Gen Z Shows Little Interest in IT Careers

The young men and women who make up Generation Z expect and demand that their mobile devices work seamlessly and are integrated into every aspect of their lives. The problem is, new data suggest they have little interest in making information technology a career.

According to a survey conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), 70% of teen and young adult respondents said they “love technology,” but only 19% of those aged 18-24 said they were interested in an IT career. In addition, 21% of those aged 13-17 said they were not interested in IT as a career.

“On the surface, it seems like the affinity for technology is a great thing for the future workforce, since technology will be so intertwined with business,” the CompTIA report said. “However, most students are not eyeing a career in IT as a result of their technology learnings.”

The lack of interest is particularly troublesome for colleges and universities that are increasing the use of technology to handle everything from enrollment to graduation rates, according to a report in eCampus News. Stanford has even made a national plea for experts in the field of data science, and innovators are creating departments on campus focused on data science, and IT management.

While the survey of Generation Z proved disappointing, there may be good news on the horizon. A January online survey from The Harris Poll found that while most parents of K-12 students discourage their kids from becoming teachers in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) subjects, 50% identified engineering as the career they would most prefer their children pursue.

Digital on the Minds of CAMEX Attendees

Digital course materials was among the hot topics—if not the hottest topic—for campus bookstore attendees at the 2016 Campus Market Expo (CAMEX) in Houston, TX. (Produced by NACS, CAMEX opened last Friday, March 4, and continues through March 8.)

For campus stores, “digital” covers the gamut: PDFs, e-books, electronic coursepacks, access codes, online labs, content delivered through the school’s learning management system, adaptive learning products, and more. Nearly all stores sell the access codes if their faculty have chosen those materials for their classes, but it’s a mixed bag for other forms of digital materials.

While some stores said they’re experimenting with the course-fee model for selected classes—which enables stores to negotiate a much lower cost for digital materials with publishers in exchange for 100% sell-through in the class—others said they are running into some roadblocks. Among the hurdles to more widespread adoption of digital course materials are:

Many textbook titles aren’t available in digital format, especially older titles. Publishers are reluctant to invest in converting backlist titles that only a few faculty are still using, preferring to put money into developing new materials that can incorporate the best features of digital technology.

Providers of digital works are not fully compatible with all of the major point-of-sale (POS) systems used by campus stores, hampering stores’ ability to sell and distribute digital materials to students. Most providers are working with publishers and POS manufacturers to resolve this, but it’s taking time.

Many faculty and students are still not entirely comfortable using solely digital materials. A growing number of students prefer to have both print and digital forms of the same textbook, so that they can easily study in their dorm or home from the print but access the digital in class on their laptop. Students will buy or rent just the digital if it’s cheaper than other options. Faculty are more willing to try digital materials if they see students will save money.

Digital is not always cheaper to produce than print. In addition, for many textbooks, the cost to rent a print copy for the term is less than the digital option.

Some digital materials must be acquired directly from the publisher, creating problems for students on financial aid or who don’t have credit cards.

Harvard Making Online Lectures Better

Tests of the commercial lecture-capture solutions used by Harvard University showed that they worked well enough for on-campus students, but could be of higher quality and faster speeds for distance learners. That led the Harvard Division of Continuing Education (HDCE) to build a customized cloud-based version of the open-source software known as Opencast.

“Other Harvard units use lecture capture as a review tool for students who don’t come to class, are sick, or need a study tool, but our distance-education group actually sells access to these lectures,” Gabriel Russell, a video, software, and systems engineer at Harvard, told eCampus News. “Lecture capture is a primary learning tool for our students, so we need to make sure the product meets their needs.”

Developers created a system that included a high-definition video stream of the lecturer on one side of the screen and a presentation window that shows the feed from the classroom’s projection system on the other. Students are then able to choose a side-by-side view, a view with one window larger than the other, or a picture-in-picture setup.

HDCE selected a third-party video firm to capture video from more than 25 units in classrooms on the campus. The group also moved its version of Opencast to the cloud through the institution’s existing relationship with Amazon Web Services.

“Opencast is free and you can get it up and running if you have a couple of knowledgeable staff members, although it helps if you have a developer that can dig into the configuration,” Russell said. “Ultimately, our plan is to commit all these improvements into the main Opencast product, so these features will be to other institutions for free.”

NACSCORP, OpenStax Launch ACCES

NACSCORP, a subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores, and the Rice University-based publisher OpenStax has expanded their partnership by launching the Affordable Custom Content Enhancement System (ACCES) on the eve of CAMEX 2016 in Houston, TX. The online platform allows faculty to create open educational resources (OER) and offer them through their campus store.

OpenStax has released 16 college titles that are used by nearly 400,000 students this year. The number of instructors using OpenStax titles increased by more than 100% in 2015 because of its partnership with NACSCORP, which provides low-cost print versions of the textbooks.

With ACCES, faculty will be able to reorganize chapters and add their own content. In addition, educational publisher Dover Publications is making its catalog of anthologies of classic literature, poetry, plays, music scores, and other publications available for faculty to insert into ACCES content.

"The OpenStax-NACSCORP custom print partnership is a direct response to faculty requests for customized print versions of OpenStax textbooks that will provide students with useful and affordable course materials," David Harris, editor-in-chief of OpenStax, said in a press release. "Many faculty want to use technology to tailor materials for their students, but they don't want to sacrifice quality. They want to start with a rock-solid, peer-reviewed textbook--preferably one with full-color illustrations and a full suite of homework and testing modules--and they want to make only the changes that are relevant to their teaching."

To make it easier for faculty to track the cost of the books they are working on, ACCES will display associated print costs in real time. ACCES will also automatically format pages and create a new index.

"We are committed to providing our campus store partners with the textbooks their faculty demand, including OER titles and customized materials," said Kurt Schoen, president and chief operating officer of NACSCORP.

Health Concerns and E-Books

American University professor Naomi Baron noted in her book Words On Screen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World, that 92% of college students prefer print textbooks over e-books. That may be a good thing, as a Seton Hall University researcher has discovered potential health issues associated with reading e-books.

Diane Lynch, assistant director of health services at Seton Hall, claims students could be susceptible to eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes related to computer vision syndrome. There is also a risk for carpal tunnel syndrome for students using mobile devices and tablets.

Lynch told The Setonian that there is evidence the brain doesn’t process as well, store, and retain information read in a digital format. There’s also the issue of distractions attached to reading on a computer or tablet.

Google Ending Play for Education App

Google Play for Education, created in 2013, allowed college students to buy or rent textbooks with the flexibility to read the content on a mobile device. In the K-12 world, it was an app designed for the classroom organized by subject and grade that came at a reasonable cost.

Even though Google intends to continue supporting the service, it will stop selling licenses for the app on March 14. The app was only available to a limited number of tablets, but the company plans to continue making educational apps that work on all Android tablets available in the Google Play Store.

Play for Education was launched to promote Android tablets in schools. Since Google’s Chromebook has become the device of choice for many districts, the new focus could be on changes to the operating system that would provide even more classroom tools, according to Kristin Decarr in an article for Education News.

“While nothing official has been said about why the company decided to do away with Play for Education, an unnamed Google partner executive believes the reason to include capability issues, such as the limited number of student profiles that can be put onto a single device, in addition to competition from Apple’s iPad,” Decarr wrote.

Study Finds Internet Addiction Is Real

College students always seem to be online. Now, there’s a reason to be concerned about spending too much time online. Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill studied the phenomenon and found that Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is similar to other substance-abuse disorders.

The researchers worked with 27 undergraduate or graduate students enrolled at UNC Chapel Hill who spent more than 25 hours a week on the Internet and reported at least one health, relationship, or emotional issue because of PIU.

“Individuals with PIU may have difficulty reducing their Internet use, may be preoccupied with the Internet, or may lie to conceal their use,” Susan M. Snyder, assistant professor of social work, Georgia State University, Atlanta, wrote about the study in The Conversation. “Perhaps not surprisingly, individuals with PIU have been found to experience several negative mental health problems, which could include depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, hostility, social phobias, problematic alcohol use, self-injurious behavior, and trouble sleeping.”

Nearly half (48%) of the participants answered “yes” to five or more of eight questions about their usage, leading the researchers to consider them “Internet addicts.” Another 40% were classified as potential addicts because they answered “yes” to at least three of the questions. All of the students met the criteria used in the Compulsive Internet Use Scale, which was developed by a branch of the National Institutes of Health.

“The conclusions come through loud and clear,” Snyder wrote. “PIU exists and it affects family relationships. While those effects may be both positive and negative, those who suffer adverse consequences from PIU may have difficulty addressing their PIU because of requirements to use the Internet for classes via online assignments, online courses, and materials accessed online.”

Expectations of Online Learners

Distance learners expect a lot from their online courses, and sometimes those expectations can be rather contradictory. That was the finding of a nationwide survey of 1,500 students taking online courses, according to a report in eCampus News.

Nearly 75% of the students who responded said online programs must help with their careers and must offer personalization choices. When asked, 43% said they preferred electronic course materials and 33% said they wanted paper textbooks.

Respondents also said online courses should include shorter terms, generous transfer terms, and fast responses on admissions decisions, credit review, and financial-aid packaging. At the same time, students want the school to have a strong local brand because 65% live within 100 miles of the institution offering the online instruction.

About 30% of the students said they wanted their courses to be fully online, but nearly half said they would take a blended course and 22% said they found the option of on-campus courses very attractive. Students are interested in features such as low price, self-study options, and job placement rates that set a school apart from its competitors.

The institution had also better market to all ages with a great website that makes it easy to gather a wide variety of information, including tuition costs, admission requirements, and the online programs available. Students also said an online program should be affordable and provide easy access to instructors.

“The patterns and preferences of the sample of individual interviews are reflective of online students as a whole, and the data reflect a national template of the behavior and preferences of these students,” the authors of the report wrote. “College and university leaders can use this information to attract and serve this growing population. Individual institutions should also consider regional data and their position in the local marketplace.”

