education technology

Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances [Christian]

On 02/26/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communities of practice, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, multimedia, online learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, second screen apps, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances. The convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer continues…and is now coming into your home. Trainers, faculty members, teachers, developers, and others will want to keep an eye on this space. The opportunities are enormous, especially as second screen-based apps and new forms of human computer interfaces (HCI) unfold.

The following items come to my mind:

Online-based communities of practice. Virtual reality, virtual tutoring. Intelligent systems. Artificial intelligence. Global learning. 24×7, lifelong learning. Career development. Flipping the classroom. Homeschooling. Learning hubs. Online learning. Virtual schools. Webinars on steroids.

With the reach of these powerful technologies (that continue to develop), I would recommend trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of tvOS-based apps in the future. Towards that end, below are some items that might help.

Apple releases Apple TV Tech Talks video series for building better tvOS apps — by AppleInsider Staff

Excerpt:

Apple on Wednesday released to developers a series of videos focusing on Apple TV and its tvOS operating system, offering a detailed look at the underlying SDK, resources and best practices associated with coding for the platform.

Also see:

Apple publishes Apple TV Tech Talk videos for developers — from todaysiphone.com

Addendum on 2/26/16:

Apple Adds Multiple New App Categories to tvOS App Store — from macrumors.com by Juli Clover
Excerpt:
[On 2/25/16] Apple updated the tvOS App Store to add several new app categories to make it easier for Apple TV 4 owners to find content on their devices. As outlined by AfterPad, a site that showcases Apple TV apps, the new categories are rolling out to Apple TV users and may not be available to everyone just yet. Some users may only see the new categories under Purchased Apps until the rollout is complete.

5-minute film festival: Resources for filmmaking in the classroom [Borovoy]

On 02/22/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, collaboration, communications, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, using teams, by Daniel Christian

5-minute film festival: Resources for filmmaking in the classroom — from edutopia.org by Amy Erin Borovoy

Excerpt:

I’ll admit I’m a bit biased here since I’m a filmmaker by trade, but I truly believe the process of planning and making videos can offer tremendous learning opportunities for students of almost any age. Not only is the idea of telling stories with video really engaging for many kids, filmmaking is ripe with opportunities to connect to almost every academic subject area. As the technology to shoot and edit films becomes more ubiquitous, where is a teacher with no experience in video production to begin? I’ve shared some resources below to help you and your students get started on making blockbusters of your own.

“2020 Vision: Experts Predict the Future of Virtual Reality”; using VR to train teachers; plus 7 other items re: VR/AR

On 02/19/2016, in Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, emerging technologies, Europe, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, journalism, student teaching/teacher education, teachers, teaching & learning, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

2020 Vision: Experts Predict the Future of Virtual Reality — from vrscout.com by Eric Chevalier

Excerpt:

VR will be the new internet.
You will spend your flights in virtual reality.
AR will beat VR.
There will be no MMO. [yet]
Virtual reality will change the film industry.
Parallax technology won’t be able to support augmented reality.
The space we’ll explore won’t be in the sky.
We will see a MMO game with a million subscribers.
The Divine Comedy will provide a model for successful VR storytelling.
Robots will touch you in VR and you’ll like it.
Journalism will be forever transformed.

Teachers-in-training learn through virtual reality — from thedmonline.com by Madeleine Beck

Excerpt:

The UM School of Education is using a program that allows teachers-in-training to practice classroom skills in a virtual setting before sending them into local elementary and secondary schools.

The simulated TeachLivE classroom consists of an 80-inch monitor with five student avatars. Each avatar has his or her own personality.

“All five avatar children are actually controlled by somebody in Florida, an actor or actress,” Dean of the School of Education David Rock said. “They’re set up with equipment so that if the actor raises his hand in Florida, the avatar child will raise his hand on the screen.”

EON Reality launches EON Creator AVR, a do-it-yourself augmented and virtual reality knowledge content creation application for teachers and students
EON Creator AVR empowers students and teachers to make engaging AR and VR knowledge transfer applications without programming skills.

Excerpt:

IRVINE, CA, February 16th, 2016 – EON Reality Inc., the world leader in Virtual Reality based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment, announced the upcoming release of EON Creator AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality), a mobile based application that enables users to easily create, share, collaborate, and publish Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) knowledge content. Using EON Reality’s patent pending Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) technology, EON Creator AVR combines both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality with a large AR/VR component library and assessment database to create one of a kind learning experiences. EON Creator AVR also leverages built in intelligence to help students and teachers quickly create highly interactive learning content directly on their tablets, smart phones, VR headsets, or AR glasses without requiring programming skills.

5 top augmented reality apps for education — from hongkiat.com by Gabriela Jugaru

Excerpt:

1. Google Sky Map
This is an augmented reality app which makes learning about astronomy interesting and fun. Instead of looking at descriptions of constellations in a book and then attempting to identify them in the sky, you can use Google Sky Map to directly identify stars and constellations using the camera on your smartphone.

Google Sky Map

How virtual reality could soon help stroke victims recover — from cnet.com by Max Taves
A $100 million investment in a Swiss startup highlights how VR offers more than just fun and games.

Excerpt:

Doctors could soon start prescribing an unusual solution to help stroke victims in the US: virtual reality goggles.

That’s the hope of Switzerland-based MindMaze, which on Wednesday got a $100 million investment to bring its blend of virtual reality hardware and neuroscience to market. The four-year-old startup’s technology has already won approval from regulators in Europe, where its applications for brain injury victims showcase what could soon be possible in the United States.

MindMaze’s 34-year-old founder and CEO Tej Tadi explains how: Imagine a stroke victim who’s lost control of her left hand but can still move her right hand. After putting on MindMaze goggles, the patient sees a 3-D image, or avatar, of her left hand that moves as she moves her right hand.

“That triggers areas in the brain to say, ‘Wait, let’s regain control of this hand’,” says Tadi. “The hand that was not working now works.” And that process of tricking the brain into seeing something that’s actually not there in the real world accelerates recovery, he says.

The Associated Press is partnering with AMD for more virtual reality journalism — from theverge.com by Adi Robertson

Excerpt:

After moving into virtual reality video journalism last year, the Associated Press is partnering with chip maker AMD for a new push into VR. Today, the companies announced that they’re launching a web portal for AP virtual reality, promising more journalistic endeavors soon — including “lifelike VR environments” built with the help of AMD.

Several news outlets have now started producing 360-degree videos, which can be watched through a Google Cardboard headset or a smartphone. The New York Times, which partnered with production house Vrse.works, offers documentary video about topics like child refugees and the 2016 presidential election in a dedicated NYT VR app. Vice has similarly partnered with Vrse.works, and ABC News worked with Jaunt to record a 360-degree version of a tour in North Korea. So far, the AP has partnered with a VR studio called RYOT, whose past work includes a short film about the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal.

Blippar’s new augmented reality app is supposed to recognize any object you point it at (video) — from recode.net by Lauren Goode

Excerpt:

But it’s safe to say that augmented reality is coming into a new phase: The contextual information being supplied is getting smarter, and people are gradually becoming more aware of the capabilities of AR and virtual reality (some are even excited to wear headsets, if you can believe it). So Blippar, in an effort to evolve along with the rest of the AR world, has just launched a new version of its smartphone app that is supposed to recognize literally any object you point at it — whether it has been “tagged” with an AR code or not.

Meta Unveils Incredible Augmented Reality Headset at TED — from uploadvr.com

Excerpt:

Redwood City-based Meta showed its latest AR glasses live on stage at TED in Vancouver.

The Meta 2 was demonstrated live by CEO Meron Gribetz with a person-to-person “call” showing a hand-off of a 3D model from a holographic person. Gribetz’ perspective was shown through the glasses as he reached out and took a model of a brain — a 3D hologram — from the hands of a colleague he saw projected in front of him.

“We’re all going to be throwing away our external monitors,” Gribetz said.

From DSC:
Though the jigsaw technique has been around for decades, it came to my mind the other day as we recently built a highly-collaborative, experimental learning space at our college — some would call it an active learning-based classroom. There are 7 large displays throughout the space, with each display being backed up by Crestron-related hardware and software that allows the faculty member to control what’s appearing on each display. For example, the professor can take what is on Group #1’s display and send the content from that display throughout the classroom. Or they can display something from a document camera or something from their own laptop, iPad, or smartphone. Students can plug in their devices (BYOD) and connect to the displays via HDMI cables (Phase I) and wirelessly (Phase II).

I like this type of setup because it allows for students to quickly and efficiently contribute their own content and the results of their own research to a discussion. Groups can present their content throughout the space.

With that in mind, here are some resources re: the jigsaw classroom/technique.

From Wikipedia:

The jigsaw technique is a method of organizing classroom activity that makes students dependent on each other to succeed. It breaks classes into groups and breaks assignments into pieces that the group assembles to complete the (jigsaw) puzzle. It was designed by social psychologist Elliot Aronson to help weaken racial cliques in forcibly integrated schools.

The technique splits classes into mixed groups to work on small problems that the group collates into a final outcome. For example, an in-class assignment is divided into topics. Students are then split into groups with one member assigned to each topic. Working individually, each student learns about his or her topic and presents it to their group. Next, students gather into groups divided by topic. Each member presents again to the topic group. In same-topic groups, students reconcile points of view and synthesize information. They create a final report. Finally, the original groups reconvene and listen to presentations from each member. The final presentations provide all group members with an understanding of their own material, as well as the findings that have emerged from topic-specific group discussion.

From jigsaw.org

EdTech: These four b-schools are exploring virtual reality with Oculus, Google, Samsung — from businessbecause.com by Seb Murray
Elite schools place bets on next big innovation in online learning

Excerpt:

The immersive potential of virtual reality has Silicon Valley’s finest pouring vast sums of money into headsets and other whizzy innovations.

Google, Apple and Samsung are betting that these sci-fi concepts will become a staple of everyday life, with potential uses in gaming, advertising, marketing and increasingly, education.

The hype surrounding VR and the more complex augmented reality, is not lost on universities and business schools, who are eyeing its early pioneers and conducting secretive trials of head-mounted VR displays.

Four of the world’s top-ranked schools have told BusinessBecause they are exploring VR in tie-ups with Oculus, Samsung, and Google, as they place bets on the next big innovation in online learning.

“#Trending: VR and AR Classrooms” plus other resources related to VR and AR

On 02/12/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas, immersion, innovation, K-12 related, participation, trends, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Virtual Reality Learns How to Get Into the Classroom — from wsj.com by Georgia Wells

Excerpt:

Nearpod Inc., a startup that makes education software used in 10,000 schools across the U.S., is launching virtual-reality lessons on [2/11/16]. Here’s their pitch: instead of requiring schools to invest heavily in headsets and other hardware, Nearpod’s approach relies on students using their own devices or district-supplied electronics.
…
Students already use tablets and netbooks in the classroom, to share text, record and watch videos, and conduct research. Virtual reality – the technology that lets people experience immersive, 360-degree images – would take technology in the classroom to the next level. Google parent Alphabet Inc.experimented with virtual reality in the classroom last September, a temporary project using its cardboard viewer.

Virtual-reality proponents argue students engage more with a lesson when it is interactive, such as virtual “field trips” to far places.

#Trending: VR and AR Classrooms — from wareable.com

Excerpt:

When today’s kids grow up, they will no doubt mock our penchant for pocket screens. VR and AR could be the new normal.

In this week’s Trending we’re looking at the wave of new schemes bringing virtual reality and augmented reality into the classroom as a tool for students. Oculus and Jaunt just started working with universities to offer classes on VR filmmaking. Google has been extremely vocal about bringing VR into the classroom, while Microsofts HoloLens has shown off augmented reality demos for college anatomy classes.

The educational benefits of both VR and AR are immense. VR allows students to explore other worlds or relive moments in history through virtual field trips, whereas AR can provide instructions with overlays, maps and more.

Here’s the ideas tearing up tech classrooms as well as who needs to go back to the chalkboard.

Use virtual reality to overcome your fear of public speaking — from 3dvrcentral.com

Excerpt:

Got a presentation coming up? Between keeping your thoughts straight, sticking to the time limit and braving an audience, public speaking gigs can be daunting.

A new Android app for Google Cardboard aims to help you get over your fears by putting you in front of a virtual audience.

Public Speaking for Cardboard lets you choose between two locations — a small conference room and a large auditorium — with animated audience members and ambient noise to simulate the experience of speaking on stage.

