communications

Reinventing libraries for ‘hanging out, messing around and geeking out’ — from CNN.com by Emanuella Grinberg

Excerpt:

The staff takes special pride in its mentor-led activities, offered in partnerships with various community organizations: a spoken word workshop, a video game program and a makerspace, or workshop, where teens create birdcages, duct tape wallets and other art projects.

It might be a library, but for 18-year-old Alexis Woodward, the atmosphere is more like a “family reunion,” she said.

“It’s always packed until it closes. Everybody goes to the library after school,” said Woodward, who began participating in the spoken word program when she was 14.

Internet Trends 2014 — Mary Meeker [KPCB]

On 05/29/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Asia, business, Canada, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, data related items, disruption, emerging technologies, Europe, global / globalization, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, interactivity, internet, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, pace of change, platforms, smart/connected TV, social media, society, strategy, streams of content, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, television, trends, UK, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Example slides:

Creative, multinational typeface

On 05/17/2014, in communications, creativity, global / globalization, graphics, by Daniel Christian

Multinational Typeface — GSK Unit @Grey Singapore

Also see:

Where the Internet of Things could take society by 2025 — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla

Excerpt:

The Pew Research Center Internet Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center released the report on Wednesday, May 14, as part of an ongoing future of the Internet series inspired by the Web’s 25th anniversary. Eighty-three percent of these experts, which included education leaders, agreed that the Internet of Things would have “widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025.” The remaining 17 percent said it would not, and both camps elaborated on their answers in paragraph form.

Their explanations fall under six major points:

The Internet of Things and wearable computing will take major steps forward in the next 11 years.
Increased data from connected things will cause privacy concerns to come to the forefront and encourage the growth of profiling and targeting people, which will greatly inflame conflicts in various arenas.
Despite advancement in information interfaces, most people won’t be connecting their brains to the network.
Complicated, unintended consequences will arise.
A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network.
Relationships will change depending on people’s response to the Internet of Things.

From DSC:
As with most technologies, there will be positives and negatives about the Internet of Things. To me, the technologies are tools — neutral, not value-laden — and it’s how we use them that adds moral, political, legal, ethical, or social perspectives/elements to them. With that said, I’m quite sure that the IoT will have unintended consequences (#4 above). Also, item #5 — “A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network” — is especially troublesome to me, along with the topic of privacy concerns as mentioned in #2.

From DSC:
Last spring, I saw the following graphic from Sparks & Honey’s presentation entitled, “8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity“:

If today’s changes are truly exponential — and I agree with Sparks & Honey that they are, especially as they relate to technological changes — how soon will it be before each of us is interacting with a robot?

This is not an idle idea or question, nor is it a joke. It will be here sooner than most of us think! The science fiction of the past is here (at least in part). Some recent items I’ve run across come to my mind, such as:

Hitachi’s EMIEW Robot Learns to Navigate Around the Office — from spectrum.ieee.org by Jason Falconer

Photo: Hitachi

Excerpt:

Now EMIEW 2 still relies on maps of its surroundings, but its navigation software has a new feature: It uses designated zones that make the robot change its speed and direction.

iRpobot Ava 500

Excerpt:

Ava 500 enables this new dimension in telepresence with:

autonomous navigation and mobility – remote users simply specify a destination and the robot automatically navigates to the desired location without any human intervention.
standards-based videoconferencing – built-in Cisco Telepresence® solutions deliver enterprise-class security and reliability.
an easy-to-use client application – an iPad mini™ tablet enables remote users to schedule and control the robot.
scheduling and management -seamlessly handled through an iRobot managed cloud service.

Also see:

Chinese city aims to have 80% of production done by Robots by 2020 — from robohub.org
Robohub Digest March 2014 — — from robohub.org
With Farm Robotics, the Cows Decide When It’s Milking Time — from the New York Times by Jesse McKinley

What educationally-related affordances might we enjoy from these TV-related developments?

On 04/09/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, e-books, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, lifelong learning, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

CONTENTS

Content discovery and synchronization
With access to rich data about their subscribers and what they do, operators can improve recommendation, encourage social TV and exploit second screen synchronization.
Recordings get more personal
One of the next big steps in multiscreen TV is giving people access to their personal recordings on every screen. This is the moment for nPVR to finally make its entrance.
Evolving the User Experience
As service providers go beyond household level and address individuals, the role of log-ins or context will become important. There is a place for social TV and big data.
The role of audio in personalization
Audio has a huge impact on how much we enjoy video services. Now it can help to personalize them. ‘Allegiance’ based audio choices are one possibility.
Making advertising more targeted
Addressable advertising is in its infancy but has a bright future, helping to fund the growth of on-demand and multiscreen viewing.

Some excerpts from this report:

Good content should be matched by good content discovery , including recommendations. The current state-of -the-art is defined by Netflix.

…

Today’s TV experience is worlds apart from the one we were talking about even five years ago. We’ve witnessed exponential growth in services such as HD and have moved from a model in which one screen is watched by many, to many screens (and devices) being available to the individual viewer, what is today called TV Everywhere. Having multiscreen access to content is driving the demand for a more personalised experience, in which the viewer can expect to see what they want, where, and when. While video on-demand (VOD) has been a great method for delivering compelling content to viewers, it is not always a truly seamless TV-like experience, and traditionally has been limited to the living room. The growing demand for the personalised experience is driving seismic change within the TV industry, and we’ve seen great strides made already, with time-shifted TV and nPVR as just two examples of how we in the industry can deliver content in the ways viewers want to watch. The next step is to move towards more advanced content discovery, effectively creating a personalised channel or playlist for the individual user.

…

As the tools become available to deliver personalized experiences to consumers, content owners can better create experiences that leverage their content. For example, for sports with multiple points of action, like motor racing, multiple camera angles and audio feeds will allow fans to follow the action that is relevant to their favourite racing team. And for movies, access to additional elements such as director’s commentaries, which have been available on Blu-ray discs for some time, can be made available over broadcast networks.

From DSC:
Some words and phrases that come to my mind:

Personalization.
Data driven.
Content discovery and recommendation engines (which could easily relate to educational playlists)
Training on demand
Learning agents
Web-based learner profiles
Learning hubs
What MOOCs morph into
More choice. More control.
Virtual tutoring
Interactivity and participation
Learning preferences
Lifelong learning
Reinventing oneself
Streams of content
Learning from The Living [Class] Room

Ten programs to help your child become more entrepreneurial (Johne)

On 03/19/2014, in business, Canada, career development, communications, entrepreneurship, innovation, student-related, United States, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Ten programs to help your child become more entrepreneurial — from Marjo Johne

Excerpt:

You’re never too young to learn the lessons of entrepreneurship. Education and business leaders say that even kids who don’t aspire to run their own business will have a competitive edge later in life if they’re armed with entrepreneurial skills such as innovative thinking, financial literacy and effective communication.

So where can kids today pick up these valuable skills? Here’s our list of top 10 entrepreneurship programs for young Canadians, from kindergarten tots to high school teens.

From DSC:
Though the target audience here is Canadians, the topic applies to most every nation in the world. Today’s youth will need to be able to pivot, to change on a dime, to freelance. In fact, Intuit’s 2020 study shows that within the U.S., the workforce will be 40%+ contingent workers by 2020.

Another workforce related item:

New Problems, New Approaches: The Rise of the Generalist — from innovationexcellence.com by Reuven Gorsht
Excerpt:
Almost every company as we know it has specialist organizations to support its business priorities. Organizations such as Finance, HR, IT and Marketing have been in existence for as long as we can remember. In most companies, domain expertise, efficiency and process execution dominate the agenda for these organizations. You get hired, promoted and measured based on your expertise and value-add in your particular specialization. This is all good, but what happens when the organization needs to solve a big hairy problem or launches a new business model that requires all-hands on deck? While some companies have been successful in bringing together cross-functional teams to work together towards a common goal, the teams often have limited perspective and the lack of the capability to connect the dots. The result: problems are not getting fixed.

Speeding up on curves — from educause.edu by Bradley Wheeler

Excerpt:

Higher education faces a number of important curves, but I’ll focus first on just two:

The finance of higher education is increasingly moving from a public to a private good, leading to increasing cost and price pressures (particularly for state-supported institutions).
The increasing digitization of education and research favors greater scale while it also enables potential new substitutes for colleges and universities.

Also see:

Pa. considers letting universities leave state system — from educationdive.com by Keith Button
Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow certain universities to buy their way out of the state system over time.

Bringing the Wonder of the Web to Video (emphasis DSC)
Our mission is to usher in a new age of expression.

Anyone can easily create professional-quality videos combined with all the interactivity you expect to find inside a browser. We call these TouchCasts, a new medium that looks like video, but feels like the web.

— Per TouchCast.com

TouchCast in Education

Also see:

Engaging with the YouTube Generation — by Ayelet Segal
.
The Future of Personal Broadcasting: Consider this your invitation — from touchcast.com by Charley Miller

Excerpt:

The very idea of who a “broadcaster” is (the “we”) is about to change. It’s about to become you.

What Twitter can do for you and how you might use it in the classroom

On 03/01/2014, in collaboration, communications, communities of practice, education technology, ideas, social learning / networks, social media, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Where would I be without Twitter? — from dontwasteyourtime.co.uk by David Hopkins

Excerpt:

For me [David] Twitter has …

been somewhere I could share my thoughts and reflections, from this blog, to a wider audience.
resulted in invitations to present at UK and European conferences.
opened my eyes to critical thinking and reflection through examples and the work that other people share through Twitter.
enabled real time help and support when tech failed me (or I could help someone else who had had their tech fail them).
made some real and valuable friends that started off as 140 character online conversations and has matured and grown through face-to-face contact at events and conferences.
helped me focus and concentrate on what is professionally important – here I’m thinking about implication and application of an ‘appropriate’ technological implementation, making sure it’s something that will add value or increase efficiency rather than the “ooh, it’s shiny and new” approach.

Also see David’s:

Tweetchat for Org-learning — from sundertrg.tumblr.com

Excerpt:

Tweet-chats are fairly popular in the twitter world and if you’re an active Twitter user, you may have heard of or participated in a tweet chat event. These are live discussions that take place on Twitter about a pre-determined theme. The idea is to get perspectives from a cross section of audience.

22 Effective Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom — from edudemic.com by Jeff Dunn

Classroom tech: UD faculty use Twitter to enhance classroom experience — from udel.edu

Excerpts:

“It’s a good way to source material for classroom discussions”
…search for, follow, or post messages about a specific topic or interest.
…creating news feeds with links to news articles.
…create a laundry list of articles for them.”
Pictures can also be tweeted when encountering relevant marketing situations while shopping.
The articles and topics raised in Twitter then become part of their in-class discussions.

Addendum on 3/4/14:

5 Great Twitter Chats for Educators — from powerupwhatworks.org by Alise Brann
Excerpt:
Check out the links below to read blog posts on how to use Twitter:

Addendums on 3/5/14:

Social Learning – An explanation using Twitter — an updated presentation from Jane Hart
.
10 Social Media Tips for Reaching World Language Learners — from edutopia.org
Bring world languages to life with tools to help students create, connect, and collaborate.
.
The Big List of Social-Media Resources — from edutopia.org
Discover how to create social-media guidelines, deepen student engagement, and expand your professional learning network (PLN) in this curated list.

Reflections on “TVs are becoming the next app battleground” [Adler]

On 03/01/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, Bring your own device (BYOD), changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, convergence, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, global / globalization, India, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, media/film, mobile learning, mobile technologies, 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, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, television, by Daniel Christian

TVs are becoming the next app battleground — from by Emily Adler

Excerpt:

The app store phenomenon, centered on smartphones and tablets, has been the biggest story in software for the past five years.

Its next logical destination: the living room, via smart TVs and set-top boxes connected to the Internet.

…

The smart TV app revolution is inevitable: People spend four hours in front of their TVs in the U.S., and 63% of all global ad spending goes to TVs. The old guard, represented by cable and entertainment conglomerates, will not be able to fend off improvements like those that apps are bringing to mobile phones.
.
The smart TV revolution will not just be led by new TVs with built-in Internet connections, it will also result from consumer adoption of less expensive game consoles or set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, which transform traditional TVs into smart TVs with access to app stores. At least 20% of U.S. consumers already have their TVs connected in one of these ways.

From DSC:

Keep an eye on the convergence of the telephone, the television, and the computer.
.
Start thinking of ways that you could provide learning/educationally-based experiences with second screen apps. What would that experience look and act like?
.
If such “channels” come to fruition — and happen to coincide with MOOCs and advances in cognitive computing (such as IBM’s Watson) — the word disruption comes to mind.
.
The trick, then, will be to offer streams of content that are relevant, and up-to-date.
.
Such a platform could be used in learning hubs throughout the world, as well as in hybrid/blended classrooms — while also addressing lifelong learners from their living rooms.
.
Such a platform could take Communities of Practice to an entirely new level.

Addendum/also see:

How could the new site pairing technology from Rapt Media be used in educationally-related apps?

On 02/13/2014, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, communications, convergence, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, interactivity, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, marketing/social marketing, transmedia, trends, vendors, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that our patent-pending Site Pairing technology is officially out of beta and into the hands of creatives, marketers, brands, and agencies. Our new Site Pairing technology, which creates a link between your video and your website, allows your creative or content team to quickly and easily build a scalable Interactive Video (IV) framework that enables communication between your videos and your website.

“Online Videos have traditionally been dead ends to brands and marketers,” said Erika Trautman, CEO and co-founder of Rapt Media. “Viewers can’t navigate from them, and often leave a site altogether if the content isn’t exactly what they’re looking for.”

…

Taking a step back, we see that the website and its embedded media are having a true conversation. “There is nothing that you’ve come to expect on a website, that we can’t duplicate in a video,” said Trautman. “And now the two are talking.”

The connected TV landscape: Why smart TVs and streaming gadgets are conquering the living room

On 02/07/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, experimentation, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, 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, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

The connected TV landscape: Why smart TVs and streaming gadgets are conquering the living room — from businessinsider.com.au by Mark Hoelzel

In the connected TV world, an app is analogous to a TV channel.

Some key points:

In total, there will be more than 759 million televisions connected to the Internet worldwide by 2018, more than doubling from 307.4 million at year-end 2013.
Globally, shipments of smart TVs will reach a tipping point in 2015, when they will overtake shipments of traditional TVs.
Two tendencies dominate the connected TV ecosystem: closed and open approaches.
Despite platform fragmentation, HTML5 offers at least a faint hope for increased unification between connected TVs, just as it does on mobile.
How will developers and operating system operators monetise smart TV apps? Media downloads, subscriptions and — to a much lesser degree — advertisements will drive the dollars. Smart TV platform operators have begun experimenting with ads.

From DSC:
If in a connected TV world, an app is analogous to a TV channel…then I say let’s bring on the educationally-related, interactive, multimedia-based apps!

HarperCollins, Google’s Niantic Labs, 20th Century Fox collaborate w/ bestselling author on next gen cross-media project, Endgame — from corporate.harpercollins.com, w/ thanks to @myweb2learn for the resource

Excerpt of Press Release (emphasis DSC):

ENDGAME is a fully integrated, multimedia experience that will combine a trilogy of young adult novels, fifteen original e-book novellas, YouTube videos, search and image results, mapping coordinates, social media, and interactive gaming in one revolutionary creative project. Each book in the ENDGAME trilogy will feature an interactive puzzle comprised of clues and riddles throughout the text.

…

“We are excited to work with James Frey and Full Fathom Five on this groundbreaking series,” said Brian Murray, President and CEO, HarperCollins Publishers. “This is a spectacular story that embodies the future of publishing—great content, interactivity and a multimedia experience.”

…

Google’s Niantic Labs is developing a location-based augmented reality game that will bring ENDGAME to life in the real world. The game builds on the success of “Ingress,” which defined a new category of entertainment that marries video games with the physical world. The mobile experience will allow players around the world to join in the battle to unlock the mysteries and secrets of ENDGAME. Google Niantic will also be publishing six ENDGAME novellas exclusively at the Google Play store. The game is expected to launch on Android and iOS devices in late 2014.

“James has a great vision for telling stories in an integrated way across books, film, social media, and mobile games,” John Hanke, VP of Product, Niantic Labs at Google, said. “We are delighted to bring our technology and expertise to bear on a project that is helping to define the future of entertainment.”

From DSC:
If successful, I’d love to see some applications of this sort of experiment applied towards education/learning — i.e. towards K-12, higher ed, and the corporate training/L&D departments. The experiment emphasizes where I think successful learning is also going — towards the use of TEAM-based content creation and delivery.

Deeper Learning 101 MOOC

On 01/03/2014, in 21st century, collaboration, communications, creativity, education reform, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning theories, maker movement, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, online learning, professional development, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I originally saw this via a Scoop from Jim Lerman who pointed out the article:

Diving Into ‘Deeper Learning’ with High Tech High’s MOOC
One school network takes charge, offering a glimpse into innovate school models

Excerpt:

It combines the principles behind project-based learning, inquiry-based learning and Maker activities to give students more agency through collaboration, communicating, and thinking critically.

HTH Chief Academic Officer Ben Daley says, “Shallow learning is about racing to the textbook, trying to cover all the topics before the year rolls to an end. Deeper learning is about covering a smaller number of topics in a greater depth, making things, and presenting to a real audience.”

Over the course of nine weeks, the MOOC will offer a glimpse into how Deeper Learning is applied in schools like Expeditionary Learning, Big Picture Learning, Envision, and of course, High Tech High. Activities will include looking at student work from these schools, experiencing a “protocol” where teachers use a structured framework to guide a conversation, and a final project that will ask participants to design and implement their own deeper learning activity.

From DSC:
In briefly reviewing this endeavor, what I appreciated about these efforts was:

Giving more agency to the students — I took this to mean, “More choice. More control.” It seems to encourage student voice.
It encourages self-directed learning, something we all will need in our lifetimes — but does so in combination with other forms of learning that involve collaboration and communication (two other skills we all need)
It seems to have been a team-based approach – something I think will often be required to be successful in the future
The active, well-thought through experimentation going on; putting learning theories into practice in new ways that will hopefully connect with learners more and engage them at deeper levels

Also, slightly-related items 🙂

Standardized Achievement Tests: What Are They Good For? Hint: Not Cognitive Ability. — from blogs.scientificamerican.com by Scott Barry Kaufman
College course asks students to develop Google Glass apps as homework — from psfk.com by John Pugh

Learning Ecosystems

Creative, multinational typeface

The Internet of Things will thrive by 2025 [Pew Research; Anderson & Rainie]

“Higher education faces a number of important curves, but I’ll focus first on just two…” [Wheeler]

How could the new site pairing technology from Rapt Media be used in educationally-related apps?

The future of publishing? Applications for learning?

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