2014 December

Merry Christmas! Luke 2:1-40

On 12/23/2014, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

Merry Christmas all!

From Luke 2:1-40

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Apparition-to-the-Shepherds

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

²¹On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Jesus Presented in the Temple

²²When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
         you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹    which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
         and the glory of your people Israel.”

³³The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Trend: Campuses moving from online to On-Demand — from ecampusnews.com by Meris Stansbury
Management expert discusses why the future for college campuses is on-demand, not just online

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IT experts are calling it a super storm of forces that’s changing the way a campus ecosystem operates.

First, the very foundation of student expectations is changing, with requirements for education delivery models that are more flexible and accessible than those of generations past.

Second, the higher-ed market—thanks to the economy and possibilities available via technology—is reshaping itself under new requirements for competition, delivery, funding, and outcomes.

And it’s this super storm, say experts, that’s creating the need for new business processes and strategies to better compete and retain students.

From DSC:
I don’t have data to back this up, but I also have it that student expectations are changing. (It would be great if someone out there who has some resources in this regard would post some links to such resources in the comments section.) Anecdotally, the students’ expectations of today are different from when I attended college years ago. We didn’t have the Internet back then; we didn’t have personal computing devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops; we didn’t work collaboratively; there were no online-based courses; we didn’t have nearly as many choices for learning at our disposal.

But taking cues from society at large and from the trends in computing, people want to connect and they want to do so on their terms — i.e., when it fits into their schedules. So I can see this sort of phenomenon picking up steam, at least for a significant subset of learners out there. In fact, it’s an underlying assumption I have in my Learning from the Living [Class] Room vision. Many of us will seek out training/education-on-demand types of resources throughout our careers — as we need them. Heutagogy, lifelong learning, and rhizomatic learning come to mind; so does the growth of Lynda.com and the growth of bootcamps/accelerated learning programs (such as flatironschool.com).

Finally, the concept of “learning hubs” is interesting in this regard, whereby a group of learners get together in a physical setting, but tap into online-based resources to help them learn about a topic/discipline. Those online-based resources could be synchronous or asynchronous. But learners come together when it works into their schedules.

Romans 11:33-36

On 12/23/2014, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
³⁶For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier [Rutledge]

On 12/22/2014, in attention, digital storytelling, engagement / engaging students, innovation, new media literacies, participation, psychology, story, storytelling, transmedia, by Daniel Christian

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier — from div46amplifier.com by Pamela Rutledge, PhD, MBA; Director, Media Psychology Research Center Adjunct Faculty, Fielding Graduate University

Excerpt:

Media literacy is an increasingly pressing issue for media psychologists and educators who strive to prepare people of all ages to function well in a media-rich, globally connected world. The ever-expanding integration of media technologies in our daily lives, from social media platforms to mobile apps, have challenged our understanding of just what it means to be literate in the 21^st century (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009). The emerging trend of transmedia storytelling will continue to push the envelope even farther. Transmedia storytelling goes beyond the need to segment such skills as search and collaboration. It demands the ability to recognize, understand, and interact with narrative threads across multiple modalities, not just within them.

Transmedia storytelling is the design and distribution of a story that is coordinated across multiple media channels. Each channel offers unique content, using the strengths of each medium to its best advantage to build a larger, richer story. Transmedia storytelling is intentionally designed for participation, drawing the audience in as co-creators to expand and develop the narratives.

Transmedia storytelling may not seem particularly different or profound until you consider that all information is translated into narrative in our meaning-making brains. We embody the stories we tell. Stories are how we assign causality, consciously process sensory input and imagery, and create associations so we can commit experience to memory. Stories are how we make sense of our selves, our lives, and our futures in the world around us (Polkinghorne, 1988).

Khan Academy lands on the Xbox One bringing free education videos to your TV [ Al-Riyami]

On 12/18/2014, in Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, Microsoft, online learning, online media, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt from Khan Academy lands on the Xbox One bringing free education videos to your TV — from winbeta.org by Fahad Al-Riyami; with thanks to Keith W. O’Neal for posting this on Twitter

First available on the web, then on mobile devices, Khan Academy is now available on the Xbox One console too. The app provides access to thousands of educational videos on a range of different topics. The non-profit organization provides its video’s complete free of charge and makes them available to anyone in the world. No ads, and no regional restrictions.

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Skype real-time language translator goes live [Moscaritolo]

On 12/18/2014, in 21st century, collaboration, communications, languages and translation, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Skype real-time language translator goes live — from pcmag.com by Angela Moscaritolo
With Skype Translator, have a conversation with someone over the Internet who speaks a different language.

Excerpt:

The Microsoft-owned chat service on Monday launched the first phase of its Skype Translator preview program first announced back in May. Jointly developed by Microsoft researchers and Skype engineers, the new feature uses real-time speech translation technologies to let you have a conversation with someone over the Internet who speaks a different language.

This means you can have a conversation just like normal, and Skype will translate what you say into the other person’s language in “near real-time.” Then, when the other person says something, it will be translated back to your language.

————–

Future of the Campus in a Digital World — from campusmatters.net by Michael Haggans | November 2014

Excerpts from PDF (emphasis DSC):

In the digitally driven future of higher education, three-dimensional classroom spaces still will be needed. They won’t be used in the traditional manner and they won’t be the traditional kind. They will be bigger, flatter, faster and there will need to be fewer classrooms for the same number of students.

Classes that meet on campus will need additional area per student to accommodate interactive configurations, such as those allowing group work in the flow of the traditional class period. Typically these will be flat floors allowing easy configuration changes. At the same time, these rooms must be faster, with access to robust bandwidth.

Both physical and administrative adaptations will be required. While there will be more floor area per student when in class, the number of classroom hours per degree will drop, and all the while the expectation for digital transmission capability will continue to rise. To justify the required investment, institutions will have to rethink the administration of classroom scheduling to maximize effectiveness for students and faculty, and to achieve increased utilization. These are not new or easily managed issues for higher education. The accelerating move to online instruction will expose existing weaknesses of current systems and the benefits of more strategic investments and scheduling.
…
Digital Visible
From an institutional perspective, many of the implications of digital transformation are difficult to see, lost in a thicket of business issues presenting themselves with increasing urgency. Moreover, the changes induced by digital transformation are difficult to address through traditional facilities development and capital funding processes. These transformations are not about the need for a single new – or better – building, a campus student recreation center or teaching laboratory.

This is about adjusting the performance of the whole campus to support a digitally transformed pedagogy and academic community.

…
Libraries have never been about books. They have always been about access to and use of information.
…
Make campus matter
With so much of higher education available in digital and largely asynchronous forms, the justification for a campus must derive from something more than “we have always done it this way.” Even at the most traditional institutions “on-campus time per degree” will decrease. This change in convention will make the support of increasingly limited face-to-face time of
strategic value, rather than an assumed byproduct of traditional campus life.

iPad Art: The Majestic Forgiver [ipadinsight.com]

On 12/15/2014, in art, creativity, faith, global / globalization, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

iPad Art: The Majestic Forgiver — from ipadinsight.com

Excerpt:

It’s titled ‘The majestic forgiver’ and is the work of Woon Tien David Chong. Here are the artist’s own words on this iPad painting:

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

6 things you can learn from LeWeb Day One [Tinworth]

On 12/11/2014, in business, economics, educational games / serious games, entrepreneurship, Europe, innovation, internet, technology (general), wearables, workplace, by Daniel Christian

6 things you can learn from LeWeb Day One — from nextberlin.eu by Adam Tinworth

Excerpt:

1. The sharing economy is bigger than you think
2. The secret of wearable will be simplicity
3. We all wear clothes, but we don’t all wear jewellery or watches
4. Yandex started life searching floppy disks
5. The clock is ticking on the classic office suite of software
6. Games make you a cognitive superhuman

What is LeWeb?

Excerpt:

LeWeb in a nutshell
Founded in 2004 by French entrepreneurs Loïc and Geraldine Le Meur, LeWeb is an internationally-renowned conference for digital innovation where visionaries, startups, tech companies, brands and leading media converge to explore today’s hottest trends and define the future of internet-driven business.

“4 ways technology can make your music lessons sing” and other music-related items

On 12/11/2014, in Daniel S. Christian, education technology, engagement / engaging students, ideas, K-12 related, music, teachers, technologies for your home, tools, by Daniel Christian

4 ways technology can make your music lessons sing — from thejournal.com by David Raths
New tech tools that give students control over their music also inspire them to create and innovate.

Excerpt:

Russell can send students audio recordings that they can play along with as they practice. His students can use a music-writing app such as Notion to make their own practice tracks and compose their own songs. “That is a complete redefinition of what you do with students,” he said. “It was inconceivable before they had these devices.”

Russell said he is also excited about a relatively new app called NotateMe, which allows him to write musical notation and convert it to digital notation. The app also allows you to take a picture of a score and convert it to digital music.
…
But now with tools such as NoteFlight, second- and third-graders can create wonderful melodic compositions and play them on their recorder,” she said.
…
Pirzer now uses her Epson BrightLink interactive projector in conjunction with Smart Notebook collaborative learning software and apps such as TonalEnergy Tuner, which lets users understand and improve every aspect of their sound.

How to find free music for videos — from mccoyproductions.net by Jason McCoy <– Jason’s posting includes 31 Amazing Sites With Free Creative Commons Music

Excerpt:

If you’re embarking on a video project, perhaps an explainer video, podcast, school project or video presentation, using the right production music can be the key to successfully drawing your viewers in; but finding the perfect song can seem a daunting task.

Of course you could commission a track to be composed especially for you, but that can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

Luckily, there are plenty of places available for you to find free music for your video project, but where can you get it from and how do you know if you have the legal right to use it for your project?

Music Notation on the iPad – NotateMe Rules! — from ipadmusiced.wordpress.com by Paul Shimmons

Excerpt:

I’ve just got to mention the fact that the NotateMe app combined with the PhotoScore plug-in is an absolutely astounding tool!

THE SCENARIO –
I’ve got a contra-alto clarinet player and I really want her to play lower notes then what is written on the Baritone Sax part.

Automatic Music Generator Jukedeck Wins Le Web Startup Competition — from techcrunch.com by Mike Butcher

Excerpt:

London-based JukeDeck has received a small seed funding round for its platform which literally composes original music based on a user’s settings, giving video creators, games developers and other users a simple way of sourcing music. This might be based on the actions inside a video or a game, without any human intervention. The idea is that it’s “responsive music software”. It doesn’t use loops, but writes the music note by note, as a composer would.

This means it can, say its makers, create an unlimited amount of unique, copyright-free music, and users can choose the music’s style and what should happen in the music at various points. The first market will be for user-generated videos. The idea here is not to compete with human composers but to produce machine-made music that is listenable and eventually malleable by real musicians.

From DSC:
Then there’s an idea I had about being able to hear whichever parts you want to hear as you practice a piece of music. Don’t have a piano? No problem. You can’t play the piano even if you do have access to one? No problem. Want to hear just the tenor and alto parts? No problem. Want to hear just your bass part? No problem. Want to hear all parts together? No problem. Jump to measure 121? No problem. Publishers of music could provide music recorded in parts and let you select which part(s) you want to play and hear.

ChoirPracticeByDanielSChristian

Addendum on 12/15/14:

Great News From SymphonyPro — from ipadmusiced.wordpress.com

“The New Leadership Challenge” & “The Architects of Online Learning…” [EDUCAUSE]

On 12/10/2014, in 21st century, business side of he, collaboration, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, leadership, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The New Leadership Challenge — from educause.edu by Michael Kubit

Excerpt:

These are not traditional IT leadership challenges: IT leaders must develop a new set of skills. Emotional and social intelligence, the ability to provide leadership through ambiguity, managing behavior as performance, and effective engagement of stakeholders are the critical skills for IT managers today.

…

Historically, the use of information technology focused largely on infrastructure and enterprise business applications. Today, IT organizations need to find ways to align more closely with the teaching, learning, and research missions of their respective institutions. Three of the EDUCAUSE Top Ten IT Issues for 2014 emphasize the support of technology in the teaching and learning mission. The remaining issues involve positioning information technology as a strategic asset to leverage as a vehicle for innovation.

…

The speed at which things change fundamentally, both within information technology and higher education, makes it clear that traditional approaches will not take us where we need to go. We need to develop organizations that are more networked and interconnected, that are flatter, flexible, and focused on outcomes. We need to develop learning organizations that can respond to both challenge and opportunity without managers playing the role of parent.

A great deal of evidence collected over several decades and significant research have identified the qualities and characteristics of effective leadership. As technologists, do we pay enough attention to the science of organizational development? Effective leadership is the key to solving the challenges and opportunities before us. No longer are the principles of emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness reserved for senior leaders. These skills and competencies must become part of the core requirements for anyone in a leadership position. As an industry, we need to find ways to offer professional development for the most critical aspect of a manager’s tool kit — leading people.

