learning hubs & pods & microschooling

Some fun ideas to foster creativity, artistry, design, developing multimedia and more!

On 07/30/2021, in animation, art, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, drama/theater, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education technology, educational games / serious games, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, liberal arts, love of learning, media/film, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online learning, online media, passions, pedagogy, play, presentations, project-based learning, reading, story, storytelling, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, tablets, teachers, tools, web-based collaboration, writing, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

Transforming the classroom with augmented learning — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch

Excerpt:

Forbes documented the many ways that augmented reality (AR) has come to life in recent years. They list several award-winning apps that use AR. A few are:

The “Gatwick Airport Passenger” App, which helps passengers navigate the airport;
The “Dulux Visualizer” App, which lets you virtually scan and paint your room any color you choose;
“Envisioned by the Mine” App, which lets you put 3D images of any type of accessory or furnishing in your home that Lowe’s offers;
“Sephora Virtual Artist”, which allows you to “put makeup on” without actually touching brush to face;
“Accuvein”, which doctors and nurses use to scan a patient’s vein network (it reduces escalations by 45%);
And, of course, there are apps like the “BIC DrawyBook App” just for fun.

But what about the classroom? Can we see a future in transforming the classroom with augmented learning?

From DSC:
Along the lines of developing creativity with edtech…

I saw another item recently about Book Creator, something that’s made this blog before. I love that type of tool because it promotes creativity, unleashes a student’s imagination, promotes their artwork and writing/storytelling and their musical or acting abilities, and it develops skills in design and developing multimedia-based artifacts. For teachers, it could be a nice project-based learning exercise.

I asked our youngest daughter if she would like to use it…we’ll see. You can get a free account that allows you to publish up to 40 books. (Plus there is pricing for schools and districts.)

And who knows…? This type of thing might just produce the next J.K. Rowling or a J.J. Abrams.

Book Creator -- check it out

So this is what my new Streaming TV studio looks like – I call it ‘Keynote Television’ [Leonhard]

On 07/14/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, art, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, multimedia, online learning, online media, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

So this is what my new Streaming TV studio looks like – I call it ‘Keynote Television’ — from futuristgerd.com by Gerd Leonhard

Excerpt:

Many of you have asked me how I do my online keynotes, specifically my green screens, lights, virtual backgrounds etc. So here are some pictures and below is a short video from Twitter but the bottom line is… it’s complicated and took me some 6 months to learn it all:)). But well worth it: Keynote Television rocks!

From DSC:
I was one of those people who asked Gerd if he would tell teachers, professors, trainers, IDs, and others how he does what he does. Thanks Gerd for sharing this information! May it be a blessing to many!

Best Document Cameras for Teachers [Edwards]

On 07/14/2021, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, faculty/staff, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), Hyflex learning, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, remote teaching and learning, STEAM-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, writing, by Daniel Christian

Best Document Cameras for Teachers — from echlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the ultimate document camera for classroom use and beyond with this guide

Global EdTech Funding 2021 – Half Year Update — from holoniq.com
A record half year in EdTech funding with 568 rounds raising $10B of investment as, ready or not, the world turns to technology to support learning and education delivery.

Potential unfulfilled: COVID-19, the rapid adoption of online learning, and what could be unlocked this year — from christenseninstitute.org by Thomas Arnett

Excerpt:

The foundational tenets of conventional instruction hinge on uniformity and compliance. Schools and classrooms, by and large, need students to conform to a common set of requirements in order for cohort-based learning to work. Unfortunately, nearly all students struggle to one degree or another to fit conventional instruction’s norms.

For example, conventional instruction requires students to show up to school ready to learn at times dictated by the school schedule, but for some students, life gets in the way. Conventional instruction moves all students through content at a uniform pace, but not all students master content in the time allotted. And conventional instruction often obliges students to sit and work or sit and listen for large portions of the day, yet some students struggle to sit quietly for extended periods of time. Fortunately, online learning offers the ability to replace many of these systemic rigidities with greater adaptability to students’ needs.