Gen Z Has a Different Point of View

Students from Generation Z started heading to campus in 2013. While they already make up about a third of the U.S. population, they also think differently from the millennials who came before them, according to an article for Campus Technology.

The authors of the book Generation Z Goes to College, which surveyed more than 1,100 college students from 15 schools across the country, found that Gen Z students who lived through the recession of 2008 tend to be more career-minded. They also want to find ways to influence “structural problems” that impact their own families and friends, as well as communities around the world.

They see themselves as loyal, compassionate, responsible, and open-minded, and are motivated to help and please others. At the same time, they are concerned with education, employment, and racial equality. They have little interest in a political system they view as dysfunctional.

“Millennials were raised during a budget surplus and tend to be optimistic and hopeful. Generation Z is a lot more pragmatic and down to earth,” said Corey Seemiller, who teamed with Meghan Grace on the project. “Generation Z is a little more cautious when thinking about how everything is going to be great because they have been grounded in a sense of reality by their parents, who are by and large Generation Xers, who have been deemed cynical rebels in some ways.”

Online Ed Report Card Is Out

More students are taking online courses, but fewer academic leaders see virtual classes as critical to their long-term strategies, according to a new report from the Babson Survey Research Group. The study also found that fewer academic leaders rate learning outcomes of online education as equal to or superior to traditional teaching.

According to the 2015 Online Report Card—Tracking Online Education in the United States, online enrollment rose nearly 4% over 2014 figures, with private nonprofit schools showing an 11.3% increase. Private for-profit institutions went the other way, with enrollments shrinking by nearly 3%. Public colleges and universities also had the largest number of students in distance education, with more than 70% of undergraduates and almost 40% of graduate students taking online classes.

However, the number of administrators who said they believe that online learning was critical to their institutions fell from 71% in 2014 to 63% in 2015. Administrators who thought learning outcomes compared favorably with face-to-face instruction also slipped, from 77% in 2014 to 71% last year. In addition, 29% of administrators said their faculty members accept the value of online education, a lower rate than the percentage recorded in 2004.

There was more positive news when it comes to massive open online courses (MOOCs). The percentage of institutions offering MOOCs rose from 2.6% in 2012 to 8% in 2014 to 11% in 2015. However, 59% of schools said they have no plans to offer MOOCs.

Passwords Are Becoming So Passé

Passwords can be something of a pain. It’s recommended that users create unique keywords for each device and account, but the tendency for most is to use the same password multiple times or make them so simplistic that they often are easy for hackers to access.

That could soon change as Apple, Yahoo, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, are all working on ways to eliminate the password altogether, at least on mobile devices. Alphabet is testing a password-free program for signing into accounts with a smartphone, while Apple introduced its Touch ID fingerprint biometric feature with the iPhone 5S.

“Twenty years ago, I never could have imagined the world we live in today, and I’m sure the next decade will be just as unpredictable,” Gerhard Eschebeck, head of security and privacy engineering for Google, said in a report for CBS News. “But I’m also sure that 10 years from now, whether we’re changing legacy systems like passwords or taking on new challenges like networked devices and the Internet of Things, working together to share security knowledge and solutions will be our best shot at handling whatever challenges the future throws at us.”

The Google program includes what it’s calling a “security key” to the standard two-step verification process. The security key uses encryption to make sure only the user who has the key can access the account. Google is trying to develop technology that allows Android users to respond to alerts with their phones instead of passwords, and recognizes the user through speech patterns and typing, according to a report in InformationWeek.

The Apple Touch ID feature allows users to log in with the touch of a finger, but only a small percentage of apps take advantage of the option. However, iOS developers are in the process of creating more apps that use Touch ID.

Yahoo launched a mobile mail app last October called Account Key that requires users to confirm an attempt to log into an account through a notification sent to the smartphone, according to a report in TechCrunch. At the same time, Microsoft is working on a biometrics security feature for its Windows 10 operating system.

Student Shoppers Mix Web and Store Visits

Since college students spend a great deal of time on their phones, does that mean they prefer to shop with their digits instead of heading to a physical store? Not necessarily.

According to the latest monthly student survey conducted by NACS OnCampus Research, students tend to blend their online and in-person shopping. For instance, the majority of students still buy most clothing during visits to bricks-and-mortar locations. However, 27% will go online first to look up information before they set off for the store.

Conversely, 21% of students said they browsed apparel in a physical store prior to actually placing their order online.

The same is true of technology products. While 41% of students said they bought tech merchandise online, another 43% researched tech products on the web before making the purchase at a store.

More than two-thirds of students do visit the websites of online-only retailers, such as eBay and Amazon, at least once a month, with about a quarter doing so every week. Whether they’re shopping online or in a physical store, price is still the most important facet in deciding what and where to buy. Free shipping was important to 56% of respondents. Convenience and product quality still matter to students, but not nearly as much as cost.

Amazon Not Likely to Open 400 Locations

It caused quite a stir when a shopping-mall executive speculated that Amazon was planning to open as many as 400 physical bookstores around the nation. Amazon calls its plans more modest, which means Amazon Bookstores are still going to be popping up.

