Daniel S. Christian

Some fun ideas to foster creativity, artistry, design, developing multimedia and more!

On 07/30/2021, in animation, art, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, drama/theater, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education technology, educational games / serious games, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, liberal arts, love of learning, media/film, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online learning, online media, passions, pedagogy, play, presentations, project-based learning, reading, story, storytelling, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, tablets, teachers, tools, web-based collaboration, writing, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

Transforming the classroom with augmented learning — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch

Excerpt:

Forbes documented the many ways that augmented reality (AR) has come to life in recent years. They list several award-winning apps that use AR. A few are:

The “Gatwick Airport Passenger” App, which helps passengers navigate the airport;
The “Dulux Visualizer” App, which lets you virtually scan and paint your room any color you choose;
“Envisioned by the Mine” App, which lets you put 3D images of any type of accessory or furnishing in your home that Lowe’s offers;
“Sephora Virtual Artist”, which allows you to “put makeup on” without actually touching brush to face;
“Accuvein”, which doctors and nurses use to scan a patient’s vein network (it reduces escalations by 45%);
And, of course, there are apps like the “BIC DrawyBook App” just for fun.

But what about the classroom? Can we see a future in transforming the classroom with augmented learning?

From DSC:
Along the lines of developing creativity with edtech…

I saw another item recently about Book Creator, something that’s made this blog before. I love that type of tool because it promotes creativity, unleashes a student’s imagination, promotes their artwork and writing/storytelling and their musical or acting abilities, and it develops skills in design and developing multimedia-based artifacts. For teachers, it could be a nice project-based learning exercise.

I asked our youngest daughter if she would like to use it…we’ll see. You can get a free account that allows you to publish up to 40 books. (Plus there is pricing for schools and districts.)

And who knows…? This type of thing might just produce the next J.K. Rowling or a J.J. Abrams.

Book Creator -- check it out

DC: Should law schools be pulse-checking what’s happening with space travel?!

On 07/26/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, by Daniel Christian

Major Companies Are Expanding Into Space. We Need a New Space Treaty

DC: Is this a topic for law schools now!?! I hadn’t lumped this in with #emergingtechnologies such as #AI #AR #IoT #blockchain & more, but perhaps I should start doing that…? https://t.co/5Ex5WdTjq1

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) July 26, 2021

From Skill to Instinct: How Higher Education can Bridge the Gap Between Classroom and Career — from edtechreview.in by Stephen Soulunii

Excerpts:

Higher education has conventionally focused on providing quality education for its students. However, modern students are increasingly attending higher education, not for scholarly pursuits, but to increase their value in an intensely competitive job market.

From DSC:
Funny how that happens when the price of getting a degree has skyrocketed through the years — and then one sees one’s family members struggling with getting out from crushing loads of debt (a process that often can take decades to do).

There is a lot that could be said here, but looking at this article makes me see how misaligned things are these days. The learning objectives that would be put forth from the corporate world don’t match up with the learning objectives as put forth by professors.

No wonder there’s a major disconnect.

One last quote drives the point home — which swims against the current that many faculty members swim in:

65% of HR professionals believe teamwork and collaboration are the most foundational people skills – and 40% believe these skills are the most lacking in new hires.

Also relevant here, this is an excerpt of a piece sent to me by Christina Ioannou:

Skills Union offers accredited cohort-based, active learning courses in partnership with leading universities and employers. Their career-focused content ranges from software engineering and UX/UI design to growth marketing and digital entrepreneurship.

The company announced a US$1.5 million seed investment round, supporting its mission to bridge the global tech skills gap, through university accredited courses that meet the needs of the rapidly growing tech sector. The investment round was led by Online Education Services (OES), part of the Seek group of companies, with notable investors including KDV, Hustle Fund, Koh Boon Hwee, Siu Rui Quek, Ishreth Hassen, Sumardy Ma, Simin Zhou and Anvesh Ramineni.

DC: A nice stream of content –> WordGenius.com

On 07/19/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, education, education technology, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, vendors, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

DC: A nice stream of content: https://t.co/MDXUiJoz1w

I like their daily emails to help me w/ my vocabulary.#microlearning #spelling #writing #vocabulary #streamsofcontent #learning

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) July 19, 2021

Interesting…LearnWorlds: Create & sell online courses from your own website

On 07/12/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, online media, passions, platforms, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
While checking out an edition of innovation & tech today, the following sites caught me eye.

LearnWorlds looks intriguing to me. It will be interesting to see how teachers, professors, trainers, instructional designers, artists, coaches, and more make their living in the future. I’m pulse-checking the area of learning platforms and posting items re: it so that we can stay informed on these trends.

Also from LearnWorlds:

27 Best Online Learning Platforms

Also see:

Thinkific’s powerful, all-in-one platform makes it easy to share your knowledge, grow your audience, and scale the business you already love.

This excerpt re: Deloitte’s implementation of Cura reminds me of a cloud-based learner profile [Christian]

On 07/07/2021, in Blockchain, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, by Daniel Christian

Learning technology lessons from the front lines — from chieflearningofficer.com by Neda Schlictman
Deloitte’s accelerated rollout of its global LXP during the initial onslaught of the pandemic yielded many lessons for the organization. Following are insights for those who are seeking what’s next for their learning strategies.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

More than 330,000 people at Deloitte, across 170 countries, have access to Cura, which aggregates learning content from both internal and external sources and personalizes learning based on the user’s defined skills and interests. Cura enables individual discovery of learning but also allows users to follow prescribed pathways as well as the opportunity to create content.

A cloud-based learner profile may definitely be part of our future learning ecosystems!

Amazon — you need to listen up and shape up!

On 07/05/2021, in Amazon, business, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, engineering, geography / geology, health, society, UK, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amazon Contractors Are Revolting, Here Are Their Demands — from interestingengineering.com by Loukia Papadopoulos
Two major delivery partners announced they chose to shut down rather than keep sating Amazon’s draconian demands.

Excerpt:

The firms essentially offered Amazon an ultimatum to either agree to a set of conditions that they said would improve driver safety, or they would shut down — well, Amazon is their only client. Amazon refused, and the two companies actually followed through with their ultimatum.

From DSC:
Our son, who is college age, worked at an Amazon distribution center last summer. He is typically a healthy person. But his back and knees did not do well over the summer. After just a few weeks of having to meet an aggressive (and constant) quota of items being shipped, pains and issues started appearing. I don’t know how some of their employees keep up the pace that they are required to maintain…hour after hour after hour after hour…day after day, month after month.

Also see:

Amazon is destroying millions of unsold goods, from smart TVs to laptops — from fastcompany.com by Lucy Wishart
An Amazon warehouse exposé in the UK underscores a larger problem with how goods are treated as disposable.

Excerpt:

A recent undercover investigation in an Amazon warehouse in Dunfermline, Scotland, reported the disposal of more than 130,000 “new or lightly used” objects in a single week in just that one location. Public outrage was clear. Questions were asked about how Amazon could be so wasteful and why weren’t the usable objects sent to those in need?

Exclusive: Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, an ITV News investigation has uncovered.

Many of the products – including smart TVs and laptops – are often new and unused. https://t.co/OJjexB0YQd #AmazonWaste pic.twitter.com/UR7XrLWvIM

— ITV News (@itvnews) June 21, 2021

From the Book of Job

On 06/30/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, Emotion, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

From before the birth of Jesus Christ:

³²“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
    that we might confront each other in court.
³³If only there were someone to mediate between us,
    someone to bring us together,
³⁴someone to remove God’s rod from me,
    so that his terror would frighten me no more.
³⁵Then I would speak up without fear of him,
    but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

From DSC:
Jesus Christ IS that mediator. Thank you LORD!

Potential unfulfilled: COVID-19, the rapid adoption of online learning, and what could be unlocked this year — from christenseninstitute.org by Thomas Arnett

Excerpt:

The foundational tenets of conventional instruction hinge on uniformity and compliance. Schools and classrooms, by and large, need students to conform to a common set of requirements in order for cohort-based learning to work. Unfortunately, nearly all students struggle to one degree or another to fit conventional instruction’s norms.

For example, conventional instruction requires students to show up to school ready to learn at times dictated by the school schedule, but for some students, life gets in the way. Conventional instruction moves all students through content at a uniform pace, but not all students master content in the time allotted. And conventional instruction often obliges students to sit and work or sit and listen for large portions of the day, yet some students struggle to sit quietly for extended periods of time. Fortunately, online learning offers the ability to replace many of these systemic rigidities with greater adaptability to students’ needs.

From DSC:
The above excerpt brings the image (below) back to my mind. The image represents our educational systems’ ways of never stopping or slowing down for anyone. They leave the station at such and such a time and then they move at a very face pace for everyone. There’s no stopping them — regardless of whether a student has mastered the content or not.

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

No, it doesn’t need to be a Zoom — from wired.com by Chris Stokel-Walker
We’re wasting hours of our lives on inefficient video calls. Here’s how to decide when you should jump on a Zoom – and when not to

Excerpt:

Academic research has pinpointed four reasons why we’re growing sick of video calls. For one thing, we’re engaged in an unnaturally large amount of eye contact, which can prove exhausting, according to Jeremy Bailenson professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab. We’re also stressed out by being confronted with our own face for hours on end (even if you can’t stop staring at it). Bailenson compares it to be followed around with a mirror all day.

From DSC:
What comes to my mind here is that videoconferencing — and meeting in general — requires mental work — and thus energy. Why? Because, as I mentioned in this posting, we are constantly processing auditory and visual channels.

Transcript here.

From DSC:
So having to process auditory and visual information hour after hour takes major energy! And some presentations/presenters require a lot more energy than others.

Reflections on “Today’s Tech Jobs: Skills More Important Than Knowledge” [Yangame]

On 06/26/2021, in active learning, Daniel S. Christian, IBM, programming, project-based learning, by Daniel Christian

Today’s Tech Jobs: Skills More Important Than Knowledge — from rtinsights.com by Kwame Yangame; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource
New tech jobs require workers skilled in the use of technologies and able to handle the complexities and interconnectedness of today’s world.

What then is needed in terms of tech education?
The tech education that is needed, then, is formed on the basis of active learning, project-based learning, and learning by doing: science and researched-backed learning methods, the efficacy of which has been proven, and the result of which is true preparation for work in tech jobs in the 21st century. It’s clear that companies want skills and are moving towards skills-based hiring, so it’s well past time that education moves into real skills-based learning.

The classroom-type learning was designed for high schools and universities dating back to a point in time when the most advanced technology was the printing press – before the steam engine, penicillin, the telephone, the automobile, and the personal computer.

From DSC:
I remember teaching a class called the Foundations of Information Technology. This class filled a requirement for those who didn’t major in Computer Science or some other disciplines. So several students in the class didn’t really want to be there and didn’t like technology at all. I still remember hearing some students say, “After this class, I don’t see using technology again.” Or, “I don’t see technology as being a part of my future. I don’t like it.”

My thought then and now? Good luck with that.

With a thanks to Ryan for the following resource as well:

The high school-college hybrid that jumpstarts careers — from hechingerreport.org by
Ten years on, a network of early college high schools offers industry training, two degrees and a pathway to the middle class. Despite early stumbles, it is thriving

By bridging the gap between what high schools teach and industries need, P-TECH, initially a partnership among IBM, the New York City school system and City Tech, has opened doors for thousands of students in communities with high concentrations of poverty. Its 266 schools now operate in 12 U.S. states and 28 countries…

Two (more) items re: systemic issues that we need to address in the U.S.

On 06/22/2021, in 21st century, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, career development, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, culture, Daniel S. Christian, legal reform, society, sociology, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Black College Grads Borrow 35% More for a Public Education but Earn 22% Less Than Their Peers — from Kamaron McNair with thanks to Frankie Rendón for this resource

KEY FINDINGS

Census data shows that Black millennials with a Bachelor’s earn 22% less ($44,498 versus $56,731) on average than other degree-holding millennials.

Black millennials outpaced their peers in just three states — Oregon, Maine and Alaska. But only by an average of 2% — or roughly $1,200.
The earnings gap for recent graduates widened in more than half of U.S. states. From 2014 to 2019, the earnings gap for graduates widened in 28 states and the District of Columbia. The gap widened by more than 29 percentage points in Vermont, the most of any state.
The worst wage gap for Black millennials was in Montana, where Black bachelor’s degree graduates working full time earn 50.3% less on average than non-Black workers.
North Dakota recorded the smallest earnings gap at 2.7%. Here, Black millennial bachelor’s degree-holders earn just $1,400 less on average than non-Black earners.
Black students borrowed more in student loans than their fellow students. At four-year public schools, Black students and their families borrowed 35% more. Non-Black families contributed an average of $14,434 to their student’s education, more than double the $5,545 Black families contributed.

Also see:

Design is a particularly white profession. Depending on the poll, only 3% to 4.8% of designers are Black. But a powerful new collective of design companies is looking to change that.

DC: Good deal. Thanks @keesav for the resource.https://t.co/DkEFTGhTi4

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) June 21, 2021

Addendum on 6/23/21:

California judges don’t reflect the state’s diversity — how that could change — from calmatters.org by Byrhonda Lyons
Whites make up a little more than a third of California’s population but nearly two-thirds of its Superior Court judges. Advocates are devising ways to get more people of color into law and onto the bench.

A song our dad used to sing…accompanied by our mom.

On 06/19/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, hearts -- matters of the heart, music, relationships, writing, by Daniel Christian

A PERFECT DAY (1909)
Words and Music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946)

When you come to the end of a perfect day,
And you sit alone with your thought,
While the chimes ring out with a carol gay,
For the joy that the day has brought,
Do you think what the end of a perfect day
Can mean to tired heart,
When the sun goes down with a flaming ray,
And the dear hearts have to part?
Well, this is the end of a perfect day,
Near the end of a journey, too,
But it leaves a thought that is big and strong,
With a wish that is kind and true.
For mem’ry has painted this perfect day
With colors that never fade,
And we find at the end of a perfect day,
The soul of a friend we’ve made.

From DSC:
Here’s our dad’s version of it…which is nicely accompanied by our mom.

Doc Carter and our dad -- 1970

Some solid tools for working with multimedia on the Mac [Christian]

On 06/19/2021, in Adobe, Apple, blogs / blogging / vlogging, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, higher education, ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, media/film, microlearning, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, photography, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, tools, transmedia, vendors, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I put together a short listing of some solid tools for working with multimedia on the Mac. There are many more out there, but these should do the job(s) for you…especially Telestream’s ScreenFlow.

DC: I’m not too crazy about this drone swarm…

On 06/16/2021, in 21st century, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engineering, Europe, future, global / globalization, platforms, policy, political science, programming, robotics, society, the downsides of how people use tech, by Daniel Christian

Watch a Drone Swarm Fly Through a Fake Forest Without Crashing — from wired.com by Max Levy
Each copter doesn’t just track where the others are. It constantly predicts where they’ll go.

From DSC:
I’m not too crazy about this drone swarm…in fact, the more I thought about it, I find it quite alarming and nerve-racking. It doesn’t take much imagination to think what the militaries of the world are already doing with this kind of thing. And our son is now in the Marines. So forgive me if I’m a bit biased here…but I can’t help but wondering what the role/impact of foot soldiers will be in the next war? I hope we don’t have one.

Anway, just because we can…

Learning Ecosystems

DC: Should law schools be pulse-checking what’s happening with space travel?!

From Skill to Instinct: How Higher Education can Bridge the Gap Between Classroom & Career [Soulunii]

This excerpt re: Deloitte’s implementation of Cura reminds me of a cloud-based learner profile [Christian]

Amazon — you need to listen up and shape up!

From the Book of Job

Reflections on “No, it doesn’t need to be a Zoom” [Stokel-Walker]

Reflections on “Today’s Tech Jobs: Skills More Important Than Knowledge” [Yangame]

Two (more) items re: systemic issues that we need to address in the U.S.

A song our dad used to sing…accompanied by our mom.

DC: I’m not too crazy about this drone swarm…

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