Closing the STEM Gap

Generally girls lose interest in STEM careers as they get older. But, according to a new study, small changes at school and at home can have a profound impact on how girls perceive STEM careers, how confident they feel in class and how likely they are to pursue STEM academically and into their careers.

College Promise Project to Promote Success Factors Beyond Tuition and Fees

M.D.R.C., the College Promise Campaign and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association have launched the College Promise Success Initiative, a project that aims to expand the support provided to students in College Promise programs. The idea is that Promise programs can see greater success when they address the many barriers low-income students face to college achievement, beyond just covering tuition and fees.

How a Video Boom Led to Better Campus Collaboration

When MOOCs generated a huge demand for video production at Princeton University, the institution responded with organizational change, an AV upgrade and a new commitment to sharing campus resources.

Report: IoT Security Spending to Hit $1.5 Billion This Year

Spending on security for the internet of things will reach $1.5 billion, up 28 percent over 2017's $1.2 billion, according to a new forecast from market research firm Gartner. Professional services will account for the bulk of the spending throughout the forecast, at $946 million this year and growing to $2.07 billion by the end of the forecast in 2021.

UC Berkeley Rolls Out Tech for Accessible Course Content

Following a semester-long pilot of Blackboard's Ally solution for accessible course content, the University of California, Berkeley is expanding its use of the technology across campus. The rollout will begin this fall, and by the end of next year, the system will provide accessible course materials to more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students, according to a news release.

Qualtrics Expands Experience Management Platform with New and Enhanced AI and Analytics Tools

At its annual user conference this month, Qualtrics revealed a slew of new features for its flagship Experience Management (XM) Platform, a data collection and analysis tool used in some 2,000 colleges and universities and 6,800 schools. All told, Qualtrics has about 1.2 million education users in 90 countries.

NSF Grant to Cover Master Degrees in STEM Teaching and Bonuses

A six-year project at the University of Houston will develop, mentor and retain 30 STEM teacher-leaders in high-need school districts.

Report: AR and VR Headset Sales to Return to Strong Growth Following Lackluster 2017

Augmented and virtual reality headsets will see a compound annual growth rate of 52.5 percent through 2022 despite a lackluster year in 2017, according to a new forecast from International Data Corp. In 2017 the market saw a decline, largely because of reduced shipments of screenless V.R. viewers, which in turn was a result of vendors ceasing to bundle the viewers with smartphones. Following last year's poor showing, however, I.D.C. predicts strong growth this year, with shipments surging to 12.4 million units on a 48.5 percent C.A.G.R.

AI Hive Mind Chooses Clean Water Over Education as Top World Priority

Universal access to clean water should be the world's highest priority, according to a recent pronouncement by a "swarm artificial intelligence" system that connected 70 people in real time via AI algorithms designed to turn them into a "hive mind." Participants in the swarm were attendees of the South by Southwest conference this month in Austin, who were gathered by AI company Unanimous AI to "think together" on a variety of topics and provide "optimized insights."

Calculus Game Born out of Texas A&M Lab Boosts Student Outcomes

When Giulia Bini introduced the use of a video game in her high school calculus class, she saw a 100 percent pass rate on testing about limits compared to 80 percent in the previous year; plus, grades rose by 10 percent. The game she used, Variant: Limits by Triseum, places players on an imaginary planet. To rescue the planet from "imminent doom," they help "Equa," the main character, solve a series of increasingly tough calculus problems.

MIT Students Build Record-Breaking Rubik's Robot

Students at MIT have designed a robot that can solve a Rubik's Cube in 0.38 seconds, setting a world record. Designed and built by a pair of students using the student-run hackerspace MIT Electronics Research Society, the robot broke the previous world record, set in 2016, of 0.67 seconds.

MIT's CLIx Nabs UNESCO Prize for Open Learning Initiative

MIT's Connected Learning Initiative has won the King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The project uses pedagogical design and technology to improve the academic prospects of students underserved students in India.

Recipients of 2018 McGraw Prize in Education Revealed

Next month's ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego is the venue where three people will be recognized for their innovative contributions to education. They include an individual who has brought coding to girls, another who has dived into the science of learning and a third who has used data to increase student achievement at his university.

Report: Wearables to Ship 133 Million Units This Year

Wearable devices will see 15.9 percent growth this year on their way to selling 132.9 million units, according to a new forecast from International Data Corp. Throughout the forecast, the market will see a compound annual growth rate of 13.4 percent, reaching 219.4 million shipments in 2022.

John Jay College Researchers Developing Open Source Database of School Shootings

A new open source database at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, developed in partnership with the University of Texas at Dallas and Michigan State University, will track shootings at K–12 schools and analyze the factors involved in such attacks. The project is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice's Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, a research effort focused on identifying the root causes of school violence as well as developing and evaluating strategies for boosting school safety.

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