Why augmented reality is expected to be four times bigger than virtual reality — from networkworld.com by Colin Neagle
Although virtual reality products like Oculus Rift have attracted more attention lately, augmented reality devices like Google Glass might have more potential in the market.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Among the use cases Merel listed for AR going forward is “a-commerce,” a new term that he called a “cousin of e-commerce and m-commerce” and which Digi-Capital forecasts to account for a significant share of all AR revenues. Presumably, a-commerce would mean that an AR device like smart glasses would project information like promotions in nearby retail stores or detailed product content along with the ability to make purchases directly from an AR app.

 

By the numbers: MOOCS in 2015 — from class-central.com by
How has the MOOC space grown this year? Get the facts, figures, and pie charts

Excerpt:

The MOOC space essentially doubled this year. More people signed up for MOOCs in 2015 than they did in the first three years of the “modern” MOOC movement (which started in late 2011—when the first Stanford MOOCs took off). According to data collected by Class Central, the total number of students who signed up for at least one course has crossed 35 million—up from an estimated 16-18 million last year.

Growth-of-Moocs

 

Coursera, the largest online course provider in the world (MOOC or otherwise), added 7 million new students to its userbase (and so it now has 17 million students in total).

This is the first time that the MOOC market has grown faster than Coursera. Last year, Coursera was bigger than all other MOOC providers combined, but in 2015 it accounts for slightly less than 50% of all MOOC students.

Currently there are 100+ Specializations, Nanodegrees, and XSeries credentials, most of which were created in 2015, and we can expect that number to more than double in 2016. The projections for 2017 and beyond could be exponential. We tracked this trend early, and this enabled us at Class Central to introduce a free credential exploration and rating service called Credentialing the Credentials.

 

500+ Universities, 4200 courses, 35 Million Students 

 

 

 

Stanford runs MOOC for science teachers on helping students read — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Next week a new massive open online course will begin for K-12 science teachers who want to learn how to help their students read and understand scientific texts. The course, delivered by Stanford University faculty, is free to participants. Four course sessions will run for 12 weeks and will deliver the equivalent of about 20 hours of professional development. The MOOC begins on January 13 and will be hosted on the NovoEd platform.

Reading To Learn in Science” is being taught by Jonathan Osborne, a professor of science education in Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. In a previous career, Osborne spent nine years teaching physics in inner city London schools.

 

 

 

FutureLearnShakespeareMOOC-Jan2016

About the course

This free online course will look at the life and works of William Shakespeare and take you from his Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe Theatre in London, from where he secured his central place in English literature.We will look at five of Shakespeare’s plays with the help of actors and experts from around the world. They will explain and explore the universal themes Shakespeare addressed in his work. The plays are: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Macbeth. Our video tutor will guide you through the course and look at some of the words and expressions that Shakespeare introduced to the English language. Short quizzes will check your understanding and you’ll be asked to share your ideas and opinions on the topics Shakespeare raises.

 

 

 

Massive Open Online Course market by platform, course, service & region – global forecast to 2020 — from researchandmarkets.com

Excerpt:

The growing demand of reliable online learning technologies is the driving force of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) market.
The market is estimated to grow from USD 1.83 billion in 2015 to USD 8.50 billion by 2020, at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.0%. Adoption of device-based computing, increased connectivity of platform, and emergence of online and collaborative learning and personalization of technology are some of the prominent factors driving the adoption of MOOC platform and services.
Asia-Pacific (APAC) expected to be grow at the highest CAGR for MOOC platform.

The report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:

  1. This report segments the MOOC market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall market and the subsegments across end-users and regions.
  2. The report will help stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide them information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.
  3. This report will help in understanding the competitors better and gain more insights to strengthen their position in the business. The competitive landscape section includes competitor ecosystem, new product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions.

Companies Profiled:

  • Blackboard, Inc.
  • Coursera, Inc.
  • Edx, Inc.
  • Futurelearn
  • Instructure, Inc.
  • Iversity, Org.
  • Miriada X
  • Novoed, Inc.
  • Open2Study
  • Udacity, Inc.
 
Paging Dr. Robot: The coming AI health care boom — from fastcompany.com by Sean Captain
Use of artificial intelligence in health care to grow tenfold in 5 years, say analysts—for everything from cancer diagnosis to diet tips.

Excerpt:

More than six billion dollars: That’s how much health care providers and consumers will be spending every year on artificial intelligence tools by 2021—a tenfold increase from today—according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. (Specifically, it will be a growth from $633.8 million in 2014 to $6,662.2 million in 2021.)

Computer-aided diagnosis can weigh more factors than a doctor could on their own, such as reviewing all of a patient’s history in an instant and weighing risk factors such as age, previous diseases, and residence (if it’s in a heavily polluted area) to come up with a short list of possible diagnoses, even a percent confidence rating that it’s disease X or syndrome Y. Much of this involves processing what’s called “unstructured data,” such as notes from previous exams, scan images, or photos. Taking a first pass on x-rays and other radiology scans is one of the big applications for AI that Frost & Sullivan expects.

 

Babylon, the U.K. digital doctor app, scores $25M to develop AI-driven health advice — from techcrunch.com by Steve O’Hear

Excerpt:

Hot on the heels of PushDoctor’s $8.2 million Series A, another U.K. startup playing in the digital health app space has picked up funding. Babylon Health, which like PushDoctor, lets you have video consultations with a doctor (and a lot more), has raised a $25 million Series A round led by Investment AB Kinnevik, the Swedish listed investment fund.

 

 

Under Armour and IBM to transform personal health and fitness, powered by IBM Watson — from ibm.com
New Cognitive Coaching System Will Apply Machine Learning to the World’s Largest Digital Health and Fitness Community

 

 

IBM Watson bets $1 billion on healthcare with Merge acquisition — from techrepublic.com by Conner Forrest
[Back in August 2015] IBM ponied up $1 billion for medical imaging company Merge Healthcare. Here’s what it means for the future of IBM’s cognitive computing system.

 

The emergence of precision algorithms in healthcare — from Gartner

Summary:

Recent announcements that several medical institutions intend to publish extensive portfolios of advanced algorithms via an open marketplace serve as an early indicator that interest in sharing clinical algorithms is increasing. We explore the impact of this trend and offer recommendations to HDOs.

 

 

Somewhat related postings:

 

Small changes in teaching: The first 5 minutes of class — from chronicle.com by James Lang
4 quick ways to shift students’ attention from life’s distractions to your course content

Excerpts:

  1. Open with a question or two.
  2. What did we learn last time?
  3. Reactivate what they learned in previous courses.
  4. Write it down.
 

A New Job Guarantee — from udacity.com by Sebastian Thrun

Excerpt:

In 2010, we started Google x to pursue moon shots, moving impossible ideas into reality to change people’s lives forever. In education, the biggest moon shot is connecting learning to jobs. Get an education to get a job to change your life.

[On 1/13/16], we launch[ed] a new program at Udacity, called Nanodegree Plus. Earn a Nanodegree credential and we will guarantee you a job within six months of graduation, or give you 100% of your tuition back.

Over the last 18 months, our Nanodegree programs have begun to emerge as the place to go to learn technical skills to get a new job or advance a career. They are backed by companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, GitHub and AT&T among others—teaching students the latest technical skills for today’s workforce. Already, Udacity graduates are working at companies like Google, Nest, Accenture, AT&T, Amazon, Salesforce, Rakuten, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Intuit and many others in Silicon Valley and beyond.

 

Brain Based Learning and Neuroscience – What the Research Says! — from willatworklearning.com by Will Thalheimer, PhD

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The world of learning and development is on the cusp of change. One of the most promising—and prominent—paradigms comes from neuroscience. Go to any conference today in the workplace learning field and there are numerous sessions on neuroscience and brain-based learning. Vendors sing praises to neuroscience. Articles abound. Blog posts proliferate.

