liberal arts

Video Captions Benefit Everyone [Gernsbacher]

On 03/19/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, adult learning, assistive technologies, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, digital video, education, education technology, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, media/film, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Video Captions Benefit Everyone — from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov by Morton Ann Gernsbacher

Excerpts:

Video captions, also known as same-language subtitles, benefit everyone who watches videos (children, adolescents, college students, and adults). More than 100 empirical studies document that captioning a video improves comprehension of, attention to, and memory for the video. Captions are particularly beneficial for persons watching videos in their non-native language, for children and adults learning to read, and for persons who are D/deaf or hard of hearing. However, despite U.S. laws, which require captioning in most workplace and educational contexts, many video audiences and video creators are naïve about the legal mandate to caption, much less the empirical benefit of captions.

More than 100 empirical studies, listed in the appendix, document the benefits of captions.
…
With so many studies documenting the benefits of captions, why does everyone not always turn on the captions every time they watch a video? Regrettably, the benefits of captions are not widely known. Some researchers are unaware of the wide-ranging benefits of captions because the empirical evidence is published across separate literatures (deaf education, second-language learning, adult literacy, and reading acquisition). Bringing together these separate literatures is the primary purpose of this article.

Moving Online Learning from Challenge to Opportunity — from campustechnology.com by Dr. Mark Lombardi
The future of higher education means breaking down classroom walls, embracing digital tools and engaging students with creativity and innovation.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Similarly, Maryville criminology professor Geri Brandt, working in concert with our learning designers and on-site production studio, used 360-degree camera technology to stage a virtual, explorable, interactive crime scene. Extending this online experience further, the criminology department created a “choose your own adventure” virtual experience, where each student response or choice in an investigation leads to a different outcome.

Creativity and innovation on this scale are only possible when faculty work with a talented team of learning design professionals who can translate a vision of interactive and immersive learning into a new student experience. Designing and delivering this active learning ecosystem integrated in online and on-ground learning takes a team of committed professionals and the courage to make it happen.

What if students could choose to learn in environments that are fully immersive, deeply enriching and profoundly meaningful to their courses of study? We encourage our students to explore the world beyond the campus, but what happens when the world is your campus?

Asynchronous Video Conversations: 11 Tips and Best Practices — from er.educause.edu by Rob Gibson

Excerpt (first 4 of 11):

1. Closely align video conversations with the stated module, course, and/or program learning objectives. Clearly indicate those alignments in the course outline.

2. Use the syllabus, an introductory course video, or a sample student video recording to prepare students in advance for this type of activity. Since many students will use their smartphones to record, provide information about best practices for creating quality video using a phone.

3. Some students are uncomfortable recording themselves. Depending on the product, consider offering alternatives such as an audio/mic-only mode, a text-only mode, or using a proxy image or avatar in the video.

4. Consider using threaded video conversations for course introductions to build a sense of humanizing the course. Michelle Pacansky-Brock supports the use of video conversations as an alternative to text. In her book How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread, she indicates that video tools maximize presence, a dimension of online connectivity to fellow students, the faculty, and the content. Research in her own courses found an increase from 25 percent to 75 percent in voluntary voice-video comments.^Footnote5 This also helps form common goals and dispositions among students—dispositions are affective learning dimensions, such as motivation, attitude, persistence, empathy, and problem solving.^Footnote6

A message about learning from the C-suite — from chieflearningofficer.com by Patricia A. McLagan
Executives are increasingly saying they want to create “learning organizations” and support “lifelong learning.” So, what should executives be saying to their workforce about learning today? Consider this sample letter to employees from the C-suite.

Excerpts:

How are you keeping up your skills and knowledge in our increasingly complex and fast-changing world of work? As today’s pandemic turmoil reminds us, it is hard to predict how the future will evolve. But one thing we do know is that continuous learning will be a key survival meta-skill for all of us — learning that each of us consciously guides every day, moment to moment, alone, in teams, with any resource, anywhere and anytime.
…
Consider: More than 50 percent of today’s jobs will probably disappear or change radically within 10 years. There are many reasons for this.
…
Beyond technology, companies like ours need more agility, innovation and self-management from everyone. We used to manage more by job descriptions, and you were best described as a box on the organization chart — probably with little expectation that you could experiment, take risks, and act with discretion and autonomy. But today and into the future, your skills and creative thinking matter more. Your “job” responsibilities shift as you move into and out of teams and as we call on you to support new strategies, customer groups and priorities.

From DSC:
I really appreciated reading this solid article from Patricia McLagan. She captured so many solid points. That said, I was bummed to see the following item included in this article (emphasis DSC):

Of course, our company is committed to supporting your learning and development, to providing formal training and access to learning opportunities for everyone. But even in the best of times, we will only be able to formally support a small part of what you will need and want. This is why I am sending this note to you: to tell you that we care about your learning and development, that we will do our best to support it, but that 95 percent of your learning is in your hands.

Our company is committed to supporting your learning development — yeh…right…all 5% of it.
Whoopie. The other 95% of it belongs to you and me. (Which reminds me that words are so easy to say but much harder to truly back up.) And you and I will likely do it on your/our own time. That seems to be more of the reality…the expectation…especially when job cuts are occurring all over the place and the job plates continue to expand for those who survived the cuts.

My experience over my career has been that corporations used to promote and truly support their employees’ professional development. They sent more people to courses and significantly helped many people obtain their MBA’s as well as other relevant master’s degrees and/or certifications/ and/or just to support some professional interests.

For example, I’m forever indebted to one of my formers bosses, Irvin Charles Coleman III. I worked for Irv at Kraft Foods’ HQ’s and he once let me go to a seminar on Photoshop. Though I used Photoshop in my work, it wasn’t in my formal description. That seminar changed many things for me. It supported my growth and learning and it fed my passion for designing and creating content.

I’m sure this kind of thing still occurs, but from what I can tell, it doesn’t happen at nearly the level that it used to. That said, I don’t blame the corporate world for getting bummed out at their employees that they had invested in — only to see those same employees grab the degrees and credentials and leave for greener pastures. Through the years, it seemed like the corporate world backed off from providing such a level of training/professional development.

These days, it seems like the corporations and the businesses out there have the hiring expectation that you will hit the ground running from day one. Learning and development are up to you and me. Nevermind that the way learning is supposed to go is that you:

introduce the learning objectives to someone
give them the information/content
provide the relevant and aligned learning activities that help them truly engage with the content
provide aligned formative and summative assessments along the way to ascertain whether they learned the material/concepts or not.

So I’m amazed that corporations are putting recent grads through their own tests on things that many of these students have never actually studied. (Yeh, I can hear the push backs now…and while I agree with some of them, it’s not fair to the students. They just followed what the colleges and universities offered for$100,000-$400,000+).

I could go on, but I need to go do my taxes. Gotta run. I hope to pick this line of thought up later.

[For those involved with learning spaces] Hiperwall Introduces Cost-Effective ‘Essentials’ Video Wall Hardware & Software Packages

On 02/25/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, art, attention, biology, business, chemistry, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, design, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, engineering, experimentation, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, multimedia, online media, photography, platforms, presentations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, storytelling, teaching & learning, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, television, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Hiperwall Introduces Cost-Effective ‘Essentials’ Video Wall Hardware and Software Packages — from hiperwall.com with thanks to Michael Farino for this resource
Hiperwall Essentials video wall bundles eliminate barriers to entry for organizations wanting enhanced collaboration, clearer communication, and the ability to make informed real-time decisions

Excerpt:

February 24, 2021 – IRVINE, Calif., – Hiperwall Inc., an industry-leader in commercialized, IP-based visualization technology, today introduces ‘Hiperwall Essentials,’ two all-inclusive video wall hardware and software bundles that get users started with a full-featured, control-room grade video wall powered by Hiperwall for just $9,995.

Most major decisions made in the public and private sectors are driven by vast amounts of data. Due to the volume of data sources, data complexity, and different analytics tools, video walls have become the perfect canvas for decision-makers to put all of this data together clearly to arrive at an informed decision faster and more confidently.

At a price point that effectively removes barriers to implementation for small to medium businesses, small government agencies, and local law enforcement, Hiperwall Essentials serves as a great baseline for integrating video wall technology into any organization. As dependence on the video wall grows, Hiperwall’s modular platform makes scaling the video wall footprint and capabilities seamless and cost-effective.

Below are some example settings:

For those interested in video walls, this is worth checking out. These pictures are example settings.

Teaching: Why the Term ‘Hybrid Class’ Continues to Confuse [McMurtrie]

On 02/18/2021, in blended learning, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, distance education, higher education, ideas, instructional design, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, liberal arts, online learning, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Teaching: Why the Term ‘Hybrid Class’ Continues to Confuse — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Excerpt:

Hybrid Confusion
Why is it so hard to define a hybrid class? Or, rather, why is it so hard for colleges to describe it in a course catalog? That was the question that popped into my mind after seeing this chart, tweeted out recently by Kevin McClure, an associate professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

But is it really helping anyone to define every possible permutation of “hybrid”? More to the point, what should colleges take into account when trying to balance specificity with clarity in course descriptions?

Learning from the Living [Class] Room: Adobe — via Behance — is already doing several pieces of this vision.

On 02/15/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, Africa, animation, Asia, Australia, Bring your own device (BYOD), Canada, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, maker movement, marketplaces, media/film, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, passions, photography, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, STEAM-related, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Talk about streams of content! Whew!

I received an email from Adobe that was entitled, “This week on Adobe Live: Graphic Design.” (I subscribe to their Adobe Creative Cloud.) Inside the email, I saw and clicked on the following:

Below are some of the screenshots I took of this incredible service! Wow!

From DSC:
So Abobe — via Behance — is already doing several pieces of the “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” vision. I knew of Behance…but I didn’t realize the magnitude of what they’ve been working on and what they’re currently delivering. Very sharp indeed!

Churches are doing this as well — one device has the presenter/preacher on it (such as a larger “TV”), while a second device is used to communicate with each other in real-time.

How Much Has Covid Cost Colleges? $183 Billion — from chronicle.com by Paul N. Friga

Excerpt:

How bad is it? To answer that, my colleagues and I sought to go beyond surveys. We conducted an extensive review of publicly announced revenue and budget news from the top 400 universities in U.S. News & World Report, as well as its top 100 liberal-arts colleges, drawing from news released from March through December. We were able to obtain data from 107 of those institutions (21 percent). The results are dire. Our research suggests that we are experiencing the biggest financial losses our sector has ever faced. The institutions we tracked averaged an estimated 14-percent aggregate decline in revenues across fiscal years 2020 and 2021, and further losses loom as drops in enrollment, tuition freezes, and Covid-related expenses continue.

What do these cuts and losses add up to? We estimate the impact as follows: $85 billion in lost revenues, $24 billion for Covid-related expenses, and $74 billion in anticipated future decreases in state funding. That adds up to a whopping $183 billion.

Also see:

65 Percent of Colleges Raised Less in 2020 Than 2019, Survey Finds — from philanthropy.com by Emily Haynes
Donations to colleges stayed flat at $50B in fiscal 2020 — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz

The Chegg situation is worse than you think — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein

Excerpts:

Forbes just ran with an article entitled “This $12 Billion Company Is Getting Rich Off Students Cheating Their Way Through Covid“.

Ouch.

[Per Michael] To sum up:

Publishers, after selling expensive textbooks to students, sold the answers to the homework questions in those expensive books to Chegg.
Chegg sells the answers to the questions to the students, who often use them to cheat.
To combat this problem, universities pay for proctoring software, which is apparently more effective at preventing students from going to the bathroom than it is at preventing cheating.
To add insult to all of this injury, “to chegg” is now apparently a verb in the English language. We will all have to live with that linguistic violence.

Addendum on 2/9/21:

Students cheat with online learning service, professors hope to identify users — from dailyemerald.com by Claire Warner

Five free keynotes on online learning for streaming into virtual conferences [Bates]

On 02/06/2021, in active learning, adjunct faculty, Canada, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, higher education, ideas, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, online learning, remote teaching and learning, research, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Five free keynotes on online learning for streaming into virtual conferences — from tonybates.ca by Tony Bates

These are the five keynotes:

Developing quality blended learning courses
Digital learning and the new economy
New technologies and their potential and limitations for teaching and learning
Ten lessons for online learning from the Covid-19 experience (based on research findings)
Online learning in the (k-12) school sector

From DSC:
Thanks Tony for sharing these keynotes and your expertise — which is drawn from so much research and experience. Thanks for giving it away — may your gift bless many. (And I thought you were going to retire…?!? Selfishly, I’m/we’re glad you didn’t!) 🙂

#AR and #AI hit the active learning classroom! THIS is incredible technology/functionality! See through your instructor as they write on the board!

On 02/05/2021, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Augmented Reality (AR), colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, legal technologies, liberal arts, library / librarians, media/film, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, science, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
THIS is incredible technology! Check out the Chroma-keying technology and the handwriting extraction feature of the Sony Analytics appliance.

From Sony’s website (emphasis DSC):

No matter where the speaker is standing, the Handwriting Extraction feature ensures that any words and diagrams written on a board or screen remain in full view to the audience — via AR (augmented reality).

Even if the speaker is standing directly in front of the board, their ideas, thinking process, and even their animated presentation, are all accessible to the audience. It’s also easy for remote viewers and those playing back the presentation at a later date to become immersed in the content too, as the presenter is overlaid and the content is never compromised.

Also, the chroma keying tech can be useful/engaging as well.

I saw this at IUPUI’s recent webinar/tour of their new facilities. Here’s further information on that webinar from last Friday, 1/29/21:

Designing Large Active Learning Classrooms webinar/tour on 1/29/21 from the Mosaic Program at Indiana University; also features rooms/staff at IUPUI.

Recording
A recent Educause article on Innovation Hall
A recent article on the opening of Innovation Hall
And, a post-webinar resource…Michel Jansen wrote a report summarizing the webinar.

Multimedia-based exit tickets [Christian]

On 02/02/2021, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, metacognition / metacognitive skills, Michigan, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, writing, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I was reviewing an edition of Dr. Barbara Honeycutt’s Lecture Breakers Weekly, where she wrote:

After an experiential activity, discussion, reading, or lecture, give students time to write the one idea they took away from the experience. What is their one takeaway? What’s the main idea they learned? What do they remember?

This can be written as a reflective blog post or journal entry, or students might post it on a discussion board so they can share their ideas with their colleagues. Or, they can create an audio clip (podcast), video, or drawing to explain their One Takeaway.

From DSC:
This made me think of tools like VoiceThread — where you can leave a voice/audio message, an audio/video-based message, a text-based entry/response, and/or attach other kinds of graphics and files.

That is, a multimedia-based exit ticket. It seems to me that this could work in online- as well as blended-based learning environments.

Addendum on 2/7/21:

How to Edit Live Photos to Make Videos, GIFs & More! — from jonathanwylie.com

Flipping Virtual Classrooms for More Impact [Bendici]

On 01/30/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, blended learning, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, liberal arts, lifelong learning, media/film, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, productivity / tips and tricks, relationships, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, trends, universities, by Daniel Christian

Flipping Virtual Classrooms for More Impact — from techlearning.com by Ray Bendici
Flipping virtual classrooms can help maximize teaching time and resources

Excerpt:

The mantra of flipped learning is that you can reach every student in every class every day, said Bergman. So if you have less synchronous time, you need to provide more time with your students one-on-one to work on the hard stuff, and flipped mastery learning, in particular, accommodates that.

“Flipped learning teachers have been preparing for the pandemic for the past 10 years,” Bergman said. “It’s really a great way to amplify your reach to teach.”

When the pandemic hit, Bergman and his flipped learning team realized that the most important thing is connections with students and the physical time spent with them. “So what’s the best use of your face-to-face class time?” Bergman said. “I’m going to argue it’s not you standing up and then introducing new content, it’s giving students the new content first and allowing them to apply, analyze, and evaluate it.”

The Annual Report: Ringing in the Changes [Grush & Foster]

On 01/12/2021, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, higher education, IT in HE, law schools, leadership, liberal arts, strategy, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Annual Report: Ringing in the Changes — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush & Doug Foster

Excerpt:

Mary Grush: The annual report for the Division of Information Technology for FY 19-20 allows you to reflect on the division’s work for the year. How does this document help the institution’s resolve?

Doug Foster: The annual report is actually part of a larger alignment strategy. We have strategic priorities at the university level; and we have strategic priorities for the IT division. In IT, we put together an annual plan every year, which is what we execute our work against, and, finally, we put out an annual report.

An example report:

DC to videoconferencing vendors: Could you give us what DJ’s have access to?! :)

On 01/12/2021, in adjunct faculty, attention, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, law schools, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, liberal arts, media/film, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, platforms, play, podcasting, presentations, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, teaching online, tools, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, webinars, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Videoconferencing vendors out there:

Have you done any focus group tests — especially within education — with audio-based or digital video-based versions of emoticons?
.
So instead of clicking on an emoticon as feedback, one could also have some sound effects or movie clips to choose from as well!
.

To the videoconferencing vendors out there -- could you give us what DJ's have access to?

I’m thinking here of things like DJ’s might have at their disposal. For example, someone tells a bad joke and you hear the drummer in the background:

Or a team loses the spelling-bee word, and hears:

Or a professor wants to get the classes attention as they start their 6pm class:

I realize this could backfire big time…so it would have to be an optional feature that a teacher, professor, trainer, pastor, or a presenter could turn on and off. (Could be fun for podcasters too!)

It seems to me that this could take
engagement to a whole new level!

Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “A message about learning from the C-suite” [McLagan]

Teaching: Why the Term ‘Hybrid Class’ Continues to Confuse [McMurtrie]

How Much Has Covid Cost Colleges? $183 Billion [Friga]

The Annual Report: Ringing in the Changes [Grush & Foster]

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