maker movement

2017 Ed Tech Trends: The Halfway Point [Aldridge, Christian, Kelly, Powell, & Ventimiglia]

On 07/31/2017, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Augmented Reality (AR), bots, change, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, maker movement, robotics, society, student-related, tools, trends, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

2017 Ed Tech Trends: The Halfway Point — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
Four higher ed IT leaders weigh in on the current state of education technology and what’s ahead.

This article includes some perspectives shared from the following 4 IT leaders:

Susan Aldridge, Senior Vice President for Online Learning, Drexel University (PA); President, Drexel University Online
Daniel Christian, Adjunct Faculty Member, Calvin College
Marci Powell, CEO/President, Marci Powell & Associates; Chair Emerita and Past President, United States Distance Learning Association
Phil Ventimiglia, Chief Innovation Officer, Georgia State University

Also see:

Higher ed forges ahead on immersive tech integration – from educationdive.com by Pat Donachie

The 82 Hottest EdTech Tools of 2017 According to Education Experts [Cassella; tutora.co.uk]

On 04/06/2017, in 21st century, 3D, adjunct faculty, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, blogs / blogging / vlogging, bots, business side of he, Canada, change, chemistry, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, computer science, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Europe, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, maker movement, mathematics, media/film, memory, mobile learning, multimedia, online learning, participation, pedagogy, platforms, play, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, robotics, science, story, storytelling, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, technologies for your home, tools, UK, United States, universities, vendors, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

The 82 Hottest EdTech Tools of 2017 According to Education Experts — from tutora.co.uk by Giorgio Cassella

Excerpt:

If you work in education, you’ll know there’s a HUGE array of applications, services, products and tools created to serve a multitude of functions in education.

Tools for teaching and learning, parent-teacher communication apps, lesson planning software, home-tutoring websites, revision blogs, SEN education information, professional development qualifications and more.

There are so many companies creating new products for education, though, that it can be difficult to keep up – especially with the massive volumes of planning and marking teachers have to do, never mind finding the time to actually teach!

So how do you know which ones are the best?

Well, as a team of people passionate about education and learning, we decided to do a bit of research to help you out.

We’ve asked some of the best and brightest in education for their opinions on the hottest EdTech of 2017. These guys are the real deal – experts in education, teaching and new tech from all over the world from England to India, to New York and San Francisco.

They’ve given us a list of 82 amazing, tried and tested tools…

From DSC:
The ones that I mentioned that Giorgio included in his excellent article were:

AdmitHub – Free, Expert College Admissions Advice
Labster – Empowering the Next Generation of Scientists to Change the World
Unimersiv – Virtual Reality Educational Experiences
Lifeliqe – Interactive 3D Models to Augment Classroom Learning

“Robot Launch 2016 – Robohub Readers’ Pick round one” plus 3 other items re: robotics

On 11/03/2016, in 21st century, active learning, maker movement, platforms, play, robotics, STEAM-related, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Robot Launch 2016 – Robohub Readers’ Pick round one — from robohub.org by Andra Keay

Excerpt:

For the next three weeks, Robohub readers can vote for their “Readers’ Pick” startup from the Robot Launch competition. Each week, we’ll be publishing 10 videos. Our ultimate Robohub Readers’ Favorites, along with lots of other prizes, will be announced at the end of November. Every week we’ll showcase different aspects of robotics startups and their business models: from agricultural to humanoid, from consumer to industrial and from hardware to robotics software. Make sure you vote for your favorite – below – by 18:00pm UTC, Wednesday 9 November, spread the word through social media using #robotlaunch2016 and come back next week for the next 10!

LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Classroom Solutions — from education.lego.com

Excerpt:

Students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in middle school. LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 grows these 21st century skills through inquiry-based and active learning.

Vex Robotics

No need to stare at a screen: Kickstarter robot teaches kids to code using cards — from digitaltrends.com by Luke Dormehl

Addendums:

The Ocean’s Robots May Soon Enjoy High-Speed Internet — from wired.com by Eric Niiler
Report examines China’s expansion into unmanned industrial, service, and military robotics systems — from robohub.org
For robots, artificial intelligence gets physical — from sciencenews.org by Meghan Rosen
To work with humans, machines need to sense the world around them

“The Gigantic List of Augmented Reality Use Cases”, plus 5 other items re: AR, MR, and VR

On 10/31/2016, in art, Augmented Reality (AR), creativity, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), maker movement, tools, trends, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

The gigantic list of augmented reality use cases — from uploadvr.com by Sarah Downey

Excerpt:

This gigantic list of future AR use cases should get you reeling with the possibilities. Although most of these are future applications, they’ll arrive within the next 10 to 15 years. Let’s make this a living document: if I missed a major use of AR, comment below and I’ll add it.

Three quick notes before we start. First, let’s clarify the difference between AR and VR.

VR blocks out the real world and immerses the user in a digital experience.

If you’re putting on a headset in your living room and suddenly transported to a zombie attack scenario, that’s VR.

AR adds digital elements on top of the real world.

If you’re walking down the street in real life and a Dragonite pops up on the sidewalk, that’s AR.
…
AR is more focused on bridging digital and physical spaces. It accompanies you as you move through the world and augments your activities with information, whereas you typically step out of that world to immerse yourself in VR. When we talk about AR headsets, they’re big helmet-like visors now, but they’re heading toward normal-looking glasses and ultimately contact lenses.

Third, AR and VR are converging into the same thing. Our ability to tell what’s “real” and not digital will decrease as graphics get increasingly better. An AR sign outside a building could be as real and as significant as a physical one if everyone is using AR tech, everyone sees it when they walk by, and it is persistent in that location. Ultimately, we’ll have hardware that lets us switch between AR and VR modes, with less and more opacity for the context. We’re discussing AR and VR distinctly for now because they’re developing separately and on different timelines.

Augmented Reality: Top 100 Influencers and Brands — from onalytica.com

Augmented reality is going from ‘Pokémon Go’ to the factory floor — from businessinsider.com by Matt Weinberger

Excerpt:

That data, readily available from other sources, is just the tip of the iceberg, though, Campbell says. It also overlays a graphic showing how the pieces fit together, how to disassemble it, and what other pieces of the machine that part might connect to. It combines the physical world of the machine part with the digital world of the IoT-gleaned info.

Just being able to look at a machine, and say, yes, this is the one that needs work, and this is the work that needs doing, can vastly improve the speed with which work gets done, and thus operational efficiency of the whole enterprise.

“There’s so much value in visualizing information,” Campbell says.

Virtual Reality Changes Global Engineering Schools — from by Ilana Kowarski
Engineering professors say virtual reality contributes to the student experience.

Excerpt:

At engineering schools throughout the world, professors are turning to virtual reality technology in the classroom.

The technology provides 3-D visuals that help engineering students improve their designs, alerting them to flaws before the building process starts.

Engineering schools are researching technologies that could transform the way people communicate and interact by – for instance – allowing people to visit one another in a virtual space if they can’t meet in person. Engineering schools are also exploring medical applications of virtual reality that could save lives, such as 3-D X-rays that allow doctors to peer inside the bodies of patients.

Some engineering schools are taking virtual reality lessons a step further and challenging students to develop new virtual reality programs.

Broward Students Learning Through Augmented Reality — from nbcmiami.com by Ari Odzer

Excerpt:

We hear about technology’s impact on education all the time. Usually, that means computers, new apps, or 3D printers. Now there’s a new tool that has the promise of revolution, the potential for creating a new paradigm in how students learn. It’s called augmented reality.

Augmented Reality And Kinect Create Unique Art Experience At Cleveland Museum — from forbes.com by Jennifer Hicks

Addendum on 11/1/16:

Alibaba introduces new shopping experience in virtual reality — from haptical

The New Media Consortium (NMC) has released Digital Literacy: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief in conjunction with the 2016 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference.
…
In analyzing the progress and gaps in this area, the NMC’s report has identified a need for higher education leaders and technology companies to prioritize students as makers, learning through the act of content creation rather than mere consumption. Additionally, the publication recommends that colleges and universities establish productive collaborations with industry, government, and libraries to provide students with access to the latest technologies and tools.
…
Based on the variety and complexity of these results, NMC cannot identify just one model of digital literacy. Instead three different digital literacies are now evident, each with distinct standards, potential curriculum, and implications for creative educators.