The Architects of Online Learning: A Strategic Partnership for the Sustainability of Higher Education — from educause.edu by Robert Hansen

Excerpt:

The transformational impact of online education has profound implications for the sustainability of many traditional higher education institutions. As we all know, nontraditional students became the new majority well before the turn of the past century. More than 75 percent of today’s higher education students are nontraditional. As enrollments at many tuition-dependent institutions have declined, colleges and universities have turned to the adult market to stabilize their budgets. This means that having a clear vision for online education—the preferred format for so many working adults—has become a strategic imperative.

And yet, even though many college and university leaders acknowledge the value of serving adult and nontraditional students, it’s fair to say that serving these students continues, more often than not, to be marginal to the mission—a noble afterthought to the core enterprise of serving first-time, full-time residential students. In other words, today’s colleges and universities are still designed to serve yesterday’s students.
…
Whether or not higher education is the next bubble, it is clear that online education is creating winners and losers. In order to thrive—or, in some cases, to survive—many institutions (especially regional colleges and universities) must use online education as the foremost opportunity to reach new markets.
…
We propose a renewed partnership between those who are innovative with technology (IT professionals) and those who are innovative in creating new academic programs and ways of reaching new audiences (continuing and online educators). This partnership has become a strategic imperative: the technical has become entrepreneurial, and the entrepreneurial has become technical.

How do we create an advanced experience ecosystem? [Sargent]

On 12/10/2014, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, human-computer interaction (HCI), internet, technology (general), usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, wearables, by Daniel Christian

How do we create an advanced experience ecosystem? — from uxmag.com by Dallas Sargent

Excerpt:

“The Internet of Things is interesting because it forces us to rethink the interaction paradigms we have with objects—that is, something is different about our engagement with a smart object versus a ‘dumb’ one,” writes Thomas Wendt in his recent UX Magazine article, “Internet of Things and the Work of the Hands.”

Whatever you choose to call the grayish area sitting at the intersection of wearable technology, customizable sensors, and enhanced connectivity, it seems likely that this is where the next major breakthroughs in experience design will take place. Cisco estimates that by 2020, there will be 50 billion things connected to the Internet, so whether we settle on the “Internet of Things,” “The Internet of Everything,” or an “Experience Ecosystem,” the space is primed for explosive growth.

As Wendt notes, there is something different about interacting with smart objects and, “It’s our job to understand what that something is.” That something has been illusive in recent years, with users adopting to wearable tech slowly and a noticeable lack of sophisticated communication between objects. After all, an object sharing information with your smartphone or tablet only constitutes a relationship, it takes many more overlapping relationships to create an ecosystem.

Also see:

Apple pioneer Bill Fernandez on Google Glass, Oculus Rift and the look of the future — from cnet.com by Jason Hiner
In his time at Apple, Bill Fernandez helped develop technologies that have shaped modern computing. He also has a keen perspective on what’s next.

Excerpt:

“The true user interface is the gestalt of many things: industrial design, ergonomics, internal hardware, performance, error handling, visual design, interaction, latency, reliability, predictability, and more. For this reason I’m glad to see my profession moving from the concept of user “interface” (where the user interacts with the screen) to user ‘experience’ (where more the above factors are considered),” said Fernandez.

“I can design the best user interface in the world on paper, but if it’s not implemented well by the hardware and software engineers (e.g. the product is slow or buggy) then the product will fail. If you do a really good job of designing a product then everyone who sees it thinks it’s so obvious that they could have done it themselves.”

…

“So there will be a seamless, multimodal UI experience using sight, sound, voice, head motion, arm movement, gestures, typing on virtual keyboards, etc. There have been pieces of this in research for decades. Only now are we beginning to see some of these things emerge into the consumer market: with Google Glass, Siri, etc. We have further to go, but we’re on the road.”

From DSC:
I’m intrigued with the overlay (or should I say integration?) of services/concepts similar to IFTTT over the infrastructure of machine-to-machine communications and sensors such as iBeacons. I think we’re moving into entirely new end user experiences and affordances enabled by these technologies. I’m looking for opportunities that might benefit students, teachers, faculty members, and trainers.

Learning Ecosystems

Merry Christmas! Luke 2:1-40

Merry Christmas all!

Romans 11:33-36

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier [Rutledge]

Khan Academy lands on the Xbox One bringing free education videos to your TV [ Al-Riyami]

Skype real-time language translator goes live [Moscaritolo]

Future of the Campus in a Digital World [Haggans]

iPad Art: The Majestic Forgiver [ipadinsight.com]

6 things you can learn from LeWeb Day One [Tinworth]

“The New Leadership Challenge” & “The Architects of Online Learning…” [EDUCAUSE]

How do we create an advanced experience ecosystem? [Sargent]

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