Photographer Jorge Cervera Hauser captures sea creatures against sun-drenched oceanscapes — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Sierzputowski
A Black and Blue Life: A Coal Miner Becomes a Photographer of Exquisite Waves and Seascapes — from thisiscolossal.com by Ray Collins and Christopher Jobson
National Geographic Photo Contest
Alternatives to traditional higher education continue to develop:
Google partners with Udacity to launch Android development nanodegree — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois
Excerpt:
At its I/O developer conference in San Francisco, Google announced [on 5/28/15] that it has partnered with Udacity to launch a six-course Android development nanodegree.
The idea here is to help developers learn how to write apps for Google’s mobile operating system “the right way” up to the point where they could potentially be hired by Google itself.
Udemy alternatives for selling video courses online — from robcubbon.com
Excerpt:
Udemy is currently the leading online learning platform. Their top 10 instructors all made over $500,000 last year and the top earner makes over $8 million. I make $4000+ each month by selling courses on Udemy.
16 startups poised to disrupt the education market — from inc.com by Ilan Mochari
Colleges and universities are facing new competition for customers–students and their parents–from startups delivering similar goods (knowledge, credentials, prestige) more affordably and efficiently. Here’s a rundown of some of those startups.
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New MOOC Platform Provides Free IT Certification Courses — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
Simon & Schuster to sell online courses taught by popular authors — from nytimes.com by Alexandra Alter; with thanks to Sidneyeve Matrix for her Tweet on this
Excerpt:
Simon & Schuster is making a push into paid online video, with a new website offering online courses from popular health, finance and self-help authors.
The cost of the first batch of online courses ranges from $25 to $85, and includes workbooks and access to live question-and-answer sessions with three authors: Dr. David B. Agus, the best-selling author of “The End of Illness”; Zhena Muzyka, who wrote the self-help book “Life by the Cup”; and Tosha Silver, the author of the spiritual advice book “Outrageous Openness.” The courses will be available on the authors’ individual websites and on the company’s new site, SimonSays.
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But there is a new wave of online competency-based learning providers that has absolutely nothing to do with offering free, massive, or open courses. In fact, they’re not even building courses per se, but creating a whole new architecture of learning that has serious implications for businesses and organizations around the world.
It’s called online competency-based education, and it’s going to revolutionize the workforce.
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The key distinction is the modularization of learning.
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Here’s why business leaders should care: the resulting stackable credential reveals identifiable skillsets and dispositions that mean something to an employer. As opposed to the black box of the diploma, competencies lead to a more transparent system that highlights student-learning outcomes.
Addendum on 6/3/15:
Disrupting Higher Education — from Campus Technology
Can colleges and universities break out of traditional models and compete with the disruptive forces changing the nature of higher ed?
Excerpts:
Also, traditional colleges and universities have turned away from the growing population of “nonconsumers” who need workforce skills. Only one in five freshmen actually have that residential college experience that we tend to glorify, she said. Close to 71 percent of students are what we now call non-traditional students, but which are fast becoming the norm.
These kinds of students are “overserved” by those bundled services of traditional brick-and-mortar institutions, she said. Many feel underprepared for the workforce, and they’re looking for something different.
“Higher education institutions are now competing with organizations they have never even heard of,” Weise said. “These are organizations that are really getting at the inadequacies of the system…. things like coding boot camps, where you can pay $10,000 to $20,000, spend six to 12 weeks learning to code, and get recruited by places like Google or Facebook and start earning about six figures…. Your shot at getting a job is better than if you went to law school.
“This is just to emphasize that it’s not who you think you’re competing with,” she said.
Per Michelle Weise p. 8 pf 45
IBM-Affiliated Brooklyn School Graduates Its First Students Ahead of Schedule With Both High School & College STEM Degrees — from finance.yahoo.com and the PR Newswire
Young trailblazers pave way for national education model for tens of thousands of students
Excerpt:
BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Six students from Brooklyn are graduating from P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) two years early with both their high school diplomas and college degrees in computer systems technology, fast tracking through the nation’s first school that blends public high school, community college, and work experience into one.
Addendums on 7/1/15:
What you don’t get is a huge student loan debt. Udacity classes start at $1,200 for a six-month program. The fees have actually helped with online classes’ biggest problem: High dropout rates. Turns out, more people stick with classes if they have to pay for them.
Addendum on 7/24/15:
HowZone Collaborative Learning Communities™
Connecting you with people from around the world who are passionate about the same topics as you.
What We Do:
HowZone connects people around topics of shared interest and gives them tools to help each other learn. Beginners get the foundational knowledge they need and experts get special ways to take their expertise as far as they want to go.