The aim of this publication is to establish a shared vision of digital literacy for higher education leaders by illuminating key definitions and models along with best practices and recommendations for implementing successful digital literacy initiatives.

To be digitally literate, you need to be:
fluent at critical thinking, collaborating,
being creative, and problem-solving in
digital environments.

Computer science and digital media classes can instruct on everything from office productivity applications to programming and video editing, for example. Sociology courses can teach interpersonal actions online, such as the ethics and politics of social network interaction, while psychology and business classes can focus on computer-mediated human interaction. Government and political science classes are clearly well equipped to explore the intersection of digital technology and citizenship mentioned above. Communication, writing, and literature classes have the capacity to instruct students on producing digital content in the form of stories, arguments, personal expression, posters, and more.

From DSC:
If faculty members aren’t asking students to create multimedia in their assignments and/or take part in online/digitally-based means of communications and learning, the vast majority of the students won’t (and don’t) care about digital literacy…it’s simply not relevant to them: “Whatever gets me the grade, that’s what I’ll do. But no more.”

This type of situation/perspective is quite costly. Because once students graduate from college, had they built up some solid digital literacy — especially the “creative literacy” mentioned above — they would be in much better shape to get solid jobs, and prosper at those jobs. They would be much better able to craft powerful communications — and reach a global audience in doing so. They would have honed their creativity, something increasingly important as the onward march of AI, robotics, algorithms, automation, and such continues to eat away at many types of jobs (that don’t really need creative people working in them).

This is an important topic, especially as digitally-based means of communication continue to grow in their usage and impact.

Part of digital literacy is not just understanding how a tool works but also why it is useful in the real world and when to use it.

In Memory: Seymour Papert — from media.mit.edu; with thanks to Mr. Joe Byerwalter for this resource

Excerpt:

Seymour Papert, whose ideas and inventions transformed how millions of children around the world create and learn, died Sunday, July 31, 2016 at his home in East Blue Hill, Maine. He was 88.

Papert’s career traversed a trio of influential movements: child development, artificial intelligence, and educational technologies. Based on his insights into children’s thinking and learning, Papert recognized that computers could be used not just to deliver information and instruction, but also to empower children to experiment, explore, and express themselves. The central tenet of his Constructionist theory of learning is that people build knowledge most effectively when they are actively engaged in constructing things in the world. As early as 1968, Papert introduced the idea that computer programming and debugging can provide children a way to think about their own thinking and learn about their own learning.

Also see:

AI and Computer Learning Lion Seymour Papert Dies at 88 — from fortune.com by Barb Darrow
Excerpt:
Seymour Papert, the MIT professor who helped blaze the trail for artificial intelligence and computer-aided education for children at a time when no one saw the potential for using these massive machines for such purposes, died Sunday at the age of 88 in East Blue Hill, Maine.

“In this particular art class they were all carving soap,” he continued, “but what each student carved came from wherever fancy is bred, and the project was not done and dropped but continued for many weeks. It allowed time to think, to dream, to gaze, to get a new idea and try it and drop it or persist, time to talk, to see other people’s work and their reaction to yours — not unlike mathematics as it is for the mathematician, but quite unlike math as it is in junior high school.”

.

Seymour Papert, 88, Dies; Saw Education’s Future in Computers — from nytimes.com by Glenn Rifkin
Excerpt:
Seymour Papert, a visionary educator and mathematician who well before the advent of the personal computer foresaw children using computers as instruments for learning and enhancing creativity, died on Sunday at his home in Blue Hill, Me. He was 88.

He added, “In the past, education adapted the mind to a very restricted set of available media; in the future, it will adapt media to serve the needs and tastes of each individual mind.”

