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From DSC:
My interest in this? All of this ultimately relates to:
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![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 "The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian---July-2012")
Addendum on 9/12/12:
- Transmedia storytelling for content creators — by Jason Konopinski
On 08/28/2012,
in creativity, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, interactivity, multimedia, UK,
by Daniel Christian
On 08/20/2012,
in 3D, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, history, immersion, transmedia, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning,
by Daniel Christian
In each game episode, you play as Dak, Sera, and young Hystorian Riq as they travel back in time to fix one of the Great Breaks. Use your Hystorian’s Guide to discover what has gone wrong in history. Then, the story continues as you explore the open environment and play mini games such as lock picking or white-water rafting. Along the way you will also complete side quests and speak with historical characters who will aid you in — or perhaps deter you from — your quest.
The Infinity Ring game boasts an immersive open-world environment in which players are free to explore a 3-D representation of sites around the globe and throughout time. The game is available on desktop computers. Coming soon for mobile and tablet devices.
Also see:
Scholastic goes global to promote its latest transmedia epic — from digitalbookworld.com
NEW MULTI-PLATFORM TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE SERIES infinity ring™ LAUNCHES WITH global promotional campaign
FROM SCHOLASTIC
KIDS CAN PREVIEW THE INFINITY RING ONLINE GAME ON WWW.INFINITYRING.COM STARTING TODAY
Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, today announces a massive worldwide campaign to promote INFINITY RING™, a new multi-platform time travel adventure series for children ages 8-12, launching on August 28th simultaneously in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand with “Book 1: A Mutiny in Time” by New York Times bestselling author James Dashner. As the pioneering force behind the groundbreaking and international bestselling The 39 Clues® series, Scholastic expands its innovative multi-platform publishing program with Infinity Ring, a fully immersive reading experience which combines books, an interactive “Hystorian’s Guide” map, and an online game experience where readers travel back in time to “fix” history.
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20 schools innovating with digital tools — from Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill
Excerpt:
Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, “Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?” That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions!
On 08/17/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, podcasting, reading, reinvent, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, strategy, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton
Excerpt (emphasis below from DSC; also see the above categories to see how I see this as a highly-relevant component to our future learning ecosystems):
Then imagine what a hybrid of Apple’s tech and efforts like GetGlue, Shazam, and other interactive systems will be like when they’re more integrated into your 2017 smart TV. The big screen in your living room won’t be a one-way window into another world you can’t touch anymore. It’ll be a discovery engine, a way to learn facts, interact with the world, talk to people, find new and surprising content to absorb. Advertisers will love it, and companies like Nielsen–which largely has to guess all those stats about who watches which show at primetime nowadays–will be able to get accurate data…which may mean more appealing shows.
Also see:
- The future of Apple TV is every episode of every TV show on-demand using the cloud — from gizmodo.com
- Infographic: Connected TV Storm a’ Coming — from appmarket.tv by Richard Kastelein
On 08/10/2012,
in creativity, digital storytelling, presentations, story, storytelling,
by Daniel Christian
5 tips for better storytelling — from columnfivemedia.com by Ian Klein
Excerpt:
At a recent conference on transmedia, or multiplatform storytelling, Starlight Runner Entertainment CEO Jeff Gomez said that stories help us commune with things greater than ourselves. In a world where attention and big ideas are prized, knowing a few things about storytelling can make you more successful in your endeavors. Below are five steps you can take to help better tell your story.
Connect with your audience through storytelling – an interview with Samantha Starmer of REI — from blog.slideshare.net by Kit Seeborg
Excerpt:
With so much information bombarding conference attendees during an event, it’s easy to overwhelm and saturate an audience with facts, figures and data. A skilled storyteller can form a deeper connection with each audience member by sharing knowledge in story form.
Samantha Starmer leads cross-channel experience, design, and information architecture teams at REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.). An active public speaker, Samantha has evolved her presentation style to that of storytelling. Audience members quickly forget that they’re in a conference room or auditorium, and are immediately drawn in as Samantha’s story unfolds.
We caught up with Samantha just after her return from O’Reilly OSCON where she presented the workshop How to Design for the Future – Cross Channel Experience Design.
Digital storytelling in online courses — an upcoming presentation by Aldo Caputo for the 18th Annual Sloan Consortium Conference
Abstract
This session looks at the power of digital storytelling to achieve greater impact, relevance, and ultimately learning in online courses.