Also see:

Oculus Rift’ Release Date, Specs: Rift Ready PC Bundles Available For Pre-Order, Price Ranges From $900 To $2000 — from breathecast.com

6 outstanding augmented reality apps for science teachers — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are making some huge leaps into the educational landscape transforming the way teaching and learning are taking place. Educators and teachers are increasingly adopting AR technologies in their classrooms. As extensions of the physical world, AR technologies amplify its dimensions and bring life to its static constituents. There are a variety of ways you can use AR in your class. For instance, you can use them to take your students into virtual field trips, visit world museums, animate and enrich textbook content and many more.
…
Today we are sharing with you some interesting AR apps specifically curated for science teachers. These apps can make science learning more fun, engaging and challenging. Enjoy!

7 of the best iPad augmented reality apps for teachers — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

The use of augmented reality (AR) technology in education is on the raise. Some speculate that the year 2016 will be an AR year par excellence. The basic premise behind augmented reality is the extension of the physical world to include components of the virtual world. The potential of augmented reality in teaching and learning is huge. Our AR section here in EdTech and mLearning features a number of key resources to help you better understand how to include AR technologies in your class. We are also adding this handy collection of what we think are some of the best iPad AR apps to use with your students. Check them out below and as always share with us your feedback. Enjoy!

Jeremy Bailenson Peers Into the Future of Virtual Reality — from wsj.com by
Strivr Labs co-founder says VR has the potential to change the way users feel—and behave

Excerpt:

Virtual reality is getting a lot better at simulating the real world. Just how good is it going to get, and how fast? And what’s the best way to deploy the technology for consumers and businesses alike? The Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey A. Fowler spoke to Jeremy Bailenson, co-founder of Strivr Labs and director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University. Here are edited excerpts of their discussion.

As a white male, I would be transformed into a woman of color. I would then experience prejudice firsthand, meaning another avatar would walk in the room and would say horrible things to me about my race and about my gender. For about 12 years now, we’ve been running study after study showing that feeling discrimination firsthand while walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is a better way to change attitudes and behavior.

How Google is reimagining books — from fastcodesign.com by Meg Miller
“Editions at Play” sees designers and authors working simultaneously to build a new type of e-book from the ground up.

Excerpt:

The first sign that Reif Larsen’s Entrances & Exits is not a typical e-book comes at the table of contents, which is just a list of chapters titled “Location Unknown.” Click on one of them, and you’ll be transported to a location (unknown) inside Google Street View, facing a door. Choose to enter the house and that’s where the narrative, a sort of choose-your-own-adventure string of vignettes, begins. As the book’s description reads, it’s a “Borgeian love story” that “seamlessly spans the globe” and it represents a fresh approach to the book publishing industry.

Larsen’s book is one of the inaugural titles from Editions at Play, a joint e-books publishing venture between Google Creative Lab Sydney and the design-driven publishing house Visual Editions, which launched this week. With the mission of reimagining what an e-book can be, Editions at Play brings together the author, developers, and designers to work simultaneously on building a story from the ground up. They are the opposite of the usual physical-turned-digital-books; rather, they’re books that “cannot be printed.”

From DSC:
Interesting to note the use of teams of specialists here…

Without blended and/or online learning, obtaining data & using analytics in education only gets you so far. [Christian]

On 02/09/2016, in analytics, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, elearning, face-to-face, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, learning spaces, MBA, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, smart classrooms, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Big data is a big theme these days — in a variety of industries. Higher ed is no exception, where several vendors continue to develop products that hope to harness the power of big data (and to hopefully apply the lessons learned in a variety of areas, including retention).

However as an Instructional Designer, when I think of capturing and using data in the context of higher education, I’m not thinking about institutional type of data mining and the corresponding dashboards that might be involved therein. I’m thinking of something far more granular — something that resembles a tool for an individual professor to use.

I’m thinking more about individual students and their learning. I’m thinking about this topic in terms of providing additional information for a faculty member to use to gauge the learning within his or her particular classes — and to be able to highlight issues for them to address.

So, for example, when I’m thinking about how a mathematics professor might obtain and use data, I’m thinking of things like:

How did each individual do on this particular math problem?
Who got it right? Who got it wrong?
What percentage of the class got it right? What percentage of the class got it wrong?
For those who got the problem wrong, where in the multi-step process did they go wrong?