Addendums on 7/24/15 — with thanks to Thomas Frey for his posting mentioning these resources
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Addendum 8/7/15:
Addendums on 8/26/15:
Addendum on 10/15/15:
GoPro goes 360-degrees with new VR array — from zdnet.com by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Summary: Think that having one GoPro camera attached to your car, helmet or skateboard is cool. How about an array of 16 GoPros that can capture 3D video?
StereoLabs announces huge hardware breakthrough: Human vision — from zdnet.com by Greg Nichols
Summary: Earlier this month, a Bay Area startup called ?StereoLabs quietly introduced the first affordable high definition stereo camera. This is a big deal, and autonomous machines will never be the same. Here’s why.
Expeditions – Google Offers Immersive Learning — from digitalbodies.net
Excerpt:
Immersive learning is about to get a lot more real this fall with Expeditions – the new Google tool which will allow teachers to take students on virtual trips using the Google Cardboard viewer. Google reported that over 1 million devices are already in the hands of users from all ages. According to the announcement:
From the Expeditions app on their tablet, a teacher is able to send synchronized three-dimensional 360° panoramas to each student’s Cardboard viewer, pointing out areas of interest in real time and instantly pausing the trip when needed.
Expeditions will work to combine three things: a software platform, immersive virtual reality content and Android and iOS devices.
World 1st Holographic Patient-Based Augmented Reality Surgical Navigation — from youtube.com as posted by Maki Sugimoto
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MIT’s Humanoid Robot Goes to Robo Boot Camp — from wired.com
Top Emerging Technologies – The Internet Of DNA Or Human Beings — from wtvox.com
New ‘deep learning’ technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error — from newscenter.berkeley.edu by Sarah Yang
Excerpt:
BERKELEY — UC Berkeley researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence. They demonstrated their technique, a type of reinforcement learning, by having a robot complete various tasks — putting a clothes hanger on a rack, assembling a toy plane, screwing a cap on a water bottle, and more — without pre-programmed details about its surroundings.
And for some upcoming innovations:
Addendum on 6/1/15:
Google has shipped over 1 million Cardboard VR units — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington
Excerpt:
Google revealed today that Cardboard has quietly become the leading VR platform in terms of platform reach – over 1 million Cardboard units have shipped to users so far, a 100 percent increase on the 500,000 milestone it announced in December last year.
Cardboard’s progression is a testament to Google’s approach, which favors simplicity and low barriers to entry instead of freaky real verisimilitude and expensive, high-powered hardware. Google first revealed Cardboard at last year’s I/O event, throwing it out there almost as an afterthought and a seeming subtle dig at Facebook’s high-priced acquisition of Oculus VR.
Google’s Project Brillo is an OS for the home — and a lot more — from computerworld.com by Zach Miners
Excerpt:
Google has made a big play for the Internet of Things, announcing a new OS on Thursday that will connect appliances around the home and allow them to be controlled from an Android smartphone or tablet.
Dubbed Project Brillo, it’s a stripped down version of Google’s Android OS that will run on door locks, ovens, heating systems and other devices that have a small memory footprint, and allow them to communicate and work together.
Google takes another shot at mobile payments with Android Pay — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Russell
Excerpt:
At its I/O developer conference today, Google announced Android Pay, a new payments solution native to its mobile operating system. In addition to making it easier to pay at a merchant’s point of sale via NFC, the new system lets merchants integrate payments directly into their apps for selling physical goods and services using an Android Pay API rather than integrating a third-party provider like Venmo or PayPal.
Google launches Android M preview with fingerprint scanner support, Android Pay, improved permissions and battery life
— from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois
Excerpt:
As expected, Google today announced the developer preview release of the next version of Android at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. With Android M (which will get its full name once it’s released to users), Google focuses mostly on fit and finish, but the company also added a number of new features to its mobile operating system. It’s no surprise that Android M won’t feature any major new design elements. The last release, Android Lollipop, introduced Google’s Material Design language, after all, and there are still plenty of developers who haven’t even migrated their apps over.
Android M will be able to give you contextual info about what’s happening in your Android Apps — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois
Excerpt:
Google Now has long helped Android users get timely information about local traffic, movies that are playing locally and other information based on their commutes, browsing history and other data. With Android M, which Google announced today, the Now service is getting even smarter and more contextual. When you tap and hold the home button in Android M, Google will grab the information from the application you are using at that moment and Now will try to give you the right contextual information about what you are looking at in that app. Google Calls This ‘Google Now on Tap.’
Chromecast gets autoplay, queuing, second screen and multiplayer game powers — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington
Excerpt:
Google’s Chromecast is a quiet little media secret agent turning the search giant into a big time home entertainment player. All told, users of Cast-enabled software have hit the little button to put their small-screen content up on the big screen a total of 1.5 billion times in the U.S. alone, and Chromecast floats other Google boats, too – users increase their YouTube viewing time by 45 percent on average once they start using the device, for instance.
Chromecast (and Cast-enabled devices, including the Nexus Player and the Nvidia Shield) is about to get more powerful, thanks to a handful of new features announced at I/O this year. These new abilities turn the streamer into a much more robust media device, making it easy to see how Cast could underpin the home theater or media room of the near future. Here’s what Chromecast developers and users can look forward to coming out of this year’s show:
Google Play gets more family-friendly with content ratings, filtering by age and interest — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez
Excerpt:
In April, Google announced a new developer-facing program called “Designed for Families” which allowed mobile app publishers the option to undergo an additional review in order to be included in a new section focused on kids’ apps within Google Play. Today, the company officially unveiled that section — or sections, as it turns out — at its I/O developer conference.
Parents searching Google’s mobile app store will now be able to tap on a new “Family” button indicated with a green, smiley faced star icon in order to find the family-friendly content across apps, games, movies and TV homepages.
There’s also a “Children’s Books” button on the Books homepage, where parents can also filter the selection by age range and genre.
Google’s new Cloud Test Lab lets Android developers quickly test their apps on top Android devices for free — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois
Excerpt:
Google launched a new project at its I/O developer conference today that will make it easier for developers to check how their mobile apps work on twenty of the most popular Android devices from around the world. Sadly, the service will only roll out to developers later this year, but if you are interested, you can sign up to join the pilot program here.
It’s no secret that the diverse Android ecosystem makes life harder for developers, given that they can’t simply test their apps on a small number of popular devices and assume that everything will run smoothly for all users. Most developers keep a few phones and tablets handy to test their apps on, but few have access to a wide variety of recent devices to test every revision of their apps on.
Google Photos breaks free of Google+, now offers free, unlimited storage — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez
Excerpt:
Google officially announced its long-rumored revamp of its photo-sharing service, Google Photos, at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco today. The killer feature? Users can now backup up full-resolution photos and videos – up to 16MP for photos and 1080p for videos – to Google’s cloud for free. The service will roll out to Android, iOS and web users starting today, the company says.
The free storage option makes more sense for those with point-and-shoot cameras, and lets you keep a copy of your photos that’s good for your typical printing and photo-sharing needs. However, those with DSLR cameras or who want to store their photos and videos in their original sizes can choose a different plan which taps into your Google Account’s 15 GB of free storage. This is what was available before, and you can add to your storage quota as needed for a fee.
Android developer news from Google I/O 2015 — from lynda.com by David Gassner
Excerpt:
The keynote featured a smorgasbord of new technologies and additions/improvements to existing platforms. A stream of presenters followed each other across the stage, each talking about what was new for 2015. They covered Android, Chrome, and Chromebooks, virtual reality, 360-degree camera arrays, a stripped-down version of Android for the internet of things, and many other geeky new toys. Here’s what’s coming to an Android device or Android developer workstation near you.
Google I/O 2015: How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu — from zdnet.com by Kevin Tofel
Summary: Google’s new Now On Tap feature, coming with Android M, shows a future where you don’t hunt through home screens and menus to find an app. The right apps come to you.
Psalm 103:17-18 NIV — from BibleGateway.com
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
From DSC:
In watching the video below, note how this presenter is able to initiate cameras/feeds/effects with a touch of a button (so to speak). What if recording studios could be setup for professors, teachers, and trainers to use like this? It could be sharp — especially given the movement towards flipping the classroom and implementing active learning based environments.
From DSC:
For learning space designers — keep your eyes on the innovations occurring with smart glass.
Smart glass and the internet of things will make your office less stuffy
Excerpt:
Smart-glass windows transform from transparent to opaque, and every shade in between, in seconds.
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It’s now taking that technology a step further. Last week, at the American Institute of Architects convention in Atlanta, the company showed a prototype of smart glass that can work not only in sections, but in shapes. So instead of just rectangular or square blocks of light, you could instantaneously adjust your window for beams slanting through triangles, diamonds, and trapezoids, each independently controlled for the desired tinting. A tinted window, then, could have one non-tinted triangle letting in a sunbeam in the middle.
Exclusive survey: Parents weigh in on the digital classroom — from marketplace.org
Excerpt:
For the last year, Marketplace’s LearningCurve team has been looking at the impact of technology on education. We’ve talked to students, teachers and ed-tech companies about the digital revolution taking hold in classrooms across the country.