But where are we on the science? Have we gone too far? Is this us, the field of workplace learning, once again speeding headlong into a field of fad and fantasy? Or are we spot-on to see incredible promise in bringing neuroscience wisdom to bear on learning practice? In this article, I will describe where we are with neuroscience and learning—answering that question as it relates to this point in time—in January of 2016.

Taken together, these conclusions are balanced between the promise of neuroscience and the healthy skepticism of scientists. Note however, that when these researchers talk about the benefits of neuroscience for learning, they see neuroscience applications as happening in the future (perhaps the near future). They do NOT claim that neuroscience has already created a body of knowledge that is applicable to learning and education.

Conclusion
The field of workplace learning—and the wider education field—have fallen under the spell of neuroscience (aka brain-science) recommendations. Unfortunately, neuroscience has not yet created a body of proven recommendations. While offering great promise for the future, as of this writing—in January 2016—most learning professionals would be better off relying on proven learning recommendations from sources like Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel’s book Make It Stick; by Benedict Carey’s book How We Learn; and by Julie Dirksen’s book Design for How People Learn.

As learning professionals, we must be more skeptical of neuroscience claims. As research and real-world experience has shown, such claims can persuade us toward ineffective learning designs and unscrupulous vendors and consultants.

Our trade associations and industry thought leaders need to take a stand as well. Instead of promoting neuroscience claims, they ought to voice a healthy skepticism.

 

 

Also see:

 

 

 

Gen Z is about to take over higher education—here’s what to expect — from ecampusnews.com by Lisa Malat
Survey finds digital natives “Gen Z” set to reshape higher ed landscape with focus on careers, dependence on technology.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Educators take note: it’s time to make way for Generation Z (Gen Z).

In a recent study by Barnes & Noble College, 1,300 middle-school and high school students ages 13-18 from 49 different states shared their attitudes, preferences and expectations regarding their educational and learning experiences. The findings from the study are clear: Gen Z is significantly different than previous generations, and these students will bring both challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education.

With Gen Z being a generation of “digital natives,” it stands to reason that the future of educational technology is now. Technology is embraced almost universally by Gen Z. In fact, the students surveyed shared that they are apt to regularly use five different computer tools for their social and educational purposes: laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones and video game consoles.

Unlike Millennials, who have broadly adopted technology, Gen Z has adopted a technology-centric lifestyle. They define themselves in online, digital terms. Gen Z doesn’t distinguish between devices or online territories. It is one continuous, multi-faceted, completely integrated experience – connecting social, academic and professional interests.

Gen Z also has different learning style preferences from past generations. While they are very into DIYL (do-it-yourself-learning), these students also embrace peer-to-peer learning, with 80 percent reporting that they study with their friends and classmates. Fifty percent said they enjoy the element of leadership it presents, and 60 percent reported that it gives them the perfect way to exchange ideas and consider new perspectives.

 

From DSC:
The article/report above prompted me to reflect…

Many throughout higher education are responding to change. But many are not. We aren’t nearly as nimble as we need to be.

I hope that the faculty, staff, boards, administrations, and the heavy-hitting donors at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. appreciate how important it is to be aware of — and respond to — changes within the K-12 world, changes in today’s students, changes within the higher ed landscape, and to changes within the corporate/business world.

We operate in a continuum.

With all of those changes, maintaining the status quo seems to be a dangerous experiment to me.  We are not in control. Rather, we all need to adapt and to respond.

 

DanielChristian-MonitoringTrends

 

 

DanielChristian-what-should-our-learning-environments-look-and-act-like

 

Along these lines, maintaining the status quo shows a blatant disregard of our customers’ preferences — an unwise strategy to take. (And for those of you who don’t like the word customer here, bear with me…because in my mind, any person who pays anywhere near the price of a house to obtain their education has earned the right to be called a customer. Today’s students are paying a heck of a lot more than we did.)

Also, maintaining the status quo seems like a dangerous strategy when we’re talking about recruitment and retention. Remember, we are talking about depending upon the decisions of 18 year olds here.

So as I:

  • Read the above article and the report that it refers to
  • Consider the higher ed landscape that continues to encounter new alternatives
  • Observe that different pathways that are cropping up all the time
  • See that the federal government is moving towards funding such alternative methods

…I am forced to ask myself, “Given all of this, will maintaining the status quo suffice? Really?

This report should encourage us to:

  • Seek to do a better job of pulse checking the K-12 world and the students’ learning preferences coming out of that world — and to develop our responses to those changing preferences.
  • Pursue more instances of blended/hybrid learning and active learning-based classrooms
  • Provide a variety of delivery mechanisms to meet our students’ needs — including a solid line up of online-based courses and programs. Students are often having to work in order to get through college, and they need flexible solutions.
  • Better address our physical learning spaces, which should offer strong/secure wireless networks and means of quickly collaborating via BYOD-based devices.
  • Continue to invest in selecting and investigating how best to use a variety of educationally-related technologies (something which, in my mind, invites the use of teams of specialists).
    (I could, and probably should, think bigger here, but I’ll stop at these reflections.)

I’ll leave you with the following graphic, relaying that often times members of Gen Z tend to prefer active learning-based classrooms:

 

Gen-Z---Barnes-and-Noble-Oct-2015

 

 

From DSC:
Below are 2 articles that I ran across, almost back to back.  Check them out and see if you, too, don’t see a major gap here. Though not really news, it doesn’t seem that we’re making much progress either.


 

The 25 Skills You Must Master to Land a New Job in 2016 (Infographic) — from inc.com by Jacquelyn Smith
If you know how to code or are fluent in another language, you’ll have a leg up on other candidates.

Excerpt:

To find out what it takes to successfully land a job, LinkedIn analyzed all of the hiring and recruiting activity that occurred on its site in 2015, and uncovered the 25 hottest skills in 14 different countries.

 

 

 

Now, check this next one out!

 

When it comes to jobs, Generation Z may not be the ‘tech’ generation after all — from by Conner Forrest
A new study by CompTIA found that many young people are simply uninterested in IT jobs. Here’s how that could impact the workforce.

According to a new study by IT trade association CompTIA, a mere 13% of 13-17 year-olds surveyed said they want to pursue a career in IT. This is despite the fact that 70% of Generation Z respondents reporting that they love technology.

According to the CompTIA report, much of Generation Z’s disinterest in technological professions is mainly due to their lack of understanding about the field. This is especially true in school, with 38% of junior high and high school students saying their schools provide no information on IT jobs. According to Code.org, only 10% of high schools in the US offer computer science classes.

Also, the gender gap prevailed among Generation Z respondents with only 10% of girls saying they were interested in IT, compared to 23% of boys.

 

 

Houston, we have a problem!*
The demand isn’t being met — nor does it look like it will be met — with the appropriate supply.

*  Though this is not a new problem,
it doesn’t seem that we’re making
much progress here.

 

 

 

Flipping Feedback: Screencasting feedback on student essays — from facultyfocus.com by Ron Martinez

Excerpt (emphasis):

But, I thought, what if students could actually watch and hear me in a video as I go over their papers? If possible (which it is), that would approximate the kind of feedback experience I aimed to offer students without constraining it to a particular time or location.

Screencasting (recording and narrating actions performed by the instructor on a computer screen) did that and much more for me and my students. Below I describe the process and the resulting benefits.

 

From DSC:
Though Ron mentioned that he selected Screencast-O-Matic on his PC (and he also mentioned Quicktime), I wanted to offer up a couple of other possibilities:

 

 

 

 

BestOnlinePrograms2016

 

BestOnlinePrograms2016-Methodology

Excerpt:

U.S. News assessed schools based on four general categories. Here is a look at each category and its weight in the current rankings formula. All weights are unchanged from 2015.

  • Student engagement (40 percent): Quality bachelor’s degree programs promote participation in courses, allowing students opportunities to readily interact with their instructors and classmates, as is possible in a campus-based setting. In turn, instructors not only are accessible and responsive, but they also are tasked with helping to create an experience rewarding enough that students stay enrolled and complete their degrees in a reasonable amount of time.
  • Faculty credentials and training (20 percent): Strong online programs employ instructors with academic credentials that mirror those of instructors for campus-based programs, and they have the resources to train these instructors on how to teach distance learners.
  • Student services and technology (20 percent): Programs that incorporate diverse online learning technologies allow greater flexibility for students to take classes from a distance. Outside of classes, strong support structures provide learning assistance, career guidance and financial aid resources commensurate with quality campus-based programs.
  • Peer reputation (20 percent): A survey of high-ranking academic officials helps account for intangible factors affecting program quality that are not captured by statistics. Also, degrees from programs that are well respected by academics may be held in higher regard among employers.

 

 

 

From DSC:
I’m not a huge fan of college/university ranking systems and programs. However, I post this in order to say “Congratulations!” to these programs on the work they have been doing — the faculty, staff, administration, and students. Nice work to you all!

These programs most certainly are helping students prepare for the future that these students will be inheriting. Students will need to be able to learn online — that will be a key ingredient/component in their learning ecosystems. In fact, it should be a requirement for every single college graduate in this country to take at least 1 course online. Many states are already doing this type of thing with high school graduation requirements — requiring students to take at least 1 online course in order to graduate from high school. If we truly cared about our students and their futures, this would be a requirement within higher education as well.

 

 

Don’t make promises you can’t keep when it comes to brain games, or the FTC will come for you — from digitaltrends.com by Lulu Chang

Excerpt:

Promising to make someone smarter is a bold, bold move, and now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking a closer look at “brain games” and their purported benefits. Following a $2 million settlement with Lumos Labs for deceiving “consumers with unfounded claims” in ads (hint: brain-training with games isn’t as well backed-up with scientific evidence as, say, strength training with weights), the FTC seems to be on a bit of a roll with this particular matter. In a statement, the Commission said, “Cognitive training products and claims are of significant interest to the FTC,” so if your company is telling consumers that their brains will directly benefit from your product, you better have some pretty solid proof to back that up.

 

Holograms are coming to a high street near you — from telegraph.co.uk by Rebecca Burn-Callander
Can you tell what’s real and what’s not?

Excerpt:

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

Some will be used to advertise, others will have the ability to interact with you, and show you information. In shops, when you find a shirt you like, the technology is now here to bring up a virtual clothes rail showing you that same shirt in a variety of colours, and even tell you which ones are in stock, all using the same jaw-dropping imaging we have previously only experienced wearing 3D glasses at the cinema.

Holograms, augmented reality – which superimposes technology over the real world – and virtual reality (VR), its totally immersive counterpart, are tipped to be the hot trends in retail next year. Pioneers of the technology are set to find increasingly entertaining, useful and commercially viable ways of using it to tempt people into bricks-and-mortar stores, and fight back against the rise of online shopping.

 

 

 

 

WaveOptics’ technology could bring physical objects, such as books, to life in new ways

 

 

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

 

 

From DSC:
What might our learning spaces offer us in the not-too-distant future when:

  • Sensors are built into most of our wearable devices?
  • Our BYOD-based devices serve as beacons that use machine-to-machine communications?
  • When artificial intelligence (AI) gets integrated into our learning spaces?
  • When the Internet of Things (IoT) trend continues to pick up steam?

Below are a few thoughts/ideas on what might be possible.

A faculty member walks into a learning space, the sensors/beacons communicate with each other, and the sections of lights are turned down to certain levels while the main display is turned on and goes to a certain site (the latter part occurred because the beacons had already authenticated the professor and had logged him or her into the appropriate systems in the background). Personalized settings per faculty member.

A student walks over to Makerspace #1 and receives a hologram that relays some 30,000-foot level instructions on what the initial problem to be solved is about. This has been done using the student’s web-based learner profile — whereby the sensors/beacons communicate who the student is as well as some basic information about what that particular student is interested in. The problem presented takes these things into consideration. (Think IBM Watson, with the focus being able to be directed towards each student.) The student’s interest is piqued, the problem gets their attention, and the stage is set for longer lasting learning. Personalized experiences per student that tap into their passions and their curiosities.