So perhaps even if we’re only obtaining students’ final answers — whether that be via clickers, smartphones, laptops, and/or tablets — data is still being created. Data that can then be analyzed and used to steer the learning. This type of information can then help the mathematics professor follow up accordingly — either with some individuals or with the entire class if he/she saw many students struggling with a new concept.

Such data gathering can get even more granular if one is using elearning types of materials. Here, the developers can measure and track things like mouse clicks, paths taken, and more. So like the approaching Internet of Things, data can get produced on a massive scale.

But very few mathematics professors have the time to:

manually track X/Y/or Z per student
manually capture how an entire class just did on a math problem
manually document where each student who got a problem incorrect went wrong

So in the way that I’m thinking about this topic, this entire push/idea of using data and analytics in education requires things to happen digitally — where results can automatically be stored without requiring any manual efforts on the part of the professor.

The ramifications of this are enormous.

That is, the push to use analytics in education — at least at the personalized learning level that I’m thinking of — really represents and actually requires a push towards using blended and/or online-based learning. Using strictly 100% face-to-face based classrooms and environments — without any digital components involved — won’t cut it if we want to harness the power of analytics/data mining to improve student learning.

Though this may seem somewhat obvious, again, the ramifications are huge for how faculty members structure their courses and what tools/methods that they choose to utilize. But this goes way beyond the professor. It also has enormous implications for those departments and teams who are working on creating/revising learning spaces — especially in terms of the infrastructures such spaces offer and what tools might be available within them. It affects decision makers all the way up to the board-level as well (who may not be used to something other than a face-to-face setting…something they recall from their own college days).

What do you think? Are you and/or your institution using big data and analytics? If so, how?

Also see:

Big data and higher education: These apps change everything — from bigdatalandscape.com

Excerpt:

Big Data is going to college. The companies on this list have been developing innovative higher education analytics apps. Universities are realizing the importance of harnessing Big Data for the purposes of helping students to succeed, helping instructors to know what students still need to learn, analyzing efficiency in all areas, boosting enrollment, and more.

For example, CourseSmart embeds analytics directly into digital textbooks. These analytics provide an “engagement index score,” which measures how much students are interacting with their eTextbooks (viewing pages, highlighting, writing notes, etc.). Researchers have found that that the engagement index score helps instructors to accurately predict student outcomes more than traditional measurement methods, such as class participation.

In addition, there are dashboards that enable Big Data analytics and visualization for the purpose of monitoring higher education KPIs such as enrollment, accreditation, effectiveness, research, financial information, and metrics by class and by department. Read on to find out about the companies that are shaping Big Data analytics in higher education.

How five edtech start-ups are using big data to boost business education — from businessbecause.com by Seb Murray
MOOC platforms explore analytics with b-school partners

Excerpts:

“Data is an amazing resource for teachers, who glean detailed feedback on how learners are processing information,” says Julia Stiglitz, director of business development at Coursera, the online learning site with 17 million users.

Coursera, which works with the b-schools IE, Yale and Duke Fuqua, offers a dashboard that gives teachers insight into when students are most likely to stop watching a video, and the percentage who answer assessment questions correctly the first time around.
…
“By carefully assessing course data, from mouse clicks to time spent on tasks to evaluating how students respond to various assessments, researchers hope to shed light on how learners access information and master materials,” says Nancy Moss, edX’s director of communications.

Interactive app brings 4th-century thinker to life — from campustechnology.com by Toni Fuhrman
At Villanova University, a student-developed app version of Augustine’s Confessions brings contemporary vitality and relevance to a classic 4th-century work.

Excerpt:

Augustine of Hippo, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, might be surprised to find his Confessions in circulation today, including a number of e-book versions. Still widely read, popular in great books programs and studied in university classes, The Confessions of St. Augustine is autobiography and confession, spiritual quest and emotional journey.

One of the most recent electronic versions of the Confessions is an interactive app developed at Villanova University (PA), the nation’s only Augustinian Catholic University. Released three months ago on Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13), the Confessions app is required for all freshmen as part of a “foundation” course. Available for both Apple and Android devices, the app includes the 13 books of the Confessions, authoritative commentaries, photo gallery, timeline, map and text-highlighted audio, as well as search, note-taking, annotation and bookmark options.

“What better way to reflect on and update this struggle than for today’s students to use technology to bring the text to life through visual, audio and analytical components?”

Confessions-Feb2016

From DSC:
Love the idea. Love the use of teams — including students — to produce this app!

A smorgasboard of resources re: “clickers” / student response systems [Christian]

On 02/08/2016, in adjunct faculty, assessment, attention, communications, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, higher education, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, participation, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

Personal Response Systems and Student Engagement — from er.educause.edu by Stephanie Blackmon

Key Takeaways (the professor used Poll Everywhere)

A professor who wanted a mechanism for students to share their learning experiences, particularly a tool with the potential for anonymized feedback, implemented a mobile personal response system to accomplish that goal.
This article explains how the Poll Everywhere system helped the professor gauge students’ experiences in her course and consequently adjust aspects of the course based on students’ learning needs.
Practical uses for a mobile personal response system in a face-to-face course can spur further ideas for their effective use in synchronous and asynchronous online courses and other online environments.

…
Practical Online-Course Uses
Specific practical uses for a mobile personal response system in synchronous and asynchronous online courses can spur other ideas for their effective use. Some immediately practical uses include:

Poll students at the end of a lesson to assess student learning and adjust the remainder of the class time based on their responses (synchronous courses)
Use polls to quiz students on course material (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Use polls for early course activities to get to know students and allow them to get to know each other (synchronous and asynchronous courses)
Imbed polls in course presentations to get just-in-time responses from students about course material during the presentation (synchronous courses)

From DSC:
A polling/student response system can be a solid tool in your toolbox, especially if you are teaching in an active learning environment.

Stephanie Blackmon, in the article above, mentioned that she was using Poll Everywhere:

Professor Derek Bruff also uses Poll Everywhere and has some solid thoughts re: clickers out at his website:

In fact, Derek was presenting last year at Vanderbilt University, during a Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. He effectively used Poll Everywhere’s clickable image question type in the session that I attended:

While not an exhaustive list, below are some other tools to consider in this space:

Turning Technologies

iclicker

Top Hat

Mentimeter.com

Socrative

Via Response

Microsoft Pulse

Survey Monkey

From Campus Technology 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards (09/30/15):

Student Response Systems and Classroom Clickers
Faculty members want to know whether their students are paying attention in class, and student response systems provide a simple way to know whether that’s happening. i>clicker, grabbing first place, introduced REEF Polling in April 2015, a free app for instructors that can be set up in two minutes, according to the company, and can allow dynamic polling sessions with any presentation application without having to import content first. Students subscribe to a paid version of REEF Polling to use with their smart devices to answer questions and show the instructor whether lessons have stuck or not. Runner-up Turning Technologies sells software and response devices for polling in the classroom (TurningPoint) and remote locations (RemotePoll). Third-place finisher Poll Everywhere’s higher ed plan offers an app that’s free for up to 40 responses per poll.

Platinum: i>clicker

Gold: Turning Technologies

Silver: Poll Everywhere

Addendum on 2/9/16:

The i>clicker: A decade later — from dailyillini.com/

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Nelson said there are many ways of effectively utilizing the i>clicker in classes: to facilitate discussion; to test preexisting knowledge; to ask anonymous questions; or to quiz students on the material taught, where instructors can give points to correct answers or simply to student participation.

Winner revealed for Microsoft’s HoloLens App Competition [Graham]

On 02/08/2016, in education technology, emerging technologies, engineering, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Winner revealed for Microsoft’s HoloLens App Competition — from vrfocus.com by Peter Graham

Excerpt:

Out of the thousands of ideas entered, Airquarium, Grab the Idol and Galaxy Explorer were the three that made it through. Out of those the eventual winner was Galaxy Explorer with a total of 58 per cent of the votes. The app aims to give users the ability to wander the Milky Way and learn about our galaxy. Navigating through the stars and landing on the myriad of planets that are out there.

Also see:

Virtual Reality in 2016: What to expect from Google, Facebook, HTC and others in 2016 — from tech.firstpost.com by Naina Khedekar

Excerpt:

Many companies have made their intentions for virtual reality clear. Let’s see what they are up to in 2016.

Also see:

Universal Music and iHeartMedia to Launch VR Concerts This Year — from uploadvr.com

Somewhat related, but in the AR space:

Want to learn more about Augmented Reality in Education? Follow These Great Educators! — from twoguysandsomeipads.com

Except:
Augmented reality(AR) has continued to gain momentum in the educational landscape over the past couple of years. These educators featured below have dove in head first using AR in their classrooms and schools. They continue to share excellent resources to help educators see how augmented reality can engage students and deepen understanding.

Intel launches x-ray-like glasses that allow wearers to ‘see inside’ objects — from theguardian.com by
Smart augmented reality helmet allows wearers to overlay maps, schematics and thermal images to effectively see through walls, pipes and other solid objects

Excerpt:

Unlike devices such as HoloLens or Google Glass, which have been marketed as consumer devices, the Daqri Smart Helmet is designed with industrial use in mind. It will allow the wearer to effectively peer into the workings of objects using real-time overlay of information, such as wiring diagrams, schematics and problem areas that need fixing.

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13^th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

Cognii launches virtual learning assistant for the education market [edtechreview.in]

On 02/01/2016, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, data related items, education, education technology, India, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

Cognii launches virtual learning assistant for the education market — from edtechreview.in

Excerpt:

BOSTON, MA, January 27, 2016
Cognii, a leading provider of educational assessment technologies, today announces the launch of Virtual Learning Assistant (VLA), a next generation personalized adaptive learning platform for the Education and Training market. Cognii’s VLA uses Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing technologies to engage students in realtime adaptive tutoring conversations and provides instant formative assessment on their constructed response (short essay) answers with guidance towards conceptual mastery. It also provides rich learning analytics to the teachers based on students’ conceptual understanding or difficulties, for better instructional support.

From the Cognii website:

At Cognii, we’re developing leading edge assessment technology to evaluate essay-type answers for online learning platforms. Our exclusive natural language processing technology can also give customized feedback, not just a score, to engage students in an active learning process and improving their knowledge retention. We’re offering Cognii’s solution through an API for all online learning platforms, including LMS (Learning Management System), MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course), and more.

Addendum / a somewhat related posting:

IBM Helping to Build an AI-Powered Academic Adviser — from edtechmagazine.com by by D. Frank Smith
A powerful computing system at University of Michigan would be fed human interactions to enhance its conversational skills.

50 of the best teaching & learning apps for 2016 — from teachthought.com

Excerpt:

What are the best teaching and learning apps for 2016? That’s a good question this post looks to answer.

Every year, we put together a collection of what we believe are the best teaching and learning apps for that year. (Here, for example, is our 2015 version of the list below, where you will notice about half the apps are the same, and half have changed. That’s not bad for progress, is it?

This year, we were asked by the good folks at Easelly (the infographic and visual data platform) to create a collection of resources that while including their apps, would curate a lot of good stuff teachers would benefit from in 2016. Since we were preparing to release our TeachThought Editor’s Choice: 2016 Best Teaching and Learning Apps–and have used Easelly for years ourselves–we combined the two projects to give you something you can use to guide your #edtech integration this year.

6 ed tech tools to try in 2016 — from cultofpedagogy.com by Jennifer Gonzalez

Excerpt:

About a year ago, I published an e-book called the Teacher’s Guide to Tech. Over the last month, I have been updating it for 2016, adding over 30 new tools and refreshing the information I had about the original ones. I have to say, the 2015 version was excellent, but now it’s SO MUCH BETTER. (To take a peek at the guide, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

In the process, I discovered some tools that I absolutely fell in love with, and I wanted to share them with you here. Each of these tools can make your teaching more efficient and effective, and your students’ learning deeper and more engaging.

Let’s take a look.

Visit Shakespeare’s London at FIU’s new virtual reality facility — from cec.fiu.edu

Excerpt:

It’s 1598, and you’re on your way to the Globe Theater to watch one of Shakespeare’s plays. You walk along the dirt roads and the green fields of London and you realize you can see the London Bridge in the distance. A vagabond asks you for a coin, and you find the village houses and the town market bustling with customers. Once you arrive at the theater, you watch the first few minutes of the opening monologue of “Henry V.”

This is a virtual world created by a multidisciplinary team of FIU students – and you can immerse yourself in this time-travel journey starting Jan. 29 when the I-CAVE opens at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

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Google brings commenting to sheets and slides on mobile— from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

Google announced [on 1/28/16] a couple of updates to the commenting features in its Google Apps productivity suite.

These include the launch of mobile commenting in the iOS and Android apps for Slides and Sheets. Thanks to this, the commenting experience in Google’s apps is now (almost) the same across all of its apps — whether on the web or on mobile. I’m not sure why Google didn’t already offer this before, but better late than never, right?

10 very good tools for student researchers — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

One of the onerous parts in essay and academic writing is the bibliography section. Managing, organizing and citing references can sometimes be a real challenge especially if you don’t keep track of what and who you cite. The last thing you want after a strenuous writing task is a messy bibliography with one reference missing a page number, the other needs publication date or, worse of all, having to go back to your sources to check for the source of that quotation you included in your conclusion. If you find yourself constantly grappling with problems such as these, the web tools below are absolutely something you might need to consider. These are some of the best applications for organizing, managing, and publishing bibliographies, citations and references. Some of these softwares are integrated with Google Scholar.

Fresco News app brings crowdsourced journalism to Apple TV — from imore.com by Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Excerpt:

Fresco News, an app that crowdsources news footage by allowing citizen journalists to upload and share their photos videos of current events around the globe, has officially launched an Apple TV app. With the app, users can check out first-hand accounts of events around the world on the big screen through their Apple TV.

5 Apple TV fitness apps to get in shape on a budget — from macworld.com by Caitlin McGarry
There are tons of streaming TV apps, but I’m on the hunt for a streaming workout app that won’t cost a fortune.

Excerpt:

The fourth-generation Apple TV now has more than 3,600 tvOS apps, Apple revealed in its first-quarter earnings call Tuesday. Most of those are games or streaming video apps, and there are tons of great options in both categories. When it comes to fitness, which seems to me a natural fit for the TV, the selection is sparse. But still, I was sure at least one Apple TV app would have what I was looking for: a cheap way to stay in shape. But it wasn’t that easy.

Codespark.org

Codemonkey

Best iPhone 6 and 6s tripods for stablizing and mounting — from imore.com by Brent Zaniewski
A dependable tripod can enhance your iPhone photography skills and help you get an otherwise impossible shot.

Livestream unveils new device for affordable multi-camera productions — from bizbash.com by Mitra Sorrells
The tiny Movi camera links with an iOS app for real-time recording, editing, and streaming from events.

Excerpt:

Planners interested in creating multi-camera video productions at their events will soon have a new, inexpensive option. Livestream, the company behind live online events for brands such as Tesla, Salesforce.com, the N.B.A., and more, has created a 2.5-inch device that lets users record and edit in real time between nine virtual high-definition cameras. Movi is available for preorder for delivery in April, currently at a price of $299.

This lens can widen your view into a classroom for only $10 — from blog.edthena.com

How Five EdTech Start-Ups Are Using Big Data To Boost Business Education — from by Seb Murray
MOOC platforms explore analytics with b-school partners

Excerpt:

Education tech companies including Coursera, edX, Udacity and their b-school and university partners are delving deeper into big data analytics to improve teaching and student learning.

Simon Nelson, CEO of online learning company FutureLearn, says: “The potential is incredible — and we are just scratching the surface.”

A report to be published in January by the UK’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) envisages that big data will help identify risk of failure; give students instant feedback; and benchmark their performance against peers.

Addendum on 2/1/16:

Free Audio Sound Effects for E-Learning — from blogs.articulate.com

Addendum on 2/2/16:

The 25 Best Free iPhone Apps For Business — from fastcompany.com by Doug Aamoth
Make meetings actually useful. Brainstorm like a champ. Take the boredom out of busywork. And much more.
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Apps that will revolutionize how you work from home — from chicagotribune.com by Sheila Marikar

Learning Ecosystems

“2020 Vision: Experts Predict the Future of Virtual Reality”; using VR to train teachers; plus 7 other items re: VR/AR

EdTech: These four b-schools are exploring virtual reality with Oculus, Google, Samsung [Murray]

Winner revealed for Microsoft’s HoloLens App Competition [Graham]

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