2015 December

How education will be smarter, less intrusive, and able to respond to how you feel [Kumar]

On 12/04/2015, in assessment, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, hybrid learning, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When done well, blended/hybrid learning can be very powerful, offering students the best of both worlds:

Let's take the best of both worlds -- online learning and face-to-face learning

Numerous technologies involved with education continue to get better. Still, students don’t always have the discipline to be totally on their own…and I often read that learners desire someone to help them navigate through the content. (This can be done online as well, I realize.) Those things said, the article below caught my eye.

How education will be smarter, less intrusive, and able to respond to how you feel — from techcrunch.com by Amar Kumar

Excerpts:

We are on the verge of a tide of smarter innovation that, if allowed to spread, will turbocharge the learning experience for students. Here are four areas worth watching:

Using technology to learn from learners
Using technology to adapt to how students feel
Building invisible assessments that are less intrusive
Keeping pace with technology in the classroom

…

Take SimCityEdu: Pollution Challenge – developed by GlassLab Games – where students learn how city-planning is impacted by environmental issues. As they play the game, the system is capturing their actions – such as the sequence of what they do or requests for help – and interprets patterns in data to assess how well the player understands important concepts. This helps teachers better evaluate how a student solves problems, rather than just the final product of their work.

In time, learning games like this should decrease reliance on stop-and-test exams and provide more real-time and actionable information to teachers.

Also related/see:

Search for Quick, Rigorous Ed-Tech Evaluations Underway –– from blogs.edweek.org by Michele Molnar
Excerpt:
Work began [in October 2015] on a federally-funded project designed to quickly determine “what works” with educational technology, so that schools and districts can make faster decisions about it.Mathematica Policy Research won the $3.67 million contract to devise tools for rapid—and rigorous—evaluation of ed-tech products. The goal is to come up with a platform where educators can choose a test that will help them determine—within one to three months—how effective a particular ed-tech product is in their schools. SRI International is a partner on the project.The idea is that the platform will have tools to walk a practitioner, school leader, researcher or app developer through the process of figuring out which research design makes the most sense, and it will ask them questions to help them set it up, said Katrina Stevens, a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, which is funding the so-called “rapid-cycle tech evaluation” project.
Public-university group expands ‘personalized learning’ efforts — from chronicle.com by Ellen Wexler
Excerpt:

The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities is expanding its support of “personalized learning” with the help of a new $4.6-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Personalized learning” means different things to different people. It’s a buzzword, and it can be difficult to get past the hype. Depending on whom you ask, it can mean such things as data analytics, video games, or artificial-intelligence research.

7 unexpected virtual reality use cases — from techcrunch.com by Andrew Thomson

Excerpt:

How VR will be used, and the changes that the technology will make to the day-to-day lives of regular people is still a matter of speculation. Gamers are warming up their trigger fingers for a new level of immersive gaming, and the field of entertainment will be transformed by the changes. But use cases in other industries could be just as transformative.

Indeed, some amazing and inventive new ways to use VR technology are already appearing that could dramatically impact people in their daily lives.

Also see:

Our virtual reality future is bigger than it appears — from ft.com by Jonathan Margolis

Excerpt:

“VR is an individual experience. We’re looking at less obvious VR applications.”

One of these is education. To which end, Mr Hirsch took me into another room to watch a two-minute educational VR video Zypre have made with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, along with some of the Avatar team, using AMD’s technology. It depicts the Wright brothers’ 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The film took six months to make, with computer-generated photorealistic visuals and every detail overseen by historians. I watched it on a prototype of the much-heralded Oculus Rift VR headset, expected out early next year.

It was several times more startling than the VR footage I described in April. It was more than virtual reality; it was pretty much . . . reality.

It’s not enough to say that, standing in a stuffy, darkened room in LA, I truly felt I was on a beach in North Carolina in 1903.

It was way more vivid than that. I even thought I felt the sea breeze in my face, then the backdraught from the propeller of the brothers’ flying machine. I shouted out that I could feel the wind and the techies surrounding me laughed. Apparently, a lot of people say that. It seems the brain is so fooled that it extrapolates and adds effects it thinks should be there. I have to confess, my American history is so sketchy I didn’t even know the flight was on a beach.

Also see:

See more information re:the
Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition.

masterclass.com

On 12/04/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, innovation, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
With thanks to Elliott Masie who mentioned this item on today’s edition of his Learning TRENDS (#898 – Updates on Learning, Business & Technology).

Elliott writes:

I’m Taking 2 Online Classes from Usher and Dustin Hoffman: When I woke up this morning, I took an Acting Performance Class from Dustin Hoffman. And, this afternoon a Singing Performance Class from Usher.

Now, while I am a Broadway Producer, I don’t aspire to sing or act on a theater stage. But, I am intrigued by leveraging the celebrity and experience of “Hero” level subject matter experts – for an online class.

This is a venture called MasterClass – and offers classes with a dozen asynchronous classes – featuring the teacher – including activities and office hours. These courses cost about $50.

While it is just the beginning of my experience, I decided to do some research – and have enrolled a few Broadway actors and non-actors in the sessions – that will expand to include Kevin Spacey, Serena Williams and others as the teachers.

Do hero teachers add to the learning cycle – beyond enrollment interest. Intriguing and I will share more feedback as we experiment. MasterClass is at http://www.masterclass.com

From their website:

MasterClass is an immersive online experience, which gives everyone the opportunity to learn from the world’s best practitioners. Every class was created by the instructor and includes extensive video content, class workbook, interactive assignments, and community activities.

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

Reflections on “The teacher is not the most important factor when it comes to learning” [Nielsen]

On 12/04/2015, in education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, love of learning, participation, passions, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The teacher is not the most important factor when it comes to learning — from theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ch by Lisa Nielsen

Excerpt:

If we were honest about the reality — that the student is the most important factor when it comes to learning — we could actually improve student learning. Here’s how.

From DSC:
There are some solid, insightful comments here — especially when one agrees with Daniel Willingham that “memory is the residue of thought” (i.e., we remember what we think about.)

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a big fan of providing students with “more choice, more control.” Giving students more choice so that they can pursue items of interest to them will likely invite deeper levels of thought and ultimately better, more lasting learning. That said, I realize that some base layers of knowledge need to be built. I’d just like to see us really question when we can begin turning over more choice, more control to the students. I would like us to apply more scrutiny and justification for the courses/subjects that we require. Do most students really need to take this course? Why? And are there other courses that students might like to take in light of the workplace that they will be dealing with?

Finally, I’d vote for including a new ingredient of how we assess our own courses; and that is, “Did the students enjoy their learning? Were they engaged in the learning?” Why do I say this? Because we all need to be lifelong learners now. It’s easier to do that if we like to learn and have a positive perspective on it.

MoreChoiceMoreControl-DSC2

Apple’s Swift programming language is now open source [Biggs]

On 12/03/2015, in Apple, computer science, mobile learning, mobile technologies, open courseware and systems, programming, by Daniel Christian

Apple’s Swift programming language is now open source — from techcrunch.com by John Biggs

Excerpt:

Swift, Apple’s programming language aimed at OS X and iOS developers, has gone open source under the Apache License. This means all of the source code, including the code for a new package manager, will be available to edit and compile and programs can be created without attribution. Apple is also revealing further plans for the language on their new site, swift.org.

Here’s how Maine students will have access to courses at 500 colleges [Cousins]

On 12/03/2015, in consortiums, distance education, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Here’s how Maine students will have access to courses at 500 colleges — from bangordailynews.com by Christopher Cousins

Excerpt:

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine college students will soon have seamless access to hundreds of higher education courses in 35 states thanks to a new program to which the state has just been accepted.

The New England Board of Higher Education announced Monday that Maine has been accepted to the New England State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (N-SARA). Here are the details:

What is SARA?
SARA is a 36-state coalition through which colleges and universities, as well as individual students, can access courses at institutions in other participating states. Reciprocally, Maine institutions also will be allowed to share their online offerings in other states in the coalition. Maine passed a law earlier this year to allow the state’s application to the coalition.

There are about 500 higher education institutions participating in the program nationally.

Also see:

General Information
Higher Education needs a new way for states to oversee the delivery of postsecondary distance education.

The current process is too varied among the states to assure consistent consumer protection, too cumbersome and expensive for institutions that seek to provide education across state borders, and too fragmented to support our country’s architecture for quality assurance in higher education — the quality assurance “triad” of accrediting agencies, the federal government, and the states.

A new, voluntary process of state oversight of distance education has been created to redress these problems. The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement is a voluntary agreement among its member states and U.S. territories that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offering of postsecondary distance-education courses and programs. It is intended to make it easier for students to take online courses offered by postsecondary institutions based in another state.
…
The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) establishes a state-level reciprocity process that will support the nation in its efforts to increase the educational attainment of its people by making state authorization:

more efficient, effective, and uniform in regard to necessary and reasonable standards of practice that could span states;
more effective in dealing with quality and integrity issues that have arisen in some online/ distance education offerings; and
less costly for states and institutions and, thereby, the students they serve.

Reflections on “Google’s Chromebooks make up half of US classroom devices” [Taylor]

On 12/03/2015, in Apple, Bring your own device (BYOD), Daniel S. Christian, education, education technology, Google, IBM, K-12 related, technology (general), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Google’s Chromebooks make up half of US classroom devices — from cnbc.com by Harriet Taylor

Excerpt:

Google, Microsoft and Apple have been competing for years in the very lucrative education technology market. For the first time, Google has taken a huge lead over its rivals.

Chromebooks now make up more than half of all devices in U.S. classrooms, up from less than 1 percent in 2012, according to a new report from Futuresource Consulting. To analysts, this comes as a big surprise.

“While it was clear that Chromebooks had made progress in education, this news is, frankly, shocking,” said Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder. “Chromebooks made incredibly quick inroads in just a couple of years, leaping over Microsoft and Apple with seeming ease.

From DSC:
I love Apple’s products and many of their philosophies. Their attention to detail and design is second to none — especially on things that Tim Cook and his leadership team really care about. I also appreciate Apple’s push into the enterprise — as evidenced by their partnership and collaborations with IBM.

In terms of Microsoft, Microsoft has designed and developed some excellent software through the years. Also, their current leadership seems to be far more innovative/effective than their former leadership (IMHO). This can be seen in endeavors like Microsoft’s push into augmented reality/mixed reality with their HoloLens product.

But from someone working in the education sector, it has felt like Apple and Microsoft have been blown out of the water by Google these last several years. So to see that Chromebooks now make up more than half of all devices in U.S. classrooms, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Their ease of setup and administration in addition to their low cost have made Chromebooks ideal for many K-12 schools.

If Apple and Microsoft want to be key players in the education space in the future, then they really need to majorly up their game — obtaining board level supported endeavors and investments. Otherwise, Google seems to be on a trajectory to dominate this space (at least until the next Google comes along).

How Microsoft’s HoloLens may change everything for industrial & mechanical designers [Terdiman]

On 12/01/2015, in 3D, change, emerging technologies, engineering, Microsoft, tools, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

How Microsoft’s HoloLens may change everything for industrial & mechanical designers — from fastcompany.com by Daniel Terdiman
By integrating Microsoft’s “mixed reality” system and Autodesk’s Fusion 360 design software, designers can see 3-D holograms of their work.

Excerpt:

Soon, product designers will be able to get up close and personal with their creations while they’re still planning them. Rather than just look at digital models on their computer screens, they could walk around a 3-D hologram of the design.

Learning Ecosystems

masterclass.com

Apple’s Swift programming language is now open source [Biggs]

Here’s how Maine students will have access to courses at 500 colleges [Cousins]

How Microsoft’s HoloLens may change everything for industrial & mechanical designers [Terdiman]

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