The ramifications of the Internet of Things (IoT) will likely involve the classroom at some point.  At least I hope they do. Granted, the security concerns are there, but the IoT wave likely won’t be stopped by security-related concerns. Vendors will find ways to address them, hackers will counter-punch, and the security-related wars will simply move/expand to new ground. But the wave won’t be stopped.

So when we talk about “classrooms of the future,” let’s think bigger than we have been thinking.

 

ThinkBiggerYet-DanielChristian-August282013

 

 

 

Also see:

What does the Internet of Things mean for meetings? — from meetingsnet.stfi.re by Betsy Bair

Excerpt:

The IoT has major implications for our everyday lives at home, as well as in medicine, retail, offices, factories, worksites, cities, or any structure or facility where people meet and interact.

The first application for meetings is the facility where you meet: doors, carpet, lighting, can all be connected to the Internet through sensors. You can begin to track where people are going, but it’s much more granular.

Potentially you can walk into a meeting space, it knows it’s you, it knows what you like, so your experience can be customized and personalized.

Right now beacons are fairly dumb, but Google and Apple are working on frameworks, building operating systems, that allow beacons to talk to each other.

 

 

Addendum on 1/14/16:

  • Huddle Space Products & Trends for 2016 — from avnetwork.com by Cindy Davis
    Excerpt:
    “The concept is that you should be able to walk into these rooms, and instead of being left with a black display, maybe a cable on the table, or maybe nothing, and not know what’s going on; what if when you walked into the room, the display was on, and it showed you what meeting room it was, who had the meeting room scheduled, and is it free, can just walk in and I use it, or maybe I am in the wrong room? Let’s put the relevant information up there, and let’s also put up the information on how to connect. Although there’s an HDMI cable at the table, here’s the wireless information to connect.
 

The next phase of UX: Designing chatbot personalities — from fastcodesign.com by
When the conversation is the interface, experience design is all about crafting the right words.

Excerpt:

You may have heard that “conversational interfaces” are the new hotness in digital product design. Why open and close a bunch of apps on your phone to get stuff done when you can invoke a text-message-like window and just say what you want done to a chatbot? Well, here’s one reason: what if the bot is annoying or tedious to talk to? In conversational UIs, personality is the new UX.

 

 

Five ways businesses need to rethink UX in 2016 — from information-age.com by Chloe Green
How can businesses keep pace with customer expectations of their online experiences? Digital technologies are evolving fast, and with them user experience expectations.

Excerpt:

In today’s technology-driven world, the task of keeping customers happy is a constantly moving target. Not least because customer expectations of their digital interactions with a business are continually evolving.
Therefore, keeping pace with the changing expectations that customers have of their online user experience (UX), has never been more important.
Yet even digitally savvy organisations may not yet be prepared to make the necessary UX improvements to ensure they are meeting changing customer expectations in 2016. So, what are the five considerations that must be made to enable businesses to keep pace with customer expectations of their online experiences?

“Once the things in the IoT are connected and given a voice, they become more than just ‘things.’ They become part of a living experience shaped by interactions among people, places, and objects, among product, nature, and life,” said Olivier Ribet, VP of High Tech for Dassault Systemes. “They become contributors to what beckons just beyond the IoT: the Internet of Experiences. Earning a piece of the Internet of Experiences requires a higher level of strategic thinking-or Experience Thinking-but the returns promise to be higher as well.”

 

 

How the Internet of Things changes traditional design and user experience — from huffingtonpost by Phil Simon

Excerpt:

Make no mistake: Design is no longer an afterthought at progressive organizations. Companies are hiring highly paid user-experience experts en masse–a trend that will only intensify as the Internet of Things (IoT) arrives.

 

 

 

Web design trends: 6 designs to end 2015 — from webimp.com.sg

 

6designstoend2015-web-imp

 

 

 

Be careful about these 6 web design trends in 2016 — from awwwards.com
Are Hamburger Menus, Parallax Scrolling and Complex Typography a help or a hindrance?

Excerpt:

Trends in web design, like fashion trends, come and go. Sometimes trends are dictated by necessity (like responsive design). Other trends are industry shifts, such as the change from skeuomorphism to flat design.

The decision to follow a trend must depend on the needs of your users and your business. The decision should never be based solely on “it’s what the cool sites are doing”. Fads fade. A site built only on trends quickly becomes out of date.

With that in mind, let’s look at the design trends that you might want to think twice about using.

 

 

 

Top web design trends for 2016 — from creativebloq.com
We round up the hottest web design trends set to dominate 2016.

Excerpt:

Just like any other field of design, web design trends come and go with the passing of time. Unlike many other fields, however, web design has a relentless driver to change: technology. Because the basis of the platform is ever changing, some of the trends in design for the web are as a result of improvements to what’s possible as much as a reflection on changing taste.

2015 has been an interesting year in terms of web design. The visual landscape for web designers has remained largely as it was in 2014, with only a refinement of the minimalist approach that has become popular over the past few years. Underneath the aesthetic treatment of pages, however, the web has been quietly progressing.

 

 

Addendums:

  • The Most Important Design Jobs Of The Future — from fastcodesign.com
    Designers at Google, Microsoft, Autodesk, Ideo, Artefact, Teague, Lunar, Huge, New Deal, and fuseproject predict 18 new design jobs.
    Excerpt:
    Here are 18 of the most important design jobs of the future, as identified by the men and women who will no doubt do much of the hiring. Most looked three to five years out, but some peered farther into the future (see: organ designer).
  • 10 reasons to get excited about design in 2016 — from thenextweb.com
    Excerpt:
    It’s become more and more apparent that the number of screens with which designs must interact as well as the number of users is only going to grow. What’s more, the growth seems to be exponential. Equally compelling is the number of intersecting technologies for which a designer must prepare.Simply put, the challenges have never been greater, nor the solutions more complex.With such adversity comes inevitable excitement. To further enumerate the trends and techniques that are just starting to inspire widespread awe, we present to you this decennial diatribe: the top 10 reasons it’s going to be exciting to be a designer in 2016.
 

How IBM is Bringing Watson to Wine — from fortune.com by Jonathan Vanian
IBM helped the E.&J. Gallo Winery build an irrigation system that taps Jeopardy-winning technology to more efficiently water grapevines.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IBM’s Watson super computer is learning to become a master winemaker.

At a vast vineyard outside Modesto, Calif., E&J Gallo Winery is testing a new irrigation system developed with IBM to grow grapes using less water. The plan is to eventually apply the lessons learned to Watson so that IBM’s data crunching technology can help farmers around the world.

Cutting water use can save huge amounts of money in the agriculture industry. It can also play a big role in water conservation, especially during droughts like the one that has plagued California for several years.

 

 

 

JCB tasting salon: A revolutionary wine tasting experience — from ideum.com

Excerpt:

Ideum, in collaboration with JCB by Jean-Charles Boisset, introduces an innovative new way to experience the exclusive wines within the JCB Collection, using state-of-the-art Ideum multitouch tables that digitally identify the placement of wine glasses. The full wine-tasting experience takes a group of four visitors through a flight of five wines. As new wines are introduced to the touch table, the visitors share a cinematic presentation introducing each wine. As visitors continue to taste each wine, they can access personalized tasting notes and additional information. The interactive experience takes between 40 minutes and an hour to complete.

 

ideum-winetasting-jan2016

 

From DSC:
Well it’s about time!  It appears that Apple has finally gotten around to responding to being blown out of the water by Google (in the world of ed tech). The fiasco with Apple, Pearson and the Los Angeles School District didn’t help them either. Now they’re forced to play catch up; which is really too bad, because it wasn’t but a few short years ago when Apple was on top of the education world — especially after having introduced the iPad.  But now, Apple has a lot of work to do to catch up in the mindshare department.

Anyway, with the iOS 9.3 beta, Apple is providing a preview of 4 new features:

 

EducationPreviewApple-Jan2016

 

 

Also see:

 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian