digital learning

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.

7 fabulous iPad apps to create short animated lessons for your flipped classroom [educatorstechnology.com]

On 01/13/2014, in digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, elearning, flipping -- inverted learning, mobile learning, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

7 fabulous iPad apps to create short animated lessons for your flipped classroom — from educatorstechnology.com

Could this tech make life easier for teachers and pupils? — from cnbc.com by Anmar Frangoul

The year ahead: ten amazing science and technology innovations coming up in 2014 — from telegraph.co.uk by Paul Kendall and Chris Bell
From the world’s largest underground hotel to Star Wars-style holographic communication, the coming year is set to unveil an array of incredible advances in science and technology

Former Windows leader Steven Sinofsky presents 10 Mega Trends in Tech for 2014 — from businessinsider.com by Jay Yarow; via Graeme Codrington (@FuturistGraeme) and Laura Goodrich (@LauraGoodrich)

Top Technology Trends for 2014 — from computer.org
Excerpt:

Supporting New Learning Styles
Online courses demand seamless, ubiquitous approach.

These days, students from all corners of the world can sign up for online classes to study everything from computer science, digital signal processing, and machine learning to European history, psychology, and astronomy–and all for free. As interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to explode, there will be a corresponding need for technology to support these new learning systems and styles. Platforms such as Coursera, with more than 3 million users and 107 partners; and edX, a partnership between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University with 1.7 million users; are hosting classes with thousands of online enrollees each. And although lectures are still the mainstay of MOOCs, the classes require web forums, online meetups, and keystroke loggers to check identities, as well as powerful servers to handle the volumes. MOOCs and other new online classes are creating a demand for learning that is seamless—happening continuously via different technologies; ubiquitous—drawing from pervasive and embedded technologies; and contextual—drawing awareness from location-based and other sensor-based technologies.

5 Higher-Education Trends for 2014 — from theatlantic.com by Sophie Quinton
Expect an increased emphasis on teacher effectiveness, technical education, and more.

Headings include:

Earning College Credit for What You Know
Career and Technical Education
Student-Loan Outrage
Data-Privacy Concerns
Teacher Effectiveness

Special Report: 2014 Top Tech to Watch — from spectrum.ieee.org

NMC Horizon Report — 2014 Higher Education Preview

JWT’s 100 things to watch in 2014

IBM internal experts club together to offer 2014 predictions — from siliconangle.com by Bert Latamore

Headings include:

Analytics
Cloud
Mobile
Skills

2014 Technology Predictions Series: RadiumOne on Mobile — from siliconangle.com by Suzanne Kattau

Internet of Things may strangle enterprise bandwidth — from informationweek.comby Deepak Kumar
The Internet of Things is poised to bring a flood of WAN traffic and new Internet-enabled devices to enterprise WANs. Be sure your corporate network is ready for it.

7 things you should expect from your leaders in 2014 — from forbes.com by Glenn Llopis

10 Jobs for tomorrow that barely exist today (Infographic) — from jobmarketmonitor.com by Michel Cournoyer and Thomas Frey

Addendum on 1/4/14:

10 Competencies Students Need to Thrive in The Future — from educatorstechnology.com

The Internet of Things (IoT) in the classroom [Christian]

On 12/16/2013, in blended learning, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, technology (general), tools, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First some recent/relevant postings:

IFTTT’s ingenious new feature: Controlling apps with your location — from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert

An update to the IFTTT app lets you use your location in recipes. Image: IFTTT

Excerpt:

IFTTT stands athwart history. At a point where the software world is obsessed with finding ever more specialized apps for increasingly specific problems, the San Francisco-based company is gleefully doing just the opposite. It simply wants to give people a bunch of tools and let them figure it out. It all happens with simple conditional statements the company calls “recipes.” So, you can use the service to execute the following command: If I take a screenshot, then upload it to Dropbox. If this RSS feed is updated, then send me a text message. It’s great for kluging together quick, automated solutions for the little workflows that slip into the cracks between apps and services.

If This, Then That (IFTTT)

4 reasons why Apple’s iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design — from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert

Excerpt:

You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that’ll appeal to you most. You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone, and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap. You go to your local watering hole, have a round of drinks, and just leave, having paid—and tipped!—with Uber-like ease. Welcome to the world of iBeacon.

It sounds absurd, but it’s true: Here we are in 2013, and one of the most exciting things going on in consumer technology is Bluetooth. Indeed, times have changed. This isn’t the maddening, battery-leeching, why-won’t-it-stay-paired protocol of yore. Today we have Bluetooth Low Energy which solves many of the technology’s perennial problems with new protocols for ambient, continuous, low-power connectivity. It’s quickly becoming big deal.

The Internet of iThings: Apple’s iBeacon is already in almost 200 million iPhones and iPads — from forbes.com by Anthony Kosner

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Because of iBeacons’ limited range, they are well-suited for transmitting content that is relevant in the immediate proximity.

From DSC:
Along the lines of the above postings…I recently had a meeting whereby the topic of iBeacons came up. It was mentioned that museums will be using this sort of thing; i.e. approaching a piece of art will initiate an explanation of that piece on the museum’s self-guided tour application.

That idea made me wonder whether such technology could be used in a classroom…and I quickly thought, “Yes!”

For example, if a student goes to the SW corner of the room, they approach a table. That table has an iBeacon like device on it, which triggers a presentation within a mobile application on the student’s device. The students reviews the presentation and moves onto the SE corner of the room whereby they approach a different table with another/different iBeacon on it. That beacon triggers a quiz on the material they just reviewed, and then proceeds to build upon that information. Etc. Etc. Physically-based scaffolding along with some serious blended/hybrid learning. It’s like taking the concept of QR codes to the next level.

Some iBeacon vendors out there include:

Data mining, interaction design, user interface design, and user experience design may never be the same again.

Pharrell Williams debuts 24-hour, interactive music video for ‘Happy’ — from theverge.com by Amar Toor; with thanks to Mr. Colton Credelle for this item

Excerpt:

On Thursday, at the stroke of midnight, pop impresario Pharrell Williams debuted the video for his new single, “Happy.” It’s 24 hours long.

The video, available for streaming on 24hoursofhappy.com, features various dancers lip-synching to Williams’ single throughout the course of a day in Los Angeles. The four-minute, upbeat song is played on loop, with each cycle introducing a new dancer (or dancers) at a different location. Viewers can fast-forward or move backward using a clock interface that hovers over the display, and share specific moments on Twitter or Facebook. The dancers, meanwhile, include both anonymous extras and celebrities like Magic Johnson, Steve Carrell, and of course, Williams himself.

Also see:

From DSC:
How might this relate to educationally-related videos?

And for those of you in marketing and retail out there, could be some sharp/beneficial applications for you all here.

Learning from the Living (Class) Room [Grush & Christian]

On 12/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, changing business models, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, hybrid learning, IBM, innovation, interactivity, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Learning in ‘the Living [Class] Room’
From campustechnology.com by Mary Grush and Daniel Christian
Convergent technologies have the ability to support streams of low-cost, personalized content, both at home and in college.

Blodget: This is what you need to know about the future of digital

On 11/25/2013, in digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, emerging technologies, future, trends, by Daniel Christian

Blodget: This is what you need to know about the future of digital

Excerpts:

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

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

On 11/18/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, 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, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, professional development, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

— Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along
qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

What the mobile “fourth wave” means for operators — from mportal.com by D.P. Venkatesh on November 12, 2013

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

Addendum on 11/25:

The Smart TV app revolution is coming: Here’s what you need to know — from businessinsider.com by Dan Frommer

Jeff Gomez Masterclass: Creating Blockbuster Transmedia Story Worlds & Brands — from nymediacenter.com

Excerpt:

Who Should Attend?

SCREEN PROFESSIONALS
Producers, writers, directors, commissioners, distributors, investors, policy makers from the film, television and online industries

INTERACTIVE MEDIA PROFESSIONALS
Web developers and designers, app and mobile developers, games developers and designers, multiplatform producers, digital media strategists

BRAND + COMMUNICATION PROFESSIONALS
Advertising, marketing and PR professionals and creatives, public relations professionals, social media strategists, branded content producers

PUBLISHING PROFESSIONALS
Publishers, authors, editors, agents, Commissioners

From DSC:
Wondering a few things here:

1) Why aren’t there similar events aimed at educators, professors, teachers, and trainers? At instructional designers and instructional technologists?

2) Are we preparing our students for these types of opportunities?

3) That same web page also reads:

It is a philosophy of communication and brand extension that creates intense audience loyalty and long-term engagement, enriches the value of creative content, and generates multiple revenue streams.

Hmmm…couldn’t this also apply to higher education/K-12 education/training as well?

mindsy — Does this represent a new ingredient of — and/or model for — our future learning ecosystems?

On 11/11/2013, in dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, elearning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, learning, learning preferences, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, streams of content, technologies for your home, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Does Mindsy represent a new ingredient of — and/or model for — our future learning ecosystems?

Learning on demand.

Addendum from The Economist:

Mindsy’s website hosts more than 5,000 courses provided by vendors, many of whom are specialised in e-learning. Tens of thousands of users pay $29 a month to access as many courses as they would like in that time, a model some have compared to Netflix, a popular online film-rental service. Users pick and choose their courses, says Christian Owens, Mindsy’s founder, with many preferring to watch short modular videos on one topic before moving on to another area. Whereas TED provides lofty academia in easily-digestible formats, Mindsy prefers to focus on the practical. One of the most popular courses explains how to build a website. Swap the ankle boots on our TED Talks commuter for winklepickers, and the flannel shirt for a well-cut suit, and you have the young professional who makes up most of Mindsy’s user base.

Xbox, watch TV: inside Microsoft’s audacious plan to take over the living room — from by Nilay Patel
Can the Xbox One finally kickstart the TV revolution?

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Taking over your cable box also means the Xbox can overlay your TV signal with interesting information: a voice-activated channel guide, pop-up notifications when you get a Skype call and Xbox Live invites, a new NFL app that shows you real-time fantasy stats. You can even snap the TV window to the side of the screen while you play games. Your nasty cable interface is still there, but it allows the Xbox One to replace the cable box as the primary living-room entertainment device and go from gaming console to major new computing platform.

…

So the entire Xbox One is designed around what you might call a bold compromise: instead of directly integrating TV, the system hijacks it. Rather than plugging your cable box and Xbox into the TV separately, you first plug the cable box into the Xbox, and then the Xbox into the TV. Your cable box is still there, and still doing all the heavy lifting of providing TV, but now it’s doing it in service of the overall Xbox One experience. Smith describes it as “augmenting” the cable box experience in an effort to eliminate the friction of switching between games, apps, and TV.

From DSC:
The battle for the living room continues. I hope that we can eventually leverage these developments not just for entertainment, but for creating, contributing, sharing, absorbing, and discussing streams of content. The creative possibilities involving transmedia-based storytelling are exciting in this type of environment as well.

5 ways to reduce cognitive load in eLearning [Guyan]

On 11/08/2013, in corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, elearning, instructional design, learning theories, memory, online learning, pedagogy, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

5 ways to reduce cognitive load in eLearning — from elearningindustry.com by by Matthew Guyan

Excerpt:

Present some information via the visual channel and some via the verbal channel
Break content into smaller segments and allow the learner to control the pace
Remove non-essential content
Words should be placed close as possible to the corresponding graphics
Don’t narrate on-screen text word-for-word

From DSC:
Thanks Matt for a well-written, concise, beneficial posting here. I especially appreciated the quick review of the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) as well as the 5 suggestions to reduce cognitive load (with the goal being to move content into peoples’ long term memories).

GottaMakeItThoughTheGate

Faculty Coalition: Forget About Cost Savings with Online Programs — from CampusTechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpts:

Cost savings promised by the expansion of online education are tough to pinpoint, including those programs that promise to be free for students.
…
According to the Campaign, there are no guarantees that online courses save students money.
…
The Campaign declared the idea that MOOCs could lower the cost of college degrees a “pipe dream.”
…
But even as public institutions introduce their own online programs, they frequently charge students more for those courses, the report said.

From DSC:
(Dian, these thoughts are not aimed at you. Keep up the excellent work out there!)

The only way that online education costs as much as a face-to-face offering is if such a course/offering is ***highly*** sophisticated — that is, that it incorporates a ***significant*** amount of programing, educational gaming, deep analytics and sophisticated reporting, home-grown animations and/or simulations, etc.

Otherwise, there is no way in the world that an online course costs as much to produce and offer as a face-to-face course. Consider two key things:

Ask any Director of Physical Plant to lay out their annual budget and expenses ***just to keep their campus(es) up and running*** — let alone enhance them further — and you’ll quickly see what I mean!
In many cases, the infrastructures already exist to serve the face-to-face students (i.e. systems like the CMS’s/LMS’s, Student Information Systems, etc.). So offering online courses only serves to increase the ROI for this infrastructure. (If one couldn’t use the existing systems, then I could see where there would be additional expenses; with that said, the bottom lines are still not the same.)

Many colleges and universities are using the increased demand for online courses to keep the prices up; they are not passing along the savings to the students. (BTW, for those who claim higher education isn’t a business, how do you explain this? The argument that higher education isn’t a business holds no water at all; such viewpoints can no longer be taken seriously.)

By keeping the costs of online courses as high or higher than F2F courses, such colleges and universities are making a big mistake. By doing so, they are only causing the existing bubble in higher education to expand even further. It will pop. In fact, with the increased use of incentives and lowering the tuition that’s actually being paid by the students (vs. the “list” price), one can’t help but wonder if the bubble hasn’t already popped at many colleges and universities.

We need to start passing along more of the savings to our students. I can’t think of a good reason why everyuniversity and college in the U.S. should not offer a spectrum/variety of pricing structures. If you want to take a face-to-face course, you will need to pay more for that course, as there are greater expenses involved in providing that type of learning environment.

Last thoughts:

While I think that MOOCs are half-baked, they continue to improve.
If MOOCs morph into something that uses technologies like IBM’s Watson, that will be a game-changer for sure. We will still need SME’s, but the prices that can be offered will be drastically less. See this recent posting for further thoughts on this perspective.

2013 Yearbook: Technology Innovation in Education [Center for Digital Education]

On 11/07/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Bring your own device (BYOD), budgets, business side of he, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, convergence, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, higher education, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, learning theories, love of learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, online learning, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Description:

The Yearbook is a unique publication produced annually by the Center for Digital Education (CDE) that highlights some of the outstanding trends,

people and events over the past year in education technology. The first part of the Yearbook gives readers market awareness by outlining how much money schools spent on education technology, where the funding came from and what technologies have been garnering the most attention.

The second part features 40 education innovators who are using technology to inspire their students, improve learning and better the K-20 education system. We hope that this 2013 Yearbook issue provides inspiration to our readers to continue on their quests towards innovation in education.

From DSC:
My quote in the Center for Digital Education’s 2013 Yearbook reads:

“Educational technologists need to be bold, visionary and creative. They need to be in tune with the needs, missions and visions of their organizations. We have the opportunity — and responsibility — to make lasting and significant contributions within our fields and for the organizations that we work for.”

Learning Ecosystems

The future of publishing? Applications for learning?

7 fabulous iPad apps to create short animated lessons for your flipped classroom [educatorstechnology.com]

Music videos go interactive [How might this relate to educationally-related videos? <-- DSC]

Blodget: This is what you need to know about the future of digital

mindsy — Does this represent a new ingredient of — and/or model for — our future learning ecosystems?

The battle for the living room continues; I hope we can leverage these developments/this convergence for learning materials.

5 ways to reduce cognitive load in eLearning [Guyan]

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