education technology

Technology predictions for the second half of the decade — from techcrunch.com by Lance Smith

Excerpts:

Big Data and IoT evolve into automated information sharing
Self-driving vehicles become mainstream
The appearance of artificial intelligent assistants
Real-time agility through data virtualization

EdTech trends for the coming years — from edtechreview.in

Excerpts:

EdTech is about to explode. The coming technology and the new trends on the rise can’t but forecast an extensive technology adoption in schools all around the globe.

Specific apps, systems, codable gadgets and the adaptation of general use elements to the school environment are engaging teachers and opening up the way to new pedagogical approaches. And while we are scratching the surface of some of them, others have just started to buzz persistently.

Wearables + Nano/Micro Technology + the Internet of Things
3D + 4D printing
Big Data + Data Mining
Mobile Learning
Coding
Artificial Intelligence + Deep Learning
- Adaptative learning: based on a student’s behaviour and results, an intelligent assistant can predict and readapt the learning path to those necessities. Combined with biometrics and the ubiquitous persona (explained below) a student could have the best experience ever.
- Automatic courses on the fly, with contents collected by intelligent searching systems (data mining).
- Virtual tutors.
The Ubiquitous Persona + Gamification + Social Media Learning
Specialised Staff in Schools

Phones and wearables will spur tenfold growth in wireless data by 2019 — from recode.net

Excerpts:

Persistent growth in the use of smartphones, plus the adoption of wireless wearable devices, will cause the total amount of global wireless data traffic to rise by 10 times its current levels by 2019, according to a forecast by networking giant Cisco Systems out [on 2/3/15].

The forecast, which Cisco calls its Visual Networking Index, is based in part on the growth of wireless traffic during 2014, which Cisco says reached 30 exabytes, the equivalent of 30 billion gigabytes. If growth patterns remain consistent, Cisco’s analysts reckon, the wireless portion of traffic crossing the global Internet will reach 292 exabytes by the close of the decade.

9 ed tech trends to watch in 2015 — from the Jan/Feb edition of Campus Technology Magazine

Learning spaces
Badges
Gamification
Analytics
3D Printing
Openness
Digital
Consumerization
Adaptive & Personalized Learning

Even though I’ve mentioned it before, I’ll mention it again here because it fits the theme of this posting:

NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Higher Education Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

What is on the five-year horizon for higher education institutions? Which trends and technologies will drive educational change? What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and educational change steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 56 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition, in partnership with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). The NMC Horizon Report series charts the five-year horizon for the impact of emerging technologies in learning communities across the globe. With more than 13 years of research and publications, it can be regarded as the world’s longest-running exploration of emerging technology trends and uptake in education.

From DSC:
Speaking of trends…although this item isn’t necessarily technology related, I’m going to include it here anyway:

Career trends students should be watching in 2015 — from hackcollege.com by

Excerpt:

Students Need to Pay Attention to Broader Trends, and Get Ready.
For better or worse, the post-college world is changing.

According to a variety of analysis sites, including Forbes, Time, and Bing Predicts, more and more of the workforce will be impacted by increased entrepreneurship, freelancing, work-from-home trends, and non-traditional career paths.

These experts are saying that hiring practices will shift, meaning that students need to prepare LinkedIn profiles, online portfolio, work at internships, and to network to build relationships with potential future employers.

———-

Addendum on 3/6/15:
Self-driving car technology could end up in robots — from pcworld.com by Fred O’Connor

Excerpt:

The development of self-driving cars could spur advancements in robotics and cause other ripple effects, potentially benefitting society in a variety of ways.

Autonomous cars as well as robots rely on artificial intelligence, image recognition, GPS and processors, among other technologies, notes a report from consulting firm McKinsey. Some of the hardware used in self-driving cars could find its way into robots, lowering production costs and the price for consumers.

Self-driving cars could also help people grow accustomed to other machines, like robots, that can complete tasks without the need for human intervention.

Addendum on 3/6/15:

Top 5 Emerging Technologies In 2015 — from wtvox.com
Excerpt:
1) Robotics 2.0
2) Neuromorphic Engineering
3) Intelligent Nanobots – Drones
4) 3D Printing
5) Precision Medicine

Interview: Kevin Carey, author of ‘The End Of College’ — from NPR Ed

Excerpt:

But author Kevin Carey argues that those problems might be overcome in the future with online higher education. Carey directs the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation. In his new book, The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, Carey envisions a future in which “the idea of ‘admission’ to college will become an anachronism, because the University of Everywhere will be open to everyone” and “educational resources that have been scarce and expensive for centuries will be abundant and free.”

…

On the term “University of Everywhere”
The University of Everywhere is the university that I think my children and future generations will attend when they go to college. … They will look very different in some ways, although not in other ways, from the colleges that I went to and that many of us have become familiar with. This will be driven by advances in information technology: So whereas historically you went to college in a specific place and only studied with the other people who could afford to go [to] that place, in the future we’re going to study with people all over the world, interconnected over global learning networks and in organizations that in some cases aren’t colleges as we know them today, but rather 21st-century learning organizations that take advantage of all of the educational tools that are rapidly becoming available to offer great college experiences for much less money.

From DSC:
Though Kevin discusses various items in this interview, I wanted to focus on the topic of online learning and leveraging the Internet for lifelong learning.

Whether out of fear, self-preservation, or for some other reasons, there continues to exist within higher education a group of people who still discount the power of the Internet to offer opportunities for learning throughout one’s lifetime. They poo-poo online learning for example, looking down upon it and assert that such methods can’t measure up to the traditional face-to-face based learning experiences. Never mind that the majority of these folks — it not all of them — have never taught online nor have they taken a well-executed, formal online-based course. They don’t realize how far various technologies have come to provide powerful, effective, highly-convenient learning experiences. They just continue to poo-poo it:

Only 27.6% of chief academic officers reported that their faculty accepted online instruction in 2003. This proportion showed some improvement over time, reaching a high of 33.5% in 2007. The slow increase was short-lived, however. Today, the rate is nearly back to where it began; 28.0% of academic leaders say that their faculty accept the “value and legitimacy of online education.”

Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the
United States by I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman (2015)

Meanwhile, the world continues to change, pressing needs continue to amass, technologies continue to emerge and morph, and many outside of higher ed are starting to care less and less about what those stuck in traditional higher ed even have to say. They’re beginning to design other alternatives. See below for some examples.

With that said, there’s also a sizable group of us who are working hard to innovate and to leverage the power of the Internet — who seek to reduce the price of obtaining a degree, to make quality education more affordable and accessible to the masses, and who seek to provide a balance of the liberal arts/foundational skills with the skills that are needed out in the workplace. Also see below for examples of this.

DSC: I write these reflections down to urge those of us working within higher education NOT to be like the Smith Coronas of the world, NOT to be like the Blockbusters and Kodaks of the world — who, to their very dying day, clutched tightly to their beliefs/strategies/business plans, not seeing the tidal waves that were approaching them.

————–

The New Normal — from edtechdigest.wordpress.com by Victor Rivero
A dearth in practical technology skills calls for an online boot camp approach.

Excerpt:

The ecosystems of many companies are changing as baby boomers retire and workplaces are filled with a strange and not fully functioning blend of digital immigrants, with fresh new academic graduates. In many cases these graduates have invested considerable time and money in traditional offline learning and have come out overqualified yet drastically under skilled.
…
Many people who make the switch are ready for change and want it to happen quickly. Online training through technology boot camps for example, means they can pick up key technology skills, and as a result make a total career change; transitioning from being unemployed to becoming a busy productive freelancer in a matter of months. As a result, offline learning is losing ground while online learning is gaining traction by the second.

From DSC:
Can those of us working within higher ed offer such bootcamps?

Doing so would not only help learners of all ages but would also create new sources of (sorely-needed) revenue. Perhaps these sorts of bootcamps shouldn’t have to be vetted through the normal committees and mechanisms — as doing so will surely keep us from providing the level of responsiveness as the increasingly-fast-paced world now requires. Perhaps we leave those decisions up to the relevant, knowledgeable faculty members who can then team up with innovative staff and administrators to create and deliver these offerings.

————–

Udacity kicks off enrollment for its Swift-focused iOS developer ‘nanodegree’ — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

If you’re looking for a way to gain the skills necessary to get a gig developing for iPhone and iPad, but unwilling to commit to a full-time college or university schedule, Udacity might have the answer. The online education platform debuted something called a “nanodegree” last year, and enrollment for the iOS developer edition of the same just opened to applicants today. Enrollment is open to anyone willing to spend $200 per month to participate (with a one-week free trial included) and closes at the end of March 10.

————–

IDEO Futures

C-Suite TV

Yyieldr

Lessons Go Where

Class Do

NYC Data Science Bootcamp

Hands-On Data Science & Engineering: A 5-Day Bootcamp

User Experience Design Immersive — A 10-Week, Full-Time Career Accelerator in Boston

Flatiron School

Python Programming for Beginners — set your own price

Eleven Fifty

Cybrary.it

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Re-imagining Learning & Credentialing in a Connected World — from etale.org by Bernard Bull

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

What happens when we don’t think of these as three disconnected and unrelated learning pathways? What if we see this as representative of a city or region in which one travels on a lifelong learning journey? What possibilities does that create for us? Consider a model where credentials can be provided as people demonstrate competence through any of these stops along the way, whether it is the weekend workshop, the self-guided tour, the self-study stop, or a formal course. This is one of the interesting and exciting possibilities of micro-credentials and digital badges. Their affordances give us a greater ability to imagine such contexts, as evidenced by the cities of learning initiatives.

————–

ACE and Blackboard unveil research on alternative pathways to degree completion — from acenet.edu
Papers on Credit for Prior Learning and Competency-Based Education Practices to be Released

Excerpts:

New research released [on 2/20/15] will shed light on how two approaches to creating alternative pathways to college graduation for post-traditional students are working.
…
The first paper is “Credit for Prior Learning: Charting Institutional Practice for Sustainability,” which identifies and addresses some of the cultural barriers and successful strategies to institutions incorporating CPL.
…
The second paper is “The Currency of Higher Education: Credits and Competencies,” which explores the challenges in adapting the traditional credit hour to an information-age economy that relies on greater flexibility and productivity.

————–

Harvard Business School hopes to fundamentally change online education with its new $1,500 pre-MBA program — from businessinsider.com.au by Richard Feloni

Excerpt:

This week, Harvard Business School launched an innovative new online education program to the public that it thinks is so far ahead of free online courses that it’s worthy of a $US1,500 price tag.

The 11-week pre-MBA program called CORe accepts about 500 students and is taught in the school’s signature case-study method. The first official session started on Feb. 25, and applications are open for spring and summer sessions.

CORe is the flagship offering from HBS’s new digital platform, HBX, which aims to become a full-fledged branch of the school rather than a place to dump video recordings of classroom lectures.

————–

Constructionism 3.0 — from steve-wheeler.blogspot.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Listening to MIT’s Vijay Kumar speaking is always informative. Kumar has vast experience in research in online and digital learning environments, and he conveys his knowledge in an accessible style. He was keen to argue that the future of education has two fundamental characteristics – open and digital. His previously published book Opening Up Education explains the first in plenty of detail, but the second, digital, was uppermost in his keynote presentation at ELI 2015, the Saudi Arabian premier e-learning event. He said that it is at the intersection of digital and open that learning innovation occurs, and that education will be transformed if attention is paid to them both.

————–

Disruption: The Slow Boil Transforming Higher Education — from evoLLLution.com by Michael Horn

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

There are 37 million Americans like Joe who have some college but no degree. Many of them, like Joe, need to re-skill to be able to make a living. Many of them don’t have the time or money to be able to access a traditional certificate or degree program, even if it is online. In the language of disruption, they are non-consumers of traditional certificate and degree programs.
…
This emerging class of asynchronous online courses, both paid and free, is doing something similar by targeting primarily non-consumers—those not considering formal higher education (either again or for the first time). But these non-consumers are now improving their skills one competency at a time and certainly consuming education.
…
Traditional institutions of higher education are unlikely to fill this demand. Their institutions were not built to update and develop curriculum and short-term programs rapidly. Those best equipped to teach may be practitioners and real-world experts using online platforms that allow them to reach anyone instantly.
…
This is the sharing economy of education. Adults can choose the competencies they need, from pivot tables in Excel to training a new puppy, and learn them when they need them online, no longer tied to academic calendars or seminar dates.

