Introducing Oculus Medium, Oculus’ virtual sculpting tool, shipping with the Touch next year.
Campus Technology 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards
Excerpt:
In this first-ever higher education “gear of the year” guide, Campus Technology has turned to hundreds of education professionals to tell us which products in 29 categories are truly the best. We cover the gamut of technology from 3D printers to wireless access points. In almost every category you’ll find the Platinum, Gold and Silver picks to help you short-list your shopping, fuel your decision-making or perhaps start a friendly debate on campus.
Nine Ways to Improve Class Discussions — from facultyfocus.com by Maryellen Weimer
Excerpt:
So this post offers some simple suggestions for increasing the impact of the discussions that occur in our courses.
From DSC:
From my teaching time yesterday, I wished that I had done a better job with the transitions into and out of our class discussions. I wish that I had better prepped them for the discussion that we were about to have and to better summarize some of the key points from the class discussions. I ended up emailing them the key points that I wanted to emphasize…so there are other ways to recover from those times that we aren’t on our best game in any particular class. Also, I would add to the above list, have different students be in charge of leading the discussions — and then see if the discussions/participation rates pick up.
Coursera Survey Pins Down MOOC Benefits — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser
Excerpt:
More than seven in 10 learners report career benefits and more than six in 10 report educational benefits from completing massive open online courses (MOOCs). Participants from developing countries and particularly those with lower socioeconomic status and less education appear to be more likely to report benefits from pursuing MOOCs.
Those results and others come out of the first major research survey done among Coursera learners and reported in the Harvard Business Review.
The graphic below is from Home Remodeling for People with Disabilities: What You Need to Know — from expertise.com by Michael Sledd; with thanks to Grace Valladolid for the resource
Per Grace:
For another version of this graphic, see:
http://www.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/pubs_p/docs/poster.pdf
From DSC:
The graphic provides a great visual summary of the principles of Universal Design.
Note how these concepts are applicable in the realm of learning — per Wikipedia:
The concept and language of Universal Design for Learning was inspired by the universal design movement in architecture and product development, originally formulated by Ronald L. Mace at North Carolina State University.[5] Universal design calls for “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”.[8]
These concepts benefit all learners. This is why I’m big on more choice, more control — and providing content in as many ways as possible, while offering as many pathways to successfully meeting the learning objectives as possible.
Microsoft Office 2016 launches Tuesday — from fortune.com by Barb Darrow
No surprises here: New Office adds real-time co-authoring for Word documents, Skype for Business, and other perks to mix.
Excerpt:
As expected, Microsoft is pushing out the latest version of its cash-cow Office application suite on Tuesday.
Office 2016, the base components of which are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, now lets team members work together on Word documents in real time. It will add that capability to the other Office apps over time according to a blog post by Kirk Konigsburger, the corporate vice president for Office Client Applications and Services.
…
Microsoft also added Skype for Business to the mix so users can, from within their Word documents, talk or video chat with colleagues, partners or customers.
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And Microsoft also made available a private preview of GigJam, a tool that promises to let workgroups collaborate across devices and applications, which Microsoft will add that to the Office 365 mix next year.
Here are the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015 — from c4lpt.co.uk by Jane Hart
Excerpt:
Over 2,000 learning professionals from around the world from both education and enterprises contributed to the 9th Annual Survey of Learning Tools. Very many thanks to all those who took the time to complete the online form, write a blog post, send me an email or tweet me their selection.
I have now compiled the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015, updated the Top 100 Tools for Learning website and prepared a slideset, which I have hosted on Slideshare and embedded below.
For the 7th year running Twitter is the No 1 tool on the list, although this year it is very closely followed by YouTube, and once again, the list is dominated by free online tools and services. I can also see some interesting new trends in the tools that are being used for both personal learning and for creating learning content and experiences for others, and I will provide my analysis shortly. In the meantime, beneath the presentation, you will find a summary of the new tools on the list and the big movers up the list.
Ikea’s incredibly futuristic table replaces your stove, your cookbook, and your brain — from techinsider.io by Drake Baer
Excerpt:
Ikea’s plans for the table are, to say the least, ambitious. For EXPO Milano 2015, the company previewed a concept table called the Table For Living, which tells you what you can make with various ingredients and heats your food, no stove required.
Ikea created the prototype with the help of the global design consultancy Ideo, which recently gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how the table was brought into the world.
Here’s how it happened.
This would require two main technologies: induction heating to cook with wood …
… and computer vision to recognize ingredients.