This is how blockchain will change your life — from medium.com by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

Excerpt:

Enter the blockchain, the first native digital medium for peer to peer value exchange. Its protocol establishes the rules — in the form of globally distributed computations and heavy duty encryption — that ensure the integrity of the data traded among billions of devices without going through a trusted third party. Trust is hard-coded into the platform. That’s why we call it the Trust Protocol. It acts as a ledger of accounts, a database, a notary, a sentry, and clearing house, all by consensus.

Blockchain technology: Redefining makerspaces — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

My own personal fascination with blockchain technology lies in its potential for makerspaces and its role in the Maker Movement. The blockchain by nature is decentralized (peer-to-peer), distributed and open-source…the blueprint for makerspaces. Makerspaces both in and out of schools are about decentralizing and widening-access. This includes not only access to the spaces themselves, but also to equipment and resources. I have written before about he potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) in a makerspace. Blockchain technology could further open up access and use of resources, making our educational system that much more open and flexible.

Within schools, giving students credit for the skills they gain in a makerspace is always a challenge. The blockchain offers a real possiblity for managing and processing these types of credentials. Outside of school, no standard exists for certification or credentialing in a makerspace. You might be certified to use a tool in one makerspace, but walk into another and not be able to use that same tool there. Blockchain technology can help streamline and create a new standard for these types of certifications.

New platform aims to make it easier to develop for blockchain — from adigaskell.org

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Blockchain is undoubtedly one of the hottest technologies around at the moment. Whilst it has gained most of its notoriety for the Bitcoin financial technology, it also has a number of other possible applications.

For instance, John Holden and Greg Irving from the University of Cambridge use blockchain technology as a means of making clinical trial documents immutable. The pair wanted to tackle the thorny issue of ensuring that research data is untampered with, so that external people can have confidence in the results from the trials.

They highlighted the use of blockchain in cardiovascular diabetes and ethanol research via a report published on the F1000 website.

Bitcoin transaction initiated from fed offices, for the first time — from fee.org
Blockchain technology is maturing very quickly

Excerpt:

Some remarkable things are happening in the bitcoin/blockchain space. It’s hard to believe that just seven years ago, this technology was first revealed on an email list followed by just a handful of cypherpunks, who should be remembered by history as brilliant and dedicated innovators of a revolutionary technology. Today what they did has grabbed the attention of the world’s largest financial institutions and central banks.

And why? It’s clear this innovation is not going away. It’s simply a better method for exchanging value globally. It is a technology that will influence—if not define—the future of payments and money. It is already disrupting the status quo in more ways than even the best experts can track, especially in emerging markets.

Four of us blockchainers actually visited Janet Yellen [Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System] in her office.

Can IBM really make a business out of blockchain? — from fortune.com by Jeff Roberts

Excerpt:

One of the loudest evangelists is IBM, which has been touting the potential of blockchain—a technology that can allow companies to create quick, tamper-proof ledgers—to transform everything from finance to trading to insurance.

On Tuesday, IBM announced the formal launch of a so-called “Bluemix Garage” in New York, where developers can experiment with financial-tech software and explore new forms of blockchain innovation.

It’s a fine idea and one that could serve IBM’s long-term strategic interests. Namely, if developers flock to IBM’s platform, the company will be well-positioned to grab a big share of the “blockchain-as-a-service” market—a still nascent industry dedicated to helping firms navigate the world of ledgers, smart contracts, and all that other good stuff.

Excerpt:

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), or ‘blockchain’, has started to receive increasing media attention and investment from several sectors including governments, financial services and the creative industries. The potential application in relation to music is of particular interest, as it appears to offer solutions to problems artists have highlighted for decades – around transparency, the sharing of value and the relationships with intermediaries that sit between the artist and fan, the central and most important relationship in music.

If blockchain technology can help the commercial and contractual relationships in music keep pace with technology and the communication between artists and fans then it could be truly revolutionary.

Pink Floyd: Blockchain technology in music could be ‘truly revolutionary’ — from ibtimes.co.uk by Ian Allison
A research team at Middlesex University has released their ‘Music on the blockchain’ report.

