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Online Education: Important, but Not a Silver Bullet

Hear what the University of California president has to say about online education, and check out the best stories of the week.

Jimmy Daly

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Jimmy is a writer and editor who publishes a weekly newsletter. You can find him on Twitter.

Welcome to our weekly roundup of tech and education news. Have a story you’d like to see here? Tweet us.

Virtual Reality, Meet Social Media

Oculus VR, the Kickstarter-funded project that now makes the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, is being acquired by Facebook. The $2 billion deal will give Facebook yet another platform to expand its user base and shake up the social media landscape.

In a press release, Facebook said it plans to experiment with virtual reality in “communications, media and entertainment, education, and other areas.” What will this acquisition mean for higher education? Hopefully, it will make the technology more affordable and accessible. EdTech will be keeping a close eye on the virtual-reality trend.

Napolitano: Online Education “Is Not a Silver Bullet”

Janet Napolitano is the former secretary of Homeland Security and the current president of the University of California. In a recent interview with Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California, Napolitano made some interesting remarks on her plans for online education. The Chronicle of Higher Education transcribed parts of the interview, including these telling comments:

“It’s a lot harder than it looks. And, by the way, if you do it right, it doesn’t save all that much money.”

Watch the full video below starting around 31 minutes, and check out the transcript here.

Tweet of the Week

Whipped up a new slide for a post I'm writing: Hashtag Bracketology - http://t.co/lSEEQYcZnx #edtech #cpchat

— Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) March 20, 2014