Rich Bellis, associate editor at Fast Company, predicted that the Amazon stores will be hybrids combining showroom, warehouse, pickup lockers, and books. He based that on the bookstore the online retailer already opened in Seattle and the model it has opened on some college campuses, which have simply been staffed order-and-pickup locations.

Bellis also said Amazon watched Barnes & Noble have trouble incorporating the Nook device into its stores and has learned from that lesson.

“It’s a physical bookseller with a failed digital business,” Bellis wrote. “Amazon has never been in that position and knows better than to put itself there. Instead, it may see physical locations as (among other things) more akin to Apple Stores, where it can showcase the hardware it sells online, with books being the sorts of things you might grab on your way out, like a new iPhone case.”

Malware Targets Android Phones

Most college students can’t function without their smartphone nearby. If it’s an Android device, there’s a malware that could make their lives miserable.

The malware, called Mazar Android Bot, is spread through a text message with a malicious link that takes over the user’s device, according to a report from ITProPortal. The text alerts the user that a multimedia message has been sent and includes a link to view the message.

The user is then prompted to download the package with the malware that bears a generic name such as “MMS Messaging” to make it look like a legitimate application.

Once downloaded, the malware alerts the attacker that a new device has been compromised. The malware can install a proxy application that lets the attacker intercept all Internet traffic on the device. It also makes it possible for man-in-the-middle attacks, which are used to steal account logins, social media credentials, and banking information.

Security experts believe the malware is of Russian origin because Mazar Bot can’t be installed on phones owned by Russians. The bad news is that as it spreads the malware is likely to evolve into new forms.

“Attackers may be testing this new type of Android malware to see how they can improve their tactics and reach their final goals, which probably is making more money,” Andra Zaharia, a security specialist at Heimdal Security, said in a report for MSN.com. “We can expect this malware to expand its reach.”

Microsoft Buys Keyboard Developer

Microsoft has purchased keyboard software developer SwiftKey, adding it to its own keyboard software, Word Flow. The software is used to make it easier and faster to type on a smartphone touchscreen by finding patterns that identify words users are trying to type.

SwiftKey’s work with artificial-intelligence techniques to speed up typing was part of the reason for the purchase, according to a report in PC World. A new SwiftKey keyboard launched last fall has shown it can provide users more privacy and security by doing a better job of predicting words to use.

The surprise part of the move is that Word Flow is releasing versions for Android and iOS keyboards’ software, something already offered by SwiftKey. Microsoft has no plans to shut down either SwiftKey app, according to Harry Schum, executive vice president for technology and research for Microsoft.

“We’ll continue to develop SwiftKey’s market-leading keyboard apps for Android and iOS, as well as explore scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and service portfolio,” Schum wrote in a blog post announcing the acquisition.

Digital Library Textbooks Not an Ideal Fix

Sooner or later, any discussion about making course materials more affordable comes around to this question: Why not publish all textbooks in digital format and make them available through the campus library?

That always seems like the perfect solution to people who aren’t actually involved in creating, acquiring, or using textbooks. For college students and researchers, digital materials via the library represent a mixed bag. The campus newspaper at the University of Virginia-Wise aptly highlighted some of those plusses and minuses.

On the up side, through database subscriptions, libraries can provide access to digital materials that they wouldn’t be able to acquire in print. Conversely, the Highland Cavalier noted, some older databases are stored on CD-ROMs, which makes them inaccessible to users of new computers that don’t have a CD slot.

Unlike print copies, libraries don’t own all of the digital works in their catalogs. Access is lost when the subscription lapses or if a publisher terminates a title. In any case, many textbooks don’t tap into the extra functionality offered by digital technologies because they were created specifically for print consumption.

“Most textbook authors do not have the expertise to create this kind of [digital] content,” a mathematics professor and textbook author told the Highland Cavalier article. “As long as a book exists in both digital and paper form, there is a desire to keep the two versions similar.”

Critics Troubled by New MOOC Fees

The mission of massive open online course (MOOC) platform Coursera is to “provide universal access to the world’s best education,” according to its website. Critics are starting to wonder if that mission still holds after Coursera announced it would begin charging fees for a group of courses it calls Specializations.

Coursera offered learners the option of taking a course for free or paying $49 for an identity-verified course certificate upon completion. They could also choose the free version first and add the pay option during the run of the class. Learners taking a Specialization course are still able to choose to view course materials and view-only access to graded assignments for free, but must pay an up-front charge to start or prepay for the entire program for credit.

Last year, Rick Levin, CEO of Coursera, said Specializations would help the company build a sustainable business model. Critics see the shift as the unfortunate but inevitable outcome of a firm satisfying its investors.

“It is dismaying to see the so-called Silicon Valley ‘hypesters’ and geniuses failing to deliver on promised change,” George Siemens of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab, University of Texas at Arlington, said in a blog post for Inside Higher Ed. “The deep pool of visionary and re-architected future ended up being about as thick as a dollar bill.”

HEA Rewrite Unlikely in 2016

While presidential candidates debate the pros and cons of their plans for education, the chances that Congress will reauthorize the Higher Education Act in 2016 are moving from slim to none as each day passes. The law that was passed in 2008 was supposed to expire in 2014, but has continued through automatic extensions or other congressional action.

Most observers see a comprehensive rewrite of HEA as a longshot during a presidential election year. In addition, it’s thought that any new administration will not have reauthorization high on its list of legislative priorities once it takes office next January, according to a report in Inside Higher Ed.

“I don’t see any real possibility of the House and Senate passing two bills, reconciling them together, and sending something to the president,” said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “The better question is: Will we actually see bills introduced in the committees? That, to me, would be progress.”

While there is some hope among experts that lawmakers may still be able to pass smaller bills this year, many areas of disagreement remain and must be worked out. Even in an area such as financial aid simplification, getting a bill in front of the House or Senate will not be easy despite bipartisan support.

“I do think we’ll see some legislative language and more people showing their cards,” Draeger said. “At least then we’ll have something we can work with and react to.”

Are Fitness Bands a Security Risk?

A new report found that most of the popular fitness trackers do a bit more than just count the number of steps the user has taken. They let others in on your progress as well.

In the early draft of Every Step You Fake: A Comparative Analysis of Fitness Tracker Privacy and Security, the Canadian nonprofit Open Effect said that all the devices it studied transmitted a unique Bluetooth identifier that can be tracked by beacons that many retailers are using to recognize their customers. Only the Apple Watch had a technique to block the beacons, according to a report in PC World.

The bands can be tracked even if they’re not paired with a smartphone, according to the researchers. Companion apps for the wearables also leak login credentials, allowing users to submit fake tracking information.

“In the course of our technical investigations into transmission security, data integrity, and Bluetooth privacy, we discovered several issues that confirm concerns about the potential uses of fitness-tracking data beyond the typical case of a user monitoring their own personal wellness,” wrote the authors of the report. “The fitness data generated by several wearable devices can be falsified by motivated parties, calling into question the degree to which this data should be relied up for insurance or legal purposes.”

ConTEXT Looks at New Era of Textbooks

College textbook formats and how students acquire their reading materials have changed considerably in the past decade, as the report Mapping the Learning Content Ecosystem has documented. What these changes mean and how they affect the foreseeable future for faculty, students, publishers, and sellers of content will be explored at Campus Market Expo 2016 (CAMEX), March 4-8 in Houston, TX.

ConTEXT, a mini-conference within CAMEX focusing on textbooks and technology, will take a look at new strategies and best practices, from digital formats and open educational resources to adaptive learning products and text-with-tuition models. Speakers will include Andy Hines, assistant professor and coordinator of the Foresight Program at the University of Houston, who will discuss how to make sense of the shifting course materials landscape.

“Thinking about students, how will the changes in their lives and needs influence higher education and approaches to learning?” Hines wrote in a recent article for The College Store magazine. “These changes may ultimately redefine the notion of what a course material is, as coursework spills over into work, play, relationships, and even participation in civic life.”

The ConTEXT track will feature 15 educational sessions related to course materials. The ConTEXT educational program is underwritten by the NACS Foundation, with support from Follett.

In addition, two showcases—custom/digital content solutions on March 4 and adaptive learning products on March 5—will give an overview of new products and services for academic content and how they benefit students and faculty. Among the participating suppliers are LAD Custom Publishing, RedShelf, XanEdu, Cengage Learning, Elsevier-Health Sciences, Pearson Education, and Wiley.

CAMEX attendees will also be able to learn more at the ConTEXT Pavilion during the trade show (March 6-8). Most of the exhibiting companies involved in course content and materials will be located in the vicinity of the pavilion and many will be demonstrating products in the ConTEXT Presentation Theater.

Lynn Switching from Minis to iPad Pros

Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL, made headlines with its pilot program to provide 750 students with iPad minis for the fall 2013 semester. The initiative worked so well the device was given to all undergraduate students and new MBA and doctoral students in 2014.

Lynn is upping the ante once again by providing 1,800 iPad Pros with the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil included to undergrads and faculty. The school made the switch because of the improved performance and multitasking abilities of the device. The keyboard is more convenient for students to use, while the pencil expands the multitouch powers, according to the university’s website.

The school claims its iPad initiative has reduced costs for students, who no longer have to bring a personal computer or laptop to campus. The program has also allowed the school to replace traditional textbooks with custom e-textbooks.

Devices Distract, But Students Don't Care

New research has found that students waste about one-fifth of their class time on their digital devices. The average student uses a device for nonclass purposes 11.43 times each class, up from 10.93 times in 2013, despite the fact they understand such behavior could harm their grades.

The report Digital Distractions in the Classroom PhaseII: Student Classroom Use of Digital Devices for Non-Class Related Purposes also asked students why they look at their devices during class. Nearly 63% said they were doing it to stay connected, but about the same amount said they were checking their phones because they were bored, according to a report from Inside Higher Education.