From DSC:
The above excerpt brings the image (below) back to my mind. The image represents our educational systems’ ways of never stopping or slowing down for anyone. They leave the station at such and such a time and then they move at a very face pace for everyone. There’s no stopping them — regardless of whether a student has mastered the content or not.

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

Best YouTube Sites and Channels for Education — from techlearning.com by Diana Restifo
Take advantage of the fantastic free educational videos YouTube provides.

Excerpt:

How to Watch YouTube Videos Safely

Are smaller class sizes without the pitfalls possible? Pandemic pods make the case [Jochim & Pillow]

On 06/25/2021, in education, education reform, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, parents/guardians, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, by Daniel Christian

Are smaller class sizes without the pitfalls possible? Pandemic pods make the case — from crpe.org by Ashley Jochim and Travis Pillow

Excerpt:

Pandemic pods were borne by necessity as families faced urgent needs for childcare and remote learning support. But they also offer fresh solutions to an age-old education problem: how to dramatically lower class sizes without diluting teacher quality and falling into traps that have snared traditional class size reduction efforts.

By leveraging pandemic innovations in student support, school systems recovering from the COVID-19 crisis may be able to recreate the high level of individual attention students saw in successful pandemic pods.

As one pod educator told us: “This is probably the most professionally satisfied I’ve been in my entire career. . . . Being able to be one-on-one and form relationships with kids. I can tell you every single one of their strengths, I can tell you their weaknesses. . . . I’ve never been able to do that before in my life, except with my own child, and that’s super powerful.”

From DSC:
I really appreciated this part too: “Learning pods brought new adults—including families and community-based organizations who hosted pods—into the process of supporting student learning.” It’s even more of a community-based effort…a new meaning to the use of teams. 🙂

Combining Online Courses With In-Person Supports, ‘Hybrid Colleges’ Unite [Koenig]

On 06/16/2021, in Alternatives, colleges, experimentation, face-to-face, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Combining Online Courses With In-Person Supports, ‘Hybrid Colleges’ Unite — from by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt:

Over the past decade, brick-and-mortar outposts have popped up across the U.S. to offer students who take online college courses a physical space to study and interact. In Denver, there’s a suite in an office complex. In Austin, there’s an airy hall that resembles a co-working facility. In Philadelphia, there’s room in a modern high-rise.

Calling themselves “hybrid colleges,” these mini campus centers have set big goals for themselves, such as bringing college within reach for people historically left out of higher education.

Now, more than a dozen of these nonprofits are strengthening their bonds and committing to shared goals by creating the Hybrid College Network.

Also see:

A fun tool for classroom management: Roll the dice, display a calendar, stopwatch, clock, & more!

On 06/15/2021, in attention, content development, aggregation, repositories, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, Google, K-12 related, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, Microsoft, play, presentations, teachers, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
One of our daughters — who just graduated from college with a degree in Early Education — told me about a fun tool for classroom management. It’s called ClassroomScreen.com. I just thought I’d pass it along in case you want to try it out!

“Support your class activities, stimulate engagement and help your students get to work by using the intuitive tools of Classroomscreen.”

She also mentioned:

Slides.go — Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates to boost your presentations
Teacher TikTok — elementary teacher, classroom resources

As school districts move from “reopening” to “recovery,” what will they be recovering from? [Hill & DeArmond]

On 05/26/2021, in 21st century, change, education, education reform, funding / grants, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, online learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, by Daniel Christian

As school districts move from “reopening” to “recovery,” what will they be recovering from? — from crpe.org by Paul Hill & Michael DeArmond

Excerpts:

Coming out of the pandemic, these leaders thought it was time to try something fundamentally different. “We have to rethink school, period,” one told us.

They thought schools needed to “recover” from traditional conceptualizations of schooling that had never provided all students with high-quality learning opportunities. As these leaders talked about rethinking public education, they put lots of ideas on the table, some of which they piloted during the pandemic:

Hybrid or blended instructional models that combine in-person and online learning
Fully remote options
Learning pods where students work independently or receive one-on-one support
Mixed-age classes based on proficiency level
Grade band progression as opposed to grade levels
Self-paced individualized instruction
Co-teaching
Weekend and intersession camps and instructional programming
Evening learning opportunities (e.g., time in CTE shops, art studios, etc.)
Enhanced summer programming
“Do-over years” (where students aren’t identified as having been “retained”)

Also see:

From DSC:
When I see the word acceleration mentioned here…it (at least initially) raises a red flag for me. Speeding up the trains will leave many further behind. And if that’s not what’s happening here, I’d say that another word or phrase be identified and used here…as many others will have the same initial reaction to this word. A PR problem.

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

Per Elnaz Sarraf (She/Her), Chief Evangelist at ROYBI Robot:

ROYBI INC, the creator of the award-winning ROYBI Robot, announced today that it was named the winner of the World Economic Forum Smart Toy Awards 2021 in the category of Smart Companion. This is a remarkable achievement!

The category winner had to meet four important criteria:

Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
Accessibility
Innovative Use of AI Transparency
Healthy Play in Childhood Development.

According to the World Economic Forum representative, Seth Bergeson, our ROYBI Robot met and exceeded these important criteria. ROYBI’s award acceptance ceremony can be watched here.

Also see:

One wonders what this type of tech will do for online-based learning, &/or hybrid/blended learning, &/or hyflex-based learning in the future [Christian]

On 05/24/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online media, platforms, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, student-related, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, TVs, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
It will be interesting to see — post Covid19 — how vendors and their platforms continue to develop to allow for even greater degrees of web-based collaboration. I recently saw this item re: what Google is doing with their Project Starline. Very interesting indeed. Google is trying to make it so that the other person feels like they are in the same space with you.

.
Time will tell what occurs in this space...but one does wonder what this type of technology will do for online-based learning, and/or hybrid/blended learning, and/or hyflex-based learning in the future…?

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career [Heyward, McCann, & Gross]

On 05/21/2021, in 21st century, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, curriculum, education, education reform, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, legislatures / government / legal, United States, universities, vocational / trades, workplace, by Daniel Christian

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career — from crpe.org by Georgia Heyward, Sarah McCann, & Betheny Gross | May 2021

We offer four ways states can engage K–12:

Invest in virtual platforms that support college and career navigation.
Incentivize bold experimentation with hybrid learning to design new models that blend school and workplace learning or connect with postsecondary microcredentials.
Step in to encourage and regulate high-quality, postsecondary microcredentials that stack toward associate and bachelor degrees.
Combine policy with technical assistance to help districts credit out-of-school learning.

Video Lectures: 4 Tips for Teachers — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Creating short and engaging video lectures for students is a growing trend at education institutions

Excerpt:

To encourage a more professional type of evergreen video resource, the institution has invested in lecture capture studios, adding five new ones over the past year so each campus has at least one. Some of these studios are DIY, others require a crew, but all enable professors to record lectures in a professional recording environment, complete with green screens and high-quality lighting and audio. The recordings are then edited by the studio team who can help the professor follow the best pedagogical practices for video recordings, including keeping videos short and engaging.

From DSC:
A great example of using of teams to create higher-quality, engaging, interactive learning content.

Also see:

Adorama Business Solutions Equips New Classroom Studio for West Coast Baptist College Creative Arts Department — from svconline.com
Workspace Allows Department to Expand Video Production and Editing Course Offerings

Picture of a new classroom studio within a learning space

Thursday, 5/20/21, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day!!!

On 05/18/2021, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, remote teaching and learning, society, storytelling, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web design and production, web-based collaboration, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is this Thursday, May 20, 2021
Help us celebrate the tenth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.

Also see:

Learning Ecosystems

Combining Online Courses With In-Person Supports, ‘Hybrid Colleges’ Unite [Koenig]

Video Lectures: 4 Tips for Teachers [Ofgang]

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