Apple's iTunes U may be leading a global revolution in higher education

 

From DSC:

Apple has been putting together a solid ecosystem of hardware and software that allows for the creation and distribution of content.  “Easy is hard” I like to say and Apple’s done a great job of creating easy-to-use devices and apps. They have a long way to go before iTunes U has all the built-in functionality needed to replace a Blackboard Learn or a Moodle type of CMS/LMS.  But given their solid history of creating highly-usable hardware and software, they could deal a smashing blow to what’s happening in the CMS/LMS world today. 

Plus, with Apple TV, Airplay mirroring, the growth of second screen-based apps, and machine-to-machine communications, Apple is poised to get into this game…big time. If my thoughts re: “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” come to fruition, Apple would be positioned for some serious worldwide impact on lifelong learning; especially when combined with the developments such as the use of MOOCs, AI and HCI-related innovations, learning agents, web-based learner profiles, and potential/upcoming changes to accreditation.

Too far fetched do you think? Hmmm….well considering that online learning has already been proven to be at least as affective as f2f learning — and in some studies has produced even greater learning outcomes/results — I wonder how things will look in mid-2015…? (That is, where is the innovation occurring?)


 Addendum:

  • Connected TV penetration to top 50% by 2017 — from worldscreen.com by Mansha Daswani
    Excerpt:
    SCOTTSDALE: ABI Research forecasts that more than 50 percent of television homes in North America and Western Europe will have Internet-connected TV sets by 2017, up from just 10 percent last year, while Blu-ray player penetration is expected to rise to more than 76 percent from about 25 percent. The report notes that the popularity of connected TV is not limited to developed markets—there have been increasing shipments to China, ABI notes.
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  • Advertisers need to pay attention to connected TV [INFOGRAPHIC] — from Mashable.com
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  • The future of TV is two screens, one held firmly in your hands — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton
    Excerpt:

    The connected TV, sometimes called the smart TV (and even branded as such by Samsung) is a growing phenomenon: TV makers are adding limited apps, Net connectivity, and even streaming media powers to their newer TVs in the hope they’ll persuade you to upgrade your newish LCD for a flatter, smarter unit. They’re desperate to, given how flat this market is. But according to new research from Pew, the future of TV may actually be a little more closely aligned with the notion of a “connected TV viewer,” an important distinction. Pew spoke to over 2,200 U.S. adults a couple of months ago and discovered that 52% of all adult cell phone owners now “incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences.”

 

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From DSC:
Note the job descriptions further on down the page at shapetheworld.frThese are the types of jobs that may likely be in demand in the near future. Are we ready?

See also:

 

From DSC:
The above video reminds me why I posted this one.

 

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Simulated 3D on the iPad -- without glasses

 

From DSC:
My thanks to Mr. Colton Credelle in the Teaching & Learning Digital Studio at Calvin College for this resource.

 

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French startups offer education outside traditional system — from betakit.com by Roxanne Varsa

Excerpt:

Ultimately, whether it’s learning to make cupcakes, code in HTML5 or speak English flawlessly, more and more French startups are attempting to offer solutions to supplement France’s traditional education system. With education startups increasing tackling issues like adaptive learning and free university-level online classes, there is likely much more room for startups to add to France’s educational system.

 

Open Goldberg Variations: free, open source recording and modern score of classical masterpiece — from boingboing.net/ by Rob Beschizza

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Excerpt:

Performed by Kimiko Ishizaka on a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial in Berlin’s Teldex Studio, there’s already plenty to love about a new cut of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. But this one is also the first fan-funded, open source, and completely free recording of it.

“Every part of it is free for you to use, share, and copy,” said Robert Douglass, who launched the successful Kickstarter project behind Werner Schweer’s new version of the classic score and its production.

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In cloud computing moves, money isn’t everything — from gigaom.com by Barb Darrow

Excerpt:

While saving money is a commonly reason cited for moving IT to the cloud, it is really not the overriding driver at all for most companies, according to new research.

What’s more important than cost savings for companies — at least in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions — is the ability to standardize their software and business processes across the company, according to a new survey of 600 large companies by Tata Consultancy Services, the $8 billion IT service provider. In Europe and Latin America, the primary rationale was the ability to ramp systems up and down faster.

According to the survey:

The factors driving companies to launch entirely new applications in the cloud are quite different – to institute new business processes and launch new technology-dependent products and services.

2011 Year in Review: Global Changes in Tuition Fee Policies and Student Financial Assistance.

Excerpt:

All around the world, the pace of change in higher education is accelerating. In the face of continued increases in participation, demographic change and – in the west at least – profound fiscal crises, higher education institutions are increasingly being required to raise funds from students as opposed to relying on transfers from governments. Indeed, the pace of policy change is coming so quickly that it is difficult to keep track of all the relevant developments in different parts of the world.

In this, the second edition of Year in Review: Tuition Fees and Student Assistance, we outline the major changes related to higher education affordability around the world in 2011. In order to keep our sample manageable, we have kept our inquiries to a selection of 40 countries that collectively best represent the global situation:

The G-40 consists of: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea (Republic of), Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.

Marcucci, Pamela and Usher, Alex (2012). 2011 Year in Review:
Global Changes in Tuition Fee Policies and Student Financial Assistance.
Toronto: Higher Education Strategy Associates.

 

Discover Living Actor™ Presenter Version 2 -- announced Feb 22, 2012

Per Benoît Morel:

We just launched a new release of Living Actor™ Presenter, a 100% online tool that generates video animations from an audio or text file, automatically animating a high quality 3D full body avatar. This new version is more powerful, offers more multimedia, and is faster to use.

The future of internet TV [Europe]

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From DSC:
Entertainment, some news, and social media at bat — educational apps on deck.

Plural Bookshop  — from Fubiz.net

Excerpt:

Installée à Bratislava en Slovaquie, voici cette construction imaginée par Plural et TotalStudio pour un établissement doté à la fois d’un café et d’une librairie. Une structure en escalier et une large bibliothèque occupant l’ensemble de espace. Plus d’image dans la suite de l’article.

plural-bookshop10

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The Future Classroom has a large reconfigurable space divided into five ‘zones’ plus an interactive classroom.

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FCL learning spaces

Background
The original concept of Future Classroom Lab is based on the REAL centre created by the RM Education, a leading provider of ICT software, infrastructure and services to the educational sector in the UK. Along with RM, key industry partners supporting the Future Classroom Lab include: Acer, DYMO/ Mimio, Fourier, Microsoft, Panasonic, Planet PC, PolyVision, Promethean and SMART Technologies.

About European Schoolnet – www.europeanschoolnet.org
European Schoolnet is a network of 30 Ministries of Education from across the European member states, leading educational innovation at European level. As a major international think tank, European Schoolnet operates key European services in education on behalf of the European Commission, member Ministries of Education and industry partners.

 

Also related:

The Cole Hall “Collaboratory” classroom
has 6 separate learning pods, each seating 8 students.
(Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com)

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Stockholm’s school without classrooms — interesting piece from architizer.com

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Excerpt:

Children have wild imaginations. Take Max from Maurice Sendak’s illustrated classic Where the Wild Things Are, whose mischievous tantrums cause his room to sprout into a lush, inhabited forest. In a similar experience of my own, I can recall a particular elementary school gym class, in which the gym was transformed into the perilous domain of a sword-wielding ‘gorilla’—played by my gym teacher. The masked predator hid behind colossal trees of rolled blue gymnastic mats and tangled cargo net vines before springing out to prey on us hysterical, spritely youth.

 

[All photos © Kim Wendt and Rosan Bosch]

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Addendum on 1/12/12:

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Why creative ideas are often rejected in favour of conformity and uniformity.

 

Excerpt:

People don’t like to feel uncertain; it’s an aversive state that generally we try to escape from. Unfortunately creativity requires uncertainty by definition, because we’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before.

People deal with the disconnect by saying one thing, “Creativity is good, we want more of it!” but actually rejecting creative ideas for being impractical.

And, the more uncertain people feel, the harder they find it to recognise a truly creative idea. So as a society we end up sticking our heads in the sand and carrying on doing the same old things we’ve been doing all along, just to avoid feeling uncertain.

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— Originally saw this at Innovation yes, but not here please
from The Corridor of Uncertainty by Alastair Creelman

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