CenterForDigitalEducation-2013Yearbook

 

Description:

The Yearbook is a unique publication produced annually by the Center for Digital Education (CDE) that highlights some of the outstanding trends,

people and events over the past year in education technology. The first part of the Yearbook gives readers market awareness by outlining how much money schools spent on education technology, where the funding came from and what technologies have been garnering the most attention.

The second part features 40 education innovators who are using technology to inspire their students, improve learning and better the K-20 education system. We hope that this 2013 Yearbook issue provides inspiration to our readers to continue on their quests towards innovation in education.

 

From DSC:
My quote in the Center for Digital Education’s 2013 Yearbook reads:

 

“Educational technologists need to be bold, visionary and creative. They need to be in tune with the needs, missions and visions of their organizations. We have the opportunity — and responsibility — to make lasting and significant contributions within our fields and for the organizations that we work for.”

 

 

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

Learning from the Living [Class] Room  — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room.  I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition.  This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a teambased approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.) 


To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:


  1. What do you mean by “the living [class] room”?
  2. Why consider this now?
  3. What are some examples of apps and tech for “the living [class] room”?
  4. What skill sets will be needed to make “the living [class] room” a reality?

 

 


Alternatively, these videos can be found at:


 

DanielSChristianLearningFromTheLivingClassRoom-CampusTechnologyNovember2013

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Citrix-Mobile-Education-10-31-13

 

 

Citrix-Mobile-Education-TOC-10-31-13

 

Description:

Education is at a tipping point. From the rising cost of a college education and the financial pressures upon local districts and state agencies to fund K-12 schools and programs, to the questions of how to employ mobile technologies and leverage social platforms to support the growing trend toward mobile, collaborative learning models, educators face an almost overwhelming set of challenges. While there are no easy answers to these and other issues, Citrix believes strongly that online learning technologies can help enhance and extend the teaching and learning process and provide greater, more wide-spread access to education to students. We are committed to developing and delivering learning solutions that will meet the evolving needs of teachers and students in this changing landscape. We hope that our sponsorship of this ebook and other projects will help you, the reader, gain a better understanding of the opportunities that online learning technologies provide, increase your mastery of these solutions, and enable you to put them to productive use. We look forward to working with you as we explore new and effective ways to help teachers teach and learners learn.

CaIlin Pitcher
Product Line Director, Collaboration, Citrix

 

Comments/disclosure from DSC:
I do not work for Citrix — I have been at Calvin College since
March 2007.  I was not paid to develop/contribute this piece.

I’d like to thank David Rogelberg for his work on this project.

 

 

 

Information from Amy Ashline and the kids that she works with

“…the kids thought of the brilliant idea to email you in the first place, because they wanted to share a resource they found: http://www.pc-wholesale.com/pc-wholesale-com-s-guide-to-keyboarding.html . They thought it’d be a great fit for your page and that maybe other visitors would find it fantastic as well.”

 

PC Wholesale.com’s Guide to Keyboarding

Excerpt:

With the increasing usage of computers, keyboarding skills have become essential. Children must learn keyboarding skills early on as part of using computers and in order to type lessons and reports. Parents need to encourage kids to practice typing outside of school as it takes a lot of time to become efficient. It is also important to teach the proper hand and body positioning as well as correct typing techniques in order to prevent things like carpal tunnel syndrome. Learning to type need not be a boring chore; today, there are many fun games, lessons, and tests online to help kids learn keyboarding skills. With entertaining games like this, kids will love to type!

Examples:

 

readysettype-11-4-13

 

ElmosKeyboardORama-Nov2013

 

DanceMatTyping-Nov2013

 

From DSC:
Typing/keyboarding has been one of the most useful skills I’ve ever learned. 

Quick story:
I got a detention slip from my typing teacher in 7th grade for looking at my hands while typing. That seemed to help me quite a bit actually. After that, I practiced really hard at NOT looking at my hands.  Anyway, if you’re still out there, thanks Mrs. Worthy for teaching me how to type!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readmill makes each and every book its own self-contained social network, allowing readers to discuss, share and review from inside of the e-book.

 

Readmill: Redefining the Ebook

Excerpt:

The books of the modern-day have progressed far beyond just containing stories, they are now social networks in their own right – generating vast reams of data offering insight into not only what we read, but how, when and where we are reading it. At the forefront of this movement is Readmill, an app staking its future on being the great reading app.

Readmill makes each and every book its own self-contained social network, allowing readers to discuss, share and review from inside of the e-book. If you find a passage you like, you can highlight it and comment on it right from within the book. Other users reading the book and even the author can see these comments and add their own thoughts, starting a discussion within the book, without ever having to leave it.

Readmill has positioned itself as a company which detaches itself from ‘the selling of the book” to focus on the “social experience.”

 

Connected! Readmill redefines ebooks as social networks — from futureofthebook.blogspot.com

 

 

From DSC:
Two things come to mind when I read this:

1)  What if we applied the same concept towards electronically-delivered streams of content? What if, instead of an e-book, we presented a particular topic of discussion or a particular lesson to kick things off and then have Communities of Practice take over from there?  (This could fit nicely into the “Learning from the Living Class [Room] vision, enabled by the Smart/Connected TV.)

2)  What if we could have “layers” on a digital “textbook”?

 

DanielSChristian-TextbookConcept-May2011-Layers

 

 

 

 

 

 

8PredictionsFutureOfStorytellingGaskinsOct2013

 

The 8 items that Kim discusses include:

  1. Stories will come out of the screen, into the physical world.
  2. Characters will become connections.
  3. Audiences will be able to experience stories unfolding from different vantage points.
  4. Stories will be told 24/7.
  5. The notion of authorship will evolve; in many cases, storytelling will be more of a “bottom-up” process.
  6. Stories will make the world a better place (even more than they already do).
  7. Videos will offer one-click storefronts.
  8. Passive or active narrative experience? It’ll be your choice.

 

From DSC:
Again, we see:

More choice. More control.

 

Some items re: Steam and OUYA — with a thanks going out to Mr. Steven Chevalia for the information here

For the past 20 years, the video game industry has been controlled by three primary companies:

  1. Nintendo (Nintendo, Gamecube, Wii)
  2. Sony (Playstation)
  3. Microsoft (Xbox)

However, the past two years have shown an increased interest in hardware solutions from 3rd parties, such as:

  • OUYA is a 3rd party console that was designed to be a gaming system with a lower cost and was meant for all open-source games.
    (Further details at wikipedia.org)
     
  • Steam is a 3rd party that sells and updates all their games digitally. They offer all the same games as most of the consoles (listed above) and will soon be offering their own console, which will connect to the internet and allow you to play any game that you own on their service.
    (Further details at wikipedia.org)

 

STEAM-Expanding2014

 

These smaller, lesser known devices are prime targets for educational and kid-friendly material. (NOTE: Not all of the games available via these sites are appropriate for kids, as many of the games therein are meant for older audiences.) It is likely that iTunes U, YouTube, etc. will all be viewable on these consoles and the games made for them will be able to be made by smaller companies that can’t compete on the market with Nintendo, Playstation, or Xbox-based games.

 

 

LondonSymphonyOrchestraPlay-Oct2013

From DSC:
With thanks to Nicola Ryan (@Nicola_Ryan) for this resource.

 

Tidebreak Next Generation Mobile App Powers Full-Participation Learning  — from digitaljournal.com

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Mountain View and Anaheim, CA (PRWEB) October 15, 2013

New web app increases collaboration between students and faculty in classroom in BYOD learning environments.

“Using technology in the classroom can help spur creativity, increase participation, and foster a collaborative environment,” said Andrew J. Milne, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Tidebreak. “The latest version of Tidebreak’s mobile web app allows students to use any tablet or handheld device to share information with the entire class in real-time. By incorporating mobile web apps into devices that students already own, faculty can improve the learning process by creating a more collaborative environment that encourages active participation.”

The mobile web app from Tidebreak has many new features that will help increase student participation in the classroom. New features that have been incorporated into ClassSpot, ClassSpot PBL and TeamSpot include:

  • Work “at the board” without getting up – Full keyboard and track pad control from a tablet or phone allows students to collaborate on the large classroom screen in real-time.
  • Bridge the physical and digital world – Capture and share photos of whiteboard content, physical objects, or images and then share it on-screen or archive it instantly.
  • Surf and share – Search the web for relevant content and then share it to the main screen, the session archive, or to everyone in the group simultaneously.
  • Navigate an enhanced design – A great deal of improvement has gone into the user interface which helps generate new ideas among students.
 

Mapping the Bible in Google Earth — from freetech4teachers.com by Richard Byrne

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

A few years ago I shared a small collection of interactive maps based on Biblical stories. Recently, through the Google Earth Blog, I learned about a collection of Google Earth files that map Biblical stories. The blog Biblical Studies and Technological Tools put together a collection of seven Google Earth files. A couple of the files that I downloaded from the collection were a Complete list of Bible Place KMZ and Biblical Rivers and Bodies of Water (both links trigger KMZ/ KML file downloads).

 

FutureOfStorytellingGaskins-Oct2013

 

Excerpt:

Many of us go about our lives constantly surrounded by screens, immersed in various “stories”: movies, TV shows, books, plot-driven video games, news articles, advertising, and more. Whether we realize it or not, we’re creating new behaviors, routines, mindsets, and expectations around what we watch, read or play—which in turn presents new challenges and opportunities for creators and marketers.

In other words, while the fundamentals of good storytelling remain the same, technology is changing how stories can be told. But what does that mean exactly?

 
 

From DSC:
There’s something here for classrooms/education — even for the living rooms of the future!

 

Little Mermaid Second Screen Live makes iPads part of the movie world — from gigaom.com by Liz Shannon Miller

Summary:

Disney advertises the Second Screen Live experience as a rebellion: “Break the rules — bring your iPad to the movies!” But it’s less a trip to the movies and more a fully interactive experience.

As the film began, so did the games. Most second-screen experiences I’ve tried have been largely passive, but Little Mermaid demanded the audience’s attention right from the beginning with games, trivia questions and other forms of interactivity for all ages.

 

lmssl trivia 1

The action on the big screen even froze from time to time for more complex games, and there were moments of seemingly new animation inserted at key plot points, as well.

 
 

Circle Twelve introduces new video conferencing and immersive multi-user collaboration system — from businesswire.com

 

DiamondTouchImmersion-Sept2013

DiamondTouch Immersion is a new video conferencing system from Circle Twelve designed for connecting two remotely located teams. It combines a the multi-user DiamondTouch table with a second display for video conferencing. It features several patented technologies, including the multi-user DiamondTouch table hardware used for interacting with shared content and collaborative whiteboarding, a method for indicating which remote user is interacting (check out the virtual arms at 3:45), and a multi-camera system so you can see all the people at the remote table. More information at http://www.circletwelve.com/products/…

 

From DSC:
Can you imaging this type of web-based collaboration in blended learning environments?!!

 

Also see:

 

 

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian