Introducing…the Learning Dashboard — from khanacademy.org

Excerpt:

The new learning dashboard is your personal homepage on Khan Academy. The dashboard gives you an easy way to find the best next things for you to do. It has a bunch of really cool things designed to help you learn math, and soon other subjects, really well on your own or with a coach. You can access it when you’re signed in by clicking on the Khan Academy logo at the top of the page.

 

KhanAcademy-NewLearningDashboard-Sept2013

 

From DSC:
Think of the power of this in a blended learning environment!  Use the dashboard to gain more choice, more control. See your progress.  Then go to your teacher, professor, trainer, supervisor, subject matter expert, etc. to get guidance, extra help, etc.   It also plays into what I envision in the “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” environment that continues to form in front of our very eyes.

 

 

 

IBM-WatsonAtWork-Sept2013

 

From DSC:
IBM Watson continues to expand into different disciplines/areas, which currently include:

  • Healthcare
  • Finance
  • Customer Service

But Watson is also entering the marketing and education/research realms.

I see a Watson-type-of-tool as being a key ingredient for future MOOCs and the best chance for MOOCs to morph into something very powerful indeed — offloading the majority of the workload to computers/software/intelligent tutoring/learning agents, while at the same time allowing students to connect with each other and/or to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) as appropriate.

The price of education could hopefully come way down — depending upon the costs involved with licensing Watson or a similar set of technologies — as IBM could spread out their costs to multiple institutions/organizations.  This vision represents another important step towards the “Walmart of Education” that continues to develop before our eyes.

Taking this even one step further, I see this system being available to us on our mobile devices as well as in our living rooms — as the telephone, the television, and the computer continue to converge.  Blended learning on steroids.

What would make this really powerful would be to provide:

  • The ability to create narratives/stories around content
  • To feed streams of content into Watson for students to tap into
  • Methods of mining data and using that to tweak algorithms, etc. to improve the tools/learning opportunities

Such an architecture could be applied towards lifelong learning opportunities — addressing what we now know as K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development.

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

IsSchoolEnoughPBSDotOrg-Sep32013

 

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About the program (emphasis DSC):

Thanks to digital media, the Internet and new advances in understanding how students learn, educators are beginning to appreciate the importance of breaking out of the classroom and into the wider world. There’s a growing understanding that learning should not just be preparation for life, but is actually “life itself.”

Is School Enough? documents vivid examples of where new modes of learning and engagement are taking hold and flourishing. Featuring nationally recognized educators and researchers, Stephen Brown’s powerful stories show that when students have the opportunity to explore real interests and problems, they step up and perform at the highest level. This new approach reaches motivated students as well as kids that educators call “the bright and bored,” helping these learners tune in rather than drop out.

Is School Enough? introduces parents, educators, and everyone passionate about learning to:

• Students in Maine who work with veterinary experts and digital apps to prepare a new home for a retired circus elephant.
• Young people worldwide who use the online Harry Potter Alliance to launch meaningful social justice initiatives.
• A curious and creative teen who crafts her own educational experience based on her passion for natural healing and yoga.
• A young man in Oakland who produces state-of-the-art music videos to engage his community—and himself.

Through the voices of these inspired students and America’s foremost education thought leaders, Is School Enough? provides insight into an essential new understanding of what education can be in the 21st century. Is School Enough? is the second in a series of programs about kids, digital media and education. The first program, Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century explores students claiming digital media as a means of connecting, communicating, creating, and learning, while interpreting its importance and providing a window into 21st-century education.

 

Exploring curation as a core competency in digital and media literacy education — from the Journal of Interactive Media in Education (jime.open.ac.uk); with thanks to Robin Good for the Scoop

Paul Mihailidis
Department of Marketing Communication, Emerson College, United States

James N Cohen
School of Communication, Hofstra University, United States

Abstract:

In today’s hypermedia landscape, youth and young adults are increasingly using social media platforms, online aggregators and mobile applications for daily information use. Communication educators, armed with a host of free, easy-to-use online tools, have the ability to create dynamic approaches to teaching and learning about information and communication flow online. In this paper we explore the concept of curation as a student- and creation-driven pedagogical tool to enhance digital and media literacy education. We present a theoretical justification for curation and present six key ways that curation can be used to teach about critical thinking, analysis and expression online. We utilize a case study of the digital curation platform Storify to explore how curation works in the classroom, and present a framework that integrates curation pedagogy into core media literacy education learning outcomes.

From DSC:
First, take a look at this interactive video from the Wall Street Journal:

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WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare-7-9-13

 

For further information on that video, you can also see:

  • ‘Obamacare’ Made Easy to Understand — from /live.wsj.com
    David Wessel discusses a new WSJ.com interactive video that helps viewers better understand the Affordable Health Care Act as well as its slate of rules and penalties.

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare2-7-9-13

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From DSC:

Excellent, creative use of technology!   Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise!  Your learning futures just got much more interesting, dynamic, and interactive! 

You will be given more choice and more control than you’ve ever had before. You will be able to interact with digital videos, drill down, take some rights turns and come back again, and more.

For example, during the WSJ video, you can click on the radio within the digital video in order to “drill down” and listen to more about a certain topic — while the main presentation “holds on”…

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare3-7-9-13

 

…you can jump ahead to the next marker…pause…rewind…click to get some further text-based information/details on a topic of interest:

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare4-7-9-13

 

…and more. In other words, you have more choice, more control in your learning experience. This, at minimum, is a piece of online learning’s — and digital video’s — future.

But I hear you saying, so what? Flash has been doing this for a while now.  And that, my friends, is the only downside I see in this implementation from the WSJ — it was done using Flash. 

As Flash won’t fly on iOS-based devices, an HTML5-based solution needs to come into the picture…and this is where Touchcast shines!

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Touchcast-July2013

 

As Paul Sawers explains, you can add interactive, browsable layers onto your video and deliver it in an HTML5-based format.

 

d11 730x547 TouchCast for iPad brings the future of the Web to video authoring with interactive browsable layers

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An excerpt from Paul’s article:

Things start to get really interesting with video apps (vApps). TouchCast lets you create videos that are layered with live Web pages, video clips, maps, Twitter streams and other facets of the digital world. “We’re actually claiming that this is the future of the Web,” says Segal, TouchCasts’s CEO.

Indeed, TouchCast’s vApp library is ‘open’, so developers can create and customize their own vApps.

 

Bottom line:
“Digital textbooks” will never be the same again (not to mention learning modules, transmedia, ads, presentations, digital storytelling, and more)!

 

 

Also see:

 

From DSC:
Harold Jarche’s recent posting, “Learning is too important to be left to the professionals,” made me reflect on the word heutagogy.  First, a couple of definitions:

heutagogy (wikipedia) (additional emphasis DSC):

In education, heutagogy, a term coined by Stewart Hase of Southern Cross University and Chris Kenyon in Australia, is the study of self-determined learning. The notion is an expansion and reinterpretation of andragogy, and it is possible to mistake it for the same. However, there are several differences between the two that mark one from the other.

Heutagogy places specific emphasis on learning how to learn, double loop learning, universal learning opportunities, a non-linear process, and true learner self-direction. So, for example, whereas andragogy focuses on the best ways for people to learn, heutagogy also requires that educational initiatives include the improvement of people’s actual learning skills themselves, learning how to learn as well as just learning a given subject itself. Similarly, whereas andragogy focuses on structured education, in heutagogy all learning contexts, both formal and informal, are considered.

What is heutagogy? (heutagogycop.wordpress.com) (emphasis DSC):

“Heutagogy is the study of self-determined learning … It is also an attempt to challenge some ideas about teaching and learning that still prevail in teacher centred learning and the need for, as Bill Ford (1997) eloquently puts it ‘knowledge sharing’ rather than ‘knowledge hoarding’. In this respect heutagogy looks to the future in which knowing how to learn will be a fundamental skill given the pace of innovation and the changing structure of communities and workplaces.”

 

From DSC:
Harold’s posting made me see that the move (or need to move) towards self-directed/determined learning seems to be happening in the corporate world as well.   From my own 15 years of experience in the corporate world, I can see how this was true even back then — and even moreso these days when businesses can be disrupted almost overnight. 

We all need to be able to hold things loosely…to adapt…to reinvent ourselves…to stay relevant.

Questions:

  • How can we help students in K-12 own their own learning?
  • How can we help students in higher ed own and control more of their learning?
  • How can we help employees in the corporate world direct/determine their own learning?
  • How can we better help folks transition from one chapter of their lives to another?

 

Addendum on 7/2/13/ — with thanks to Lynn Marentette (@lynnmarentette) for this resource:

From Andragogy to Heutagogy

Author: Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon (2001)
Southern Cross University

Keywords: Southern Cross University, pedagogy, andragogy, heutagogy, higher education, vocational education, self-determined learning.
Article style and source: Peer Reviewed. Original ultiBASE publication.

