digital learning

The Hardware and Materials Innovations Enabling Consumer Augmented Reality [Roznyatovskiy]

On 08/17/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), digital learning, education technology, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, IT in HE, vision/possibilities, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

The Hardware and Materials Innovations Enabling Consumer Augmented Reality — from luxresearchinc.com by Vladimir Roznyatovskiy

Excerpt:

Consumer mass-market augmented reality (AR) products and applications could become a fourth wave of modern technological progress, following the PC and smartphone in transformative impact on nearly all aspects of life and business.

However, making widespread consumer AR a reality will require significant innovations in optical components, light engines, and cameras and sensors to reduce size and weight while improving performance. These advances will create significant opportunities for materials and hardware developers. It will be five years to seven years before these efforts translate into viable mass-market devices, but once they do, the opportunities for consumer insights and engagement will be tremendous and a significant source of competitive differentiation.

Returning to School: Why Video Is Here to Stay [Slusser]

On 08/13/2021, in digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education, education reform, education technology, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, pedagogy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Returning to School: Why Video Is Here to Stay — from gettingsmart.com by Jessica Slusser

Excerpt:

Here are a few reasons video can be powerful and a few ways to incorporate it into your lesson plans:

Agency. We know some learners built a deep sense of agency while learning from home. Through video, students can tell their story, use a different format than they’ve used before to explain work and build and share their own lessons with classmates. Imagine the power of flipped student presentations.
Flip Your Classroom. Utilize the power of video by recording some of your direct instruction plans for learners to watch as “homework” then spending class time diving into work and building understanding.
Enriched Station Rotation. Create differentiated videos for each of your small group stations so students can watch a video that you created and be working on different review activities in their different stations. This also helps build a library of content you can use in the future.
Built in Assessment. Educators can create videos that are embedded in a Google Form that serves as a quick assessment. If a student gets the answer wrong, they’re moved into a new branch of the form that has a video to help build understanding, then when finished they go back to the original question to reassess. Students can also respond to assessment questions or submit work.
Better than Red Ink. What if instead of writing a learner’s grade with short feedback on their next written assignment, you could record a quick 30-second video that explains your grade and give real-time feedback that is more robust than the traditional red pen.

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Mid-Year 2021 Edition [Hill]

On 08/11/2021, in Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, education technology, higher education, instructional design, online learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Mid-Year 2021 Edition — from philonedtech.com by Phil Hill

Top 10 Free Coding Resources for Students — from gocoderz.com

Excerpt:

With computer science and technology being such a crucial part of student’s future success, it’s important that every student receives equitable access to programs and resources that can help them build their coding and programming knowledge early on. Exposure to coding resources increases student interest in computer science and technology careers and provides them with foundational knowledge that they can improve and refine as their education progresses to be successful in these future professions.

There’s a New Wave of AI Research Coming to Transform Education [Tamez-Robledo]

On 08/08/2021, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, digital learning, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, online learning, personalized/customized learning, reinvent, research, society, staying relevant, story, storytelling, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, United States, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

There’s a New Wave of AI Research Coming to Transform Education — from edsurge.com by Nadia Tamez-Robledo

Preparing for Students’ Second Act
With a focus on adult learners, the AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education, or ALOE, will look to improve online education for the more than 100 million American workers who will need to “reskill” over the next 10 years.

It will also learn from the massive amounts of data generated by online students that isn’t accessible in traditional in-person classes.

Fintropolis is an educational Minecraft world that teaching middle schoolers finance — from pixelkin.org

Excerpt:

Two years ago, Ally Financial, a financial services company, hired four interns from Historically Black Colleges and Universities through their Moguls in the Making program to promote financial literacy in younger students. The four college students, Erin Martin (Alabama A&M), Earl Perry and Keishon Smith (Florida A&M), and DeMari Tyner (North Carolina A&T) designed Fintropolis, a world in Minecraft, available now for free in Minecraft and Minecraft: Education Edition.

Also see:

Tools for Building Branching Scenarios [Tucker]

On 08/06/2021, in animation, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, elearning, Google, interactivity, interface design, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, simulations, tools, training / L&D, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Tools for Building Branching Scenarios — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
When would you use Twine, Storyline, Rise, or other tools for building branching scenarios? It depends on the project and goals.

Excerpt:

When would you use Twine instead of Storyline or other tools for building branching scenarios? An attendee at one of my recent presentations asked me why I’d bother creating something in Twine rather than just storyboarding directly in Storyline, especially if I was using character images. Whether I would use Twine, Storyline, Rise, or something else depends on the project and the goals.

What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning? [Christian]

On 08/04/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, blended learning, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, professional development, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, UK, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

DC: What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning?https://t.co/beOXFjGZs9 #learningfromthelivingclassroom #education #K12 #highereducation #training #learning #lifelonglearning #globallearning #languages #translation https://t.co/TV5InkWHwn pic.twitter.com/MGblMzQbBL

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 4, 2021

From DSC:
For that matter, what does it open up for #JusticeTech? #Legaltech? #A2J? #Telehealth?

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

AI voice actors sound more human than ever —and they’re ready to hire— from technologyreview.com by Karen Hao
A new wave of startups are using deep learning to build synthetic voice actors for digital assistants, video-game characters, and corporate videos.

Excerpt:

The company blog post drips with the enthusiasm of a ’90s US infomercial. WellSaid Labs describes what clients can expect from its “eight new digital voice actors!” Tobin is “energetic and insightful.” Paige is “poised and expressive.” Ava is “polished, self-assured, and professional.”

Each one is based on a real voice actor, whose likeness (with consent) has been preserved using AI. Companies can now license these voices to say whatever they need. They simply feed some text into the voice engine, and out will spool a crisp audio clip of a natural-sounding performance.
…
But the rise of hyperrealistic fake voices isn’t consequence-free. Human voice actors, in particular, have been left to wonder what this means for their livelihoods.

And below are a couple of somewhat related items:

Amazon’s latest voice interoperability move undermines Google — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers
With a new toolkit, Amazon is making it easier to build devices that run multiple voice assistants — weakening one of Google’s key arguments against licensing the Google Assistant for such scenarios.

People should be able to pick whatever assistant they prefer for any given task, simply by invoking different words, Rubenson said. “We think it’s critical that customers have choice and flexibility,” he said. “Each will have their own strengths and capabilities.”

Protocol Next Up — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers
Defining the future of tech and entertainment with Janko Roettgers.

Voice is becoming a true developer ecosystem. Amazon now has more than 900,000 registered Alexa developers, who collectively have built over 130,000 Alexa skills. And those skills are starting to show up in more and more places: “We now have hundreds of physical products” with Alexa built in, Alexa Voice Service & Alexa Skills VP Aaron Rubenson told me this week.

Flipping Higher Ed | FAQs with Eric Mazur and Robyn Brinks Lockwood [BAM Radio Network]

On 07/23/2021, in 24x7x365 access, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, education technology, experimentation, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Flipping Higher Ed | FAQs with Eric Mazur and Robyn Brinks Lockwood — from BAM Radio Network

Description:

The COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education faculty around the world to stop and rethink how to teach their courses. For many, this was the first time they had given any serious thought to the science and art of teaching. The pandemic created a new universe of educators who are new to Flipped Learning and want to learn more about how to do it well. In each episode of this podcast, Eric Mazur and Robyn Brinks Lockwood answer a frequently asked question about flipping instruction in higher education.

Reimagining Education: What to Keep/What to Ditch — from techlearning.com by Matthew X. Joseph
When reimagining education, the focus needs to be on finding and keeping the best learning practices

We have a unique opportunity to look at programmatic and philosophical shifts to promote energetic and curious learners.

So this is what my new Streaming TV studio looks like – I call it ‘Keynote Television’ [Leonhard]

On 07/14/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, art, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, multimedia, online learning, online media, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

So this is what my new Streaming TV studio looks like – I call it ‘Keynote Television’ — from futuristgerd.com by Gerd Leonhard

Excerpt:

Many of you have asked me how I do my online keynotes, specifically my green screens, lights, virtual backgrounds etc. So here are some pictures and below is a short video from Twitter but the bottom line is… it’s complicated and took me some 6 months to learn it all:)). But well worth it: Keynote Television rocks!

From DSC:
I was one of those people who asked Gerd if he would tell teachers, professors, trainers, IDs, and others how he does what he does. Thanks Gerd for sharing this information! May it be a blessing to many!

Best Document Cameras for Teachers [Edwards]

On 07/14/2021, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, faculty, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), Hyflex learning, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, remote teaching and learning, STEAM-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, writing, by Daniel Christian

Best Document Cameras for Teachers — from echlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the ultimate document camera for classroom use and beyond with this guide

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination

On 07/01/2021, in 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, online media, platforms, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination — from transformingdigitaleducation.com

2U to acquire substantially all edX assets, including edX brand, website, and marketplace
Together, 2U and edX will reach over 50 million learners, serve more than 230 partners, and offer over 3,500 digital programs on the world’s most comprehensive free-to-degree online education marketplace
Proceeds of the transaction will go to a nonprofit led by Harvard and MIT focused on transforming educational outcomes, tackling learning inequities

Other items related to this:

Is the edX Acquisition a Big Deal? — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein
2U to acquire edX for $800M — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
2U Buys edX for $800M, In Surprise End to Nonprofit MOOC Provider Started by MIT and Harvard — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Learning Ecosystems

The Hardware and Materials Innovations Enabling Consumer Augmented Reality [Roznyatovskiy]

Tools for Building Branching Scenarios [Tucker]

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination

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