Will more institutions of higher education join something like the new “University Learning Store?”

On 04/05/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business, career development, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, elearning, experimentation, future of higher education, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, microlearning, new business models, online learning, platforms, professional development, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

Will more institutions of higher education be joining/contributing courses to this type of University Learning Store? I’ve often wondered about the place of consortia in higher ed…perhaps this will be one of the ways that institutions pool their resources. (i.e., creating and contributing content, tapping into content that’s been aggregated)
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How will corporate training / L&D groups view his sort of development? Will it be helpful to them?
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Will the University Learning Store, like Lynda.com, continually expand the list of topics that they are offering/addressing?
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Will these types of efforts morph into what I’ve been calling Learning from the Living [Class] Room? (i.e., learning on demand across a lifetime; employing web-based learner profiles, cognitive computing, social networking/learning while offering the ability to instantly form or join communities of practice) Another way of asking this question is this: “As technology-enabled collaborations increase what’s possible, what’s to keep courses from being ported to tvOS-based apps for on demand learning?”

For example, fast forward a few years from the technologies found in “The Video Call Center” and one could imagine some powerful means of collaborating from one’s living room:

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

Also see:

Micro-credentials offer universities an opportunity to bridge skill gaps — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla
By working with employers, universities can help students of all ages learn skills that industry leaders need.

Excerpt:

Higher education leaders are pondering how to make bite-sized, low-cost learning opportunities available to students in different ways.

Working adults who change jobs and careers frequently often don’t need to go through an entire degree program to learn different skills. However, they do need a flexible way to earn credentials that are recognized by employers and that demonstrate their ability to apply the skills they learn, said David Schejbal, dean of continuing education, outreach and e-learning at University of Wisconsin-Extension. University micro-credentials can help fill that role.

Six universities have been working with employers to find out what skills they need their employees to have, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California Davis Extension, University of California Irvine Extension, University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Washington and University of California, Los Angeles.

As a result of collaborating with industry, these universities created short courses and certification programs for the University Learning Store that launched last week. These courses fall into three categories: power skills, technical skills and career advancement skills. Power skills used to be called “soft skills” and include communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

Microsoft’s Holoportation: When combined with mixed reality displays, you can see, hear, & interact with remote participants in 3D

On 03/28/2016, in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, communications, education technology, emerging technologies, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), technologies for your home, telecommunications, Uncategorized, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Description:

Holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face-to-face communication.

Team webpage:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/i3d/

Video:
http://youtu.be/7d59O6cfaM0

holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed, and transmitted anywhere in the world in real-time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in their physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face to face communication.

Some other items on this:

Microsoft’s “holoportation” lets you augment someone else’s reality — from gizmag.com by Eric Mack
‘Holoportation’ demo makes live-video holograms look easy — from engadget.com by Timothy Seppala
Microsoft Research shows off how HoloLens can bring distant family members into your living room.
Microsoft HoloLens delivers ‘Star Wars’ holographic message we’ve been waiting for — from mashable.com by Adario Strange

Addendum:

Augmented Reality Startup Daqri Acquires Hologram Maker To Take On Microsoft HoloLens — from forbes.com by Aaron Tilley

“How the ‘Internet of Things’ will affect the world” plus 3 other items re: the Internet of Things

On 03/24/2016, in 21st century, business, communications, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, innovation, internet, machine-to-machine communications, Near Field Communication (NFC), trends, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, wearables, workplace, by Daniel Christian

How the ‘Internet of Things’ will affect the world — from businessinsider.com by John Greenough and Jonathan Camhi

Excerpt:

Here are some key points from the report:

In total, we project there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions. They see three ways the IoT can improve their bottom line by 1) lowering operating costs; 2) increasing productivity; and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings.
Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We believe they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption. Still, they will purchase a massive number of devices and invest a significant amount of money in IoT ecosystems.

As IoT emerges, UX takes on greater urgency within enterprises — from zdnet.com by Joe McKendrick
User experience isn’t just a luxury — emerging Internet of Things, wearable, mobile, and virtual reality-based computing make it essential.

Excerpt:

Perhaps the renowned techno-futurist Mark Pesce said it best in a recent tweet: “I’d like to point out that [virtual reality] is the only display layer with profound UX implications. Fundamental ones. Ponder that,”

Pesce is spot on, of course, but we need to take his argument for heightened, immersive and interactive user experience a step further — not only is VR bringing it to the fore, but there is also the intense emphasis on connecting things — including wearables and mobile devices — into the emerging Internet of Things, as well as the ongoing challenges of the consumerization of IT, to make enterprise computing as intuitive and satisfying as consumer-based computing.
…
A recent survey of 7,725 executives and professionals shows that interest in UX — and UX testing — is on the rise. As summarized by Dennis McCafferty in CIO Insight, “respondents say that multi-device interaction–a.k.a., machine-to-machine tech–will greatly influence UX over the next five years. Which means CIOs and their tech teams should expect to devote more attention to UX for the indefinite future.”

The Internet of Things: It’s not quite here yet, but it’s definitely coming — from edtechmagazine.com by Nicci Fagan
Colleges and universities should take steps now to prepare for the impending barrage of connected devices and for the rise in IoT data.

Gartner warns of coming IoT data management overload — from readwrite.com by Donal Power

Excerpt:

The growth of Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly increasing the amount of data generated, and industry experts warn that the current river of unstructured data will soon turn into a flood. Alarmingly, a recent study highlighted concerns that most proposed approaches could lead to data management overload ineffective for the coming torrent of data.

Enterprise Tech cited a recent Gartner report that examined the impact IoT will have on enterprise infrastructure. The report warned that “due to a lack of information capabilities adapted for the IoT” an estimated 25% of attempts to utilize IoT data will be abandoned before deployment ever occurs.

Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Here’s why. [Christian]

On 03/18/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, analytics, assessment, assistive technologies, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, TVs, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Key point from DSC:
Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Far more than what we’ve seen so far! There are several trends that are occurring to make this so.

As background here, some of the keywords and phrases that are relevant to this posting include:

Wireless content sharing
Wireless collaboration solutions
Active learning based classrooms
Conference rooms
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Enterprise wireless display solutions
Enterprise collaboration solutions
Cross platform support: iOS, Android, Windows
Personalized learning
Learning analytics

Some of the relevant products in this area include:

Bluescape
Mezzanine from Oblong Industries
Montage from DisplayNote Technologies
ThinkHub and ViewHub from T1V
Mersive Solstice
Crestron AirMedia
Barco Clickshare
Haworth Workware Wireless
Christi Brio
AMX enzo
NovoConnect from Vivitek
Arrive MediaPoint
Apple TV
Chromecast

From DSC:

First of all, consider the following products and the functionalities they offer.

People who are in the same physical space can collaborate with people from all over the world — no matter if they are at home, in another office, on the road, etc.

For several of these products, remote employees/consultants/trainers/learners can contribute content to the discussions, just like someone in the same physical location can.

ThinkHub-March2016

From DSC:

Many of these sorts of systems & software are aimed at helping people collaborate — again, regardless of where they are located. Remote learners/content contributors are working in tandem with a group of people in the same physical location. If this is true in business, why can’t it be true in the world of education?

So keep that in mind, as I’m now going to add on a few other thoughts and trends that build upon these sorts of digitally-based means of collaborating.

Q: Towards that end…ask yourself, what do the following trends and items have in common?

The desire to capture and analyze learner data to maximize learning
Colleges’ and universities’ need to increase productivity (which is also true in the corporate & K-12 worlds)
The trend towards implementing more active learning-based environments
The increasing use of leveraging students’ devices for their learning (i.e., the BYOD phenomenon)
The continued growth and increasing sophistication of algorithms

A: All of these things may cause digitally-based means of learning to skyrocket!!!

To wrap up this line of thought, below are some excerpts from recent articles that illustrate what I’m trying to get at here.

Embrace the Power of Data
A continuous improvement mindset is important. Back-end learning analytics, for example, can reveal where large numbers of students are struggling, and may provide insights into questions that require new feedback or content areas that need more development. Data can also highlight how students are interacting with the content and illuminate things that are working well—students’ lightbulb moments.

— Five Principles for Your Learning Design Toolkit
from edsurge.com by Amanda Newlin

Mitchell gave the example of flight simulators, which not only provide students with a way to engage in the activity that they want to learn, but also have data systems that monitor students’ learning over time, providing them with structured feedback at just the right moment. This sort of data-centric assessment of learning is happening in more and more disciplines — and that opens the door to more innovation, he argued.

…

A promising example, said Thille, is the use of educational technology to create personalized and adaptive instruction. As students interact with adaptive technology, the system collects large amounts of data, models those data, and then makes predictions about each student based on their interactions, she explained. Those predictions are then used for pedagogical decision-making — either feeding information back into the system to give the student a personalized learning path, or providing insights to faculty to help them give students individualized support.

…

“We need the models and the data to be open, transparent, peer-reviewable and subject to academic scrutiny.”

…

“We began to actually examine what we could do differently — based not upon hunches and traditions, but upon what the data told us the problems were for the students we enroll,” said Renick. “We made a commitment not to raise our graduation rate through getting better students, but through getting better — and that gain meant looking in the mirror and making some significant changes.”

…

A 21st-century learning culture starts with digital content. In 2010, Jackson State University was looking for ways that technology could better address the needs of today’s learner. “We put together what we call our cyberlearning ecosystem,” said Robert Blaine, dean of undergraduate studies and cyberlearning. “What that means is that we’re building a 21st-century learning culture for all of our students, writ large across campus.” At the core of that ecosystem is digital content, delivered via university-supplied iPads.

— 7 Things Higher Education Innovators Want You to Know
from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

On Bennett’s wish list right now is an application that allows students to give feedback at specific points of the videos that they’re watching at home. This would help him pinpoint and fix any “problem” areas (e.g. insufficient instructions for difficult topics/tasks) and easily see where students are experiencing the most difficulties.

TechSmith’s now-retired “Ask3” video platform, for example, would have done the trick. It allowed users to watch a video and ask text-based questions at the point where playback was stopped. “I’d like to be able to look at my content and say, ‘Here’s a spot where there are a lot of questions and confusion,'” said Bennett, who also sees potential in an “I get it” button that would allow students to hit the button when everything clicks. “That would indicate the minimum viable video that I’d need to produce.” Learning Catalytics offers a similar product at a fee, Bennett said, “but I can’t charge my students $20 a year to use it.”

— 6 Flipped Learning Technologies To Watch in 2016
from thejournal.com by Bridget McCrea

All of these trends lend themselves to causing a major increase in the amount of learning that occurs via digitally-based means and methods.

My notes from last week’s “Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference” [Christian]

On 03/11/2016, in active learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, future of higher education, instructional design, learning spaces, maker movement, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, smart classrooms, teaching & learning, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Here are my notes from last week’s Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. This was just the second time this conference was offered, but the topics addressed therein are highly relevant to the future of learning spaces within higher education. I hope they are helpful or interesting to some of you.

Implementing Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) is about moving things from being teacher-centric to student-centric. There’s far less lecture and more hands-on, collaborative experiences; there’s more project-based learning and active learning. More discussions, case studies, problem-solving, use of small groups. The Jigsaw method was nicely modeled at the conference.

Getting solid results boils down to designing and implementing effective pedagogies. A space can’t do it for you. A professor needs to align his/her instructional activities with the desired instructional outcomes.

“35-40% of seats on a campus should be for informal learning.”

Per Gary McNay, Principal Perkins+Will
Libraries, cafes, student commons…

From DSC:
Hmm…I wonder how job seekers and job providers could benefit if IBM Watson were to team up with LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com? And/or for those freelancers who are seeking to work on new projects with those organizations who have projects to be completed…?

I’m thinking Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based job exchanges/marketplaces, with the engines constantly churning away through — and making sense of — enormous amounts of data in order to find people just the right job for them.

For example, someone in Texas wants to work part time in special education and their LinkedIn.com profile shows that they have x, y, and z as their credentials and that they have taken a, b, c, d, and e courses (which the person could also find on the “marketplace section” as having been necessary in that state). They are looking for 20 hours a week and, as they live in San Antonio, they need something in or near that city.

Would this collaboration bring something that other current job exchanges don’t? I’m not sure, as I don’t know how much data mining is occurring with them. But the scale of the two companies — along with the technologies and the strategies that they are pursuing — could present some interesting affordances.

+

This idea of the need for such a marketplace/mechanism takes on all the more importance if it’s true that we are living in a post-jobs economy and that getting new project-related work is key in putting bread and butter on the table.

Without having looked at this very much, it appears that LinkedIn.com has already been pursuing this type of goal/vision, as seen with the work they are doing involving The Economic Graph.

See:

What are the learning-related ramifications of technologies that provide virtual personal assistants? [Christian]

On 03/09/2016, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, communications, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Everything Siri can do for you and your Apple TV — from imore.com by Lory Gill

Excerpt:

When you ask Siri what it can search for, it will respond, “I can search by title, people (actor, director, character name, guest star, producer, or writer), ratings (like PG or TV-G), reviews (such as best or worst), dates (like 2012 or the 80s), age (like kid-friendly or teen), seasons, episodes, and studio. And of course, I can search by genre.”

But, what else can Siri do?
…
Siri has a fairly robust search feature with multi-layer filtering.
…
While you are watching a movie or TV show, or listening to music, you can get a little extra help from Siri. It’s like having a buddy sitting next to you — but they don’t shush you when you ask a question.
…
You can search for content in the Music app on Apple TV by artist, album, or song title. With a little know-how, you can also turn Siri into your personal deejay.
…
While you may normally look to your smartphone for your weather predictions, Siri can be just as helpful about the conditions around the world as your local weatherman or app. All you have to do is ask.

From DSC:
Following this trajectory out a bit into the future — and in light of significant developments that continue to occur with artificial intelligence, the development and use of algorithms, the potential use of web-based learner profiles (think LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com, MOOCs, the use of nanodegrees), second screen-based apps, and the like — one has to wonder:

“What are the ramifications of this for learning-related applications?!”

5-minute film festival: Resources for filmmaking in the classroom [Borovoy]

On 02/22/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, collaboration, communications, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, using teams, by Daniel Christian

5-minute film festival: Resources for filmmaking in the classroom — from edutopia.org by Amy Erin Borovoy

Excerpt:

I’ll admit I’m a bit biased here since I’m a filmmaker by trade, but I truly believe the process of planning and making videos can offer tremendous learning opportunities for students of almost any age. Not only is the idea of telling stories with video really engaging for many kids, filmmaking is ripe with opportunities to connect to almost every academic subject area. As the technology to shoot and edit films becomes more ubiquitous, where is a teacher with no experience in video production to begin? I’ve shared some resources below to help you and your students get started on making blockbusters of your own.

A smorgasboard of resources re: “clickers” / student response systems [Christian]

On 02/08/2016, in adjunct faculty, assessment, attention, communications, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, higher education, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, participation, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

Personal Response Systems and Student Engagement — from er.educause.edu by Stephanie Blackmon

Key Takeaways (the professor used Poll Everywhere)

A professor who wanted a mechanism for students to share their learning experiences, particularly a tool with the potential for anonymized feedback, implemented a mobile personal response system to accomplish that goal.
This article explains how the Poll Everywhere system helped the professor gauge students’ experiences in her course and consequently adjust aspects of the course based on students’ learning needs.
Practical uses for a mobile personal response system in a face-to-face course can spur further ideas for their effective use in synchronous and asynchronous online courses and other online environments.

…
Practical Online-Course Uses
Specific practical uses for a mobile personal response system in synchronous and asynchronous online courses can spur other ideas for their effective use. Some immediately practical uses include:

Poll students at the end of a lesson to assess student learning and adjust the remainder of the class time based on their responses (synchronous courses)
Use polls to quiz students on course material (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Use polls for early course activities to get to know students and allow them to get to know each other (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Imbed polls in course presentations to get just-in-time responses from students about course material during the presentation (synchronous courses)

From DSC:
A polling/student response system can be a solid tool in your toolbox, especially if you are teaching in an active learning environment.

Stephanie Blackmon, in the article above, mentioned that she was using Poll Everywhere:

Professor Derek Bruff also uses Poll Everywhere and has some solid thoughts re: clickers out at his website:

In fact, Derek was presenting last year at Vanderbilt University, during a Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. He effectively used Poll Everywhere’s clickable image question type in the session that I attended:

While not an exhaustive list, below are some other tools to consider in this space:

Turning Technologies

iclicker

Top Hat

Mentimeter.com

Socrative

Via Response

Microsoft Pulse

Survey Monkey

From Campus Technology 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards (09/30/15):

Student Response Systems and Classroom Clickers
Faculty members want to know whether their students are paying attention in class, and student response systems provide a simple way to know whether that’s happening. i>clicker, grabbing first place, introduced REEF Polling in April 2015, a free app for instructors that can be set up in two minutes, according to the company, and can allow dynamic polling sessions with any presentation application without having to import content first. Students subscribe to a paid version of REEF Polling to use with their smart devices to answer questions and show the instructor whether lessons have stuck or not. Runner-up Turning Technologies sells software and response devices for polling in the classroom (TurningPoint) and remote locations (RemotePoll). Third-place finisher Poll Everywhere’s higher ed plan offers an app that’s free for up to 40 responses per poll.

Platinum: i>clicker

Gold: Turning Technologies

Silver: Poll Everywhere

Addendum on 2/9/16:

The i>clicker: A decade later — from dailyillini.com/

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Nelson said there are many ways of effectively utilizing the i>clicker in classes: to facilitate discussion; to test preexisting knowledge; to ask anonymous questions; or to quiz students on the material taught, where instructors can give points to correct answers or simply to student participation.

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13^th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

[Re: micro-learning] Could this same concept be used inside of schools, colleges, U’s, and/or businesses? Instant Communities of Practice. [Christian]

On 01/25/2016, in business, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, microlearning, platforms, social learning / networks, tools, training / L&D, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From their website:

For Events & Conferences
Much more than a conference app, E-180 works with your team to transform your event into a peer-learning community, using both our matchmaking technology and the onsite presence of our professional matchmakers. Nothing is left to chance, ensuring that your attendees meet and share knowledge with the right people.

Collaborative classrooms mark wave of the future in higher ed — from educationdive.com by Tara García Mathewson
Student-centered models turn instructors into guides as students investigate for themselves

Excerpts:

The designs put students at the center of instruction, shifting the faculty role to one of tutor or guide.

“This changes the whole way we teach,” Benavides said.
…
Some colleges and universities are designing these spaces in new, modern buildings, while others are remodeling existing classrooms and making them work for this next generation of teaching and learning.

From DSC:
This sort of change may be uncomfortable to students and to faculty members alike. However, to shift the ownership of the learning to the student is a positive move. Why? Because we all need to be lifelong learners now. The learning rests with each one of us now, or we could be broadsided and have a very difficult time getting back up. So to come out of college knowing how to learn…that’s a huge plus in my mind.

Also see:

Learning Spaces Collaboratory

What do we want our learners to become?
What kind of learning experiences enable that becoming?
What kind of learning spaces enable such experiences?
How do we know?

Blogging in the classroom: How to get started [Banner]

On 01/20/2016, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, collaboration, communications, digital learning, education technology, ideas, K-12 related, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

Blogging in the classroom: How to get started — from onblastblog.com by Matt Banner

Excerpt:

Here’s what we’ll discuss today:

Ways to bring blogging into your classroom and daily lesson plans
The litany of benefits blogging brings to education
Deciding the purpose and goals of your blog
Setting up your classroom’s blog
Easy ways to promote and grow your classroom blog

…
Blogging about a subject turns novices into experts.
There’s no other choice. When you write thousands upon thousands of words about something, doing research all the while, you become an expert in that subject. It’s unavoidable, and possibly the best way to learn in my opinion. Instead of having the information fed to them, students are taking it and putting it down on paper in their own words.

They live the information instead of simply seeing it. This is huge in terms of learning something for the long-term. Hands-on experience will always leave more of a lasting impression than something that is simply boiled down to a few questions on a test.

Michelle Lampinen, a high school English teacher in New Jersey wrote a great article on this here.

Also see:
How blogging is being used in the classroom today: Research results — from emergingtech.com by Mike Wallagher

Excerpt:

The 2015 survey has yet to be reported on, but 2014 research findings have something to say about the state of blogging in the classroom today.

Benefits of Blogging in the Classroom
Blogging in the classroom can have numerous benefits depending on how you use your blog. Just some include that:

Instructors can create a blog about class happenings so parents can stay up-to-date and students can access announcements from anywhere
Teachers can use their blogs to store lessons online or provide supplemental learning materials to students
Instructors can use blogs to organize assignments, such as posting them online for absent students or listing due dates so all students have access to the course materials from anywhere
Teachers can post previous students’ work as examples or publish current students’ work so they can show parents and family who live far away
Educators can open the comment sections on blog posts to get feedback from parents and the community as well as to create discussion between students
Student blogs teach children about writing techniques, online publishing, and proper Internet etiquette, which most students will use in future careers

How Blogs Are Being Used
“Blogging in the classroom” may bring up this idea that there’s one way to present blogging to your students, but there are a myriad of ways educators can use blogs. Just some options include:

Personal blogs for teachers
Student blogs
ePortfolios
Platforms for assignments, homework, and announcements
Classroom blogs for collaboration and discussion

From DSC:
Whether your school, university, or college has a web hosting service or whether you need to go out and find a web hosting service yourself — or use a free service/solution — blogging is a great way to create streams of content and to “think out loud.” It offers benefits for students, teachers, professors, staff, and administrators.

“Microlearning: The e-Learning method taking off around the world” [Knowles]; also, podcasting for professors

On 01/16/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, Asia, Australia, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Canada, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, educational games / serious games, elearning, Europe, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, India, learning ecosystem, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, online learning, podcasting, social media, streams of content, teachers, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Microlearning: The e-Learning method taking off around the world — from educators.co.nz by Catherine Knowles

Excerpt:

Technology is disrupting traditional learning bringing new methods and tools into educational institutions and businesses.

Microlearning, for instance, has displayed great potential for growth, according to Association Learning + Technology 2016 – a report published by Tagoras and sponsored by YM Learning.

The report looks at the use of technology to enable and enhance learning in the continuing education and professional development market and provides insight into how the role technology plays in learning has and will evolve.

In fact, among five emerging types of learning (microlearning, massive open online courses (MOOCs), flipped classes, gamified learning, and microcredentials), microlearning shows the highest rate of adoption – and arguably the greatest potential for growth.

Podcasting is perfect for people with big ideas. Here’s how to do it — from by Todd Landman
Surprisingly few academics have learned how to podcast – but it’s a great way to reach a wider audience

Excerpt:

In the face of conflict in the Middle East, the flow of refugees to Europe and the violence associated with Islamic State and other militants, there has never been a more important time to talk about human rights. And talk about them is what I do – not in a lecture hall or at conferences with academics, but in a podcast series. Let me explain why.

I have worked as a political scientist for 25 years, focusing on human rights problems such as the struggle for citizenship rights in Latin America and the relationship between inequality and human rights violations.

I am part of a wide network of people dedicated to producing sound evidence on human rights, and my work has been communicated through articles, books and reports. But I am limited in my ability to reach the people I would most like to engage and influence – those who do not have an academic understanding of human rights but might benefit from finding out about it.

There is a new breed of academic who understands this and is committed to bridging the gap between academia and the real world. Many blog, actively seek media coverage of their research and appear on radio and television to shed light on the issues of the day.

From DSC:
Some of the tools that Landman mentioned were:

Skype and ecamm Skype Call Recorder:

A MacBook Pro and its free audio editing software GarageBand (for Mac OS X and for iOS)
A lapel mic used with his iPhone

Some other tools to consider:

From DSC:
The above articles point to the idea — and the need — of creating “streams of content” — something that I wish more professors, teachers, staff, administrators, trainers, and instructional designers would create. Blogs, podcasts, and the use of Twitter come to my mind. Such channels could really help build others’ learning ecosystems.

Many professors and academics — folks who have so much information to share with the world — often produce works just for other academics in their discipline to review/check out. Such bubbles don’t have the impact that would occur if professors created streams of content for members of society to check out and learn from. Such mechanisms would also hopefully strip away some of the more academic sounding language and would get to the point.

Also see:

E-commerce, m-commerce…now how about “a-commerce?” #AugmentedReality

On 01/16/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, communications, computer science, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, future, global / globalization, Google, ideas, innovation, programming, society, technologies for your home, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

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.

…

Learning Ecosystems

Will more institutions of higher education join something like the new “University Learning Store?”

Microsoft’s Holoportation: When combined with mixed reality displays, you can see, hear, & interact with remote participants in 3D

“How the ‘Internet of Things’ will affect the world” plus 3 other items re: the Internet of Things

My notes from last week’s “Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference” [Christian]

E-commerce, m-commerce…now how about “a-commerce?” #AugmentedReality

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