Extended Abstract
The use of narrative has been used to pass on knowledge from generation to generation since humans began communicating. Storytelling started out as an oral tradition, and has taken root in every medium that has emerged since, including print, radio, video, and now the web. Storytelling plays a tremendous role in the human experience. Schank argues in Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence (1995) that stories are the foundation of human memory and intelligence. John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid posit in The Social Life of Information (2000) that stories are one of the key ways that organizational learning is captured and transferred. Digital storytelling can also be used in the online classroom to make strong learning connections. We will examine some cases of digital storytelling in selected fully-online, asynchronous courses at the University of Waterloo, and look at how the stories were created, why they were used, and the impact they had on the learning experience. In particular we’ll explore how we can leverage digital storytelling online for greater impact, relevance, and ultimately, learning. Examples will include videos of students and working professionals relating experiences relevant to the content being studied to underscore the importance of the intended outcomes and help establish connections and applications of the knowledge to the real world. Excerpts of these videos will be shown and discussed. We will also share strategies for capturing effective stories and incorporating them in an online course, inviting participants to discuss their own examples and experiences. A discussion of strategies for capturing effective video stories will likely break out at the end, as will as a fruitful exchange of advice and ideas. Anyone interested in making online or blended learning more relevant, engaging, memorable, and effective would benefit from this session. The presentation and tip sheet for effective video stories will be made available online to participants.
On 07/24/2012,
in Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, convergence, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, multimedia, smart/connected TV, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Apple has been putting together a solid ecosystem of hardware and software that allows for the creation and distribution of content. “Easy is hard” I like to say and Apple’s done a great job of creating easy-to-use devices and apps. They have a long way to go before iTunes U has all the built-in functionality needed to replace a Blackboard Learn or a Moodle type of CMS/LMS. But given their solid history of creating highly-usable hardware and software, they could deal a smashing blow to what’s happening in the CMS/LMS world today.
Plus, with Apple TV, Airplay mirroring, the growth of second screen-based apps, and machine-to-machine communications, Apple is poised to get into this game…big time. If my thoughts re: “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” come to fruition, Apple would be positioned for some serious worldwide impact on lifelong learning; especially when combined with the developments such as the use of MOOCs, AI and HCI-related innovations, learning agents, web-based learner profiles, and potential/upcoming changes to accreditation.
Too far fetched do you think? Hmmm….well considering that online learning has already been proven to be at least as affective as f2f learning — and in some studies has produced even greater learning outcomes/results — I wonder how things will look in mid-2015…? (That is, where is the innovation occurring?)
Addendum:
- Connected TV penetration to top 50% by 2017 — from worldscreen.com by Mansha Daswani
Excerpt:
SCOTTSDALE: ABI Research forecasts that more than 50 percent of television homes in North America and Western Europe will have Internet-connected TV sets by 2017, up from just 10 percent last year, while Blu-ray player penetration is expected to rise to more than 76 percent from about 25 percent. The report notes that the popularity of connected TV is not limited to developed markets—there have been increasing shipments to China, ABI notes.
. - Advertisers need to pay attention to connected TV [INFOGRAPHIC] — from Mashable.com
. - The future of TV is two screens, one held firmly in your hands — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton
Excerpt:
The connected TV, sometimes called the smart TV (and even branded as such by Samsung) is a growing phenomenon: TV makers are adding limited apps, Net connectivity, and even streaming media powers to their newer TVs in the hope they’ll persuade you to upgrade your newish LCD for a flatter, smarter unit. They’re desperate to, given how flat this market is. But according to new research from Pew, the future of TV may actually be a little more closely aligned with the notion of a “connected TV viewer,” an important distinction. Pew spoke to over 2,200 U.S. adults a couple of months ago and discovered that 52% of all adult cell phone owners now “incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences.”
On 07/18/2012,
in attention, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas,
by Daniel Christian
4 ways to gamify learning in your classroom — from tophatmonocle.com
Excerpt:
This post explores the role of gamification in education and provides four examples of how you can bring the learning method into your classroom.
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Top Hat Monocle closes $8M to bring gamification to university classrooms — from betakit.com
Excerpt:
Today another student engagement platform, Top Hat Monocle, announced it has closed $8 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital Partners and iNovia Capital, with participation from SoftTech VC, Version One Ventures, and Golden Venture Partners. The Toronto- and San Francisco-based company, which raised $1.5 million in seed funding in November 2011, launched their product in 2010 and has been used by 65,000 students at over 150 global universities.
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Gamified courses from Course Hero and Bunchball boost student engagement — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner
Excerpt:
In some circles, the phrase “gamification” may have gone out of fashion, but Course Hero and Bunchball are intent on showing that it can still pack a punch in education.
In April, Course Hero, which uses free online resources to offer students digital study guides and other tools, launched a series of full-length online courses infused with game mechanics from Bunchball’s gamification platform. The companies Tuesday revealed some of the initial results from the partnership.
On average, users spend three times more time on the gamified courses than on all of CourseHero.com and total time on the platform has increased five percent since the Bunchball integration, Course Hero reported. The company also said that social sharing of achievements, which are awarded as students progress through the courses, has climbed nearly 400 percent since the Bunchball partnership.
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From DSC:
- There is enormous power when resources are reallocated to teams of specialists that come together in order to create engaging, multimedia-based, interactive learning materials! The products of these endeavors should prove to be highly beneficial — especially when they can be integrated into more hybrid/blended teaching and learning situations. That way, we can utilize the best of both the face-to-face and virtual worlds.
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Addendum on 7/19/12:
- Leveling up in your gamification — from GettingSmart.com by Adam Renfro
On 06/29/2012,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, IT in HE, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), smart classrooms, smart/connected TV,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I wonder:
- If the video wall pictured above could be a Smart/connected TV and if it can share files as well as play files?
- If such a setup will involve machine-to-machine communications (NFC, other)?
- If it will be like banking setups whereby the student’s device must obtain a constantly rotating password to access a resource that expires in ___ seconds — and they must be in that room to get it?
- If it will be hardware or software based…or both?
On 05/29/2012,
in attention, chemistry, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital storytelling, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, learning theories, memory, multimedia, music, story,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Great work Eli Cirino!
It is my hope that we could create more teaching materials like this — i.e. content that uses digital storytelling to create a more last impression…to elicit emotions…to move a piece of information through the gate (i.e. someone’s attention) and then through someone’s working memory and into their long term memory! Great, creative, innovative thinking Eli!
Techs related to transmedia storytelling may pave the way nicely for more educationally-related apps
On 05/29/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, digital storytelling, emerging technologies, future, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, smart/connected TV, storytelling, television, transmedia, trends, videoconferencing,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
As the massive convergence of the computer, the telephone, and the television continues, other trends are also taking place that may eventually impact how we interact with educationally-related content. That is, the main screen of our living rooms might be delivering a 5-10 minute “lecture”, but our tablets and smart phones may be in our laps as we interact around this content with others.
Along these lines, as transmedia storytelling develops, the use of multiple devices and methods to consume and contribute to content may be setting the stages for how things can get done with more educationally-related applications.
Consider this excerpt from Complex TV: Transmedia Storytelling — by Jason Mittell, Associate Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Culture at Middlebury College:
As television series have become more complex in their narrative strategies, television itself has expanded its scope across a number of screens and platforms, complicating notions of medium-specificity at the very same time that television seems to have a clearer sense of distinct narrative form. This chapter explores how television narratives are expanded and complicated through transmedia extensions, including video games, novelizations, websites, online video, and alternate reality games. With specific analyses of transmedia strategies for Lost and Breaking Bad, I consider how television’s transmedia storytelling is grappling with issues of canonicity and audience segmentation, how transmedia reframes viewer expectations for the core television serial, and what transmedia possibilities might look like going forward.
Also relevant/see:
- Please don’t ruin the second screen — from techcrunch.com by Somrat Niyogi
Excerpt:
The second screen space is going to be a multi-billion dollar market. Just last week, Tim Cook announced that 67M iPads were sold in less than two years. It took more than 24 years to sell that many Macs. With the growing trend of second screen activity (i.e. using tablets while you watch TV), there is bound to be major disruption in the TV industry. - Comcast connects Skype HD videoconferencing to the living room TV — from networkworld.com by Larry Hettick
Excerpt:
With the Skype on Xfinity service customers will also be able to:
• Make and receive Skype-to-Skype video and audio calls or send instant messages via Skype on a TV while watching their favorite TV show at the same time, and accept incoming Skype calls during a TV show with the help of Caller ID.
• Import Skype friends into a global address book which can also contain Facebook, Outlook, Gmail and smartphone contacts so subscribers can find friends who already use Skype and see when contacts are online and available to talk.
• Communicate with the hundreds of millions of connected Skype users around the globe, whether on a Skype-enabled TV, PC or mobile device. - A TV platform so disruptive everyone’s suing it — from fastcompany.com by David Zax
Excerpt:
We chat with Chet Kanojia of Aereo, the new TV-where-and-when-you-want-it service that has a few legal troubles. Could Aereo finally disrupt the loathed cable bundle–and TV altogether? - Now serving the latest in exponential growth: YouTube!— from singularityhub.com by David J. Hill.
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Addendum on 6/2/12
On 05/21/2012,
in digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, emerging technologies, future, robotics,
by Daniel Christian
Braver, newer literary worlds — from futurebook.mit.edu by Debra Di Blasi
Description of videos:
The following video (in two parts) was part of my presentation to the Louisville Conference of Literature, February 2012. I am presenting a more extensive multimedia paper at the International Book Conference in Barcelona, June 29-July 2, 2012.
On 05/17/2012,
in animation, art, career development, design, digital audio, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, educational games / serious games, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt:
The animation education industy has never been so competitive, with schools competing for students and students competing for a small number of available industry jobs. The job rate and student employability has dropped to the lowest in years, so a top-notch animation education has never been so critical.
All this has made choosing the right animation school extremely difficult. To help students navigate through the world of animation schools, we’ve put together the Top 100 most highly-regarded and sought after animation schools on the planet. This list of the Top 100 Schools in Animation, Gaming and Design was compiled via a mixture of school reviews, industry-reviewed lists like the Princeton Review, and via a survey of the animation industry professionals and recruiters from companies like Pixar, J.J. Sedelmaier and DreamWorks who were featured in our Interview Series. And without further ado, here are your Top 100 Schools in Animation, Gaming and Design:
On 05/07/2012,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, convergence, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, multimedia, online learning, online media, smart/connected TV, technologies for your home, television, transmedia, trends,
by Daniel Christian
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Also see:
- A new learning “channel” is developing — posted on April 30, 2011 at FutureLearn.org by Daniel Christian
and…
- Aereo.com
- NimbleTV.com
- Samsung launches their interactive Smart TVs in India
- Why IPTV is the Future
- Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity
- The 5 C’s of connected TV
- Research and Markets: The 2012 Battle for Dominance in the Digital Living Room Report: 400 Bn Households Worldwide to have some form of Smart TV by 2016
DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/55tgll/the_battle_for_dom) has announced the addition of the “The Battle for Dominance in the Digital Living Room” report to their offering. A growing number of devices are starting to connect television sets to the Internet allowing for the delivery of a wide variety of new entertainment services. The Battle for Dominance in the Digital Living Room looks at the battle to connect televsion sets in consumers’ homes to the Internet and the impact this will have on the media industry. The focus is on providing an introduction to the issues involved with connected TVs and a look at the baseline forecasts for connected households. Over 400 million households worldwide to have some form of Smart TV by 2016. - The future of TV isn’t TV, it’s broadband.
- Future of the book for IDEO
Addendums on 5/8/12:
Double vision: TV gets interactive — from thetowntalk.com by Fraizer Moore
Piers Fawkes: The future of TV — from psfk.com by Piers Fawkes
A solid Q&A with such questions as:
- The old hierarchical vertical order of: channel – series – episode, seems to be in danger, letting the horizontal disorder take its place. What do you think broadcasters can do to serve people during this shift?
- The TV channel is being challenged, first by VOD and now by internet based services. How do you think the TV channels’ role will evolve in the next 5 years? Will the traditional push-based model maintain its centrality or will users be looking for search-only and pull-based alternatives?
- A new form of TV means new revenue models. Who do you think will finance the next successful TV show in 10 years and how? Will the new channels’ role generate new business models? How you imagine them?
- To protect our brain from information overload we need to filter and recommendations are a form of filtering. How do you think people’s recommendations will shape the future role of TV channels in the next years to come?
- Artificial Intelligence, Smart Agents and algorithms are directing us into a world of Adaptive User Interfaces capable of recognizing different users and provide them with an anticipated, personalized experience. How do you think the future TV will shape around people’s habits and tastes?
On 04/24/2012,
in Adobe, animation, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, elearning, graphics, interactivity, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
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.Also see:
- The Global Creativity Gap — an infographic from Adobe
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Pantone unveils 336 new colors — from PSFK.com by Kyana Gordon
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Education system stifles creativity, survey finds — from The Journal by David Nagel
Is the American education system stifling creativity? That’s the attitude held by a majority of Americans, according to a new worldwide survey focused on attitudes toward creativity in schools, the workplace, and the home.
From DSC:
- This last piece from David Nagel addresses my fears and concerns with our current emphasis on standardized tests, common core standards, etc. The emphasis is on STEM and can lead to a one-size-fits-all type of education that doesn’t allow each student to identify and pursue their own passions enough.
Addendum on 5/2/12:
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 — reviewed at PCMag.com
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