Are we in an age of collective learning?– from permamarks.org by Rotana Ty
Rotana Ty shares a wonderful essay on collective learning, curating the ideas of Marcia Conner, Nilofer Merchant, John Hagel, Tiffany Shlain, Gideon Rosenblatt, J. P. Rangaswami, Greg Satell, Mark Oehlert, and more.

Excerpted quote:

We are moving away from the model in which learning is organized around stable, usually hierarchical institutions (schools, colleges, universities) that, for better and worse, have served as the main gateways to education and social mobility. Replacing that model is a new system in which learning is best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows.

Instead of worrying about how to distribute scarce educational resources, the challenge we need to start grappling with in the era of socialstructed learning is how to attract people to dip into the rapidly growing flow of learning resources and how to do this equitably, in order to create more opportunities for a better life for more people.

Marina Gorbis

 

What's the best way to deal with ever-changing streams of content? When information has shrinking half-lives?

 

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

DanielChristian-A-proposal-to-Apple-MS-Google-IBM-Nov182013

 

 

 

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along

qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

 

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

 

internet of things

 

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

 

Addendum on 11/25:

 

SmartTVFeatures

 

 

 

 

IBM-Opening-up-Watson---11-15-13

 

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

For the first time, IBM will open up Watson as a development platform in the Cloud to spur innovation and fuel a new ecosystem of entrepreneurial software app providers who will bring forward a new generation of applications infused with Watson’s cognitive computing intelligence.

The Watson Ecosystem empowers development of “Powered by IBM Watson” applications. Partners are building a community of organizations who share a vision for shaping the future of their industry through the power of cognitive computing. IBM’s cognitive computing cloud platform will help drive innovation and creative solutions to some of life’s most challenging problems. The ecosystem combines business partners’ experience, offerings, domain knowledge and presence with IBM’s technology, tools, brand, and marketing.

 

Jeff Gomez Masterclass: Creating Blockbuster Transmedia Story Worlds & Brands — from nymediacenter.com

Excerpt:

Who Should Attend?

SCREEN PROFESSIONALS
Producers, writers, directors, commissioners, distributors, investors, policy makers from the film, television and online industries

INTERACTIVE MEDIA PROFESSIONALS
Web developers and designers, app and mobile developers, games developers and designers, multiplatform producers, digital media strategists

BRAND + COMMUNICATION PROFESSIONALS
Advertising, marketing and PR professionals and creatives, public relations professionals, social media strategists, branded content producers

PUBLISHING PROFESSIONALS
Publishers, authors, editors, agents, Commissioners

 

From DSC:
Wondering a few things here:

1)  Why aren’t there similar events aimed at educators, professors, teachers, and trainers? At instructional designers and instructional technologists?

2)  Are we preparing our students for these types of opportunities?

3) That same web page also reads:

It is a philosophy of communication and brand extension that creates intense audience loyalty and long-term engagement, enriches the value of creative content, and generates multiple revenue streams.

Hmmm…couldn’t this also apply to higher education/K-12 education/training as well? 

 

 

Xbox, watch TV: inside Microsoft’s audacious plan to take over the living room — from by Nilay Patel
Can the Xbox One finally kickstart the TV revolution?

 

msft lede

 

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Taking over your cable box also means the Xbox can overlay your TV signal with interesting information: a voice-activated channel guide, pop-up notifications when you get a Skype call and Xbox Live invites, a new NFL app that shows you real-time fantasy stats. You can even snap the TV window to the side of the screen while you play games. Your nasty cable interface is still there, but it allows the Xbox One to replace the cable box as the primary living-room entertainment device and go from gaming console to major new computing platform.

So the entire Xbox One is designed around what you might call a bold compromise: instead of directly integrating TV, the system hijacks it. Rather than plugging your cable box and Xbox into the TV separately, you first plug the cable box into the Xbox, and then the Xbox into the TV. Your cable box is still there, and still doing all the heavy lifting of providing TV, but now it’s doing it in service of the overall Xbox One experience. Smith describes it as “augmenting” the cable box experience in an effort to eliminate the friction of switching between games, apps, and TV.

 

From DSC:
The battle for the living room continues.  I hope that we can eventually leverage these developments not just for entertainment, but for creating, contributing, sharing, absorbing, and discussing streams of content. The creative possibilities involving transmedia-based storytelling are exciting in this type of environment as well.

 

 

 

 
 

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.”

 

 

Items re: Helpouts by Google, which was just introduced on Monday, November 4th, 2013:


 

HelpoutsByGoogle-IntroducedNov-4-2013

 

 

 


From DSC:
This type of thing goes hand and hand with what I’m saying in the Learning from the Living Room vision/concept:  “More choice. More control.”   This type of thing may impact K-12, higher ed, and corporate training/L&D departments.

It this how we are going to make a living in the future?  If so, what changes do we need to make:

  • To the curricula out there?
  • To the “cores” out there?
  • In helping people build their digital/online-based footprints?
  • In helping people market themselves?

 

 

 

Streaming International: How the Internet has made TV a global medium — from sparksheet.com by Maura McWalters

Excerpt:

Television used to be one of America’s biggest exports. But the internet is bringing content from Asia, India and the Middle East into U.S. homes – and new advertising opportunities along with it, reports TV columnist Maura McWalters.

 

“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

.

 

 

Innovation imperative: Change everything  — from nytimes.com by Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn; with a special thanks to Mr. Joel Adams at Calvin College for the resource here

Online education as an agent of transformation

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Like steam, online education is a disruptive innovation — one that introduces more convenient and affordable products or services that over time transform sectors. Yet many bricks-and-mortar colleges are making the same mistake as the once-dominant tall ships: they offer online courses but are not changing the existing model. They are not saving students time and money, the essential steps to disruption. And though their approach makes sense in the short term, it leaves them vulnerable as students gravitate toward less expensive colleges.

Still, the theory predicts that, be it steam or online education, existing consumers will ultimately adopt the disruption, and a host of struggling colleges and universities — the bottom 25 percent of every tier, we predict — will disappear or merge in the next 10 to 15 years.  Already traditional universities are showing the strains of a broken business model, reflecting demand and pricing pressures previously unheard-of in higher education.

 

 

To serve them, it will enlist operators to create mini-campuses around the globe where clusters of its students will live and socialize together in residence halls, as well as take online courses and work together on projects.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

10YearsOfTransformationSusanPatrickiNACOL-Oct2013

 


An excerpted slide:


 

10YearsOfTransformationSusanPatrickiNACOL2-Oct2013

 

 

A brief thought/response from DSC:
What continues to ring true — we need to give students more choice, more control over their learning; asking, “What do you want to learn today?”

 

 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian