On 07/21/2014,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communities of practice, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, social learning / networks, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, telecommunications, television, training / L&D, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
C-Suite TV debuts, offers advice for the boardroom — from streamingmedia.com by Troy Dreier
Business leaders now have an on-demand video network to call their own, thanks to one Bloomberg host’s online venture.
Excerpt:
Bringing some business acumen to the world of online video, C-Suite TV is launching today. Created by Bloomberg TV host and author Jeffrey Hayzlett, the on-demand video network offers interviews with and shows about business execs. It promises inside information on business trends and the discussions taking place in the biggest boardrooms.
The Future of TV is here for the C-Suite — from hayzlett.com by Jeffrey Hayzlett
Excerpt:
Rather than wait for networks or try and gain traction through the thousands of cat videos, we went out and built our own network.
See also:
- Mind your own business
From the About page:
C-Suite TV is a web-based digital on-demand business channel featuring interviews and shows with business executives, thought leaders, authors and celebrities providing news and information for business leaders. C-Suite TV is your go-to resource to find out the inside track on trends and discussions taking place in businesses today. This online channel will be home to such shows as C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett, MYOB – Mind Your Own Business and Bestseller TV with more shows to come.
From DSC:
The above items took me back to the concept of Learning from the Living [Class] Room.
Many of the following bullet points are already happening — but what I’m trying to influence/suggest is to bring all of them together in a powerful, global, 24 x 7 x 365, learning ecosystem:
- When our “TVs” become more interactive…
- When our mobile devices act as second screens and when second screen-based apps are numerous…
- When discussion boards, forums, social media, assignments, assessments, and videoconferencing capabilities are embedded into our Smart/Connected TVs and are also available via our mobile devices…
- When education is available 24 x 7 x 365…
- When even the C-Suite taps into such platforms…
- When education and entertainment are co-mingled…
- When team-based educational content creation and delivery are mainstream…
- When self-selecting Communities of Practice thrive online…
- When Learning Hubs combine the best of both worlds (online and face-to-face)…
- When Artificial Intelligence, powerful cognitive computing capabilities (i.e., IBM’s Watson), and robust reporting mechanisms are integrated into the backends…
- When lifelong learners have their own cloud-based profiles…
- When learners can use their “TVs” to tap into interactive, multimedia-based streams of content of their choice…
- When recommendation engines are offered not just at Netflix but also at educationally-oriented sites…
- When online tutoring and intelligent tutoring really take off…
…then I’d say we’ll have a powerful, engaging, responsive, global education platform.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
On 06/12/2014,
in creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, story, storytelling,
by Daniel Christian
Transmedia and education: How transmedia is changing the way we learn — from thedigitalshift.com by
From
Excerpt:
Transmedia, a broad descriptive word that literally translated means “across media” and encompasses many strategies that transverse industries, is generally regarded as the use of multiple media platforms to tell a story or story experience. Though the word “transmedia” is thought to have entertainment franchise origins, its adaptation for education purposes is both valuable and becoming more and more common. While teachers like Sansing are using coding and programming in their language arts instruction, others are taking advantage of increasingly sophisticated apps and interactive media for classroom use.
Also see:
- The Science of Storytelling [Infographic] The chemical and psychological makeup of our minds affects how we consume content: Our brains are wired to connect with compelling stories.
On 06/03/2014,
in Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, passions, personalized/customized learning, streams of content, technologies for your home, telecommunications, television, TVs,
by Daniel Christian
Goodbye, TV Channels—And Hello, TV Apps — from readwrite.com by Adriana Lee
How a small change in language represents a universal shift in the television experience.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
But television is evolving. Increasingly, it’s all about the apps now—browsable, downloadable, interactive TV applications. You can thank the swelling ranks of streaming services and devices for that.
The software applications they’re delivering to our living rooms are growing in number and prominence. And they’re starting to eclipse the passive, one-way broadcasts we once fought over for two-way, interactive experiences that let you share democratically among multiple users (née viewers) across mobile devices and computers.
…
According to research firm NPD Group, the smart television business has begun to boom. In the beginning of 2013, there were 140 million Internet-ready TVs in American homes. By 2015, it will grow 44 percent, to 202 million. And by that time, nearly two-thirds of them will actually be connected to the Internet, compared to just 56 percent now.
…
How they connect is important. When it comes to television, “apps” are where it’s at, not ye olde “TV channels.” It’s just a shift in language, true—but it’s also a shift in thinking.
In a multi-screen future, phones don’t control TVs, TVs control phones — from foxnews.com by Alex Tretbar
Excerpt:
Right now, most “second-screen” usage is more distracting than it is enriching, but that’s about to change. Soon your tablet will spring to life when you tune into your favorite show, and you’ll have more opportunities than ever to engage. The million-dollar buzzword here is Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. But, before we get too far into that, let’s start at the beginning: the screen itself.
…
Navin wants his apps to automatically deliver content viewers might otherwise seek out manually. This might mean recommendations, related video, social-media discussions, or even a simple plot synopsis.
What television will look like in 2025, according to Netflix — from wired.com by Issie Lapowsky
Excerpts:
People have traditionally discovered new shows by tuning into the channels that were most aligned with their interests. Love news? Then CNN might be the channel for you. If it’s children’s programming you want, Nickelodeon has you covered. And yet, none of these channels can serve 100 percent of their customers what they want to watch 100 percent of the time.
According to Hunt, this will change with internet TV. He said Netflix is now working to perfect its personalization technology to the point where users will no longer have to choose what they want to watch from a grid of shows and movies. Instead, the recommendation engine will be so finely tuned that it will show users “one or two suggestions that perfectly fit what they want to watch now.”
“I think this vision is possible,” Hunt said. “We’ve come a long way towards it, and we have a ways to go still.” He said Netflix is now devoting as much time and energy to building out that personalization technology as the company put into building the infrastructure for delivering that content in the first place.
…
“The stories we watch today are not your parents’ TV,” Hunt said, “and the stories your kids watch in 2025 will blow your mind away.”
And by the year 2025, he told his audience, everyone will own a smart TV.
TV transformed by smart thinking — from theaustralian.com.au/ by
Excerpt:
As LG puts it, your apps to the right of the cards are “the future” — what you will watch, while the display of your recently used apps, to the left of the cards, is “the past” — so the launcher is an amalgam of your past, present and future viewing activity
From DSC:
“…everyone will own a smart TV by 2025.” Well, maybe not everyone, but many of us will have access to these Internet-connected “TV’s” (if they are even called TV’s at that point).
I hope that Netflix will license those personalization technologies to other vendors or, if not, that some other vendor will create them for educationally-related purposes.
Can you imagine a personalization engine — focused on education and/or training — that could provide the scaffolding necessary for learning about many topics? i.e. digital playlists of learning. Streams of content focused on education. Such engines would remember where you left off and what you still need to review…what you have mastered and what you are still struggling with…what you enjoy learning about…your learning preferences…and more.
Addendum:
How Samsung is enabling the future of social TV — from lostremote.com by Natan Edelsburg
On 06/03/2014,
in business, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
The seven habits of highly effective digital enterprises — from mckinsey.com by Tunde Olanrewaju, Kate Smaje, and Paul Willmott
To stay competitive, companies must stop experimenting with digital and commit to transforming themselves into full digital businesses. Here are seven habits that successful digital enterprises share.
Excerpt:
The age of experimentation with digital is over. In an often bleak landscape of slow economic recovery, digital continues to show healthy growth. E-commerce is growing at double-digit rates in the United States and most European countries, and it is booming across Asia. To take advantage of this momentum, companies need to move beyond experiments with digital and transform themselves into digital businesses. Yet many companies are stumbling as they try to turn their digital agendas into new business and operating models. The reason, we believe, is that digital transformation is uniquely challenging, touching every function and business unit while also demanding the rapid development of new skills and investments that are very different from business as usual. To succeed, management teams need to move beyond vague statements of intent and focus on “hard wiring” digital into their organization’s structures, processes, systems, and incentives.
From DSC:
“The age of experimentation with digital is over. … To take advantage of this momentum, companies need to move beyond experiments with digital and transform themselves into digital businesses.”
Though this may be true for the corporate world (the audience for whom this piece was written), the experimentation within higher education is just beginning. With that said, I still couldn’t help but wonder if some of these same habits might apply to the world of higher education. For example, three habits that the article mentioned jumped out at me as being highly relevant to those of us working within higher education:
1. Be unreasonably aspirational
4. Challenge everything
7. Be obsessed with the customer
Rising customer expectations continue to push businesses to improve the customer experience across all channels. Excellence in one channel is no longer sufficient; customers expect the same frictionless experience in a retail store as they do when shopping online, and vice versa.
A potentially-related item, at least from the perspective of the higher ed student of the near future:
- Accelerating the digitization of business processes — from by Shahar Markovitch and Paul Willmott
Customers want a quick and seamless digital experience, and they want it now.
Excerpt:
Customers have been spoiled. Thanks to companies such as Amazon and Apple, they now expect every organization to deliver products and services swiftly, with a seamless user experience.
On 06/03/2014,
in art, collaboration, communications, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital video, engagement / engaging students, learning, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, library / librarians, multimedia, new media literacies, passions, photography, reinvent, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
Reinventing libraries for ‘hanging out, messing around and geeking out’ — from CNN.com by Emanuella Grinberg
Excerpt:
The staff takes special pride in its mentor-led activities, offered in partnerships with various community organizations: a spoken word workshop, a video game program and a makerspace, or workshop, where teens create birdcages, duct tape wallets and other art projects.
It might be a library, but for 18-year-old Alexis Woodward, the atmosphere is more like a “family reunion,” she said.
“It’s always packed until it closes. Everybody goes to the library after school,” said Woodward, who began participating in the spoken word program when she was 14.
On 06/01/2014,
in Augmented Reality (AR), digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Google, ideas, innovation, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Augmented Reality: 32 resources about using it in education — from mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com by Julie Greller
Excerpt:
According to Webster’s Dictionary, augmented reality is “an enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device (as a smartphone camera); also : the technology used to create augmented reality.” Think of it as a type of virtual reality, using the computer to copy your world. You are probably familiar with a tool created by Google which falls into this category: Google Glass. Although augmented reality has existed for a long time, we as teachers are only now grasping how to use it in the classroom. Let’s take a look below.
On 05/28/2014,
in blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, experimentation, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, teaching & learning, Uncategorized, user experience (UX), using teams,
by Daniel Christian
Harvard MOOCs up ante on production quality — from educationnews.org by Grace Smith
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
It’s called HarvardX, a program begun two years ago, that films professors who are creating lessons that act as an adjunct to their coursework. The catch is, the production value is equally proportioned to the subject matter. The underproduced in-class lecture being filmed by a camera at the back of the lecture hall is being updated, in a big way.
Two video studios, 30 employees, producers, editors, videographers, composers, animators, typographers, and even a performance coach, make HarvardX a far cry from a talking head sort of online class.
The Harvard idea is to produce excellent videos, on subject matters that might be difficult to pull off in a lecture hall or class. Then, to bring these videos into the class for enrichment purposes. An example is Ulrich’s online class, “Tangible Things”.
Also see:
Sea change of technology: Education — from the Harvard Gazette, Christina Pazzanese, May 26, 2014
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
After centuries of relative torpor, technology breakthroughs have begun to reshape teaching and learning in ways that have prompted paradigm shifts around pedagogy, assessment, and scholarly research, and have upended assumptions of how and where learning takes place, the student-teacher dynamic, the functions of libraries and museums, and the changing role of scholars as creators and curators of knowledge.
“There are massive changes happening right now,” said Robert A. Lue, the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and faculty director of HarvardX (harvardx.harvard.edu). “What has brought it into particularly tight focus now is that the revolution in online education has raised a whole host of very important questions about: What do students do with faculty face-to-face; what is the value of the brick-and-mortar experience; and how does technology in general really support teaching and learning in exciting, new ways? It’s been a major catalyst, if you will, for a reconsideration of how we teach in the classroom.”
…
Classrooms of the future are likely to resemble the laboratory or studio model, as more disciplines abandon the passive lecture and seminar formats for dynamic, practice-based learning, Harvard academicians say.
“There’s a move away from using the amphitheater as a learning space … toward a room that looks more like a studio where students sit in groups around tables, and the focus is on them, not on the instructor, and the instructor becomes more the ‘guide outside’ rather than the ‘sage onstage,’ facilitating the learning process rather than simply teaching and hoping people will learn,” said Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
It’s a shift that’s changing teaching in the humanities as well. “It’s a project-based model where students learn by actually being engaged in a collaborative, team-based experience of actually creating original scholarship, developing a small piece of a larger mosaic — getting their hands dirty, working with digital media tools, making arguments in video, doing ethnographic work,” said Jeffrey Schnapp, founder and faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard, an arts and humanities research and teaching unit of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
From DSC:
HarvardX is a great example of using teams to create and deliver learning experiences.
Also, the “Sea change…” article reminded me of the concept of learning hubs — whereby some of the content is face-to-face around a physical table, and whereby some of the content is electronic (either being created by the students or being consumed/reviewed by the students). I also appreciated the work that Jeff Schnapp is doing to increase students’ new media literacy skills.
On 05/16/2014,
in change, changing business models, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, elearning, experimentation, MBA, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, training / L&D, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From the WSJ’s Morning Ledger:
The online MBA comes of age.
You’d think that of all the academic pursuits, business school would remain most immune to online learning. Beyond studies, MBA programs offer up-and-coming C-suiters access to the graduate-level schmoozing that could come in handy later on. Nevertheless, the online MBA program is growing, Delta Sky Magazine’s Kevin Featherly reports. What they lack in post-exam cordials with the professor, they make up for in a more diverse, more experienced student body, say advocates. “In ground-based programs, you’re connected to a more local audience,” the dean of the University of Bridgeport’s Ernest C. Trefz School of Business tells Delta. “In the online program, you’re interacting with business professionals from around the world.” But not everything is so encouraging. A professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina tells Mr. Featherly how surprised he was “when a course designer suggested he use a cartoon character to illustrate a hard-core economics principle.”
Also see:
From DSC:
Consider this. Steve Jobs lived by the philosophy of cannibalizing Apple’s own business, as he held that Apple needed to cannibalize itself or someone else would do it for them. And here’s the key thing to consider: Apple is the largest company in the world, based on market cap (505.92B as of this morning) and market value.
The point is, we in higher ed can’t be afraid of change. We must change. It’s time for more Trimtab Groups within higher education.
On 05/13/2014,
in 21st century, adult learning, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, new business models, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
A Case for Applied Liberal Arts: Adapting to Disruption — from evollution.com by Michelle Rhee-Weise | Senior Research Fellow, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
Excerpt:
This is neither another defense of the liberal arts nor another piece that pits the liberal arts against vocational training. We’ve all grown weary of commentators who ennoble without question the ideal of the liberal arts while denigrating vocation as factory work or corporate training.
In lieu of these tired tropes, I would suggest the notion of applied liberal arts. It’s time we shed vocation of its connotations of career education, corporate training and utility. Vocation does not preclude the liberal arts but can fuse a liberal education with the application of knowledge, effective citizenship, well roundedness and even artistry.
…
The instinct for some institutions might be to give into the “threat rigidity,” or to cease being flexible in the face of such major, systemic shifts. If, however, traditional institutions double down on a static curriculum, then how will they compete with these lower-cost, briefer and targeted programs that lead directly to high-skills opportunities at desirable companies? The oncoming disruption must be viewed as an opportunity to tie education to economic relevance — to offer more than a trajectory, but a well-defined pathway, to employment.
The $10,000 Degree: Fundamentally Changing the Way Universities Do Business — from evollution.com by Jean Floten | Chancellor, Western Governors University Washington
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The reset button has been pushed in this country. We have the choice to either participate in the reshaping of higher education to help more prospective students reach for their aspirations or live in denial.
Most Americans have changed how they do business and manage their personal finances. We must, too. The recession of the last decade spawned more leery consumers and led far too many to question the value of an investment in education.
That’s the importance of the $10,000-degree challenge. It recognizes the need for fundamental change in higher education. Furthermore, it provides a tangible finish line to which the academy may strive.
It’s time we, the leaders of colleges and universities, raise educational attainment levels — not costs.
MOOCs’ disruption is only beginning — from studentforce.wordpress.com; reposted from The Boston Globe written by Clayton M. Christensen and Michelle R. Weise
Excerpt:
JOURNALISTS, as 2013 ended, were busy declaring the death of MOOCs, more formally known as massive open online courses. Silicon Valley startup Udacity, one of the first to offer the free Web-based college classes, had just announced its pivot to vocational training — a sure sign to some that this much-hyped revolution in higher education had failed. The collective sigh of relief from more traditional colleges and universities was audible.
The news, however, must have also had the companies that had enthusiastically jumped on the MOOC train feeling a bit like Mark Twain. When newspapers confused Twain for his ailing cousin, the writer famously quipped, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Undoubtedly pronouncements over MOOCs’ demise are likewise premature. And their potential to disrupt — on price, technology, even pedagogy — in a long-stagnant industry is only just beginning to be seen.
Tuition costs have been ballooning faster than general inflation and even faster than health care. And what do we get in return? Nearly half of all bachelor’s-degree holders do not find employment or are underemployed upon graduation. At the same time, employers have not been satisfied with degree candidates. Two recent Gallup polls showed that although 96 percent of chief academic officers believe they’re doing a good job of preparing students for employment, only 11 percent of business leaders agree that graduates have the requisite skills for success in the workforce. And this is all occurring while higher education leaders were convinced that they were innovating all along.
It was just the wrong kind of innovation.
Education-as-a-Service: 5 ways higher ed must adapt to a changing market — from venturebeat.com by
Excerpt:
Within a few years, some students will come to higher education with an understanding of their current competencies, the competencies required for their dream job, and the resulting gap. Colleges will need to respond to these students with more than just a course catalog.
For example, for an 18-year-old who wants to start a career in video game design, colleges will offer courses that produce the requisite skills for an entry-level position – in addition to some general education – and will award a meaningful credential at completion of those courses (a process that will be completed likely in less than four years).
Or a laid-off marketing manager, whose time-to-job is six months rather than four years, may come to a university for reskilling in social media marketing, taking four targeted courses and earning a credential that employers can understand.
5 reasons the college student loan debt crisis could top subprime mortgages — from educationdive.com by Keith Button
Excerpt:
As the U.S. higher ed student loan debt continues its ascent, more warnings are sounding about the consequences.
Student debt currently amounts to $1.08 trillion owed by nearly 37 million borrowers. Richard Cordray, president of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has warned that the student loan problem is comparable to the home mortgage market prior to the Great Recession that began in 2008.
Could the economic impact of the student debt crisis one day match (or even exceed) the credit crunch created by subprime mortgages? Here are five reasons for concern…
Taking the Liberal Arts Online in the Summer — from chronicle.com by William Pannapacker
New ways of delivering courses can be compatible with small-college values
Excerpt:
A major reason we created the program was to assist students in completing their degrees within four years. Several of our preprofessional programs have demanding sequences that do not mesh easily with the schedules of courses in our core curriculum. In addition, a growing proportion of our students want to spend a semester off-campus, which places even greater constraints on their academic schedules.
…
Adopted cautiously, in a critical, evolutionary, decentralized way, a variety of online approaches to learning—beyond what we already have—can allow faculty members to improve their teaching by placing lecture content online and using classes for high-impact experiences, allowing professors and students to become more interactive with each other. And—by making it less necessary for students to transfer credit for entire courses from outside parties—online courses developed within an institutional context can preserve rather than undermine our unique missions as liberal-arts colleges.
Also see:
.
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media
On 05/01/2014,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, game-changing environment, global, higher education, hybrid learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, United States,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The idea of a learning hub — where some of the learning content is accessed electronically and where some of the learning takes place in a face-to-face manner — seems to be picking up steam. Conceptually, it makes a huge amount of sense, especially if it’s done well. It combines the best of online learning and face-to-face learning. Though not new, blended or hybrid learning, has often been said to be the Holy Grail of learning. So some of the learning could be accessed remotely — via a live videoconference or via a previously recorded lecture — and some of the learning could take place around a table.
With that in mind, it was interested to see the following postings:
- N.Y. Public Library Plans Face-to-Face ‘Classes’ for MOOC Students — from chronicle.com by Steve Kolowich
Excerpt:
In a pilot program with Coursera, the New York Public Library plans to organize meet-ups at which people taking massive open online courses can gather and discuss the courses with help from “trained facilitators.”The partnership is part the MOOC company’s effort to build an infrastructure for in-person learning around its free online courses. Research has suggested that MOOC students who receive offline help earn higher scores on their assessments.
. - New Learning Hubs Locations Hosted by The New York Public Library and Seven Other International Partners– — coursera.com
Excerpt:
[On April 30th] we are happy to announce eight new Learning Hubs partners including The New York Public Library, the largest library system in the US and our first domestic Learning Hubs network. Fitting we think that one of our first US Learning Hubs partners is located in New York, Coursera’s most popular city in the world by enrollment with more than 50,000 users located in New York City and 160,000 in the greater state of New York!
…
We launched the Learning Hubs program last year to give communities around the world the ability to access online courses for free, and also to engage with others in a blended learning setting. We’ve since partnered with a total of 17 trusted institutions around the world including the US Department of State to establish physical spaces where students can access the necessary technology and a global community of learners.
From DSC:
Combine that vision with the vision that I’ve put forth on this blog before — and which the recent blog posting discusses below – and you have one pumped up learning environment!
What will the active learning classroom look like in the not-so-distant future? — from lakelandlearningtechnologies.wordpress.com
The next generation interactive classroom…
1) will support students bringing their smartphones and tablets (BYOD) into the classroom. Students can expect to interact with their peers and the content / media on-the-fly, at the same time, discovering new ways to use classroom and web-based technologies to support their own learning.
2) will be increasingly wireless. Apple TV is already being used in classrooms where students and their teachers share their assignments and class projects on high definition TV screens. Emerging wireless technologies such as 802.11 ac, mean faster connection speeds and improved quality of shared media.
3) will mean classrooms are more configurable around the people using them rather than the fixtures and technology in the room. The use of multiple surfaces fosters collaboration, creativity and design, permitting students and instructors the ability to display, capture and share these interactions.
New learning spaces are emerging as a blend of the formal and informal – with flexibility driving design.
On 04/24/2014,
in Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, interactivity, machine-to-machine communications, programming, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning,
by Daniel Christian
Everything you need to know about iBeacon— from 3months.com
From DSC:
I’m posting this because:
- The video on that page is helpful in learning more about iBeacon
.
- It’s important for those involved with education to be in the loop on beacon-related technologies — as such devices will help us bridge the physical world with the digital world.
Also see:
- Developing iOS 7 Applications with iBeacons Tutorial — by Ray Wenderlich
On 04/19/2014,
in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, innovation, interactivity, multimedia, reading, story, storytelling, tools,
by Daniel Christian
New children’s book combines modern technology and storytelling — from iwantpop.com by
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
MONTREAL, April 15, 2014 /IWANTPOP.COM/ — Jonathan Belisle, a Montreal teacher, script writer and web entrepreneur, has developed the ultimate storytelling system. It’s a combination of old and new, traditional mythology and modern technology, a mixture of fantasy and reality.
Wuxia the Fox is a transmedia project that comes as an illustrated book paired with an iPad app. “The app reacts to what it hears and sees,” explained Belisle. “As you read the story, the app adds the music and sound effects, based on where you are in the story and the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.”
The iPad app triggers new scenes of content using image recognition, and transforms into a musical instrument when interacting with small wooden blocks provided with the book.
Also see:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathanbelisle/wuxia-the-fox-augmented-book-and-ipad-app
Also, another interesting item:
Predicting the future of cinema: No limits — and the web wins — from variety.com by David Cohen
Excerpt:
He said today’s tech already offers hints of what the future will bring: screens large and small that can duplicate nearly anything the eye can perceive; cameras that let filmmakers choose framing, depth of field, focus and brightness in post, rather than on the day of shooting; fast networks that permit “collaboration at the speed of thought” and allow people to work together regardless of how far apart they are.
