November 13, 2015: Friday news roundup
Happy Friday the 13th! Here’s hoping no bad luck befalls you. And now, onto the roundup. If you only have time to read one article today, skip to the last item (in truth, it’s a video, not an article, but it’s not to be missed).
The Digital Revolution in Higher Education has Already Happened. No One Noticed.
First up, an interesting perspective from writer and thinker Clay Shirky on online learning and how it’s hardly a “new” or “futuristic” development. He writes, “the dramatic expansion of online classes has been largely ignored because it’s been driven by non-traditional students, which is to say students who are older and have more responsibilities than the well-off adolescents college has always stood ready to serve.”
Why ‘Leaning In’ Won’t Help Women Get Equal Pay
Well, this is rather disheartening. It turns out that, as women acquire more advanced degrees and rise up the corporate ladder, the wage gap actually increases. “Women who’ve earned PhDs and spots in the executive suite face the greatest wage discrimination of all.”
The Ever-Growing Edtech Market
Here’s a look at the state of the K-12 edtech market, now valued at more than $8 billion annually. According to the article, “the testing and assessment market, which raked in $2.5 billion during the reported year, was the single largest category of any segment.”
3 Challenges Online Education Helps Adult Learners Overcome
Nothing in here we didn’t already know, but it’s great to see mainstream media touting the advantages of online learning for working adults — flexibility, convenience, and equal access.
Minecraft for Parents
Meet Cody and Erica Wagner, 13-year-old home-schooled twins from the Denver area. Their mom, Taffy Wagner, is a prolific Udemy instructor herself, and now Cody and Erica have launched a course to help adults understand the popular game Minecraft that so many kids are obsessed with. Watch how poised and mature these teens are in this TV interview! We’ll have more on the Wagner family’s Udemy story coming soon.