animation

ISNS students embrace learning in a world of virtual reality — from by

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

To give students the skills needed to thrive in an ever more tech-centred world, the International School of Nanshan Shenzhen (ISNS) is one of the world’s first educational facilities now making instruction in virtual reality (VR) and related tools a key part of the curriculum.

Building on a successful pilot programme last summer in Virtual Reality, 3D art and animation, the intention is to let students in various age groups experiment with the latest emerging technologies, while at the same time unleashing their creativity, curiosity and passion for learning.

To this end, the school has set up a special VR innovation lab, conceived as a space for exploration, design and interdisciplinary collaboration involving a number of different subject teachers.

Using relevant software and materials, students learn to create high-quality digital content and to design “experiences” for VR platforms. In this “VR Lab makerspace” – a place offering the necessary tools, resources and support – they get to apply concepts and theories learned in the classroom, develop practical skills, document their progress, and share what they have learned with classmates and other members of the tech education community.

As a next logical step, she is also looking to develop contacts with a number of the commercial makerspaces which have sprung up in Shenzhen. The hope is that students will then be able to meet engineers working on cutting-edge innovations and understand the latest developments in software, manufacturing, and areas such as laser cutting, and 3D printing, and rapid prototyping.

Announcing the “Top 200 Tools for Learning 2016” — plus Jane’s “Best of Breed 2016” [Jane Hart]

On 10/03/2016, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, blended learning, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, global / globalization, Google, graphics, hybrid learning, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, microlearning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, UK, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Top 200 Tools for Learning 2016: Overview — from c4lpt.co.uk by Jane Hart

Also see Jane’s:

TOP 100 TOOLS FOR PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL LEARNING (for formal/informal learning and personal productivity)
TOP 100 TOOLS FOR WORKPLACE LEARNING (for training, e-learning, performance support and social collaboration
TOP 100 TOOLS FOR EDUCATION (for use in primary and secondary (K12) schools, colleges, universities and adult education.)

Also see Jane’s “Best of Breed 2016” where she breaks things down into:

Instructional tools
Content development tools
Social tools
Personal tools

Jane’s Top 10 Tools for Learning 2016 — from c4lpt.co.uk by Jane Hart

Excerpt:

On Friday 23rd September, voting closes in the 10th Annual Survey of Learning Tool – so it’s not too late to vote!

You can find out how to do so HERE – essentially it involves sharing your own Top 10 Tools for Learning – privately or publicly.

Anyway, as we reach the final few days of voting in 2016, I thought it was time to share my personal top 10 tools – so here they are:

Also see:

12 items re: art, creativity, and digital photography

On 06/17/2016, in animation, art, creativity, digital photography, photography, by Daniel Christian

Photos of clouds and storms by Sean R. Heavey — from designsoak.com

Surreal monochromatic GIFs by Carl Burton — from thisiscolossal.com by Christopher Jobson

4ad71636670749.5724cb5feab7e

LaurentRosset.com > Photomanipulation

Accurate ballpoint pen art — from fubiz.net

A rotating 42-layer sculpture of Franz Kafka’s Head by David Cerny — from thisiscolossal.com by Christopher Jobson

PolyWood: Toy animal concepts rendered in polygons by Mat Szulik — from thisiscolossal.com by Christopher Jobson

poly-3

New powerful street art by Pejac — from fubiz.net

Google’s Tilt Brush allows you to paint in 3 dimensions — from interestingengineering.com

Watch the year’s best drone footage — in just 2.5 minutes — from digitaltrends.com by Hillary Grigonis

Vertiginous Skyscrapers of Hong Kong— from fubiz.net featuring the work of Ekaterina Busygina

Stunning 3D Chalk Art Illusions by Tracy lee Stum — from hongkiat.com

I’m convinced this virtual reality short is the future of animation [Acuna]

On 04/21/2016, in animation, creativity, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, media/film, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

I’m convinced this virtual reality short is the future of animation — from techinsider.io by Kirsten Acuna

Excerpt:

If there’s one takeaway I’ve gathered from the Tribeca Film Festival, it’s that people are doing some incredible things with VR.

The New York City festival has 18 virtual experiences on display for attendees to check out this year in a Virtual Arcade, and one I kept hearing a lot of chatter about was “Allumette,” a nearly 20-minute animated short from startup Penrose Studios. I heard several people declare it the best VR short of the festival by far.

I agree. It’s excellent.

I checked out “Allumette” (French for Matchstick), which first debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Wednesday evening and was blown away by the experience.

It’s that level of immersion — where you feel like a participant in the actual story — that makes me excited to see what else filmmakers and artists will continue to do in this medium.

Houston, we have a problem here.

On 01/13/2016, in analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, engineering, graphics, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning preferences, programming, student-related, youth, by Daniel Christian

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.

Excerpt:

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.

Discover Explain3D [Atwater]

On 11/09/2015, in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, animation, attention, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, engineering, interactivity, science, simulations, tablets, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

Discover Explain3D — from interestingengineering.com by Eben Atwater

Excerpt:

Long ago, someone coined the adage, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ Illustrators and teachers have grasped that simple truism throughout thousands of years of human history – It’s a fact that many, if not most of us, are visual learners. That’s especially true when it comes to things mechanical. That said, it’s 2015, and certainly time for a twenty first century iteration of this venerable learning principle to manifest. And in fact, it has – Consider Explain 3D – An interactive encyclopedia of 3D simulations and visualizations that helps kids, teachers or parents to explain and understand how things work. Explain 3D is a great tool to help youngsters develop the skills of logical thinking and imagination, while poking around in some very cool modern technologies and technical stuff.

Storytelling app a hit; launches a new chapter in transmedia — from blogs.vancouversun.com by Gillian Shaw

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Paul Pattison and Luke Minaker knew they were onto something when they got an email from the mother of a nine-year-old who read the first instalment of their interactive story, Weirdwood Manor.

“She wrote that she couldn’t get her son to pick up a book,” said Pattison, technical director of All Play No Work, producer of the iPad app. “She got the app for her son and he went through it in two nights. He finished both books.

“And then because we don’t have book 3 out yet, unprompted by her he went over to the bookshelf and pulled off a paperback and started reading chapter books again.”

While the storytelling app had already shot to ‘Best New App’ in Apple’s app store, chalking up 5,000 downloads in the first two weeks after it was released, the realization that it converted a reluctant nine-year-old to an avid reader confirmed for Pattison and Minaker they were on the right track.

“It is a common theme we have been hearing,” said Pattison. “They get to this age range of eight to 12 and they stop being interested in reading. Video games, Snapchat – all these other things dominate.

“Although we’re an app in digital, what we really wanted to do is re-engage kids in reading, tap into their imagination, have them rediscover that.”

Why you now need a team to create and deliver learning [Christian & Grush]

On 02/26/2015, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, analytics, animation, attention, blended learning, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, copyright/ownership/NFTs, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, e-books, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, programming, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, trends, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, web design and production, writing, by Daniel Christian

My thanks to Mary Grush at Campus Technology for her continued work in bringing relevant topics and discussions to light — so that our institutions of higher education will continue delivering on their missions well into the future. By doing so, learners will be able to continue to partake of the benefits of attending such institutions. But in order to do so, we must adapt, be responsive, and be willing to experiment. Towards that end, this Q&A with Mary relays some of my thoughts on the need to move more towards a team-based approach.

When you think about it, we need teams whether we’re talking about online learning, hybrid learning or face-to-face learning. In fact, I just came back from an excellent Next Generation Learning Space Conference and it was never so evident to me that you need a team of specialists to design the Next Generation Learning Space and to design/implement pedagogies that take advantage of the new affordances being offered by active learning environments.

Transmedia & interactive reading list #10 — including Racontr’s Guide to Interactive Storytelling [Hoguet]

On 04/04/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, animation, Augmented Reality (AR), collaboration, creativity, digital learning, digital storytelling, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, immersion, innovation, interactivity, interface design, story, storytelling, transmedia, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Transmedia & interactive reading list #10 — from benhoguet.com

Excerpt of slides from one of the items Ben mentions:

Rapt Media: 9 Predictions for Online Video in 2014 [adotas.com]

On 01/03/2014, in animation, digital video, experimentation, future, innovation, interactivity, multimedia, by Daniel Christian

Rapt Media: 9 Predictions for Online Video in 2014 — from adotas.com

There will be a push to replicate the “TV experience” on the web.
Interactive video is going to redefine traditional broadcasting.
Video will be the GIF of 2014.
Web video series will use PWYW pricing model.
Online content producers will create more original series.
We’ll see at least one high-profile crowd-funded season of television.
Videos will become the primary shopping vehicles for tablet users around the world.
A few innovative companies will start leveraging Interactive Video to replace costly in-person training. Higher education and corporate training will see a huge disruption as animated avatars and Interactive Video pair up to present personalized online training to hundreds of thousands of users without anyone ever leaving the comfort of their home or office.
Video with choice is going to revolutionize customer service.

Learning from the Living (Class) Room [Grush & Christian]

On 12/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, changing business models, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, hybrid learning, IBM, innovation, interactivity, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Learning in ‘the Living [Class] Room’
From campustechnology.com by Mary Grush and Daniel Christian
Convergent technologies have the ability to support streams of low-cost, personalized content, both at home and in college.

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

On 11/18/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, professional development, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

— Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along
qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

What the mobile “fourth wave” means for operators — from mportal.com by D.P. Venkatesh on November 12, 2013

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

Addendum on 11/25:

The Smart TV app revolution is coming: Here’s what you need to know — from businessinsider.com by Dan Frommer

What if augmented reality could help bring more of the invisible things to life — such as equations, molecular structures, etc.?

On 11/07/2013, in 21st century, animation, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, chemistry, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, mathematics, physics, by Daniel Christian

augmented-reality-picture-11-7-13

From DSC:
When I woke up last night, an idea surfaced to the forefront of my thinking. It had to do with augmented reality. I wondered (and tried to picture)…

What if augmented reality could help bring something that’s harder to picture/understand/grasp to life?

What if, for example, you could point your mobile device at an object/piece of paper/”button” on a main screen and have an animation pop up that would explain what’s being discussed…? I realize this is being done in some areas (even in elementary apps such as ColAR App), but I think we are largely leaving this area untapped and we’re missing out on a powerful, potential way of engaging students and inviting interactivity.

For example, I had a very difficult time grasping organic chemistry — and the “weeding out” method worked on me big time! That course had a lot to due with me questioning my future as a pre-med student and I ended up dropping out of pre-med (a good decision, but heh, why blow the story now?). Being a student who prefers visuals, I think that it would have helped me greatly if I could have seen — and ideally manipulated — models and animations in real time.

For example:

If I tried to move an atom to an inappropriate ring/connection, the holographic design would show a holographic pop up — with accompany audio — letting me know why that won’t work. Wow.
Then I ran into the article below and the idea came back to me…and again, I wondered…where might augmented reality help us out here? Or holographic displays that can be manipulated?

Which points to:

BEAUTY OF MATHEMATICS — a video on Vimeo from PARACHUTES.TV by Yann Pineill & Nicolas Lefaucheux

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music.”

—Bertrand Russell

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

On 11/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, expectations, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, formal learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, marketplaces, media/film, Michigan, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), neurodivergent/special needs, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, organizational change, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, programming, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, story, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Learning from the Living [Class] Room — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room. I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition. This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a team–based approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.)

To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:

Alternatively, these videos can be found at:

.

Learning Ecosystems

12 items re: art, creativity, and digital photography

I’m convinced this virtual reality short is the future of animation [Acuna]

Discover Explain3D [Atwater]

Transmedia & interactive reading list #10 — including Racontr’s Guide to Interactive Storytelling [Hoguet]

Rapt Media: 9 Predictions for Online Video in 2014 [adotas.com]

What if augmented reality could help bring more of the invisible things to life — such as equations, molecular structures, etc.?

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