Excerpt:

According to the report, there are four main areas where blockchain could transform the music industries:

A single, networked database for music copyright information, rather than the many, not-quite-complete databases maintained at present;
fast, frictionless royalty payments, whereas payments can currently take years;
transparency through the value chain, allowing musicians and their managers to see exactly how much money they are owed, as opposed to a culture of non-disclosure agreements and “black boxes”; and
access to alternative sources of capital, with smart contracts – contracts implemented via software – potentially transforming crowdfunding and leading to the establishment of ‘artist accelerators’ on the model of tech start-ups.

Using blockchain to re-imagine learning — from medium.com by Ben Blair, co-founder of Teachur

Excerpt:

In her recent blog, KnowledgeWorks Senior Director of Strategic Foresight Katherine Prince lists six challenges that K-12 education faces. I’m not going to go all panacea on you, but let me illustrate how blockchain technology could address at least one of those issues and gesture to how it could play an important — if not central — part in addressing all six.

Now you can build your own Amazon Echo at home—and Amazon couldn’t be happier — from qz.com by Michael Coren

Excerpt:

Amazon’s $180 Echo and the new Google Home (due out later this year) promise voice-activated assistants that order groceries, check calendars and perform sundry tasks of your everyday life. Now, with a little initiative and some online instructions, you can build the devices yourself for a fraction of the cost. And that’s just fine with the tech giants.

At this weekend’s Bay Area Maker Faire, Arduino, an open-source electronics manufacturer, announced new hardware “boards”—bundles of microprocessors, sensors, and ports—that will ship with voice and gesture capabilities, along with wifi and bluetooth connectivity. By plugging them into the free voice-recognition services offered by Google’s Cloud Speech API and Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service, anyone can access world-class natural language processing power, and tap into the benefits those companies are touting. Amazon has even released its own blueprint and code repository to build a $60 version of its Echo using Raspberry Pi, another piece of open-source hardware.

From DSC:
Perhaps this type of endeavor could find its way into some project-based learning out there, as well as in:

Some Computer Science-related courses
Some Engineering-related courses
User Experience Design bootcamps
Makerspaces
Programs targeted at gifted students
Other…??

Reflections on “Thinking about the future of work to make better decisions about learning today” [Gorbis]

On 05/04/2016, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, business, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, immersion, intelligent systems, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, maker movement, organizational change, pace of change, professional development, reinvent, society, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), trends, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Thinking about the future of work to make better decisions about learning today — from er.edcause.edu by Marina Gorbis
By looking at historical patterns and identifying signals of change around us today, we can better prepare for the transformations occurring in both work and learning.

Excerpt:

Instead of debating whether learning is for learning’s sake or as a means for earning a living, we need to think about the forces and signals of transformation and what they mean for higher education today and tomorrow.

So let’s explore these deeper transformations.¹ From our experience of doing forecasting work for nearly fifty years, we at the IFTF believe that it is usually not one technology or one trend that drives transformative shifts. Rather, a cluster of interrelated technologies, often acting in concert with demographic and cultural changes, is responsible for dramatic changes and disruptions. Technologies coevolve with society and cultural norms—or as Marshall McLuhan is often quoted as having said: “We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.” Nowhere does this apply more critically today than in the world of work and labor. Here, I focus on four clusters of technologies that are particularly important in shaping the changes in the world of work and learning: smart machines; coordination economies; immersive collaboration; and the maker mindset.

From DSC:
I appreciate this article — thanks Marina.

Marina’s article — and the work of The Institute for the Future (IFTF) — illustrates how important is it to examine the current and developing future landscapes — trying to ascertain the trends and potential transformations underway. Such a practice is becoming increasingly relevant and important.

Why?

Because we’re now traveling at exponential rates, not linear rates.

SparksAndHoney-ExpVsLinear2013

We’re zooming down the highway at 180mph — so our gaze needs to be on the horizons — not on the hoods of our cars.

The pace has changed significantly and quickly

Institutions of higher education, boot camps, badging organizations, etc. need to start offering more courses and streams of content regarding futurism — and teaching people how to look up.

Not only is this type of perspective/practice helpful for organizations, but it’s becoming increasingly key for us as individuals.

You don’t want to be the person who gets tapped on the shoulder and is told, “I’m sorry…but your services won’t be necessary here anymore. Please join me in the conference room down the hall.” You then walk down the hall, and as you approach the conference room, you notice that newly placed cardboard is covering the glass — and no one can see into the conference room anymore. You walk in, they shut the door, give you your last pay check and your “pink slip” (so to speak). Then they give you 5 minutes to gather your belongings. A security escort walks you to the front door.

Game over.

Pulse checking a variety of landscapes can contribute
towards keeping your bread and butter on the table.

Also see:

Credentials reform: How technology and the changing needs of the workforce will create the higher education system of the future — from er.educause.edu by Jamie Merisotis
The shift in postsecondary credentialing and the needs of the 21st-century workforce will revolutionize higher education. Colleges and universities have vast potential to be positive agents of this change.
.
New workers, new skills — from er.edcause.edu by Marina Gorbis
What are the most important skills—the work skills and the life skills—that students should acquire from their educational experience, and what is the best way to teach those skills?Excerpt:
We found that the following short list of skills not only continues to be relevant but also is even more important as meta-skills in the changing worlds of work:

Sense-making: the ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed
Social intelligence: the ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way and to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions
Novel and adaptive thinking: a proficiency in coming up with solutions and responses beyond those that are rote or rule-based
Cross-cultural competency: the ability to operate in different cultural settings, not just geographical but also those that require an adaptability to changing circumstances and an ability to sense and respond to new contexts
Computational thinking: the ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning
Media literacy: the ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms and to leverage these media forms for persuasive communication
Transdisciplinarity: a literacy in, and the ability to understand, concepts across multiple disciplines
Design mindset: the ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes
Cognitive load management: the ability to discern and filter data for importance and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques
Virtual collaboration: the ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team

While we believe that these ten skills continue to be important, two additional skills have emerged from our ethnographic interviews for these new worker categories: networking IQ and hustle.

Train your brain to think about the future — from knowledgeworks.org by Katie King

Thinking about the future is like taking a jog: we can always find something to do instead, but we will be better off later if we take time to do it.

3 postings for those students interested in engineering

On 04/25/2016, in 3D, career development, engineering, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, maker movement, STEAM-related, student-related, vendors, by Daniel Christian

15 best tips for young engineers — from interestingengineering.com

Excerpt:

The proverb goes hindsight is 20/20, which essentially means you can make better decisions later on when you have become more knowledgeable about the world. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to make good decisions from the outset when you’re still young? The following tips were compiled for young engineers and interestingly, most of these suggestions revolve around lifelong learning. Experienced engineers weighed in and added their voice to help create this top 15 list of the best tips for young engineers.

10 great initiatives that bring girls into STEM — from interestingengineering.com

Excerpt:

It is not a secret that science and engineering professions are occupied mainly by men with only about 20% taken by females. The number of women on executive boards is also extremely low. In order to succeed, both female and male minds are needed for any kind of jobs, especially in science-related industries. Let’s see what initiatives already exist in order to bring more girls and women into STEM!

MakerBot teams up with Future Engineers to support the Star Trek (TM) Replicator Challenge for K-12 students — from makerbot.com

Excerpt:

MakerBot is excited to inspire the next generation of astronauts and Starfleet cadets by supporting the Star Trek Replicator Challenge, a 3D printing challenge developed by Future Engineers for the ASME Foundation, NASA and Star Trek. Participants in the challenge must create a digital model of a non-edible, food-related item for astronauts to 3D print in the year 2050. The Star Trek Replicator Challenge is the third in a series of ‘Future Engineers’ challenges aimed to educate students K-12 about 3D printing and engineering design.

My notes from last week’s “Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference” [Christian]

On 03/11/2016, in active learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, future of higher education, instructional design, learning spaces, maker movement, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, smart classrooms, teaching & learning, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Here are my notes from last week’s Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. This was just the second time this conference was offered, but the topics addressed therein are highly relevant to the future of learning spaces within higher education. I hope they are helpful or interesting to some of you.