Students overwhelmingly said they didn’t want their devices banned because they didn’t believe the gadgets were a significant distraction. They also said they should be able to use their gadgets whenever they want. Fewer than 12% admitted that they just couldn’t stop themselves.

“This speaks qualitatively to their feeling that they should be the ones to decide when and how to use their digital devices,” said Bernard R. McCoy, associate professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and author of the report. “It’s a part of what’s now factored into the classroom, and it’s a reality we all have to think about.”

McCoy surveyed 675 students at four-year institutions in 26 states. Nearly 90% of them said they understood that not paying attention was a disadvantage of using digital devices in the classroom, while 80% knew that the distraction could lead them to miss an instruction.

However, the students also assumed also they could handle their devices, with 58% saying it was just a “little” distraction. Only 39% admitted checking their device distracted others and 42% added that it was only a “little distraction” if it did bother other students.

“To me it’s fascinating, interesting, and a little scary all at once,” McCoy said. “If you take a look at the habits of society in general, technology is more available to us than ever before. Then you think about millennials. They are true digital natives. They’ve only known the Internet and the technologies associated with it.”

Google Has Shipped Millions of VR Devices

Virtual reality (VR) has become a really, really big thing, and Google has the numbers to prove it.

The company recently reported it shipped five million units of its Cardboard virtual-reality platform in two years. That includes devices that were sold by third-party retailers along with ones given away by Google.

The Google numbers also show that Cardboard has been installed through the Google Play Store more than 25 million times and users have watched more than 350,000 hours of YouTube videos through the app. On the education front, more than 500,000 students have taken VR field trips using the device, according to a report in VentureBeat.

While Google has competition for the VR space, Oculus Rift is still several weeks away from shipping and the HTC Vive is still not available for preorder. And Apple has only just begun to explore the potential of VR, which puts it way behind in the market.

Apple Climbs Aboard VR Bandwagon

Apple hasn’t yet been a player in the expanding world of virtual reality, but that could be about to change with the addition of Doug Bowman to its staff.

Bowman’s last job was as a computer science professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, and director of its Center for Human-Computer Interaction. He’s also the main author of 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, considered one of the most important textbooks on 3-D interface technology. He recently received a $100,000 research grant from Microsoft to analyze the uses of the Microsoft Hololens VR headset.

With virtual reality about to become a $5 billion industry, according to Newsweek, it’s hard to ignore. Besides, investors are nervous about Apple and the slowing pace of iPhone sales.

“But with Bowman coming on board recently, according to the Financial Times, Apple may just be saying it’s ready to make virtual reality an actual reality in its product lines,” said tech writer Rex Crum in an article for SiliconBeat.

Use MOOCs to Support Student Success

Many students head off to college still needing preparation for entry-level college courses, particularly at the community college level. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are often seen as a way to offer a flexible and affordable way to improve those skills without paying for remedial classes.

However, MOOCs are also self-directed and self-paced, which can be a problem. Research has shown that community college students in particular struggle with online learning environments, according to Matt Lawson, principal architect at NetApp, who suggested that the solution lies in the support the institution provides its students.

“Of particular significance with MOOCs on community college campuses is identification and support of students at academic risk,” Lawson wrote in a column for eCampus News. “Big data and analytics are a formidable tool that can help identify these at-risk students and thereby enable much-needed proactive intervention to help those students succeed in college.”

While serving as director of enterprise services for community colleges in Virginia, Lawson found that student engagement could be recorded through the number of times they clicked into the online courseware. Using that information allowed the system to determine which students were engaged with the material and which were struggling.

“This sort of targeted intervention can prove critical at the community college level, and could prove to be a boost to student retention and attrition—two top goals of any institution of higher education,” he wrote.

Production Trumps Consumption

One conundrum in the digital education world is consumption vs. production, according to Inside Higher Ed’s tech blogger Joshua Kim. Consuming content is more convenient on mobile devices, while producing that content is easier on a laptop or desktop computer.

“What this means for education, I think, is that we need to design our content primarily for mobile,” Kim wrote. “Anything that has to do with consumption will occur on a small touchscreen. Our text, presentations, and videos all need to be designed mobile first.”

However, don’t toss the laptop just yet. The keyboard makes the device much more important in the digital world because keyboards on mobile devices are simply too small to be useful. And, to Kim, writing remains at the heart of education.

“After having spent a few weeks with the new $169 iPad Pro Smart Keyboard (the combined case and keyboard), I can tell you that it is not something that you will want to use for any serious writing,” he wrote. “We should be suspicious of any education program that is mobile-only. Mobile-first, sure, but not mobile-only. Any good postsecondary program should stress production over consumption.”

Top Seven Issues for Campus Stores

Since college stores have been in the business of providing textbooks to students for many decades, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that affordable course materials heads the list of the seven top issues facing the college store industry right now.

NACS member-volunteers spent months identifying all the issues impacting stores and then condensing and winnowing the list to the seven most critical challenges. Stores’ efforts to help ensure all students have affordable access to course materials on the first day of class emerged as No. 1.

Stores have built relationships with publishers and distributors to help faculty understand the available options for materials, including customized versions and open-source materials. As more course materials are offered in digital formats (sometimes solely in digital), it’s often stores that end up assisting students in figuring out how to access their electronic assignments. Because students still strongly prefer to study from paper—digital products don’t yet offer the same ease of use—campus stores have stepped up to furnish hard-copy options for digital or online materials and to seek out more sources of lower-cost used books to stock.

While some students believe they can achieve good grades without textbooks, research shows that those who regularly read their assignments are more likely to attain better grades and persist to graduation. That starts with making sure students aren’t deterred by the price of materials.

However, the issue of affordable course materials has another side for campus stores: conflicting goals. While most higher education institutions are trying to hold down costs for students, including textbooks, they also expect their campus stores to generate more revenue from sales.

The six other issues on the top-seven list are:

2. The student experience: providing goods and services to enhance students’ campus experience and boost their connection to the institution.

3. The retail experience: furnishing strong customer service and extending the school’s brand.

4. Campus collaboration and communication: working closely with other campus entities to support the institution’s mission.

5. Retail technologies: making good use of technology to improve operations, service, and communications.

6. Talent development: strengthening the store’s performance by investing in its employees.

7. Business stewardship and strategy: being aware of trends and issues and readying a strategy for response.

Middle Schoolers Earning College Credit

Many school districts around the nation provide ways for high school students to earn college credit. Hayward, CA, may be the only one making that same offer to middle school students.

Instructors from Chabot College are teaching everything from early childhood development to engineering to five middle schools in the Hayward area. Each of the schools can offer one class per semester and credits the students earn are transferable after high school graduation.

The goal of the program is to provide college exposure for the youngsters, many of whom come from low-income families, according to a report from EdSource.

“As long as they can handle it, it’s good to challenge them,” said David Farbman, senior researcher for the National Center on Time and Learning. “You don’t want to push kids too hard, but given the right support, they can achieve at high levels.”

Chabot College chooses courses middle schools students should be able to handle and Hayward district staffers select students they think are ready to take the classes. The district also has an after-school staff to help students complete their work. State and federal after-school program grants fund the offering.

Over the first three semesters of the program, 175 students enrolled in classes, with some taking more than one. Students completed 72% of the classes with a grade of C or better, according to data from Chabot College.

“No one can tell them they’re not college material,” said Chien Wu-Fernandez, assistant superintendent of student and family services for the Hayward Unified School District. “They have just proved that they are.”

Really Low-Cost Computers Are Here

The notion that improvements in technology normally lead to lower costs for consumers is taken to an extreme with some of the new devices hitting the market, such as the CHIP computer.

The CHIP website calls the device the world’s first $9 computer. It’s about the size of a credit card and has WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities built in, a 1GHz processor, four gigabytes of storage, and 512 MB of RAM. Keyboard, screen, and mouse are not part of the package, but CHIP can connect to any Bluetooth device and has a USB port to plug into older accessories.

Next Thing Co. created CHIP through a Kickstarter campaign that got the backing of nearly 40,000 people and raised $2 million, according to a report by National Public Radio. A teacher from the Nelson County Area Technology Center, Bardstown, KY, contributed $150 to the campaign and was selected to test the device in the classroom. Students at the school have used CHIP to rewire Star Wars toys with LED lights.

“This is one way to do it, by intriguing their interest and seeing what’s on the cutting edge of technology,’” said Jeremy Booher, principal of the school. “If we were still using typewriters and using Microsoft DOS, then obviously people come in and fall asleep.”

The CHIP is just one of a number of low-cost basic computers now on the market or coming soon. They have been made possible because the price of microprocessors and computer components has fallen so dramatically.

Microsoft Aquires MinecraftEdu

Microsoft participated in a Minecraft coding effort last year as part of the annual Hour of Code campaign from Code.org. Now, the Seattle-based software company has acquired MinecraftEdu, a firm that makes a version of the popular video game modified for the classroom, and is planning the launch of Minecraft Education Edition for the summer.

The MinecraftEdu version includes additions that make the original game more appropriate for a K-12 setting. It features a multiplayer mode for up to 40 students and offers a cloud-based system to host Minecraft classroom servers with a library of lessons and activities.

In addition, the Learning Tools add-on provides teachers special text-formatting options that make reading, writing, and note-taking easier. Other features include reading with audiotext playback and natural-language processing, according to a report in InformationWeek.

Microsoft plans to keep the user price at $5 per year, but will make a free trial version of the software available this summer, according to VentureBeat.

“One of the reasons Minecraft fits so well in the classroom is because it’s a common, creative playground,” said Vu Bui, chief operating officer of Mojang, a game-based development firm that created Minecraft and was acquired by Microsoft in 2014, in a report for eSchool News. “We’ve seen that Minecraft transcends the differences in teaching and learning styles of education systems around the world. It’s an open space where people can come together and build a lesson around nearly anything.”

A Hands-On Approach to Textbook Affordability

If you attend the 2016 Textbook Affordability Conference (April 27-29 at the University of California, Davis), you’ll have a hand in developing potential solutions to ensure all college students have access to the course materials they need, regardless of format.

Conferees will spend part of the time collaborating in teams to further discuss the ideas and challenges presented by speakers. Teams will explore creation of a course content model that meets the needs of students as well as higher education campuses and their partners.

In the opening keynote, Adela de la Torre, vice chancellor, student affairs and campus diversity, UC Davis, will examine the importance of supporting student success.

At the conclusion of the conference, Lisa Petrides, president, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, and Mark Milliron, co-founder and chief learning officer, Civitas Learning, will talk about next steps and strategies in a “fireside-chat” session. Milliron was also a Thought Leader presenter at NACS’ 2014 Campus Market Expo (CAMEX) conference and trade show, identifying several rising trends for college course materials.

Registration will open soon. Sign up to receive notification when it does. Discounts are available to institutions who register three or more professionals. Five hotels within walking distance of the Davis campus are offering special rates to conference attendees for a limited time.

With coordination by NACS, planning partners for the 2016 conference include the Association of American Publishers-Higher Education, California Association of College Stores, The California State University’s Affordable Learning Solutions, NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and OpenStax.

Apple Working on LiFi Technology

Improvements in technology seem to travel at light speed. Soon, that could be literally true.

A report in Computerworld suggests Apple is considering supporting LiFI transmission, a superfast wireless transmission technology that uses light to send data. The technology is not seen as a replacement for the popular wireless networking technology known as WiFi, but as a companion technology designed for home networks.

LiFi is similar to optical cable transmission, except scientists haven’t figured out how to create accurate light transmissions without using cable, at least not yet. Researchers predict that LiFI speeds could eventually reach 110 gigabytes per second faster than WiFi.

“A LiFi network can be programmed to achieve specific tasks, such as guiding a Yamaha home robot to its bed before turning off the light. The network can also track and localize moving objects/persons indoors, outdoors, and from indoors to outdoors,” according to the LiFi Centre.

AppleInsider already reported that the company began mentioning LiFi capability with the iOS 9.1 operating system’s library cache file. LiFi technology is beginning to reach markets, but the Computerworld report predicted that any deployment by Apple is still 24-48 months away.

Bitcoin's Days May Be Numbered

Bitcoin has “failed,” according to one of its core developers. Mike Hearn said in a blog post that he was ending his involvement with the organization and is selling his holdings.

“Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly,” Hearn said in a report from Reuters.

The issue for Hearn is the battle over whether the size of bitcoin transactions should be enlarged. Currently, each bitcoin block has a capacity of one megabyte and allows a maximum of three payments to be processed per second.

Hearn helped to develop software that would increase each transaction block to eight megabytes and allow 24 transactions to be processed every second. The new software has not been adopted, leading him to claim that the bitcoin network will soon run out of capacity as the number of transactions grows, making the network unreliable and vulnerable to fraud.

Bitcoin trading slipped from $430 to $390 after Hearn published his post.

“The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow,” he said. “So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say, ‘Well, maybe we’ve miscalculated (its) future value.”

Put Some Fashion into Wearable Tech

Many college stores have climbed aboard the wearable technology bandwagon, offering tech-savvy students any number of fitness-band options. Next, collegiate retailers may want to start thinking about shelves full of smart clothes.

“No one in the industry wants to admit it,  but the wrist is probably not the best place to stick a bunch of sensors, and activity tracking many not even be the best use for all those sensors,” Malarie Gokey wrote in an article for Digital Trends. “If we want wearables to become truly wearable, companies need to start looking at the clothes we wear every day of our lives. And if we want those wearables to be truly useful, we need to think beyond step counting and create tech that gives actionable suggestions to improve our well-being.”

Companies are making inroads into the wearable clothing field, but the focus has been fitness metrics. That trend is starting to change as manufacturers discover that garments provide opportunities for customization while stilling looking like normal clothing.

“The possibilities are endless,” Gokey wrote.  “Smart clothing has the potential to break wearables out of their fitness funk and make them go mainstream. If wearables are ever going to take off, they have to be fashionable, look like normal clothes and accessories, and do more than tell you your step count.”

Microchip Using Light Is Being Developed

The high demand for speed and volume limits traditional microprocessor chips that use electrical circuits to communicate and transfer information. That could be about to change as researchers work on a chip that uses light instead.

The light-based technology, known as photonics, reduces the energy used in a microchip because light can travel over longer distances using the same amount of power, according to a report in The Economic Times. The new chips have the potential to create faster and more powerful computing systems.

The new microchip has a bandwidth density of 300 gigabits per second per square millimeter, which is at least 10 times greater than current electric microchips. It also incorporates the optical input/output components of current state-of-the-art electronic circuitry, creating an integrated, single-chip design.

“Light-based integrated circuits could lead to radical changes in computing and network chip architecture in applications ranging from smartphones to supercomputers to large data centers, something computer architects have already begun work on in anticipation of the arrival of this technology,” said Milos Popovic, assistant professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder.