By Heidi M. Agustin. On Wednesday, Google officially announced the launch of its new growth equity fund, Google Capital, by making its first investment in education.
As announced in a Google blog post, the new investment arm is backed by Google and led by partners David Lawee, Scott Tierney and Gene Frantz. While it is somewhat similar to Google Ventures in that both aim to invest in the most promising startups, Google Capital differentiates itself in two significant ways: instead of focusing on early-stage investments as Google Venture does, Google Capital will provide late-stage capital for startups that have hit their growth phase. It will also provide more than just a monetary investment. According to the blog post, Google Capital's portfolio of companies may have access to the company's workers. See more...

By Sue Gee. Coursera has a new initiative whereby students who complete a series of courses on a specific topic can earn a Specialization Certificate. Four Computer Science options are among the initial programs, including Data Science.
The idea of Universities awarding certificates and diplomas in recognition that a student has completed a course of study in a specialized subject isn't new and now that Coursera has announced its Specialization Certificates the idea will probably spread. More...

The first paper coming out from my PhD has just been published by the the Journal of Research in Learning Technology, 21(0).
I’m actually quite excited about it and I have blogged about it here. (I’ll talk more about the Social Theory Applied project I have just joined in a very near future post). More...

We would like to invite you to submit an abstract as a contribution to this important conference. This year the conference takes place in the University of Glasgow, making it the first time the conference has been held in Scotland. The key theme of this year’s conference is: “The politics of education studies: pedagogy, curriculum, policy”
Some of the suggested topics for papers are the following:
• Alternative voices in Education Studies
• Innovations in Education Studies
• Education Studies: Contemporary debates
• Researching Education Studies: critical issues
• Student perspectives on Education Studies
Please note this list is not exhaustive. More...

By Graham Attwell. The Guardian newspaper has published the headline results of an interesting survey of people in the UK, undertaken in conjunction with the Open University. I’ll comment on a few of the findings.
48% of (presumably those with degrees) stated that they felt their degree has been beneficial in terms of getting a job in today’s economic climate. And that leaves a somewhat surprising 52% who felt their degree had not helped them get a job! Over 50% of 18-24 year olds feel obliged to get additional qualifications – once more possibly casting doubt of the value of an initial degree, especially given how expensive higher education is in the UK.
39% if those who have spent time developing their skills have done so online and one in five people have done or are currently doing an online course. However 45% said they would only consider doing an online course if it led to an official certificate and only 8% had heard of MOOCs. More...

By Graham Attwell. Some ideas flourish and then die. Others start slowly and then take off. Although all the talk is about MOOCs my feeling is that the Mozilla Open Badges project may have a more profound influence in changing education than online courses. The following text is an excerpt from the quarterly online magazine, Holyrood Connect. More...

By Graham Attwell. I don’t know quite what to think about the Open Education Challenge. It is good that the European Commission is working to support start up companies in education and especially interesting to note the impressive list of people available to help mentor new start ups. However, 20 companies hardly represents a critical mass and secondly I am not sure that the trudging successful applicants for twelve weeks around “successive European cities: Barcelona, Paris, London, Berlin and Helsinki| is the best way to do things. More...

By Graham Attwell. Last weekend I went to the British Educational technology (BETT) show in London. If nothing else, the sheer numbers of exhibitors and visitors show how educational technology has become a big business. I am afraid such events are not my favourite. There was many, many shiny displays of stunning technology and I suspect, if I had had the patience to explore, many great ideas for new approaches to teaching and learning. However, I found the latter tended to get hidden behind the ever increasing size of the big screens. I was also struck by how much of the kit supplied could be developed or put together much cheaper by the determined hacker- teacher. Anyway a couple of hours wandering and I was exhibitioned out. So I turned my attention to the wide range of supporting events. I ended up an a couple of sessions in the Technology in Higher Education Summit. More...