 

Example slides from
Will Richardson’s solid presentation at ISTE 2013, entitled ” Abundant Learning: Four newish ideas for powerful classrooms”

 

AbundantLearning-WillRichardson-June2013

 

 

From DSC:
This idea of self-directed/owned learning is spot on — and not just for those in K-12, but also for those in higher education and for those in the corporate world as well! It unleashes an enormous amount of intrinsic energy, motivation, drive, grit.

Each person needs to own and build their learning ecosystem — identifying one’s gifts, talents, passions, interests and then going out and developing those things.  If we each do what we do best, the whole world benefits.  As we will need others along the way — a team-based approach, communities of practice, and several of the other things/skills Will alluded to will be very important as well.

 

 

 

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business [Wolf]

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business — from forbes.com by Michael Wolf

 

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Excerpt:

According to new research published this week, the TV apps economy is forecasted to reach $14 billion by 2017.

Take for example today’s news that Apple will begin selling video advertisements served by iAd through iTunes Radio loaded on Apple TVs. This is only the first move for Apple in this space, and others like Samsung and Google  are already investing heavily in connected TV app advertising.

 

From DSC:
Why post this? Because:

  • It lays out future directions/careers related to Programming, Computer Science, Data Mining, Analytics, Marketing, Telecommunications, User Experience Design, Digital and Transmedia Storytelling, and more
    .
  • It leads to “Learning from the Living [Class] Room”

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

From DSC:
And if this does take off,
$14 billion won’t begin to capture the profits from this new industry.

It will be far larger than that.

 

Relevant addendum on 6/27/13:

  • The future of cinema is on demand — from bitrebels.com by Ben Warner (From DSC: Having just paid $32 for 4 people — 3 of whom were kids — to see Monsters U, I believe it!)
    .

future-of-cinema-on-demand

Via: [The Verge] Image Credits: [Venture Beat] [Home Theater]

 

 

The Vision & Philosophy Behind the Design of the Academic Cheating MOOC — from etale.org by Bernard Bull

Excerpt:

With these two concepts in mind, I sought to design a MOOC environment that blended the elements of xMOOCs and cMOOCs.  The vision was for me to serve as a sort of tour guide, occasionally directing people as needed, establishing suggested “sites” and activities.  And yet, I wanted to leave ample room for user-generated, group-constructed knowledge.  Here are some of the MOOC features that emerged from this vision.

 

It’s a 401(k) world — from nytimes.com by Thomas Friedman

Excerpts:

Something really big happened in the world’s wiring in the last decade, but it was obscured by the financial crisis and post-9/11. We went from a connected world to a hyperconnected world.

…the combination of these tools of connectivity and creativity has created a global education, commercial, communication and innovation platform on which more people can start stuff, collaborate on stuff, learn stuff, make stuff (and destroy stuff) with more other people than ever before.

But this huge expansion in an individual’s ability to do all these things comes with one big difference: more now rests on you.

Government will do less for you. Companies will do less for you. Unions can do less for you. There will be fewer limits, but also fewer guarantees. Your specific contribution will define your specific benefits much more. Just showing up will not cut it.

 

From DSC:
Makes me reflect on if we’re preparing our youth for the world that they will encounter. Makes me wonder…how does all of this emphasis on standardized tests fit into this new/developing world?  Does the Common Core address these developing needs/requirements for survival? Are we preparing students to be able to think on their feet? To “pivot?”  To adapt/turn on a dime?  Or does K-20 need to be rethought and reinvented? 

It seems that creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and lifelong learning are becoming more important all the time.

What say ye teachers and professors? If your students could have a super job tomorrow, would they come back to your class/school/program? If not, what would make them come back — and w/ eagerness in their step?  That’s where we need to head towards — and I think part of the solution involves more choice, more control being given to the students.

The new term (at least to me) that is increasingly coming to my mind is:

Heutagogy — from Wikipedia (emphasis DSC)

In education, heutagogy, a term coined by Stewart Hase of Southern Cross University and Chris Kenyon in Australia, is the study of self-determined learning. The notion is an expansion and reinterpretation of andragogy, and it is possible to mistake it for the same. However, there are several differences between the two that mark one from the other.

Heutagogy places specific emphasis on learning how to learn, double loop learning, universal learning opportunities, a non-linear process, and true learner self-direction. So, for example, whereas andragogy focuses on the best ways for people to learn, heutagogy also requires that educational initiatives include the improvement of people’s actual learning skills themselves, learning how to learn as well as just learning a given subject itself. Similarly, whereas andragogy focuses on structured education, in heutagogy all learning contexts, both formal and informal, are considered.

 

 

© 2024 | Daniel Christian