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Now we turn our attention to parents, many of whom have spent the last year exploring the ins-and-outs of educational technology themselves, alongside their children. We wanted to get parents’ views of the shift, as their children do more school work on laptops and tablets, and become accustomed to emailing teachers and checking grades online.
In a national, online survey of parents of kids in grades 3 through 12 conducted by Lieberman Research Worldwide, “Parents’ Attitudes Toward Educational Technology,” we found parents feel good about the growing use of technology in education, and most think it is improving the quality of education for their children.
Delicate Glass Sea Life Sculptures by Emily Williams — from thisiscolossal.com by Christopher Jobson
Glass Seaweed, 2014, Flameworked borosilicate glass, 20? x 20? x 20?
It’s Nice That : Immerse yourself in the colourful geometric creations of Andy Gilmore — from itsnicethat.com as posted by Rob Alderson
Andy Gilmore
Walking on a Dream: Murals of People Staring into Portals of Color by Seth Globepainter — from by Christopher Jobson
Also related/see:
Lance Weiler’s must-read story about the future of storytelling — from kidscreen.com by Wendy Smolen
Excerpt:
As the founder of the Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab, and its Director of Experiential Learning and Applied Creativity, you’ve convinced some major powers that work and learning begin with a story. What does that mean to those in the industry who make products for kids?
My work at Columbia University explores how story, play and design can be harnessed to create collaborative work and learning environments. A key takeaway from our experiments so far is the value of a diversity of perspectives. We often strive to embrace a designing “with” and “for” methodology. This is a fundamental shift for the entertainment industry but the reality is the audience has evolved into storytellers. They are now their own little media companies able to push-button publish for the world to see.
As creation and consumption blend, story and code continue to collide. At Columbia we are exploring new forms and functions of storytelling. How can stories be used as a discovery method? How can they enable people to connect to the world around them? How can they become a utility that can solve everyday challenges?
Story and Code have different development cycles and require different set of skills. So at Columbia and within my own work I often benefit from assembling a kind of 21st Century Writer’s Room. My core team has expanded to include creative technologists, data researchers and systems designers. What connects the team is a series of stories that we use to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the core vision and goals are communicated.
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The Digital Storytelling Lab, therefore, is a place of speculation, of creativity, and of collaboration between students and faculty from across Columbia University. New stories are told here in new and unexpected ways.
Also see:
Technology in Higher Education: Defining the Strategic Leader — from educause.edu
Excerpts:
Two major changes have helped in defining the strategic IT leader of today and tomorrow. The first is specific to higher education: There has been an evolution in the business of higher education, with institutions needing to adopt new models to stay competitive and focus on outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and responsiveness. The second has been experienced at all levels in society: the pervasive nature and rapid development of technology. Within a higher education context, technology’s expanded presence impacts all areas of an institution. The IT leader occupies a unique position at the center of massive change, making this role both a challenging one and one that will continue to evolve in the coming years. The profession must be ready for both the changes and the opportunities.
Perhaps the greatest opportunity is for the IT leader to demonstrate the value of technology. Technology advances the institutional mission and the business of higher education. Regardless of the size or maturity of your IT organization, we think the concepts discussed here will be relevant and useful. As your IT organization moves to become a significant campus player, understanding the role of the IT leader will increase your institutional impact and enable your organization to truly lead.
Also see:
From DSC:
What higher ed institutions need right now are more leaders who are visionary, innovative, creative, and bold — those who understand the strategic value that a variety of technologies can bring to the table. The problem is, many in leadership/executive positions didn’t grow up with the technologies that are being used today (and the new ones that will be launched tomorrow)…so they don’t see the value in pursuing them. They’re not sold on them.
So my advice in filling any senior level position today — as well as in filling open positions on the boards that oversee our institutions of higher education — is to ask:
Technology is key from here on out — in every area of running a university, college, or community college. Those who use technologies strategically will survive and thrive; those who minimize the value of technology are now a major handicap and a stumbling block for an institution of higher education. Such perspectives might have been acceptable years ago…but they are no longer acceptable as they completely ignore:
Discarding the strategic value of technologies is an operational perspective that institutions of higher education simply can no longer afford — the 21st century learner will have other alternatives to choose from.
From DSC:
I had posted some of the articles below on a recent post, but the list kept growing — as much is being written these days about the topic of technology replacing people and jobs (via automation, robotics, algorithms/software, other). Though this is not a new topic, the pace at which jobs are disappearing seems to be picking up. So I’m posting the updated list of recent articles below:
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Addendum on 5/21/15:
Addendums on 6/1/15:
