Also see:
- Microsoft’s crazy ambitions for augmented reality and HoloLens — from cnet.com
On 06/03/2016,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, ideas, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), new business models, new media literacies, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/03/2016,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, languages and translation, learning, lifelong learning, professional development, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Questions from DSC:
- Which jobs/positions are being impacted by new forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI)?
- What new jobs/positions will be created by these new forms of HCI?
- Will it be necessary for instructional technologists, instructional designers, teachers, professors, trainers, coaches, learning space designers, and others to pulse check this landscape? Will that be enough?
- Or will such individuals need to dive much deeper than that in order to build the necessary skillsets, understandings, and knowledgebases to meet the new/changing expectations for their job positions?
- How many will say, “No thanks, that’s not for me” — causing organizations to create new positions that do dive deeply in this area?
- Will colleges and universities build and offer more courses involving HCI?
- Will Career Services Departments get up to speed in order to help students carve out careers involving new forms of HCI?
- How will languages and language translation be impacted by voice recognition software?
- Will new devices be introduced to our classrooms in the future?
- In the corporate space, how will training departments handle these new needs and opportunities? How will learning & development groups be impacted? How will they respond in order to help the workforce get/be prepared to take advantage of these sorts of technologies? What does it mean for these staffs personally? Do they need to invest in learning more about these advancements?
As an example of what I’m trying to get at here, who all might be involved with an effort like Echo Dot? What types of positions created it? Who all could benefit from it? What other platforms could these technologies be integrated into? Besides the home, where else might we find these types of devices?
Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses the same far-field voice recognition as Amazon Echo. Dot has a small built-in speaker—it can also connect to your speakers over Bluetooth or with the included audio cable. Dot connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly.
Echo Dot can hear you from across the room, even while music is playing. When you want to use Echo Dot, just say the wake word “Alexa” and Dot responds instantly. If you have more than one Echo or Echo Dot, you can set a different wake word for each—you can pick “Amazon”, “Alexa” or “Echo” as the wake word.
Or how might students learn about the myriad of technologies involved with IBM’s Watson? What courses are out there today that address this type of thing? Are more courses in the works that will address this type of thing? In which areas (Computer Science, User Experience Design, Interaction Design, other)?
Lots of questions…but few answers at this point. Still, given the increasing pace of technological change, it’s important that we think about this type of thing and become more responsive, nimble, and adaptive in our organizations and in our careers.
On 05/31/2016,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, communications, computer science, design, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, platforms, programming, technologies for your home, usability, user experience (UX), web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Amazon now lets you test drive Echo’s Alexa in your browser — from by Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Excerpt:
If you’ve ever wanted to try out the Amazon Echo before shelling out for one, you can now do just that right from your browser. Amazon has launched a dedicated website where you can try out an Echo simulation and put Alexa’s myriad of skills to the test.
From DSC:
The use of the voice and gesture to communicate to some type of computing device or software program represent growing types of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). With the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), personal assistants, and bots, we should expect to see more voice recognition services/capabilities baked into an increasing amount of products and solutions in the future.
Given these trends, personnel working within K-12 and higher ed need to start building their knowledgebases now so that we can begin offering more courses in the near future to help students build their skillsets. Current user experience designers, interface designers, programmers, graphic designers, and others will also need to augment their skillsets.
On 05/25/2016,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, design, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, television,
by Daniel Christian
Beyond touch: designing effective gestural interactions — from blog.invisionapp.com by by Yanna Vogiazou; with thanks to Mark Pomeroy for the resource
The future of interaction is multimodal.
Excerpts:
The future of interaction is multimodal. But combining touch with air gestures (and potentially voice input) isn’t a typical UI design task.
…
Gestures are often perceived as a natural way of interacting with screens and objects, whether we’re talking about pinching a mobile screen to zoom in on a map, or waving your hand in front of your TV to switch to the next movie. But how natural are those gestures, really?
…
Try not to translate touch gestures directly to air gestures even though they might feel familiar and easy. Gestural interaction requires a fresh approach—one that might start as unfamiliar, but in the long run will enable users to feel more in control and will take UX design further.
Forget about buttons — think actions.
Eliminate the need for a cursor as feedback, but provide an alternative.
On 05/16/2016,
in A/V -- audio/visual, Adobe, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, design, graphics,
by Daniel Christian
Adobe Photoshop unveils artificial intelligence tool to identify fonts from 20,000 typefaces — from ibtimes.co.uk by Mary-Ann Russon
Excerpt:
Graphic designers, rejoice – the hours upon hours of struggling to figure out what a type face is will finally be over as Adobe is adding an artificial intelligence tool to help detect and identify fonts from any type of picture, sketch or screenshot.
The DeepFont system features advanced machine-learning algorithms that send pictures of typefaces from Photoshop software on a user’s computer to be compared to a huge database of over 20,000 fonts in the cloud, and within seconds, results are sent back to the user, akin to the way the music discovery app Shazam works.
On 05/10/2016,
in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, K-12 related, pedagogy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, user experience (UX), vendors, wearables,
by Daniel Christian
Per Jack Du Mez at Calvin College, use this app to randomly call on your students — while instilling a game-like environment into your active learning classroom (ALC)!
Description:
Randomly is an app made specifically for teachers and professors. It allows educators to enter their students into individual classes. They can then use the Random Name Selector feature to randomly call on a student to answer a question by one of two ways: Truly random, where repeated names are allowed, or a one pass – where all students are called once before they are called again. The device you’re using will even call out (vocally) the student’s name for you!
This app can also be used to randomly generate groups for you. You can split your class into groups by number of groups or by number of students per group. It intelligently knows what to do with any remaining students too!
This app supports Apple Watch, so you can call on your students with the use of your Apple Watch!
From DSC:
In the future, given facial and voice recognition software, I could see an Augmented Reality (AR)-based application whereby a faculty member or a teacher could see icons hovering over the students — letting the faculty member/teacher know who has been called upon recently and who hasn’t been called upon recently (with settings to change the length of time for this type of tracking — i.e., this student has been called upon in this class session, or in the last week, or in the last month, etc.).
On 04/21/2016,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, history, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, marketplaces, mathematics, media/film, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, psychology, reinvent, religion, science, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
- An idea/question from DSC:
Looking at the article below, I wonder…“Why can’t the ‘One Day University‘ come directly into your living room — 24×7?”
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
This is why I’m so excited about the “The Living [Class] Room” vision. Because it is through that vision that people of all ages — and from all over the world — will be able to constantly learn, grow, and reinvent themselves (if need be) throughout their lifetimes. They’ll be able to access and share content, communicate and discuss/debate with one another, form communities of practice, go through digital learning playlists (like Lynda.com’s Learning Paths) and more. All from devices that represent the convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer (and likely converging with the types of devices that are only now coming into view, such as Microsoft’s Hololens).
You won’t just be limited to going back to college for a day — you’ll be able to do that 24×7 for as many days of the year as you want to.
Then when some sophisticated technologies are integrated into this type of platform — such as artificial intelligence, cloud-based learner profiles, algorithms, and the ability to setup exchanges for learning materials — we’ll get some things that will blow our minds in the not too distant future! Heutagogy on steroids!
Want to go back to college? You can, for a day. — from washingtonpost.com by Valerie Strauss
Excerpt:
Have you ever thought about how nice it would be if you could go back to college, just for the sake of learning something new, in a field you don’t know much about, with no tests, homework or studying to worry about? And you won’t need to take the SAT or the ACT to be accepted? You can, at least for a day, with something called One Day University, the brainchild of a man named Steve Schragis, who about a decade ago brought his daughter to Bard College as a freshman and thought that he wanted to stay.
One Day University now financially partners with dozens of newspapers — including The Washington Post — and a few other organizations to bring lectures to people around the country. The vast majority of the attendees are over the age 50 and interested in continuing education, and One Day University offers them only those professors identified by college students as fascinating. As Schragis says, it doesn’t matter if you are famous; you have to be a great teacher. For example, Schragis says that since Bill Gates has never shown to be one, he can’t teach at One Day University.
…
We bring together these professors, usually four at at a time, to cities across the country to create “The Perfect Day of College.” Of course we leave out the homework, exams, and studying! Best if there’s real variety, both male and female profs, four different schools, four different subjects, four different styles, etc. There’s no one single way to be a great professor. We like to show multiple ways to our students.
Most popular classes are history, psychology, music, politics, and film. Least favorite are math and science.
See also:
Addendum:
- LinkedIn makes all Lynda.com courses available on Apple TV — from venturebeat.com
We know the shelf-life of skills are getting shorter and shorter. So whether it’s to brush up on new skills or it’s to stay on top of evolving ones, Lynda.com can help you stay ahead of the latest technologies.
On 04/20/2016,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, education technology, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, participation, pedagogy, smart classrooms, student-related, tablets, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, UK, United States,
by Daniel Christian
‘Anyone who walks into these spaces wants to teach in them’ — from ucalgary.ca by Joni Miltenburg
Instructors can apply to teach in the Taylor Institute’s flexible learning space
Excerpt:
Leighton Wilks noticed a palpable difference when his class moved from a traditional lecture-style classroom to an active learning space. Not only did attendance increase, but students were more engaged and collaborative.
“I see a lot more team cohesion. They’re talking more to each other because they’re sitting with their teams. It’s nice to foster that teamwork throughout the semester.”
Wilks is an instructor in the Haskayne School of Business and teaches a second-year organizational behaviour course in the newly-renovated active learning classroom in Scurfield Hall. He found that the space breaks down the boundary between instructor and student.
“Instead of being up at the front, I’m walking around. I feel I get a lot more questions and get to know the students better, which is important.”
From DSC:
Also see my notes from this year’s Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference.
Creating Great Digital Spaces for Learning — from slideshare.net by Phil Vincent
Professor Andrew Harrison, Professor of Practice at University of Wales Trinity St David and Director, Spaces That Work Ltd., from Jisc DigiFest 2016
21st-century learning environments — from webcpm.com by Kenneth A. Gruskin, Michael Searson
Excerpts:
Pedagogy
Preparation for the 21st-century workforce demands that educators shift the authority for learning to the students. After all, today’s workers are expected to function in collaborative and horizontal environments, as opposed to the “factory” driven, top-down, solitary worker spaces of yesterday. Therefore, contemporary learning environments should lean heavily on collaborative spaces, supported through personalized learning technologies. Good pedagogy encourages student engagement through complex collaborative projects based on real-world problems.
…
Technology
Innovative learning should incorporate a true BYOD (bring your own device) environment that provides opportunities for student-centered learning, beginning with their own personalized technologies — from laptops and tablets to smartphones and wearable devices. This approach leverages student devices and reduces the need for institutionally provided equipment.
…
Supporting Distance Learning
Strategies being used within Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions provide the means to support the involvement of remote participants, whether they are present on the WAN or solely connecting via Internet services. Since these solutions are moving to cloud-based topologies, they are mostly services that individuals subscribe to directly or have access to through campus-based subscription services. These features are also beginning to appear in social media environments, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, so the opportunity for use may become as easy as installing another app in the not-toodistant future.
Engaging students with interactive technologies — from webcpm.com by Bill Nattress
Excerpt:
Wireless presentation, lecture capture, online collaboration and active-learning methodologies all require the ability for any and all participants to engage the installed resources within the facility while they also access their personal content; whether local to their personal devices or within the cloud. With the video tools now available to the consumer, the use of conferencing apps will continue to rise. The environments that engage students and faculty will need to allow for any user to log in and access his or her content and presentation appliances without hurdles or roadblocks. Access to subject matter experts or other individuals will also need to be supported as well. With the deployment of video tools via social media, users will also rely more on their personal accounts for contact management instead of an address book. These changes in workflow are disruptors to the policies that many institutions have put in place as it relates to the BYOD usage surrounding their networks. Success of these communication and education solutions needs the networks to focus on and easily support three key technologies: wireless presentation, collaboration and participation by remote team members.
On 04/15/2016,
in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), bots, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, global / globalization, social learning / networks, social media, telecommunications, tools, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning,
by Daniel Christian
Everything announced at Facebook’s F8 conference.
Everything Facebook announced at F8 2016 — from thenextweb.com by Natt Garun
Excerpt:
Two days of Facebook’s F8 Conference have come and gone, so here’s a look back at all the things you may have missed from the event. To learn more about each topic, click the links below for full stories.
The 5 Biggest Things Facebook Announced This Week — from time.com by Victor Luckerson
Messaging bots, live video in drones and 360-degree cameras
Excerpt:
In a wide-ranging keynote April 12, CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out the company’s 10-year plan to “Give everyone the power to share anything with anyone.” To do so, Facebook plans to move far beyond its original role as a social network. The firm aims to launch new virtual reality projects, beam Internet across the world using drones and unleash complex artificial-intelligence bots that can fulfill our every digital need.
Before all that can happen, Facebook has to deal with the here and now of improving its current products. On that front, the company made several announcements that will reshape the way people and brands use Facebook and its constellation of apps this year.
Here’s a breakdown of Facebook’s biggest F8 announcements.
How Facebook’s Social VR Could Be The Killer App For Virtual Reality — from fastcompany.com by
It’s going to take time, but Facebook is committed to developing realistic and satisfying social experiences in VR.
Excerpt:
When Facebook bought Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion, many observers wondered what the world’s largest social networking company wanted with a virtual reality company whose then-unreleased system was pretty much all about single-user experiences. Today at F8, Facebook’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, the company showed off some of the most fleshed-out examples of how it sees VR as a rich social tool. During his F8 keynote address, CTO Mike Schroepfer talked at length about what Facebook explicitly calls “social VR.”
Facebook Shows Us What It Means to Be ‘Social’ in Virtual Reality (Video) — from recode.net by Kurt Wagner
Excerpt:
One of the key knocks on virtual reality, the gamer-heavy industry Facebook is betting big on, is that wearing a headset intended to block out the real world in favor of a virtual one isn’t a very social activity. Facebook, an inherently social company, thinks it can change that.
At its F8 developer conference on Wednesday Facebook demoed what it calls “social VR,” which is exactly what it sounds like: Connecting two or more real people in a virtual world.
Oculus Demos VR Selfie Sticks and 360 Photo Spheres — from vrscout.com by Jonathan Nafarrete
Excerpt:
During the second day keynote of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference, Oculus showed off an entirely new way to get social in VR.
On stage, Facebook’s CTO Mike Schroepfer showed how 360-degree photos can instantly be shared with a friend in VR, with 360 photos appearing as handheld spheres. You can virtually grab the floating sphere and smash it against your face, you will then be instantly teleported into the content of the spherical photo.
Oculus Social VR Full Demo – Facebook F8 Conference 2016
Has Facebook achieved what AOL could have a generation ago? — from medium.com by Gary Vaynerchuk
Excerpt:
[On 4/12/16], Facebook opened up Instant Articles to all publishers. If you don’t know, Instant Articles are Facebook’s new way to natively load articles within the app using an adapted RSS feed. These native articles, which have a lightning bolt in the top right corner, load in half a second?—?10x faster than if user was to click out to a website. From what I’ve seen so far, they really do load instantaneously and have a great layout and user experience. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll understand that this is their third push for native media consumption: first photos, then videos, and now written content.
…
However, as of [4/13/16], Instant Articles become available to anybody with a Facebook page and a blog. This is a key opportunity for small blogs and publications to get ahead of the game and really understand how best to use the new product.
…
Has Facebook been able to achieve what AOL could have a generation ago? By that I mean: Has Facebook become a layer on top of the Internet itself?
On 04/14/2016,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, marketplaces, microlearning, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, surviving, technologies for your home, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), virtual tutoring,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Let’s take some of the same powerful concepts (as mentioned below) into the living room; then let’s talk about learning-related applications.
Google alum launches MightyTV for cable cord-cutters — from bizjournals.com by Anthony Noto
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
MightyTV, which has raised more than $2 million in venture funding to date, launched today with a former Google exec at the helm. The startup’s technology incorporates machine learning with computer-generated recommendations in what is being touted as a “major step up” from other static list-making apps.
…
In this age of Roku and Apple TV, viewers can choose what to watch via the apps they’ve downloaded. MightyTV curates those programs — shows, movies and YouTube videos — into one app without constantly switching between Amazon, HBO, Netflix or Hulu.
…
Among the features included on MightyTV are:
* A Tinder-like interface that allows users to swipe through content, allowing the service to learn what you’d like to watch
* An organizer tool that lists content via price range
* A discovery tool to see what friends are watching
* Allows for group viewings and binge watching
From DSC:
What if your Apple TV could provide these sorts of functionalities for services and applications that are meant for K-12 education, higher education, and/or corporate training and development?
Instead of Amazon, HBO, Netflix or Hulu — what if the interface would present you with a series of learning modules, MOOCs, and/or courses from colleges and universities that had strong programs in the area(s) that you wanted to learn about?
That is, what if a tvOS-based system could learn more about you and what you are trying to learn about? It could draw upon IBM Watson-like functionality to provide you with a constantly morphing, up-to-date recommendation list of modules that you should look at. Think microlearning. Reinventing oneself. Responding to the exponential pace of change. Pursuing one’s passions. More choice/more control. Lifelong learning. Staying relevant. Surviving.
…all from a convenient, accessible room in your home…your living room.
A cloud-based marketplace…matching learners with providers.
Now tie those concepts in with where LinkedIn.com and Lynda.com are going and how people will get jobs in the future.
BlueJeans Unveils Enterprise Video Cloud as Businesses Hang Up on Audio-Only Communications
Global Enterprises Adopt Video as a First-Line Communications Strategy
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
April 12, 2016 — Mountain View, CA—BlueJeans Network, the global leader in cloud-based video communication services, today unveiled the Enterprise Video Cloud, a comprehensive platform built for today’s globally distributed, modern workforce with video communications at the core. New global research shows that 85% of employees are already using video in the workplace and 72% believe that video will transform the way they communicate at work.
“There is a transformation happening among business today – face-to-face video is quickly rising as the preferred communications medium, offering new opportunities for deeper personal relations and outreach, as well as for improved internal and external collaboration,” said Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of BlueJeans. “Once people experience the power of video, they ‘hang-up’ on traditional conference calling. We are seeing this happen with the emergence of video cultures that power the most innovative cultures—from Facebook and Netflix to Viacom and Del Monte.”
From DSC:
I wonder if we’ll see video communication vendors such as BlueJeans or The Video Call Center merge with vendors like Bluescape, Mezzanine, or T1V with their collaboration tools. If so, some serious collaboration could all happen…again, right from within your living room!
On 04/12/2016,
in A/V -- audio/visual, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, elearning, higher education, K-12 related, media/film, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, training / L&D, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
My green screen setup –from learninginhand.com by Tony Vincent
Excerpt:
I’m often asked about the set up I use to film my videos. Here’s a 360 spherical photo that I’ve annotated. Feel free to scroll and zoom around to check out my setup.
On 04/06/2016,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, assessment, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, digital storytelling, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, Google, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, mathematics, Microsoft, mobile learning, mobile technologies, music, open courseware and systems, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, web-based collaboration, writing,
by Daniel Christian
20 awesome BYOD and mobile learning apps — from edutopia.org by Vicki Davis; updated 2/4/16
Excerpt:
We have now been Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for three years, and boy, do the students bring it. They bring it all! We have iPads, Surface, iPhones, Droids, Chromebooks, Macs, and PC laptops. Here’s my current thinking.
7 best Google apps and tools — from interestingengineering.com
- Google Keep
- Google Scholar
- Gmailify
- Google Lego
- Google Mars
- Google Developers
- Google Sky
Excerpt:
Music is for everyone. So this year for Music In Our Schools month, we wanted to make learning music a bit more accessible to everyone by using technology that’s open to everyone: the web. Chrome Music Lab is a collection of experiments that let anyone, at any age, explore how music works. They’re collaborations between musicians and coders, all built with the freely available Web Audio API. These experiments are just a start. Check out each experiment to find open-source code you can use to build your own.
My challenge to you – 8 things all teachers should learn about #edtech — from ictevangelist.com by Mark Anderson
Excerpt:
I love the School Report scheme that the BBC run via Newsround. We all remember the Newsrounds of our youth. For me it was John Craven who made me watch it whenever it was on. It was this report I saw recently on eight things teachers should learn, which got me thinking about eight things I thought teachers should learn about edtech.
My work sees me regularly helping teachers learn different things related to the use of technology and so in this post, I’m going to talk about the eight things I think teachers should learn with #edtech to help support their use of technology to enhance learning in the classroom.
Mark mentions: Google, Padlet, Kahoot, Socrative, Camera, Microphone, Twitter, Videoconferencing software
Quiz accommodations for students in Canvas and Moodle — from thejournal.com by Emmett Dulaney03/16/16
Excerpt:
As we move toward interacting more with students who have an individualized education program (IEP) indicating that they need additional time on tests and quizzes or just need to deal with life issues, it is imperative that the learning management system (LMS) depended upon by an instructor and student alike be properly configured for such accommodations. Canvas and Moodle are currently two of the most popular learning management systems, and both offer the ability to make adjustments to quiz functions within the course without compromising the overall structure of the course. In this article, we will examine how to do so and offer some tips on situations where they are relevant.
Use these Chrome apps to unleash students’ creativity — from educatorstechnology.com
Excerpt:
[The] Chrome web store is packed full of all kinds of educational apps and extensions some of which are also integrated with Google Drive. For those of you looking for a handy resource of Chrome apps to use with students in class, check out this comprehensive chart. In today’s post we are sharing with you a collection of some practical Chrome extensions to unleash learners creativity. Using these resources, students will be able to engage in a number of creative literacy activities that will allow them to multimodally communicate their thoughts, share their ideas and develop new learning skills.
Integrating technology and literacy — from edutopia.org by Frank Ward
Excerpt:
How do you work technology into the pedagogy, instead of just using something cool? That task can be especially daunting in language arts literacy classrooms where reading and writing skill development is the crux of daily lessons. However, as 1:1 technology initiatives roll out, integrating technology into the classroom is our reality.
With hundreds of sites, apps, Chrome extensions, and platforms available, choosing the right ones can seem overwhelming. As an eighth-grade language arts teacher, I’ve experienced this myself. Following are four tools that can help provide immediate formative assessment data as well as top-of-the-rotation feedback to help students develop personal learning goals.
If, like my school, you’re in a “Chromebook District,” these suggested tools will work well because all integrate perfectly when you sign in with your Google ID, limiting the need for multiple passwords. This saves a lot of student confusion, too.
Teachers are using theater and dance to teach math — and it’s working — from washingtonpost.com by Moriah Balingit
Excerpt:
This giggly play session actually was a serious math lesson about big and small and non-standard measurements. Dreamed up by Richardson and kindergarten teacher Carol Hunt, it aims to get the children to think of animal steps as units of measurement, using them to mark how many it takes each animal to get from a starting line to the target.
Teachers call such melding of art and traditional subjects “art integration,” and it’s a new and increasingly popular way of bringing the arts into the classroom. Instead of art as a stand-alone subject, teachers are using dance, drama and the visual arts to teach a variety of academic subjects in a more engaging way.
Some older items include:
Tech Tip: Using Nearpod for math instruction — from smartblogs.com
Storytelling app a hit; launches a new chapter in transmedia — from blogs.vancouversun.com
Excerpt:
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.”
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