On 10/07/2019,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Europe, immersion, innovation, platforms, vendors, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
Photo-realistic VR tour Oof the Palace Of Versailles now available free on SteamVR — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
On 10/02/2019,
in attention, design, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, internet, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, mobile learning, multimedia, online learning, online media, platforms, play, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, simulations, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX), vendors, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Top eLearning Gamification Companies 2019 — from elearningindustry.com by Christopher Pappas
Excerpt:
The Top Performing eLearning Gamification Companies 2019
As community leaders, here at eLearning Industry, we have evaluated hundreds of eLearning content development companies in the past. As we are constantly on the lookout for new advancements and trends in the eLearning field that are relevant to the industry, we decided to take a very close look at outstanding providers of gamification. We have focused on prestige, influence, application of gamification tools, activity in the eLearning field, gamification innovations, and many more subcategories.
For the list of the Top eLearning Gamification Companies 2019, we chose and ranked the best gamification companies based on the following 7 criteria:
- Gamification eLearning quality
- Customer reviews
- eLearning expertise
- Niche specialization on gamification
- Gamification industry innovation
- Company’s social responsibility
- Gamification features and capabilities
On 08/07/2019,
in 21st century, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, art, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), communications, creativity, digital learning, digital storytelling, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, ideas, innovation, interaction design, interactivity, K-12 related, platforms, play, presentations, tools, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, XR - extended reality, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Per Jacob Strom at HeraldPR.com:
KreatAR, a subsidiary of The Glimpse Group, is helping change the way students and teachers are using augmented reality technology with PostReality, to help make learning more interactive with poster boards.
See:
Also see:
On 06/15/2019,
in A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, digital audio, digital learning, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, media/film, multimedia, online learning, online media, podcasting,
by Daniel Christian
On 04/25/2019,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, Blockchain, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, curriculum, data related items, digital learning, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty, formal learning, future of higher education, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile learning, new business models, online learning, personalized/customized learning, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, user experience (UX), XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
The finalized 2019 Horizon Report Higher Education Edition (from library.educause.edu) was just released on 4/23/19.
Excerpt:
Key Trends Accelerating Technology Adoption in Higher Education:
Short-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for the next one to two years
- Redesigning Learning Spaces
- Blended Learning Designs
Mid-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for the next three to five years
- Advancing Cultures of Innovation
- Growing Focus on Measuring Learning
Long-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for five or more years
- Rethinking How Institutions Work
- Modularized and Disaggregated Degrees
On 04/24/2019,
in animation, assessment, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, health, learning, learning ecosystem, online learning, tools, training / L&D, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/01/2019,
in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, bots, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, multimedia, social learning / networks, social media, tools, ubiquitous learning, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
The 10+ best real-world examples of augmented reality — from forbes.com by Bernard Marr
Excerpt:
Augmented reality (AR) can add value, solve problems and enhance the user experience in nearly every industry. Businesses are catching on and increasing investments to drive the growth of augmented reality, which makes it a crucial part of the tech economy.
As referenced by Bernard in his above article:
From DSC:
Along these lines, I really appreciate the “translate” feature within Twitter. It helps open up whole new avenues of learning for me from people across the globe. A very cool, practical, positive, beneficial feature/tool!!!
On 02/14/2019,
in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, faculty, higher education, innovation, instructional design, online learning, pedagogy, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Inspiring Leaders | Anthony G. Picciano — from virtuallyinspired.org
Co-founder of CUNY Online and founding member of the Online Learning Consortium, shares his insights on his new book, “Online Education: Foundations, Planning, and Pedagogy,” building a community in an online classroom, gaming and more.
Excerpts/items mentioned in this video:
- Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida
- Reports from the Babson Survey Research Group, Babson College
- 2010 U.S. Dept of Education meta-analysis — older now, but still a pivotal study
- Tap into what students already know; have students bring their own experiences into the topics/discussions; bring their own materials and interests
- Have students own the course as much as possible
- Limit the amount of lecturing — introduce humor where possible; tap into students’ interests
- Chunk lecturing up into 6-8 minute pieces — then introduce some activity that forces the students to do something
- The River City — Chris Dede (mainly for high school students)
- MIT elude — how to deal w/ depression
- Fortnite
- Elegance in simplicity — clean format, where things are, streamlined –6-7 clearly-labeled buttons, I understand what I have to do here; make it simple, not complex; use techs where makes good pedagogical sense
- Future: AI, nanotechnology will lead to more quantum computing, cloud computing
Quantum computing is a whole of the level of digital circuitry design. That will allow much more power, much more speed, the likes of which we have not seen in digital technology. When that comes, that opens up lots of other possibilities in applications like artificial intelligence, like robotics, like cloud computing. All of these will be significantly enhanced as we move to a quantum computing type environment. When that happens, we will see a whole other level of digital activity not just in teaching and learning but everything we do.
Also see:
On 01/03/2019,
in 3D, Augmented Reality (AR), design, digital learning, digital storytelling, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, health, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), nursing, story, storytelling, tools, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
FDA approves HoloLens powered medical augmented reality system — from by Richard Devine
HoloLens might be about to make surgical procedures a whole lot different.
Excerpt:
From Healthimaging.com
OpenSight specifically utilizes the Microsoft HoloLens headset that allows simultaneous visualization of the 3D patient images in AR and the actual patient and their real-world surroundings. The technique may decrease operative times and improve surgical planning and the understanding of anatomic relationships.
Can virtual reality revolutionize education? — from cnn.com by Emma Kennedy
“Kids love to engage with [VR] lessons,” said Guido Kovalskys, chief executive and co-founder of US-based edtech company Nearpod. “One minute, they are learning about Roman history, and the next, they are transported to ancient Rome and are exploring the Colosseum.”
From DSC:
Ok, so the title is on the overhyped side, but I do think XR will positively impact learning, understanding.
University of Washington Researchers Demo Ability to Generate 3D Augmented Reality Content from 2D Images — from next.reality.news by Tommy Palladino
Age of Sail: Setting the course for virtual reality narratives in the future — from by Jose Antunes
The most ambitious project from Google Spotlight Stories is also the one that pushes the boundaries in terms of the creation of narratives in Virtual Reality: embark on Age of Sail.
Augmented Reality Remote Collaboration with Dense Reconstruction
Addendum:
- VR & AR 2018: A year in review — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
Excerpt:
If 2016 was the birth of modern VR/AR technology, than 2018 was its elementary school graduation. While this past year may have seemed like a quiet one when compared to the more exciting releases featured in 2017 and 2016, these past 12 months have been crucial in the development of the immersive entertainment sector.Major hardware releases, vast improvements to software, and various other integral advancements have quietly solidified VR & AR as viable, long-term technological platforms for years to come. So while there may not have been any bombshell announcements or jaw-dropping reveals per sey, 2018 will still go down as a key, if not climactic, year for VR & AR technology regardless.
With a new year full of exciting possibilities ahead of us, let’s hang back a second and take a look back at 2018’s most pivotal moments.
On 11/30/2018,
in architecture, Asia, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, Europe, health, history, ideas, innovation, media/film, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), tools, United States, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
100 voices of AR/VR in education — from virtualiteach.com
Ambitious VR experience restores 7,000 Roman buildings, monuments to their former glory — from smithsonianmag.com by Meilan Solly
You can take an aerial tour of the city circa 320 A.D. or stop by specific sites for in-depth exploration
Excerpt:
Ever wish you could step into a hot air balloon, travel back in time to 320 A.D., and soar over the streets of Ancient Rome? Well, that oddly specific fantasy is achievable in a new virtual reality experience called “Rome Reborn.”
The ambitious undertaking, painstakingly built by a team of 50 academics and computer experts over a 22-year period, recreates 7,000 buildings and monuments scattered across a 5.5 square mile stretch of the famed Italian city. The project, according to Tom Kington of the Times, is being marketed as the largest digital reconstruction of Rome to date.
VR Isn’t a Novelty: Here’s How to Integrate it Into the Curriculum — from edsurge.com by Jan Sikorsky
Excerpt:
While the application of VR to core academics remains nascent, early returns are promising: research now suggests students retain more information and can better synthesize and apply what they have learned after participating in virtual reality exercises.
And the technology is moving within the reach of classroom teachers. While once considered high-end and cost-prohibitive, virtual reality is becoming more affordable. Discovery VR and Google Expeditions offer several virtual reality experiences for free. Simple VR viewers now come in relatively low-cost DIY cardboard view boxes, like Google Cardboard, that fit a range of VR-capable smartphones.
…
Still, teachers may remain unsure of how they might implement such cutting-edge technology in their classrooms. Their concerns are well founded. Virtual reality takes careful planning and implementation for success. It’s not simply plug-and-play technology. It also takes a lot of work to develop.
From DSC:
Reduced costs & greater development efficiencies needed here:
“In our case, to create just 10 minutes of simulation, a team of six developers logged almost 1,000 hours of development time.”
Unveiling RLab: the First-City Funded VR/AR Center in the Country Opens Doors at Brooklyn Navy Yard — from prnewswire.com
New York City’s Virtual and Augmented Reality Center Will Fuel Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Education, While Creating Hundreds of Well-Paying Jobs
Excerpt:
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the Brooklyn Navy Yard today announced the launch of RLab – the first City-funded virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) lab in the country. Administered by NYU Tandon with a participating consortium of New York City universities, including Columbia University, CUNY and The New School, RLab will operate out of Building 22 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and will cement New York City’s status as a global leader in VR/AR, creating over 750 jobs in the industry.
New virtual reality lab at UNMC — from wowt.com
This VR-live actor mashup is like your best absinthe-fueled nightmare — from cnet.com by Joan Solsman
Chained, an immersive reimagining of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, weds virtual reality with a motion-capture live actor. Could it be the gateway that makes VR a hit?
Also see:
…and this as well:
See the results of a months-long effort to create a HoloLens experience that pays homage to Mont-Saint-Michel, in Normandy, France, in all its forms – as a physical relief map and work of art; as a real place visited by millions of people over the centuries; and as a remarkable digital story of resilience. In this three-part Today in Technology series, they examine how AI and mixed reality can open a new window into French culture by using technology like HoloLens.
On 10/19/2018,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, microlearning, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Inside Amazon’s artificial intelligence flywheel — from wired.com by Steven Levy
How deep learning came to power Alexa, Amazon Web Services, and nearly every other division of the company.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Amazon loves to use the word flywheel to describe how various parts of its massive business work as a single perpetual motion machine. It now has a powerful AI flywheel, where machine-learning innovations in one part of the company fuel the efforts of other teams, who in turn can build products or offer services to affect other groups, or even the company at large. Offering its machine-learning platforms to outsiders as a paid service makes the effort itself profitable—and in certain cases scoops up yet more data to level up the technology even more.
It took a lot of six-pagers to transform Amazon from a deep-learning wannabe into a formidable power. The results of this transformation can be seen throughout the company—including in a recommendations system that now runs on a totally new machine-learning infrastructure. Amazon is smarter in suggesting what you should read next, what items you should add to your shopping list, and what movie you might want to watch tonight. And this year Thirumalai started a new job, heading Amazon search, where he intends to use deep learning in every aspect of the service.
“If you asked me seven or eight years ago how big a force Amazon was in AI, I would have said, ‘They aren’t,’” says Pedro Domingos, a top computer science professor at the University of Washington. “But they have really come on aggressively. Now they are becoming a force.”
Maybe the force.
From DSC:
When will we begin to see more mainstream recommendation engines for learning-based materials? With the demand for people to reinvent themselves, such a next generation learning platform can’t come soon enough!
- Turning over control to learners to create/enhance their own web-based learner profiles; and allowing people to say who can access their learning profiles.
- AI-based recommendation engines to help people identify curated, effective digital playlists for what they want to learn about.
- Voice-driven interfaces.
- Matching employees to employers.
- Matching one’s learning preferences (not styles) with the content being presented as one piece of a personalized learning experience.
- From cradle to grave. Lifelong learning.
- Multimedia-based, interactive content.
- Asynchronously and synchronously connecting with others learning about the same content.
- Online-based tutoring/assistance; remote assistance.
- Reinvent. Staying relevant. Surviving.
- Competency-based learning.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
We’re about to embark on a period in American history where career reinvention will be critical, perhaps more so than it’s ever been before. In the next decade, as many as 50 million American workers—a third of the total—will need to change careers, according to McKinsey Global Institute. Automation, in the form of AI (artificial intelligence) and RPA (robotic process automation), is the primary driver. McKinsey observes: “There are few precedents in which societies have successfully retrained such large numbers of people.”
Also relevant/see:
Online education’s expansion continues in higher ed with a focus on tech skills — from educationdive.com by James Paterson
Dive Brief:
- Online learning continues to expand in higher ed with the addition of several online master’s degrees and a new for-profit college that offers a hybrid of vocational training and liberal arts curriculum online.
- Inside Higher Ed reported the nonprofit learning provider edX is offering nine master’s degrees through five U.S. universities — the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Arizona State University and the University of California, San Diego. The programs include cybersecurity, data science, analytics, computer science and marketing, and they cost from around $10,000 to $22,000. Most offer stackable certificates, helping students who change their educational trajectory.
- Former Harvard University Dean of Social Science Stephen Kosslyn, meanwhile, will open Foundry College in January. The for-profit, two-year program targets adult learners who want to upskill, and it includes training in soft skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Students will pay about $1,000 per course, though the college is waiving tuition for its first cohort.