From DSC:
Swivl allows faculty members, teachers, trainers, and other Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to make recordings where the recording device swivels to follow the SME (who is holding/wearing a remote). Recordings can be automatically sent to the cloud for further processing/distribution.

My request to you is:
Can you extend the Swivl app to not only provide recordings, but to provide rough draft transcripts of those recordings as well?

This could be very helpful for accessibility reasons, but also to provide students/learners with a type of media that they prefer (video, audio, and/or text).

 

Swivl-2015

 

 

From DSC:
A note to Double Robotics — can you work towards implementing M2M communications?

That is, when our Telepresence Robot from Double Robotics approaches a door, we need for sensors on the door and on the robot to initiate communications with each other in order for the door to open (and to close after __ seconds). If a security clearance code is necessary, the remote student or the robot needs to be able to transmit the code.

When the robot approaches an elevator, we need for sensors near the elevator and on the robot to initiate communications with each other in order for the elevator to be summoned and then for the elevator’s doors to open. We then need for the remote student/robot to be able to tell the elevator which floor it wants to go to and to close the elevator door (if if hasn’t already done so).

Such scenarios imply that we need:

  1. Industry standards for such communications
  2. Standards that include security clearances (i.e., “OK, I’ll let you into this floor of this public building.” or “No, I can’t open up this door without you sending me a security clearance code.”)
  3. Secure means of communications

 

DoubleRobotics-Feb2014

 

 

 

doublerobotics.com -- wheels for your iPad

 

 

A major request/upgrade might also include:

  • The ability for the Double App on the iPad to make recordings, have an auto send option to send those recordings to the cloud, and then provide transcripts for those recordings. This could be very helpful for accessibility reasons, but also to provide students/learners with a type of media that they prefer (video, audio, and/or text).

 

 

 

Ed Tech World on Notice: Miami U disability discrimination lawsuit could have major effect — from mfeldstein.com by Phil Hill

Excerpt:

This week the US Department of Justice, citing Title II of ADA, decided to intervene in a private lawsuit filed against Miami University of Ohio regarding disability discrimination based on ed tech usage. Call this a major escalation and just ask the for-profit industry how big an effect DOJ intervention can be. From the complaint:

Miami University uses technologies in its curricular and co-curricular programs, services, and activities that are inaccessible to qualified individuals with disabilities, including current and former students who have vision, hearing, or learning disabilities. Miami University has failed to make these technologies accessible to such individuals and has otherwise failed to ensure that individuals with disabilities can interact with Miami University’s websites and access course assignments, textbooks, and other curricular and co-curricular materials on an equal basis with non-disabled students. These failures have deprived current and former students and others with disabilities a full and equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from all of Miami University’s educational opportunities.

 

New from Educause:
Higher Ed IT Buyers Guide

 

HEITBuyersGuideEducauseApril2015

 

Excerpt:

Quickly search 50+ product and service categories, access thousands of IT solutions specific to the higher ed community, and send multiple RFPs—all in one place. This new Buyers Guide provides a central, go-to online resource for supporting your key purchasing decisions as they relate to your campus’s strategic IT initiatives.

Find the Right Vendors for Higher Education’s Top Strategic Technologies

Three of the Top 10 Strategic Technologies identified by the higher education community this year are mobile computing, business intelligence, and business performance analytics.* The new Buyers Guide connects you to many of the IT vendors your campus can partner with in the following categories related to these leading technologies, as well as many more.

View all 50+ product and service categories.

 

RobotsOpenUpWorldOfArt-March2015

 

With a special thanks to Krista Spahr,
Senior Instructional Designer at Calvin College,
for this resource

 

Description:

March 1, 2015 | The De Young, one of San Francisco’s fine art museums, now has two robots that open the museum up to those who cannot attend, including the physically handicapped. John Blackstone reports on the state-of-the-art in museum tour guides, and interviews robotics activist Henry Evans, a former Silicon Valley executive who is now almost completely paralyzed, and who worked with the museum to make touring by robot a reality.

 

A collection of curated items:


 

Socratic questioning: 30 thought-provoking questions to ask your students — from opencolleges.edu.au by Saga Briggs

 

 

Open Educational Resources – from the Babson Survey Research Group by I. Elaine Allen, Ph.D. and Jeff Seaman, Ph.D.

Opening the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014

This report, funded by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with additional support from Pearson, examines the attitudes, opinions, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) among teaching faculty in U.S. higher education. Some of the key findings:

 

Opening the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014

 

 

Katie Novak: Universal Design for Learning, an introduction — from edtalks.org
Dr Katie Novak is a Reading curriculum coordinator and an independent ‘Universal Design for Learning’ (UDL) consultant. Universal Design for Learning is a framework that allows teachers to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom, and in this keynote speech at ULearn14 Katie outlines the background to UDL and demonstrates how UDL enables teachers to take rigorous curriculum and make it accessible to all students.

Related:
What is UDL?
UDL Guidelines

 

 

 

Five inspiring EdTekTalks — from iste.org by Diana Fingal

Harvard researchers spent six years studying innovative entrepreneurs to find out how their creative processes work. What they found was that the number one skill all innovators practice regularly is connecting across a variety of disciplines. In other words, innovators are people who cross-pollinate, or use ideas from other industries to spark their own creativity.

With that in mind, ISTE reached out to inspiring people from a range of fields and asked them to share their insights in mini-keynotes called EdTekTalks. This provocative series of five talks includes futurists, designers and entrepreneurs from beyond the world of ed tech.

 

 

Berklee College of Music Opens Major WSDG-Designed Audio Teaching Complex in 160 Mass. Ave. Tower — from aeccafe.com; via @eduwiretech

Excerpt:

BOSTON, MASS.  Berklee College of Music opened the doors to its 160 Massachusetts Avenue,residence tower in January 2014.  The building now features one of the largest, most progressive, and versatile professional audio teaching/production/performance complexes in the U.S.  Over three years and $100 million have been invested in the development and construction of this cusp point educational compound.  Situated over four dedicated floors in a striking, sixteen-story, 155,000 sq. ft.  William Rawn Associates building, the ten-studio Walters-Storyk Design Group – designed, audio education component represents a pinnacle of contemporary studio planning.

Berklee-College-of-Music---new-100M-building-nov2014

 

7 Simple Ways You Can Help Students Pay Attention In A Traditional Classroom — from teachthought.com

  1. Use the 10:2 method (2 minutes of response for every 10 minutes of instruction.)
  2. Incorporate movement into your lessons
  3. Pick up the pace
  4. Provide frequent feedback
  5. Allow 5-7 seconds of “think time”
  6. Have students use the 3-2-1 method of summarizing
  7. Periodically pause mid-sentence

 

 

 

Voxdox.net — a free text-to-speech app; with thanks to Mr. Jim Lerman for the Scoop and to Miguel Guhlin for the post on it

Excerpt from the Voxdox website (emphasis DSC):

  • Voxdox is a new free text to speech app, available now for iOS, Android and Kindle.
  • Voxdox will read aloud any form of text for you in your choice of human voice.
  • Voxdox is a PDF reader and a PDF Translator. A smart PDF to Speech system converts your documents to quality speech. Import your PDF documents convert their text to voice.
  • Voxdox is also an eBook reader that supports EPUB, PRC, MOBI and MBP format eBooks, and an audio book creator that can turn any kind of text to a talking book in just a few clicks.
  • Voxdox can be used as a document scanner utilizing your device’s camera. Just take a picture of any document in almost any language, translate it to a different language if you wish to do so, and convert its text to speech.
  • Voxdox gives you the choice – listen to your document or simply read it – all audio materials are also presented in text form.
  • Converting text to voice has never been easier. Let your phone or tablet read aloud for you!

 

From DSC:
I have not used this tool — but if it’s good, it would be a powerful tool for helping a lot of people out there! Especially those seeking an OCR –> to Microsoft Word –> to speech type of deal. And like it often goes with accessibility-related items, what started out as an accessibility-related item moves into the mainstream to help even more people out (more choice; more control of how I “take in”/absorb the content).

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft’s Kinect is now a sign language translator — from fastcompany.com by Neal Ungerleider
Researchers in China have turned Microsoft Kinect into a real-time translator for sign language.

 

SignLanguage-Kiinect-Octo2013

 

 

Humanoid robot demonstrates sign language — from spectrum.ieee.org by Jason Falconer

 

 

The 6 simplest web accessibility tests anyone can do — from KarlGroves.com

Excerpt:

To truly understand accessibility and accessible web development requires extensive knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, the DOM & BOM, accessibility APIs, assistive technologies, and how people with disabilities use computers. I’ve dedicated my career to it and find out the more I know the less I understand.

What about those for whom accessibility isn’t their career choice? What about those who don’t want to know things like the complicated interplay between markup, DOM interfaces, and accessibility API role mappings? What about people who want to know: “How does my website perform for people with people with disabilities?” Here you go. 6 tests that anyone can do without any development knowledge.

 

From DSC:

  • What if you want to allow some remote students to come on into your face-to-face classroom?
    .
  • What if you want to allow those remote students to be seen and communicated with at eye level?
    .
  • What if you want Remote Student A to join Group 1, and Remote Student B to join Group 2?
    .

Well…how about using one of these devices  in order to do so!


 

New video collaboration robot: TelePresence gets moving — from cisco.com by Dave Evans

Excerpt:

That is why Cisco’s new joint effort with iRobot—demonstrated publicly this week for the first time—is so exciting: We’ve created a mobile Cisco TelePresence unit that brings collaboration to you—or, conversely, brings you to wherever you need to collaborate. Called iRobot Ava 500, this high-definition video collaboration robot combines Cisco TelePresence with iRobot’s mobility and self-navigation capabilities, enabling freedom of movement and spontaneous interactions with people thousands of miles away.

.

irobot-june-10-2013
.

iRobot Ava™ 500 Video Collaboration Robot — published on Jun 10, 2013
iRobot and Cisco have teamed to bring the Ava 500 video collaboration robot to market. The robot blends iRobot’s autonomous navigation with Cisco’s TelePresence to enable people working off-site to participate in meetings and presentations where movement and location spontaneity are important. The new robot is also designed to enable mobile visual access to manufacturing facilities, laboratories, customer experience centers and other remote facilities.

 

.

Double Robotics Double

http://www.doublerobotics.com/img/use-office.jpg

 

 

MantaroBot™ TeleMe

 

 

 

From Attack of the Telepresence Robots! — from BYTE  by Rick Lehrbaum

.

Kubi

http://twimgs.com/informationweek/byte/reviews/2013-Jan/robotic-telepresence/kubi.jpg

 

 

MantaroBot “TeleMe” VGo Communications “VGo” Anybots “QB” Suitable Technologies “Beam”

 

.

RP-7i ROBOT

RP-7i Remote Presence Robot

 

Also see:

 

The folks needed to create the next generation of learning: Computers can’t touch this. [Christian]

From DSC:
What we need is a major hackathon — or an organization with deep pockets — that can bring together folks from a variety of disciplines including:

  • Subject Matter Experts
  • Instructional Designers
  • Cognitive Psychologists
  • Computer Scientists and/or those exerienced with learning analytics/data mining, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Those gifted in film/media/videography/photography
  • Great storytellers/writers (including writing for transmedia-based learning experiences)
  • Folks who can create engaging, educational games
  • Designers
    • Web
    • Graphic
    • Interface
    • User experience
    • User interaction
    • Those gifted in creating multimedia-based content
  • Musicians
  • Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts
  • Mobile learning experts
  • Those knowledgeable with second screens/M2M communications
  • Animators
  • Illustrators
  • Social media experts
  • Accessibility experts
  • Researchers
  • Those gifted in creating augmented reality-based apps
  • Legal/copyright experts
  • & others

We need for these specialists to collaborate in order to create the next generation of learning.  Anyone who can bring these skillsets together and experiment with creating materials will have significantly contributed something to the current generations and to future generations! 

And, in the words of M.C. Hammer,  computers “can’t touch this!”  Why? Because “learning is messy!”

What fields did I miss?
Please leave your thoughts and
feedback in the comments section.

 

 

 

 

31 top apps for education from FETC 2013 — from The Journal by Stephen Noonoo

Excerpt:

Like last year, this year’s popular App Shootout at FETC 2013 tossed around dozens of useful apps for teachers and students. Once again the closeout session was led by ed tech pros Gail Lovely, Hall Davidson, and Jenna Linskens, who each presented apps in three different categories of their choosing, including their favorite “wow” apps. Read on for a selection of the most buzzed about apps for Apple devices. For even more app ideas, visit the shootout’s Web site and complete app list Google Doc.

How technology is changing education for students with disabilities — from edudemic.com

Excerpt:

Some people see computers as little more than gaming consoles and shopping tools. Recently developed electronics, however, have revolutionized education for children with disabilities. If you know a child with disabilities who is struggling, you might want to explore some of these devices.

Tagged with:  

From DSC:
The other day, I mentioned how important it will be for institutions of higher education to increase the priority of experimentation. But, for a variety of reasons, I believe this is true for the K-12 world as well. Especially with the kindergarten/early elementary classroom in mind, I created the graphic below. Clicking on it will give you another example of the kind of experimentation that I’m talking about — whether that be in K-12 or in higher ed.

 

DanielChristianJan2013-ExperimentsInCustomizedLearningSpaces

 

From DSC:
I’m trying to address the students that are more easily distracted and, due to how their minds process information, have a harder time focusing on the task at hand.  In fact, at times, all of the external stimuli can be overwhelming. How can we provide a learning environment that’s more under the students’ control? i.e. How can we provide “volume knobs” on their auditory and visual channels?

Along these lines, I’m told that some theaters have sensory-friendly film showings — i.e. with different settings for the lights and sound than is typically offered.

Also see — with thanks going out to Ori Inbar (@comogard) for these:
.

 

A relevant addendum on 1/10/12:

TryBeingMe-Jan2013

 

A list of all the best iPad apps teachers need ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning / educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

We have been doing a lot of  reviews of educational  mobile apps. We particularly focused on the ones that work on iPad and we tried to cover almost all the fields from digital story telling to apps to teach creativity. Our purpose is to provide teachers with a repository of apps to choose from  when trying them with their students in the classroom. Check out the categories below and click on any title to access the correspondent apps it contains. Enjoy!

10 great apps for a teacher’s new iPad — from ipadapps4school.com by Richard Byrne

iPad resources, sources & tools — from GettingSmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

edapps.ca

The iPad: A useful resource to help students with learning disabilities — from utorbright.com

Excerpt:

Story Builder
Math Bingo
Proloquo2Go
Super Duper: What Are They Thinking
Conversation Builder

To better understand how the iPad can positively impact a child’s learning experience, here is a video of a nine year-old boy named Leo who is using an iPad app called First Words. Leo has autism but he is doing exceptionally well with spelling and pairing pictures with words.

Further references mentioned:
http://www.squidoo.com/ipad-for-autism

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/14/tech/gaming-gadgets/ipad-autism/index.html

 

Also see:

 

© 2025 | Daniel Christian