digital learning

Turning Technologies acquires eInstruction [turningtechnologies.com]

On 08/14/2013, in assessment, digital learning, education technology, presentations, teaching & learning, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Turning Technologies acquires eInstruction— from turningtechnologies.com

Excerpt:

YOUNGSTOWN, OH – August 7, 2013 – Turning Technologies and eInstruction announced today that the companies have completed a process where Turning Technologies has acquired eInstruction. eInstruction develops educational technology, including classroom instruction systems, student response systems, interactive whiteboards and assessment software that complement Turning’s existing product portfolio which enhances learning and presentation environments. The acquisition will further Turning Technologies’ leading market position in the response system industry, providing a greater depth of products and technologies to more market segments.

edShelf: Find the right educational tools for your needs

On 08/13/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, biology, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, creativity, digital learning, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, homeschooling/homeschoolers, interactivity, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, love of learning, mathematics, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, participation, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, science, simulations, social learning / networks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

With thanks to
Robin Good for curating this item

What we’ve learned about e-learning and Generation Z [indigomultimedia.com]

On 08/12/2013, in digital learning, education technology, elearning, generational differences, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, play, student-related, by Daniel Christian

What we’ve learned about e-learning and Generation Z –– from indigomultimedia.com with thanks to Mayra Aixa Villar for the Scoop on this

Excerpts/key points:

Online is as important as offline to Gen Z
Playing = Learning
Digital DNA

The MOOC Business Plan — from campustechnology.com by David Raths
With millions of students taking high-quality MOOCs for free, schools and course providers are now searching for a viable business model.

Excerpt:

Name a product sold in stores for thousands of dollars that can be obtained for free online. If you’re struggling for an answer, don’t be surprised–no company would last very long under those circumstances. Yet that’s exactly the predicament in which higher education finds itself as MOOCs begin to disrupt the traditional post-secondary model. Schools are giving away what was once their most valued treasure–the intellectual property of their faculty–for nothing.

Obviously, it’s not a sustainable business model, so what’s next? Where will the money come from? While it may seem surprising, no one really seems to know. For many colleges and universities, the current environment more closely resembles a high-stakes game of musical chairs–everyone is terrified of being left without a chair when the music stops. But the game is being played by more than just schools. From a business standpoint, higher education is ripe for reinvention, and it has attracted a slew of companies–both old and new–that smell significant profit.

…

For Coursera, this task is already under way. “Some business models are becoming clear,” says Andrew Ng, cofounder of the for-profit company. “Some we are confident will work; others we are still experimenting with.”

“You could have a certificate of a course completed at Duke University [NC]–that could be a valuable credential,” adds Ng. “We have projected that this alone will lead us to sustainability. In the first quarter of the signature track, we brought in $220,000, and in the second quarter, which hasn’t ended yet, we roughly doubled that amount. So we project that by itself that will make us sustainable.”

Higher ed can find some value in these Bezoz’ comments after purchasing Wash Post [Christian]

On 08/06/2013, in business, digital learning, disruption, experimentation, higher education, innovation, internet, new business models, online learning, online tutoring, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, by Daniel Christian

Jeff Bezos on Post purchase — from washingtonpost.com

David McNew/Getty Images – The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper
to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos for $250 million August 5, 2013.

Excerpt of comments:

The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there. I’m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.

Reflections on “FlixMaster changes model; becomes Rapt” [Lindenstein] <- involves interactive/digital video

On 08/02/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, convergence, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, media/film, multimedia, online learning, online media, participation, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, social learning / networks, storytelling, technologies for your home, transmedia, trends, TVs, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

FlixMaster changes model; becomes Rapt — from bcbr.com by Joshua Lindenstein

Excerpts:

BOULDER – Highlighting a shift toward a new model for its interactive online video platform, Boulder-based FlixMaster Inc. this week announced that it is changing its name to Rapt Media Inc.

…

“When we founded FlixMaster, we set out to create the best toolset for video creators wanting to build interactive videos, and we succeeded in doing that that,” Rapt co-founder and chief executive Erika Trautman said in an email. “But as we partnered with really sophisticated companies (like HBO and Maybelline), we realized that our platform and the opportunity it posed was bigger than just interactive video. It was about improving online communication and storytelling through interactivity of all kinds, with video as the central component. Our company had already transitioned to this bigger vision, and we wanted a name that could reflect that vision.

Additional thought from DSC:
This item relates to the convergence of the television, the computer, and the telephone that I’m pulse-checking. I’m hopeful that such a convergence will provide students in the future with 24×7, highly-engaging, interactive, customized/personalized content:

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More choice. More control.

How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?

On 08/02/2013, in change, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital textbooks, education technology, elearning, learning spaces, pace of change, smart classrooms, tablets, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Upon seeing the item below, the educational technologist in me asks:

“How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?”

Some off-the-top-of-the-head thoughts on this:

We need to be looking up and trying to see what’s coming down the pike (as much as possible)
We need to try to build in as much flexibility as possible for optimal longevity (though this is easier said than done at times)
Responsiveness; the provision of robust wireless infrastructures
Experimentation — we may need to hold things loosely
Plan for hybrid/blended learning situations as much as possible

How smartphones and tablets are changing higher education — from edtechmagazing.com by Jimmy Daly
Adobe’s recent study on mobile computing sheds light on mobile usage.

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It only took three years for tablets to drive more traffic than smartphones.

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In the beginning was the Word; now the Word is on an app — from nytimes.com by Amy O’Leary

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Nathan Weber for The New York Times
Listeners use a Bible app during a sermon at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

EDMOND, Okla. — More than 500 years after Gutenberg, the Bible is having its i-moment.

For millions of readers around the world, a wildly successful free Bible app, YouVersion, is changing how, where and when they read the Bible.

Built by LifeChurch.tv, one of the nation’s largest and most technologically advanced evangelical churches, YouVersion is part of what the church calls its “digital missions.” They include a platform for online church services and prepackaged worship videos that the church distributes free. A digital tithing system and an interactive children’s Bible are in the works.

…

This month, the app reached 100 million downloads, placing it in the company of technology start-ups like Instagram and Dropbox.

Reflections on “How to make online courses massively personal” [Peter Norvig]

On 07/25/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, love of learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, professional development, reinvent, social learning / networks, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, training / L&D, ubiquitous learning, using teams, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

How to make online courses massively personal — from scientificamerican.com by Peter Norvig
How thousands of online students can get the effect of one-on-one tutoring

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Educators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one tutoring and mastery learning—working on a subject until it is mastered, not just until a test is scheduled. Success also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents, mentors or peers.

Will the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs) quash these success factors? Not at all. In fact, digital tools offer our best path to cost-effective, personalized learning.

I know because I have taught both ways.

…

Inspired by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon’s comment that “learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks,” we created a course centered on the students doing things and getting frequent feedback. Our “lectures” were short (two- to six-minute) videos designed to prime the attendees for doing the next exercise. Some problems required the application of mathematical techniques described in the videos. Others were open-ended questions that gave students a chance to think on their own and then to hash out ideas in online discussion forums.

…

That is why a properly designed automated intelligent tutoring system can foster learning outcomes as well as human instructors can, as Kurt van Lehn found in a 2011 meta-analysis in Educational Psychologist.

From DSC:
A potential learning scenario in the future:

“Learning Agent, go find me a MOOC (or what the MOOC will morph into) about ________.”
Similar to a Google Alert, the Learning Agent returns some potential choices. I select one.
.
Once there… “System, let’s begin.” I begin taking the online-based course — which is stocked full of a variety of media, some interactive, that I get to choose from for each module/item based upon my personal preferences — and the intelligent tutoring system kicks in and responses at relevant points based upon my questions, answers, responses. The system uses AI, data mining, learning analytics, to see how I’m doing. It tracks this for each student. Humans regularly review the data to begin noticing patterns and to tweak the algorithms based upon these patterns.
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If at any time I find the responses from the automated intelligent tutoring system confusing or weak, I will:
- Make note of why I’m confused or disagree with the response (via an online-based form entry on the page; this feedback gets instantly sent to the Team of Specialists in charge of the “course.” They will use it to tweak the course/algorithms.)
- Ask to speak with a person, at which point I am asked to choose whether my inquiry would best be handled by a Subject Matter Expert (SME) at $___/hour/request (more expensive price) or by an entry-level tutor (at a lower $___/hour/request). I then enter into a videoconference-based tutoring session with them, and they can access my records and even take over my screen (if I let them). Once I get my questions answered, I return to the course and continue.

From DSC:
A twist on the above scenario would be if a cohorted group of people — not age-based — met in a physical place/room and were able to bounce ideas off of each other before anyone ante’d up for additional expenses by contacting a tutor and/or an SME. They could even share the expenses of the “call” (so-to-speak).

Alive in the Swamp — from nesta.org.uk by Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly

Excerpt (emphasis and link below from DSC):

The authors argue that we should seek digital innovations that produce at least twice the learning outcome for half the cost of our current tools. To achieve this, three forces need to come together. One is technology, the other pedagogy, and the third is change knowledge, or how to secure transformation across an entire school system.

…

The breakthrough in Alive in the Swamp is the development of an Index that will be of practical assistance to those charged with making these kinds of decisions at school, local and system level. Building on Fullan’s previous work, Stratosphere, the Index sets out the questions policymakers need to ask themselves not just about the technology at any given moment but crucially also about how it can be combined with pedagogy and knowledge about system change. Similarly, the Index should help entrepreneurs and education technology developers to consider particular features to build into their products to drive increased learning and achieve systemic impact.

The future will belong not to those who focus on the technology alone but to those who place it in this wider context and see it as one element of a wider system transformation. Fullan and Donnelly show how this can be done in a practical way.

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Also see:
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How not to mint more engineers [Lynda Weinman]

On 07/24/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, budgets, business side of he, digital learning, engineering, flipping -- inverted learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, liberal arts, new business models, online learning, student-related, by Daniel Christian

How not to mint more engineers — from linkedin.com by Lynda Weinman

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Let’s tackle the economics of the situation head on — and not based on theory, but on experience. When lynda.com opened in 1997, it was a physical school that taught web design. We charged $1,500 per person for a single week of instruction. In those days, the world economy was robust and people came from every continent to study with us, enabling our business to grow and thrive. It was a heady time—until 2001, when the dotcom bubble burst and people and companies lost their budgets.

It was scary to witness the sudden demise of a business model that had worked so incredibly well up until then. In response, we could have simply raised our prices, and targeted a much smaller, more elite audience, hoping to keep our doors open. Instead, we did something crazy. We closed our eyes and leapt into something that was, at that time, unproven: We put our lessons online in video format for $25 per month.

While it took a few years to make as much money as the school did, it eventually far surpassed the earning power of the brick and mortar we started with. Instead of serving 80 people or so a week at our physical school, we started serving thousands in the virtual world, and today that number is in the millions every year.

…

The solution? Take the teachers who are experts and thought leaders and memorialize their lectures and materials via videos and other rich media to share those ideas broadly. Pay them royalties for this, the same as if they published a popular textbook. Leverage in-person class time for projects, collaborations, discussions, reviews, and presentations—the types of activities that are better experienced in person than online.

The growing importance of being able to craft a multimedia-based message/narrative [Christian]

On 07/23/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, animation, communications, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, graphics, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, participation, second screen apps, social learning / networks, social media, story, storytelling, tablets, technologies for your home, television, transmedia, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I love multimedia because it enables me to craft a message using audio, video, text, graphics, and even animations. The Internet extends the power of this communication by allowing that message to go forth 24 x 7 x 365 in multi-directional ways — even allowing others to join in the conversations and participate.

The following item made me reflect upon on how important this is becoming to business:

Is transmedia storytelling the new digital marketing? — from rethinkeverythingblog.com by Jason Thibeault (as Scooped by siobhan-o-flynn onto Tracking Transmedia)

Excerpt:

How (and why) is Marketing Changing?
The first thing to understand about marketing today is that it’s all about shared experience. Consumer behavior is radically changing with respect to content consumption. No longer are people consuming most of their content on the TV, a newspaper, or even their computer. Rather, they are using a combination of channels:

From DSC:

Won’t this trend also impact students’ expectations/hopes/engagement?
What do we need to do to help youth build these skillsets?

Also related/see:

The rise, implications & benefits of the second screen — from newsworks.org.uk by Mark Challinor
Telegraph Media Group’s director of mobile Mark Challinor says in this new era of second screens, news companies must create content that helps consumers to multi-task on multiple platforms with multiple devices.

Excerpt:
Watching television – or even reading a newspaper – with a smartphone and/or tablet device is becoming one of the most popular leisure activities of this “mobile age”. In turn, publishers such as ourselves are trying to find ways to capitalise on this somewhat new consumer behaviour of real-time interaction, which, more often than not, includes social media. This type of interaction, referred to as “the second screen” or “the companion device”, has become not just a latest hot topic of discussion all over social media blogs; it is a huge development for the mobile app industry and a target-rich environment for our advertisers.

Emerging markets’ second-screen boost with 1BN smart devices by 2014 — from rapidtvnews.com by Joseph O’Halloran
Excerpt:
New research by IDC has revealed that it won’t just be Western Europe and North America forming happy hunting grounds for second-screen services and applications. The analyst says it is clear that demand for smart connected devices is quickly shifting from developed to emerging markets and that by the end of 2014, global shipments of smart connected devices such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones will exceed surpass 1.7 billion units, with roughly one billion units delivered to emerging markets. The emerging markets are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% over the 2012-2017 forecast period, compared to the 7% CAGR expected in developed markets.

Very sharp!!! A glimpse into the future of digital video & online learning! Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise! [Christian]

On 07/09/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, attention, convergence, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, participation, presentations, student-related, technologies for your home, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First, take a look at this interactive video from the Wall Street Journal:

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For further information on that video, you can also see:

‘Obamacare’ Made Easy to Understand — from /live.wsj.com
David Wessel discusses a new WSJ.com interactive video that helps viewers better understand the Affordable Health Care Act as well as its slate of rules and penalties.

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From DSC:

Excellent, creative use of technology! Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise! Your learning futures just got much more interesting, dynamic, and interactive!

You will be given more choice and more control than you’ve ever had before. You will be able to interact with digital videos, drill down, take some rights turns and come back again, and more.

For example, during the WSJ video, you can click on the radio within the digital video in order to “drill down” and listen to more about a certain topic — while the main presentation “holds on”…

…you can jump ahead to the next marker…pause…rewind…click to get some further text-based information/details on a topic of interest:

…and more. In other words, you have more choice, more control in your learning experience. This, at minimum, is a piece of online learning’s — and digital video’s — future.

But I hear you saying, so what? Flash has been doing this for a while now. And that, my friends, is the only downside I see in this implementation from the WSJ — it was done using Flash.

As Flash won’t fly on iOS-based devices, an HTML5-based solution needs to come into the picture…and this is where Touchcast shines!

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As Paul Sawers explains, you can add interactive, browsable layers onto your video and deliver it in an HTML5-based format.

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An excerpt from Paul’s article:

Things start to get really interesting with video apps (vApps). TouchCast lets you create videos that are layered with live Web pages, video clips, maps, Twitter streams and other facets of the digital world. “We’re actually claiming that this is the future of the Web,” says Segal, TouchCasts’s CEO.

Indeed, TouchCast’s vApp library is ‘open’, so developers can create and customize their own vApps.

Bottom line:
“Digital textbooks” will never be the same again (not to mention learning modules, transmedia, ads, presentations, digital storytelling, and more)!

Also see:

TouchCast aims to redefine the web video

eSchoolNews.com: Latest news & trends from ISTE 2013

On 07/03/2013, in digital learning, education technology, K-12 related, by Daniel Christian

ISTE keynote: Gaming has huge educational potential — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Devaney
Speaker Jane McGonigal outlined gaming’s engagement-boosting qualities during ISTE 2013’s opening session
Excerpt:

But what is it that gamers get out of gaming that makes the hobby so appealing, and how can we give that to students in classrooms? In McGonigal’s 12 years of gaming research, she said, 10 emotions are regularly associated with gaming: joy, relief, love, surprise, pride, curiosity, excitement, awe and wonder, contentment, and, most of all, creativity.

ISTE 2013: How will MOOCs affect your K-12 classroom? — from eschoolnews.com by Meris Stansbury
Experts say high schools are about to get a MOOC awakening
Excerpt:

According to Garrigan, last summer (2012) high school teens completed more than 15,000 courses from Udacity, a MOOC platform.

“Clayton Christensen also predicted in his book, Disrupting Class, that by 2019, 50 percent of all high school courses will be online. I believe it,” he emphasized.

Many factors contribute to MOOC success, explained Garrigan, with the basic understanding that people want to learn.

“Lots of people want to learn if they think it’s interesting and there’s no risk,” he said.

Technologies that are changing and will change the world — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Devaney

Harnessing the power of tablets and apps for young students — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Devaney

10 engaging ed-tech booths at ISTE 2013 — from eschoolnews.com by Meris Stansbury

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2013

Learning Ecosystems

Turning Technologies acquires eInstruction [turningtechnologies.com]

The MOOC Business Plan [Raths]

Higher ed can find some value in these Bezoz’ comments after purchasing Wash Post [Christian]

How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?

In the beginning was the Word; now the Word is on an app [O’Leary]

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