5 Seriously Stunning Facts About Higher Education in America

Education Technology

Article | July 27, 2022

You in the community seemed so impressed with this recent Boston Dynamics–inspired build that we decided to feature another. This time, maker Harry was inspired by Boston Dynamics’ research robot Handle, which stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4 feet vertically. Here’s how Harry made his miniature version, MABEL (Multi Axis Balancer Electronically Levelled). MABEL has individually articulated legs to enhance off-road stability, prevent it from tipping, and even make it jump (if you use some really fast servos). Harry is certain that anyone with a 3D printer and a “few bits” can build one.

Education Technology

Article | July 15, 2022

After almost two years of disruption due to the pandemic, our ongoing recovery has highlighted the value of embracing change and working much more flexibly than before, refusing to give up at the first hurdle and a willingness to work together to achieve a common goal. These transferable skills are becoming ever more important for us to thrive in our increasingly automated world, and they are skills that can be developed and embedded through the medium of mathematics. Fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving are the three foundations of our mathematics curriculum. By valuing them all, we will ensure that our future workforce has the confidence and skills to work together much more effectively to solve problems, overcome hurdles, and sustain our recovery. Let’s begin with fluency. Although AI is becoming increasingly prevalent, benefiting both our social and working lives, we still need number skills, perhaps now more than ever. Too many high-profile technology projects have failed due to basic mathematical errors. We need our education system to nurture the types of number skills needed in industry, especially a much greater focus on using and applying number skills. We must encourage students to develop their confidence in estimating quantities and a willingness to check calculations, even when they’ve used a spreadsheet or calculator. From NASA’s disintegrating space probes to trains that don’t fit their platforms and submarines that are just too big, the tech world is littered with avoidable, costly mistakes. Acquiring number fluency means developing a ‘feel’ for numbers so that we can easily spot when something is not quite right; the NASA probe disintegrated due to a simple error converting units, the trains would not fit because no-one checked the platform sizes, and the submarines needed refitting due to an error entering spreadsheet error. Each of those three were incredibly costly, totalling millions, if not billions of pounds, but they were all avoidable too. We must nurture a willingness to estimate and develop a ‘feel’ for numbers, known as ‘number sense,’ alongside the more traditional approach of performing more formal calculations when needed. After all, few people head to the shops armed with a pencil, squared paper, and a ruler in readiness to calculate their change at the cash register. We need to value number sense and rethink our expectations of the primary curriculum. Encouraging a different approach towards the teaching and learning of mathematics may also help to address the gender imbalance in the subject. If you filled a room with a hundred math professors, the chances are that less than ten would be female. However, female mathematicians have played key roles in the fight against COVID. Mathematical modellers such as Professor Julia Gog, based at the University of Cambridge, drew on her research as an adviser to the government’s SAGE committee. Nevertheless, even though more students study A-Level mathematics than any other subject, few female students choose to apply to study mathematics at university. My own research with female A-Level candidates reveals their preference for careers which help others and contribute towards a better society. However, they often do not appreciate how studying mathematics might help them to realise their dreams by helping thousands, if not millions, of others through research on climate change, medicine, and networks. We know that the gender gap in mathematical performance starts at a young age, and researchers have suggested that the changing expectations in the curriculum as students progress through their schooling might dissuade girls from continuing to study mathematics at a higher level. At primary school, pupils are expected to master written calculations such as long division and long multiplication to achieve ‘age-related expectations.’ However, to progress further, they also need to be able to solve problems, and this seems to be the point where female students lose out. It has been argued that the switch from being rewarded for learning procedures to solving problems favours boys over girls, and the persistent gender gap in results for higher-achieving primary pupils appears to add weight to that argument. Effort are being made to encourage more females to consider studying mathematics, including the Maths 4 Girls project which organises school visits from female role models and the careers arm of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications which organises poster competitions to encourage more school students to think carefully about studying mathematics, both projects which I support. Yet more needs to be done. Our curriculum and assessment system are designed to value number sense, estimating and problem-solving skills and perhaps rethink the time schools devote to rehearsing written calculations. Otherwise, we risk overlooking the huge potential of our current female students to contribute and build on the work of their predecessors, including Florence Nightingale, Mary Boole, Ada Lovelace, and Julia Gog, among many others. To continue our recovery from COVID and rebuild our economy, we must embrace the potential of mathematics for developing and embedding the skills and attitudes that our students will need to thrive in their increasingly automated world: a willingness to "play" with numbers, estimate and check their answers; an enthusiasm for solving problems and working together; and an understanding that it’s OK to get stuck sometimes. We can overcome the hurdles that we face by working together as a team.

Education Technology

Article | October 7, 2022

Virtual reality and augmented reality, or AR/VR are making waves when it comes to creating immersive environments for people to learn, play, meet, and experience. And what better application of AR/VR than for learning purposes? AR/VR is known to make education more engaging, interactive and most importantly, to enable longer retention of information. The immersive experience allows students to be more present and learn multiple concepts hands-on. Implementing AR/VR in your school can be expensive, but there are applications that allow schools to get the most out of it without blowing their budget. Here are five free tools to consider adding to the AR/VR roster while waiting to win an education grant. SkyView The SKyView app is a winner among children who love space. The app requires users to use a smartphone and point it at the sky. It provides a real time view of the constellations and planets in the part of the sky that is being viewed through the phone. The app is especially great at night to view the placement of stars, satellites, and planets and identify them. Berlin Blitz Not all screen time has to be destructive. AR/VR apps make for a great way to enhance history lessons and make them more interesting and vivid. The BBC offers a 360-degree virtual learning experience that is free for all and can be accessed through a web browser on any device. Berlin Blitz lets users ride a bomber plane that was flown over Berlin by a camera crew and a journalist. Froggipedia Science classes are not complete without dissecting a frog. However, it can be too brutal for some classes or simply time-consuming and costly. This is where Froggipedia comes in. The app uses a virtual frog and displays the frog anatomy as if there was a frog on the desk. Not only is it safer but also cleaner and more animal-friendly. The app demonstrates how a frog’s body works in real-time without having to actually dissect a frog. Google Expeditions Google Expeditions lets users take a trip around the world from their screens. The initiative is part of Google’s Arts and Culture website. Learners can take expeditions across timelines and geographies. In addition, the classes come with follow-up materials for educators to do a class based on the trip. Sandbox AR Created by Discovery Education, the Sandbox AR app provides a comprehensive AR experience that lets students build a virtual world in any room. This allows for educators to move classes and take interactive sessions. For instance, students can discover the wonders of ancient Rome in a school auditorium. To Conclude At a time when remote learning has become an essential aspect of education, interactive and immersive apps are the best ways to ensure that education is fun, meaningful, and beneficial to students. These free resources ensure that schools are able to make the most of AR and VR technologies without having to invest in expensive hardware and paid applications.

Article | July 20, 2020

We’d like to introduce you to Amie Hanbury. In the story she shares below, Amie describes how COVID-19 caused her to reevaluate her career, and how learning on Coursera gave her both the confidence and the skills to pursue a new opportunity. With the support of her family, and driven by a desire to make a positive difference in the world, she overcame her self-doubts and landed a fulfilling new role in a new field.