————–

HEDLINE: Udemy’s Online Course Millionaires — from edukwest.com by Kirsten Winkler

Excerpt:

The top three Udemy instructors are currently:

Web Development – Rob Percival
Earnings: $2.8 million
Students: 120,000

Web Development – Victor Bastos
Earnings: $900,000
Students: 52,000

Personal Development – Alun Hill
Earnings: $650,000
Students: 47,000

————–

LoudCloud Systems and FASTRAK: A non walled-garden approach to CBE — from mfeldstein.com by Phil Hill

Excerpt:

As competency-based education (CBE) becomes more and more important to US higher education, it would be worth exploring the learning platforms in use. While there are cases of institutions using their traditional LMS to support a CBE program, there is a new market developing specifically around learning platforms that are designed specifically for self-paced, fully-online, competency-framework based approaches.
…
…my interest here is not merely to review one company’s products, but rather to illustrate aspects of the growing CBE movement using the demo.

————–

As a whole new kind of college emerges, critics fret over standards — from hechingerreport.org by Matt Krupnick
Competency education offers credit for experience, but who decides? Critics worry whether competency-based education is growing too fast for standards to be set.

————–

Are prestigious private colleges worth the cost? — from The Wall Street Journal by Douglas Belkin
A high-school senior, a recruiting manager from Deloitte and a college professor weigh in

From DSC:
Even the very presence of this article in the Wall Street Journal should greatly concern those of us within higher education and this increasingly-common question should elicit a response at each of our institutions. It illustrates the pendulum swinging away from the strong public support of higher ed. Such support is weakening, as the price of higher ed has increased. And similar to the line in Jurassic Park, people will find a way. If they can’t afford traditional higher education, alternatives are sure to appear. Several of the aforementioned items bear witness to this fact.

————–

Adaptivity Tops Gartner’s Strategic Tech List for Ed [Schaffhauser]

On 03/03/2015, in analytics, assessment, data related items, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, mobile learning, mobile technologies, research, social learning / networks, strategy, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Adaptivity Tops Gartner’s Strategic Tech List for Ed — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Even as education spending is projected to inch up two percent this year to reach $67.8 billion worldwide, the way in which school districts, colleges and universities are spending that money is evolving to reflect the growing digital nature of teaching and learning, according to Gartner. In a new report, “Top 10 Strategic Technologies Impacting Education in 2015,” the business IT consulting firm ranked 10 innovations and tech trends that it believes the education CIO should plan for in 2015.

Many of the technologies aren’t emerging from within education itself, said Gartner Vice President Jan-Martin Lowendahl. They’re being “driven by major forces such as digital business and the consumerization and industrialization of IT.”

…

1. Adaptive Learning
2. Adaptive Digital Textbooks
3. CRM
4. Big Data
5. and 6. Sourcing Strategies and ‘Exostructure’
7. Open ‘Microcredentials’
8. Digital Assessment
9. Mobile
10. Social Learning

Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision – some sharp innovations here!

On 02/27/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, mobile learning, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, second screen apps, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Example snapshots from
Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision

Why you now need a team to create and deliver learning [Christian & Grush]

On 02/26/2015, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, analytics, animation, attention, blended learning, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, copyright/ownership/NFTs, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, e-books, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, programming, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, trends, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, web design and production, writing, by Daniel Christian

My thanks to Mary Grush at Campus Technology for her continued work in bringing relevant topics and discussions to light — so that our institutions of higher education will continue delivering on their missions well into the future. By doing so, learners will be able to continue to partake of the benefits of attending such institutions. But in order to do so, we must adapt, be responsive, and be willing to experiment. Towards that end, this Q&A with Mary relays some of my thoughts on the need to move more towards a team-based approach.

When you think about it, we need teams whether we’re talking about online learning, hybrid learning or face-to-face learning. In fact, I just came back from an excellent Next Generation Learning Space Conference and it was never so evident to me that you need a team of specialists to design the Next Generation Learning Space and to design/implement pedagogies that take advantage of the new affordances being offered by active learning environments.

6 solid items regarding virtual reality and augmented reality

On 02/16/2015, in Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interactivity, user experience (UX), user interface design, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

Designing the Future of Augmented Reality: slides from PechaKucha

Excerpted slides:

Also see:

Excerpt from 40ideas.com

How will Augmented Reality extend human capacity and human imagination? The 40 Ideas That Will Change Reality documents the inventions, concepts, and opportunities that will forever change the way we experience reality. Eight of the 40 Ideas from the upcoming book are highlighted above.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: what’s the difference? — from augmentedstories.com by Helen Papagiannis

Excerpt:

AR and VR are often confused with each other, and used interchangeably in the media, but they are significantly different. Let’s break it down:

Augmented Reality (AR): real, physical world
Virtual Reality (VR): computer generated environment, artificial world

Reality Has Changed. Microsoft’s HoloLens and what you need to know about the next wave of Augmented Reality — from augmentedstories.com by Helen Papagiannis

Excerpt:

HoloLens appears to use a Virtual Retinal Display (VRD).

So, what’s VRD, you ask?

VRD mirrors how the human eye works. The back of the eye receives light and converts it into signals for your brain. Images are projected directly onto the retina with the back of the eye used as a screen effectively.

The result is a more true-to-life image than the ‘ghostly transparent superimposed representation’ (as Gizmodo reporter Sean Hollister describes) we’ve seen with AR eyewear before. Hollister details his experience of Microsoft’s prototype as “standing in a room filled with objects. Posters covering the walls. And yet somehow—without blocking my vision—the HoloLens was making those objects almost totally invisible.” He states, “Some of the very shiniest things in the room—the silver handle of a pitcher, if I recall correctly—managed to reflect enough light into my eyes to penetrate the illusion.”

Microsoft’s HoloLens

Also see:

An addendum on 2/17/15 — with thanks to Mr. Steven Chevalia for this resource which deals with immersive experiences:

Combine these concepts into a multitouch, interactive “video wall” or Smart TV-related apps: Some incredible opportunities for collaborative learning!

On 02/16/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, business, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, online media, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, second screen apps, smart classrooms, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, TVs, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Check out some of the functionality in these solutions. Then imagine if these solutions were in the size of an entire wall in a classroom or in a corporate L&D facility. Whew!

Some serious opportunities for collaboration would arise for remote learners –as well as those located in the face-to-face setting
What new affordances would be present for those teaching in K-12, higher ed, or trainers working within the training/learning and development fields? Conversations/discussions would be recorded — to be picked up at the next session. In the meantime, learners could review the discussions at their own pace.
What if all of this were possible in your future Smart/Connected TV?
I’m also talking here about a vendor that could offer solutions that K-12 systems and institutions of higher ed could afford; some of the solutions below have much of what I’m envisioning here, but are out of the price range. Or the product is multitouch and fairly large, but it doesn’t offer the collaborative features of some of the other products here.

Ideum’s touch walls come close to what I’m talking about in this posting. If they could add some functionality for seeing/bringing in/collaborating with remote learners — as found in Mezzanine — then that would be great!

Also see:

Also see bluescape — but these excellent, innovative solutions are out of the price range for most K-12 and higher ed institutions:

NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Higher Education Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

What is on the five-year horizon for higher education institutions? Which trends and technologies will drive educational change? What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and educational change steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 56 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition, in partnership with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). The NMC Horizon Report series charts the five-year horizon for the impact of emerging technologies in learning communities across the globe. With more than 13 years of research and publications, it can be regarded as the world’s longest-running exploration of emerging technology trends and uptake in education.

Rhizomatic, digital habitat – A study of connected learning & technology application [Kjærgaard, Korsgaard Sorensen]

On 02/05/2015, in collaboration, communities of practice, education technology, Europe, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, new media literacies, social learning / networks, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Rhizomatic, digital habitat – A study of connected learning and technology application — from researchgate.net by Thomas Kjærgaard & Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen, Institute of Philosophy and Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark

Keywords:
Rhizomatic learning, connectivism, digital habitat, inclusion, cooperative learning, community of practice.

1.0 Introduction
It is fair to claim that today’s college classrooms are technology rich; in our case almost every student brings his/her own laptop, smartphone and maybe tablet-computer to class every day. It is our experience that the technology richness doesn’t always contribute to the learning process, especially in presentation-oriented, teacher-centered teaching. The majority of the activities carried out on the computers are substituting paper based alternatives. In our case the technologies only rarely redefine the pedagogic design or the students’ behavior. The students in this study almost never use blogs (0%), social bookmarking (6%), twitter (0%) or multimodal note taking on smartphones. So they generally copy analogue behavior to the digital world. We believe that with the web-technology at hand today the possibilities for redefining the pedagogic design and the students learning processes are many. Because of that this study was designed as a synthesis of partially an attempt to redefine the utilization of digital tools according to their affordances, and partially to study a networking community of practice in a college classroom (Sorensen & Dalsgaard 2008). By combining digital tools that aspire to have great potential in teaching and learning activities that utilize the network structures that the students know already form their private lives we hope to make a strong connection that will generate a powerful pedagogic design. Furthermore the technology will show its general equity as more than just a note taking tool.

…

6.0 In conclusion
In the six classes that participated in this small study it seemed that many benefitted from the new technology-based way of collaborating. But it is still only a few groups that really worked as communities of practice in digital habitats, it seems that only very few possessed ‘network literacy’. Our survey showed that the students were not used to thinking of the internet as a place for not only searching information but also for processing information. The survey says that in the childhood homes of the students computers were used for entertainment (64%) and games (84%) and only 12% used computers for forums and blogs etc. Maybe we can’t use their childhood experiences with computer usage to explain their adult usage of computers in general but there is a connection between those students who come from families where internet forums and blogs were used to process information and those students current network literacy. The problem is that only three students came for such families, hence the foundation for stating anything general is way too insecure.

It would be interesting to investigate why some groups worked as communities of practice and why others didn’t. Unfortunately that was not within the scope of this study but it might be in future studies. It could seem like the groups that became communities of practice were the ones where the group members already knew how to learn in networks and which knowledge that was appropriate to ‘store’ in their group peers.

This notion, if it is meaningful on a larger scale, is similar to what Rheingold calls network literacy (Rheingold 2012).

Is the term ‘homo conexus’ describing the evolution of the homo sapiens into at more networking more knowledge sharing, more co-creating being? It seems to be what the literature on the field predict (Bay 2009, Rheingold 2012, Castells 2005, Siemens 2005). However in our small study it didn’t seem to be the case. We saw a glimpse of ‘homo conexus’ in some groups but the conclusion is that there is still quite a long way from the connected, networking homo conexus of the literature to an average student in our classes. The study shows that working in a technology rich, rhizomatic classroom demanded a lot form both teachers and students.

First and foremost both students and teachers have to acknowledge the principals of the rhizomatic approach. The pedagogic design must present a map of possibilities and not a fixed route. This is in itself a challenge for some students.
Then students and teachers have to be literate in the technologies.
Then students and teachers have to acknowledge that mastering learning is an important part of learning.
Then students and teachers have to understand and accept their new position in the learning process and in the didactic design

If those circumstances are present then the rhizomatic, digital habitat seems to be an interesting pedagogic design that could be investigated further. If we look at isolated instances (the Tabby Lou story, Gee 2012) it is evident that almost anything can be learned if you master learning in at network and that potential should be utilized in teaching.

Tech makes solid contributions to the learning experiences of these Chicago-based 5th graders

On 02/04/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, digital learning, education technology, engagement / engaging students, Google, heutagogy, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, student-related, tablets, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

Internet access as vital as devices to boosting the learning experience — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

The project reported five key findings:

Access to a computing device and the Internet resulted in “greater student engagement in learning.” Eighty percent of the students said having the tablet “made learning more fun and interesting”; 72 percent reported they “were more engaged in their lessons.”
Sixty percent of students said they did more reading and writing during the school year because of having a tablet. In fact, teachers assigned more reading and writing homework because they knew home Internet access was available. “This resulted in increased reading and writing fluency, which is especially important for English Language Learners,” the report noted.
Internet access shot up. Nearly 80 percent of students reported accessing the Internet on a daily basis in fifth grade, up from 4 percent in fourth grade.
Students became more independent learners. Almost all said they “used their tablet regularly to look up information on the Internet when they had a question about something.”
With professional development, teachers changed their instructional practices. According to the report, this was evident “by the level of integration of the tablets into everyday instruction” and by “the new project based learning orientation within the classes.”

But the greatest difference overall, the researchers stated, occurred because students could access online information anytime, anywhere. That access “transformed the classroom environment by allowing both students and teachers to bring additional resources into the learning process, at just the right moment to have the greatest impact on learning.”

Is this the online learning model of the future? — from ecampusnews.com by Rony Zarom
Flex class options are seeing spikes in enrollment among Gen C students; here’s how to get started.

Excerpt:

“Flex-classes,” a preferred learning style among Gen Cs that offers “flex-attendance“ options to join classes “in-person” or “online” throughout the duration of a course, allowing students to more efficiently, and affordably, learn anytime, anywhere.

In fact, if the current enrollment growth rate continues, nearly half of all college students will be enrolled in a flexible online learning course by 2020.

Based on a cross-generational commonality to stay digitally connected and plugged into mobile devices, these two generations expect more accessible, technology-forward learning environments that give them the flexibility, mobility and freedom to learn when and where they want.

…

One of the biggest weather deterrents that disrupts student attendance and educators’ lesson plans is snow days, and thanks to virtual flex-class options, snow day disruptions may be coming to an end for good.

Schools around the country have been implementing flex-classes to allow students the option to join classes online on days they can’t make it to school, instead of making up the lost days at another time and often dipping deep into summer vacations. Students can tune in to their classrooms via mobile device or tablet to complete their learning initiatives for the day. The snow day approach is a realistic option for institutions looking to test the effectiveness of flex-class implementation.

From DSC:
This is an interesting approach. What I like about it is that it provides more choice and more control for the student.

What I wonder about is how would this type of learning environment impact the pedagogies that a professor would need to employ…? Or are we not that far along here yet? That is, how does one simultaneously offer a productive online learning experience as well as an effective face-to-face learning experience?

Also, on a slight tangent here from this model…
I’ve been wondering about whether remote students could effectively/simultaneously come into a face-to-face classroom setting — and I think the answer is yes. As with the corporate world, teams are scattered throughout a nation or from various places throughout the globe — and yet work gets done. Projects get done. Collaboration happens. Learning happens.

Some institutions, including the college where I work at, are experimenting with using telepresence robots to bring in those remote students. The version 2.0’s and above of these robots may be an option. However, I’m wondering if a better option might be available if a vendor could morph something like Cisco’s StadiumVision into an educational setting…? That is, provide 3-4 camera angles/perspectives per classroom and let the remote learners switch between viewing angles on their end of things…? Such as setup would be very interesting to experiment with.

Also, in regards to learning spaces, should one wall be dedicated to bringing in remote students? That is, one of the walls could display who all is coming into a classroom remotely so that they could be a part of the discussions and so that the F2F students could see and interact w/ those remote students.

Finally, might these ideas dovetail into the idea of providing learning hubs — where Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) could be synchronously or asynchronously presenting information (in a digital/virtual manner) and leading a discussion for those who are seated and learning together in a physical setting?

EMLYON Business School to create a ‘Smart Business School’ via IBM Cloud [finance.yahoo.com]

On 01/27/2015, in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, education, education technology, emerging technologies, Europe, IBM, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, by Daniel Christian

EMLYON Business School to create a ‘Smart Business School’ via IBM Cloud — from finance.yahoo.com
New digital learning environment based on the SoftLayer infrastructure will personalize education experience globally

Excerpt:

ECULLY, France, Jan. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and EMLYON today announced a program to develop a ‘Smart Business School’ higher education environment that is capable of delivering personalized, on-demand business education on a global basis via the IBM Cloud. EMLYON will work with IBM to place educational innovation and digital entrepreneurship at the heart of its strategy, to create better outcomes for its students and a more engaging environment for its teachers.

The changes in the world of education given rising globalization forces, new uses related to digital content and higher expectations of learners and teachers is putting a pressure on higher education. In response, EMLYON turned to IBM to transform the current ways in which their students are acquiring knowledge and skills to be better prepared for the world outside the classroom.

“What we believe is genuinely new about this initiative is that it will allow us to deliver content and coaching that are absolutely relevant to each participants’ needs and aspirations, wherever they are in the world and at every step on their career path,” said Bernard Belletante, dean of EMLYON. “So, in a similar way that users today can cherry-pick their entertainment, our community will be able to choose when, where and how much it learns.”

From DSC, a somewhat related comment to the above item…
Even if and when technologies such as IBM’s Watson, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Deepmind, or Amazon’s Echo get baked into MOOCs and/or other forms of online or blended learning, teachers/professors/trainers will still be critically important. They always have been and likely always will be. However, the heavy lifting of learning a subject may be able to be done with such tools and technologies. Learners will then come to the Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) with their questions and requests for further guidance.

Along these lines, a somewhat-related graphic from a while back:

Watson-MOOCs-NewTypesCollaboration-DChristian-2-14-13

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp [Selak]

On 01/19/2015, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Google, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, by Daniel Christian

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp — from edutopia.org by Bill Selak

Excerpt:

The rapid adoption of devices in the classroom has fundamentally changed the way we can create video. Every part of the creation process — writing, recording, editing, and distributing — is possible on the devices that can fit in our pocket. Vision is the most dominant of the five senses. Research shows that concepts are better remembered if they are taught visually. This is called the pictorial superiority effect, and it’s why video is such a powerful learning tool.

A video is created three times: when you write it, when you shoot it, and when you edit it. There are several formats that can be used to write a script for the classroom: a Google Doc, a dedicated app (ex: Storyboards), a Google Form, or a production organization document. Whichever format is used, emphasis should be placed on how it will be used in the classroom, and what the goal of the video is. When recording, it is important to incorporate basic rules of composition, such as the rule of thirds, into your video. Being aware of the environment (basic concepts like lighting and room tone) makes it easier to edit.

Curating content is another significant way to incorporate video into your classroom. If you don’t have the time or software to make a fancy video, odds are someone has already made it and shared it on YouTube. This Film Festival is equal parts curation and creation.

From DSC:
This is a nice collection of resources and tips to help you and your students further develop your new media literacy.

iBeacon in Education Case Study: Stephen Perse Foundation — from locly

.

Find out how a group of schools in Cambridge are using Apple’s iBeacon technology
to deliver dynamic content for locality learning. A real-world case study from Locly

.

Also see:

.

Also see:

How the Internet of Things (IoT) could be used on field trips (for K-12 education) — from this Learning Ecosystems blog by Daniel Christian
.
Future expertise to be required from those working in ID, UX Design, UI Design, HCI, Product Dev, Programming and more — from this Learning Ecosystems blog by Daniel Christian

Future expertise to be required from those working in ID, UX Design, UI Design, HCI, Product Dev, Programming and more

On 01/07/2015, in 21st century, Apple, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC), personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, smart classrooms, tablets, training / L&D, trends, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
We continue to see more articles and innovations that involve the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Internet of Everything (IoE). This trend has made me reflect upon what I think will be a future, required subset of needed expertise within the fields of Instructional Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Product Development, Programming, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and likely other fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality(VR) as well.

And that is, we will need people who can craft learning experiences from the presence of beacons/sensors and that integrate such concepts as found in “If This Then That” (ifttt.com) whereby one is putting the Internet and cloud/mobile-based applications to work for you. Certainly, those involved in retail are already busy working on these types of projects. But those of us involved with learning, human computer interaction (HCI), and interface design need to get involved as well.

For example, this potential scenario of a K-12 field trip might be fodder for such a learning experience.

So for those individuals who are involved with the aforementioned disciplines…we need to pulse check what new affordances are coming from the rollout and further development of the IoT/IoE.

Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “Prepare for ‘the end of college’: Here’s what free higher ed looks like”; plus other related items

6 solid items regarding virtual reality and augmented reality

Reflections on “Is this the online learning model of the future?” [Zarom]

EMLYON Business School to create a ‘Smart Business School’ via IBM Cloud [finance.yahoo.com]

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp [Selak]

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