engagement / engaging students

“We’re developing a technology that’s going to be able to span across generations to tell a story”

On 08/14/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, augmented reality, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, history, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, teaching & learning, tools, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Davy Crockett to give tours of Alamo in new augmented reality app — from mysanantonio.com by Samantha Ehlinger

Excerpt:

Using a smart phone, users will be able to see and interact with computer-generated people and scenes from the past — overlayed on top of the very real and present-day Alamo. The app will also show the Alamo as it was at different points in history, and tell the story of the historic battle through different perspectives of the people (like Crockett) who were there. The app includes extra features users can buy, much like Pokémon Go.

“We’re making this into a virtual time machine so that if I’m standing on this spot and I look at, oh well there’s Davy Crockett, then I can go back a century and I can see the mission being built,” Alamo Reality CEO Michael McGar said. The app will allow users to see the Alamo not only as it was in 1836, but as it was before and after, McGar said.

“We’re developing a technology that’s going to be able to span across generations to tell a story”

— Lane Traylor

Lessons From Flipped Classrooms and Flipped Failures — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young, with Robert Talbert

Excerpt:

So a few years ago Talbert, a math professor at Grand Valley State University, tried a new approach, known as flipped learning—a method catching on these days in college classrooms. He describes it as a new philosophy of teaching. Unlike the lecture model, in which students first encountering new material in the classroom, in the flipped model the students’ first encounter with the material happens outside of class, usually in the form of video lectures. And class time is used for more interactive activities that encourage students to apply what they’re learning while the professor is there to step in and help if necessary.

It isn’t foolproof though, and in a new book Talbert gives a frank look into his classroom experiences, and his tips on how to avoid flipped failure. It’s called “Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty.” Talbert has long shared the ups and downs of his teaching experiments with his colleagues through his blog.

What I often tell faculty is, if you’re interested in using flipped learning, you’ve got to give yourself a lot of time to ease into it. I try to suggest a one-year plan between the moment you become interested in flipped learning and the moment you actually use it in the classroom. Take a solid year to plan, to develop materials, to test things out and so forth. Don’t try to jump straight into it.

Campus Technology 2017: Virtual Reality Is More Than a New Medium — from edtechmagazine.com by Amy Burroughs
Experts weigh in on the future of VR in higher education.

Excerpts:

“It’s actually getting pretty exciting,” Georgieva said, noting that legacy companies and startups alike have projects in the works that will soon be on the market. Look for standalone, wireless VR headsets later this year from Facebook and Google.

“I think it’s going to be a universal device,” he said. “Eventually, we’ll end up with some kind of glasses where we can just dial in the level of immersion that we want.”

— Per Emery Craig, at Campus Technology 2017 Conference

…
“Doing VR for the sake of VR makes no sense whatsoever,” Craig said. “Ask when does it make sense to do this in VR? Does a sense of presence help this, or is it better suited to traditional media?”

Virtual Reality: The User Experience of Story — from blogs.adobe.com

Excerpt:

Solving the content problems in VR requires new skills that are only just starting to be developed and understood, skills that are quite different from traditional storytelling. VR is a nascent medium. One part story, one part experience. And while many of the concepts from film and theater can be used, storytelling through VR is not like making a movie or a play.

In VR, the user has to be guided through an experience of a story, which means many of the challenges in telling a VR story are closer to UX design than anything from film or theater.

Take the issue of frameless scenes. In a VR experience, there are no borders, and no guarantees where a user will look. Scenes must be designed to attract user attention, in order to guide them through the experience of a story.

Sound design, staging cues, lighting effects, and movement can all be used to draw a user’s attention.

However, it’s a fine balance between attraction to distraction.

“In VR, it’s easy to overwhelm the user. If you see a flashing light and in the background, you hear a sharp siren, and then something moves, you’ve given the user too many things to understand,” says Di Dang, User Experience Lead at POP, Seattle. “Be intentional and deliberate about how you grab audience attention.”

VR is a storytelling superpower. No other medium has the quite the same potential to create empathy and drive human connection. Because viewers are for all intents and purposes living the experience, they walk away with that history coded into their memory banks—easily accessible for future responses.

Google’s latest VR experiment is teaching people how to make coffee — from techradar.com by Parker Wilhelm
All in a quest to see how effective learning in virtual reality is

Excerpt:

Teaching with a simulation is no new concept, but Google’s Daydream Labs wants to see exactly how useful virtual reality can be for teaching people practical skills.

In a recent experiment, Google ran a simulation of an interactive espresso machine in VR. From there, it had a group of people try their virtual hand at brewing a cup of java before being tasked to make the real thing.

Addendum on 7/26/17:

A New World: VR and AR Tech Developments — from er.educause.edu by Emory Craig and Maya Georgieva

4 ways augmented reality could change corporate training forever –from by Jay Samit

Excerpt:

In the coming years, machine learning and augmented reality will likely take both educational approaches to the next level by empowering workers to have the latest, most accurate information available in context, when and where they need it most.

Here are four ways that digital reality can revolutionize corporate training…

…augmented reality (AR) is poised not only to address issues faced by our aging workforce, but to fundamentality increase productivity by changing how all employees are trained in the future.

Getting students ready for the gig economy [Liebtag]

On 07/22/2017, in active learning, career development, economics, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, freelancing, K-12 related, marketing/social marketing, passions, project-based learning, society, sociology, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Getting students ready for the gig economy — from gettingsmart.com by Emily Liebtag

Excerpt:

1) Finding a Passion and Making an Impact
Exploring passions, interests and causes that matter should be a part of every student’s education. Projects or several short-term gigs are a great way to help students reveal (or discover) their personal passions and to facilitate their interest explorations (all while still covering core content and standards). There are many students who already have opportunities to explore their passions during the regular school day through projects and are thriving as a result.

We’ve seen students at High Tech High create business plans and sell self-designed t-shirts, students at Thrive Public Schools engage in projects around kindness and empathy in their communities, and students at One Stone work with clients on advertising and marketing gigs, exploring their passions one project at a time.

Need ideas? Engage students in projects around the Sustainable Development Goals, snag an idea from the the PBL Q & A blog or simply ask students what they are curious about exploring in their community.

More Than Just Cool? — from insidehighered.com by Nick Roll
Virtual and augmented realities make headway in courses on health care, art history and social work.

Excerpt:

When Glenn Gunhouse visits the Pantheon, you would think that the professor, who teaches art and architecture history, wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes off the Roman temple’s columns, statues or dome. But there’s something else that always catches his eye: the jaws of the tourists visiting the building, and the way they all inevitably drop.

“Wow.”

There’s only one other way that Gunhouse has been able to replicate that feeling of awe for his students short of booking expensive plane tickets to Italy. Photos, videos and even three-dimensional walk-throughs on a computer screen don’t do it: It’s when his students put on virtual reality headsets loaded with images of the Pantheon.

…nursing schools are using virtual reality or augmented reality to bring three-dimensional anatomy illustrations off of two-dimensional textbook pages.

Also see:

Oculus reportedly planning $200 standalone wireless VR headset for 2018 — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

Facebook is set to reveal a standalone Oculus virtual reality headset sometime later this year, Bloomberg reports, with a ship date of sometime in 2018. The headset will work without requiring a tethered PC or smartphone, according to the report, and will be branded with the Oculus name around the world, except in China, where it’ll carry Xiaomi trade dress and run some Xiaomi software as part of a partnership that extends to manufacturing plans for the device.

Facebook Inc. is taking another stab at turning its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset into a mass-market phenomenon. Later this year, the company plans to unveil a cheaper, wireless device that the company is betting will popularize VR the way Apple did the smartphone.

Source

The case for a next generation learning platform [Grush & Christian]

On 07/11/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, algorithms, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, attention, Blockchain, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, change, Christian education, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, cognitive computing, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, Content aggregration, content repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, history, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, Languages and translation, learner profiles, learning, Learning Agents, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning spaces, Lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, Michigan, Microlearning, mirroring and/or multiple devices, Mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, PLNs, professional development, reinvent, robotics, RSS, second screen apps, simulations, Smart/Connected TV, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, surviving, teaching online, Technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, universities, user experience (UX), Using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual reality / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

The case for a next generation learning platform — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Grush: Then what are some of the implications you could draw from metrics like that one?

Christian: As we consider all the investment in those emerging technologies, the question many are beginning to ask is, “How will these technologies impact jobs and the makeup of our workforce in the future?”

While there are many thoughts and questions regarding the cumulative impact these technologies will have on our future workforce (e.g., “How many jobs will be displaced?”), the consensus seems to be that there will be massive change.

Whether our jobs are completely displaced or if we will be working alongside robots, chatbots, workbots, or some other forms of AI-backed personal assistants, all of us will need to become lifelong learners — to be constantly reinventing ourselves. This assertion is also made in the aforementioned study from McKinsey: “AI promises benefits, but also poses urgent challenges that cut across firms, developers, government, and workers. The workforce needs to be re-skilled to exploit AI rather than compete with it…”

A side note from DSC:
I began working on this vision prior to 2010…but I didn’t officially document it until 2012.

Learning from the Living [Class] Room:

A global, powerful, next generation learning platform

What does the vision entail?

A new, global, collaborative learning platform that offers more choice, more control to learners of all ages – 24×7 – and could become the organization that futurist Thomas Frey discusses here with Business Insider:

“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.

A learner-centered platform that is enabled by – and reliant upon – human beings but is backed up by a powerful suite of technologies that work together in order to help people reinvent themselves quickly, conveniently, and extremely cost-effectively
A customizable learning environment that will offer up-to-date streams of regularly curated content (i.e., microlearning) as well as engaging learning experiences
Along these lines, a lifelong learner can opt to receive an RSS feed on a particular topic until they master that concept; periodic quizzes (i.e., spaced repetition) determines that mastery. Once mastered, the system will ask the learner whether they still want to receive that particular stream of content or not.
A Netflix-like interface to peruse and select plugins to extend the functionality of the core product
An AI-backed system of analyzing employment trends and opportunities will highlight those courses and streams of content that will help someone obtain the most in-demand skills
A system that tracks learning and, via Blockchain-based technologies, feeds all completed learning modules/courses into learners’ web-based learner profiles
A learning platform that provides customized, personalized recommendation lists – based upon the learner’s goals
A platform that delivers customized, personalized learning within a self-directed course (meant for those content creators who want to deliver more sophisticated courses/modules while moving people through the relevant Zones of Proximal Development)
Notifications and/or inspirational quotes will be available upon request to help provide motivation, encouragement, and accountability – helping learners establish habits of continual, lifelong-based learning
(Potentially) An online-based marketplace, matching learners with teachers, professors, and other such Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
(Potentially) Direct access to popular job search sites
(Potentially) Direct access to resources that describe what other companies do/provide and descriptions of any particular company’s culture (as described by current and former employees and freelancers)
(Potentially) Integration with one-on-one tutoring services

Further details here >>

Addendum from DSC (regarding the resource mentioned below):
Note the voice recognition/control mechanisms on Westinghouse’s new product — also note the integration of Amazon’s Alexa into a “TV.”

Westinghouse’s Alexa-equipped Fire TV Edition smart TVs are now available — from theverge.com by Chaim Gartenberg

The key selling point, of course, is the built-in Amazon Fire TV, which is controlled with the bundled Voice Remote and features Amazon’s Alexa assistant.

Finally…also see:

NASA unveils a skill for Amazon’s Alexa that lets you ask questions about Mars — from geekwire.com by Kevin Lisota
Holographic storytelling — from jwtintelligence.com
The stories of Holocaust survivors are brought to life with the help of interactive 3D technologies.
New Dimensions in Testimony is a new way of preserving history for future generations. The project brings to life the stories of Holocaust survivors with 3D video, revealing raw first-hand accounts that are more interactive than learning through a history book. Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, the first subject of the project, was filmed answering over 1000 questions, generating approximately 25 hours of footage. By incorporating natural language processing from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), people are able to ask Gutter’s projected image questions that trigger relevant responses.

Historical VR application makes ‘time travel’ a reality [Ergürel]

On 07/10/2017, in attention, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, tools, user experience (UX), virtual reality / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Historical virtual reality application makes ‘time travel’ a reality — from haptic.al by Deniz Ergürel
‘Virtual Time Binoculars’ provides a unique window into the city of Edinburgh around the time of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots.

Excerpt:

A new application called ‘Virtual Time Binoculars’, allows historians to explore the old Edinburgh city in entirely new and exciting ways.

Launched by a group of academics from the University of St. Andrews, the app brings the original views of streets, marketplaces and churches as they may have been in the 16th century.

Created by the University of St Andrews’s spinout company Smart History, Virtual Time Binoculars: Edinburgh 1544 provides a unique window into the capital around the time of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots.

Also see:
the Virtual Time Binoculars website.

Also see:

Virtual reality app highlights Penn State campus landmarks — from centredaily.com by Leon Valsechi

Excerpt:

The Penn State University Park campus is ornamented by senior class gifts that date back to the late 1800s and a team of Penn State researchers has developed a mobile virtual reality app that highlights some of the more popular landmarks.

Through the lens of a virtual reality headset, users are instantly transported to University Park, where they can visit some of the campus’s most recognizable relics. The trip is made possible by ChoroPhronesis, a research team operating within the Department of Geography that focuses on immersive virtual reality.

“ARKit: AR on 195 million iPhones & iPads by year end” plus 3 other items re: AR

On 07/06/2017, in Apple, attention, augmented reality, computer science, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interactivity, iPad, iPhone, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

ARKit: Augmented Reality on 195 million iPhones and iPads by year end — from blog.mapbox.com by Ceci Alvarez

Excerpt:

Apple’s ARKit just made augmented reality (AR) mainstream — and together with the Maps SDK for Unity, will fundamentally change the types of location-based apps that developers can build.

Using ARKit plus Maps SDK for Unity allows you record your bike ride up to Twin Peaks in Strava and project the map of your route on your coffee table. As you plan your next vacation over dinner, you’ll be able to open your Lonely Planet app and have the Big Sur coast hovering in front of you as you browse the different camp sites. Or, when you’re at work appraising a property for flood insurance, you could just tilt up your phone and see the flood plain in front of you, and which parts of the property are susceptible to flooding. Or, when you’re teaching a geology class you project the evolution of Pangea in 3D for students to visualize instead of being limited by 2D images in textbooks.

Inside Peter Jackson’s New Augmented Reality Studio — from cartoonbrew.com by Ian Failes

Excerpt:

At Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, one of the stand-out demos was from Wingnut AR, the augmented reality studio started by director Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh.

On stage, Wingnut AR’s creative director Alasdair Coull demonstrated a tabletop ar experience made using Apple’s upcoming augmented reality developer kit called ARKit and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. The experience blended a real world environment – the tabletop – with digital objects, in this case a sci-fi location complete with attacking spaceships, while being viewed live, on an iPad.

Soon your desk will be a computer too — from wired.com by Elizabeth Stinson

More Fun Uses for Augmented Reality & Your iPhone Keep Popping Up — from ar.reality.news by Juliet Gallagher

Excerpt:

Developers are really having a field day with Apple’s ARKit, announced last month. Since it’s release to developers, videos have been appearing all over the Internet of the different ways that developers are getting creative with the ARKit using iPhones and iPads.

Here are a few videos of the cool things that are happening using the ARKit:

Addendum on 7/10/17:

Google Lens offers a snapshot of the future for augmented reality and AI — from android authority.com by Adam Sinicki

Google Lens offers a snapshot of the future for augmented reality and AI

Google Lens is a tool that effectively brings search into the real world. The idea is simple: you point your phone at something around you that you want more information on and Lens will provide that information.

6 Ways to Accelerate Learning in Your Virtual Classroom [Clay]

On 07/05/2017, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty, online learning, pedagogy, story, storytelling, teaching & learning, training / L&D, by Daniel Christian

6 Ways to Accelerate Learning in Your Virtual Classroom —- from td.org by Cynthia Clay

Excerpt:

When you move into the virtual classroom, whether as an instructional designer or a trainer, you quickly discover that guidelines for instruction in the traditional classroom may not help as much as you expected. You might have a bevy of questions: Should I use more slides or fewer? Should I present more content or streamline what I have? What about chat? Should I turn it on and let people talk to each other or turn it off so they focus on what I say? Should I put myself on camera throughout the session or just display a photograph at the opening?

How you answer those questions will either expedite or decelerate the learning experience. The following six accelerators make the difference between delivering learning that sticks and learning that’s forgotten by Friday.

Accelerator #1: Get visual
Accelerator #2: Tell a story
Accelerator #3: Establish rapport
Accelerator #4: Engage continuously
Accelerator #5: Hit them with a problem
Accelerator #6: Facilitate learning

Learning Ecosystems

3 articles that show that experimentation is needed — & is just getting started — with virtual reality

4 ways augmented reality could change corporate training forever [Samit]

VR & AR make headway in courses on health care, art history, and social work [Roll] Plus…a $200 wireless VR headset from Oculus in 2018?

Historical VR application makes ‘time travel’ a reality [Ergürel]

“ARKit: AR on 195 million iPhones & iPads by year end” plus 3 other items re: AR

6 Ways to Accelerate Learning in Your Virtual Classroom [Clay]

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