyday actions and what they can learn from them.

See How Other Teachers Use Glass
Check out this site and the hashtag #GlassEdExplorers to see what other teachers are doing with the tool!

Review FERPA
Be sure you have the appropriate permissions and other legal documentation before going off and recording everything your students do. FERPA is a big deal at this point.

Be Ready To Share
All your friends and students are going to want to try out your pair of Google Glass so be ready to share and tutor others on how they work. We’re working on a free video site devoted to this kind of tutorial and it should be ready soon. In the meantime, these useful guides will hopefully be of, well, use!

Share Your Glass Ideas
The beauty of Edudemic is that we feature writers from all over the world in an effort to get you a well-rounded look at education technology. That’s where you come in. I’d love to have as much insight as possible when it comes to figuring out how to properly (emphasis on ‘properly’) use Google Glass in the classroom. Share your thoughts down in the comments or on the Edudemic Facebook page or mention @Edudemic on Twitter (we’ll retweet you!) so others can learn from you.

Check out the official user guide from Google here to learn how to set up Google Glass, use it to start recording, interacting, and learning with this cutting-edge piece of equipment.

There’s a lot of people posting about Google Glass. But you don’t need to follow all that noise. Just check out the #GlassEdExplorers hashtag to get the low-down on what early adopters / Explorers are doing with Glass in education.
Tweets about “#glassedexplorers”
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

Below is a handy visual guide and infographic to how the Glass system works, how it works with your eyeball, and other amazing technology tidbits you probably didn’t know about … yet.

View the original article here

Why the Guardian university guide is the one to watch

Students at St Martin's new campus near King's Cross in London. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

As the Guardian unveils its 2014 university guide, this year's rankings are set to be more influential than ever.

And that's because, as new research has just shown, students base their decisions about which courses to apply for on the Guardian guide.

Economists at Royal Holloway, University of London, analysed university application data for the past eight years to see how scores given to institution departments by the Guardian affected the number of student applications they received.

The researchers made two findings: subject departments that score highly in the tables get more applications, and, tuition fees are making league tables more influential.

According to the study, individual departments moving up a subject-level league table experienced a rise in applications of almost 5%, with the increase most pronounced among overseas applicants.

Changes to student number control, which allow universities to recruit for more high-achievers, mean that league tables will become more influential as universities vie for extra students, says Xiaoxuan Jia, the report author.

"As the market for higher education gets liberalised and institutions become freer in recruiting the best home and EU students, the income effect of the Guardian ranking will increase."

Researchers say based their study on the Guardian's guide because it is "easily accessible and currently the most popular."

Universities already pay close attention to league tables, but the report authors added that university administrators may wish to, "review their resource allocation based on the criteria used to construct those league tables on a regular basis, to improve and sustain their respective ranking performance."

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of Association of Graduate Recruiters says universities recognise that, especially after the fee rise, students want a return on their investment in education.

"The senior management at institutions are paying far more attention to league tables and employability statistics than ever before, and that will prove to be the best catalyst for bringing about changes to the student experience – and changes for the better."

It's not just universities that are keeping an eye on league tables – they're also watched keenly by graduate employers, adds Gilleard. "Recruiters base their decisions about which universities to target on a number of factors, one of which is the reputation of an institution."

University league tables aren't without their critics – and, as career advisers point out – they shouldn't be the only resource students consult when applying to university. But the Guardian's rankings, which unlike other league tables prioritise student experience, is the place to start.

View the original article here

University guide 2014: download the Guardian tables and see how the rankings have changed

Cambridge University has retained its top spot on the Guardian university league tables for the third year in a row. Photograph: Brian Harris/Alamy

Cambridge University has retained its top spot on the Guardian undergraduate university league table for the third year in a row. Oxford University and the London School of Economics (LSE) are in second and third place respectively, unchanged from the 2013 rankings.

St Andrews remains at fourth place, whilst UCL and Durham have each climbed one position taking them to fifth and sixth place respectively. Bath are up two places to seventh and Imperial climbs an impressive four places to return to the top ten.

A new addition to the top ten is Surrey university coming in at eighth beating Imperial at ninth and Warwick at tenth place. Richard Adams writes:

Surrey's rise above the likes of Imperial College and Warwick University – in ninth and tenth places respectively – is a remarkable effort for an institution whose origins go back to the Battersea Polytechnic Institute of 120 years ago. Some 56% of its student population are women, while more than 90% of its young applicants come from state schools

It's not such good news for Lancaster though, dropping to 11th. Exeter also failed to make the top ten after dropping two places to 12th.

So who have been the biggest climbers on this year's league table? If we don't take into account St Mark and St John, which dropped off the list last year and are now back in at 101st, Northampton have seen the biggest increase in their ranking.

Northampton have increased their position by an impressive 39 places bringing them up to 47th from 86th. Portsmouth are up 30 places to 48th. Liverpool John Moores, Swansea and Winchester have all also recorded significant changes in their positions since last year.

The chart above shows the universities with the biggest improvements in ranking and also those that have had the largest drop from the previous year's position.

Cardiff Met has fallen 39 places since last year, down from 66th to 105th. Sussex tumbles down from 27th place to 50th with the second biggest decrease since last year.

The University of the Arts London, Gloucestershire and Robert Gordon have also witnessed noticeable decreases in position since the 2013 rankings.

In other news, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama tops the specialist institutions rankings, followed by the Courtauld Institute.

Cambridge dominates the subject rankings, coming top in 14 out of 47 including medicine, veterinary science, biosciences, chemical engineering, maths, sociology and modern languages and linguistics. Oxford came top in eight subjects including economics, politics, psychology, chemistry and physics.

Although it's not exactly new that Oxbridge dominate the majority of the subject league tables, what is notable however is how their grip seems to be loosening on certain subjects. For example, once top for law, Oxford has been trumped by UCL which also comes top for civil engineering, archaeology, architecture, English and art and design.

Birmingham are ranked top for computer sciences and IT and LSE have overtaken Cambridge for Philosophy. Imperial have replaced Southampton as number one in mechanical engineering, Durham are ranked first for sport science beating Lougborough to the top spot and Sussex have jumped from 17th to first for social work.

The tables were compiled by independent consultancy firm Intelligent Metrix. It's based originally on information collected by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the National Student Survey, published by Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce). The Guardian university guide is a ranking at undergraduate level only.

The Guardian undergraduate university guide can be explored below alongside information such as spend per student, student to staff ratio and the change in ranking by institution.

Click on the downloadable spreadsheet to view the individual rankings by subject. We'd love to read your comments in the thread below.

‧ If you want to pose any questions regarding the league table, the compiler of the tables, Matt Hiely-Rayner from Intelligent Metrix, will be online from 1-3pm today, to answer your questions and explain the lengthy process of consultation, categorisation and number-crunching that goes into putting these figures together each year.

Click heading to sort table. Download this data

‧ DATA: download the full spreadsheet

Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian

‧ Search the world's global development data with our gateway

‧ Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk

‧ Follow us on Twitter
‧ Like us on Facebook

View the original article here