Implementing Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) is about moving things from being teacher-centric to student-centric. There’s far less lecture and more hands-on, collaborative experiences; there’s more project-based learning and active learning. More discussions, case studies, problem-solving, use of small groups. The Jigsaw method was nicely modeled at the conference.

Getting solid results boils down to designing and implementing effective pedagogies. A space can’t do it for you. A professor needs to align his/her instructional activities with the desired instructional outcomes.

“35-40% of seats on a campus should be for informal learning.”

Per Gary McNay, Principal Perkins+Will
Libraries, cafes, student commons…

Interactive app brings 4th-century thinker to life — from campustechnology.com by Toni Fuhrman
At Villanova University, a student-developed app version of Augustine’s Confessions brings contemporary vitality and relevance to a classic 4th-century work.

Excerpt:

Augustine of Hippo, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, might be surprised to find his Confessions in circulation today, including a number of e-book versions. Still widely read, popular in great books programs and studied in university classes, The Confessions of St. Augustine is autobiography and confession, spiritual quest and emotional journey.

One of the most recent electronic versions of the Confessions is an interactive app developed at Villanova University (PA), the nation’s only Augustinian Catholic University. Released three months ago on Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13), the Confessions app is required for all freshmen as part of a “foundation” course. Available for both Apple and Android devices, the app includes the 13 books of the Confessions, authoritative commentaries, photo gallery, timeline, map and text-highlighted audio, as well as search, note-taking, annotation and bookmark options.

“What better way to reflect on and update this struggle than for today’s students to use technology to bring the text to life through visual, audio and analytical components?”

Confessions-Feb2016

From DSC:
Love the idea. Love the use of teams — including students — to produce this app!

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13^th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

What are the teaching & learning ramifications of these trends? >> M2M comms, IoT, & “Holograms are coming to a high street near you”

On 01/12/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, maker movement, more voice more choice more control, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), trends, UK, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Holograms are coming to a high street near you — from telegraph.co.uk by Rebecca Burn-Callander
Can you tell what’s real and what’s not?

Excerpt:

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

Some will be used to advertise, others will have the ability to interact with you, and show you information. In shops, when you find a shirt you like, the technology is now here to bring up a virtual clothes rail showing you that same shirt in a variety of colours, and even tell you which ones are in stock, all using the same jaw-dropping imaging we have previously only experienced wearing 3D glasses at the cinema.

Holograms, augmented reality – which superimposes technology over the real world – and virtual reality (VR), its totally immersive counterpart, are tipped to be the hot trends in retail next year. Pioneers of the technology are set to find increasingly entertaining, useful and commercially viable ways of using it to tempt people into bricks-and-mortar stores, and fight back against the rise of online shopping.

WaveOptics’ technology could bring physical objects, such as books, to life in new ways

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

From DSC:
What might our learning spaces offer us in the not-too-distant future when:

Sensors are built into most of our wearable devices?
Our BYOD-based devices serve as beacons that use machine-to-machine communications?
When artificial intelligence (AI) gets integrated into our learning spaces?
When the Internet of Things (IoT) trend continues to pick up steam?

Below are a few thoughts/ideas on what might be possible.

A faculty member walks into a learning space, the sensors/beacons communicate with each other, and the sections of lights are turned down to certain levels while the main display is turned on and goes to a certain site (the latter part occurred because the beacons had already authenticated the professor and had logged him or her into the appropriate systems in the background). Personalized settings per faculty member.

A student walks over to Makerspace #1 and receives a hologram that relays some 30,000-foot level instructions on what the initial problem to be solved is about. This has been done using the student’s web-based learner profile — whereby the sensors/beacons communicate who the student is as well as some basic information about what that particular student is interested in. The problem presented takes these things into consideration. (Think IBM Watson, with the focus being able to be directed towards each student.) The student’s interest is piqued, the problem gets their attention, and the stage is set for longer lasting learning. Personalized experiences per student that tap into their passions and their curiosities.

The ramifications of the Internet of Things (IoT) will likely involve the classroom at some point. At least I hope they do. Granted, the security concerns are there, but the IoT wave likely won’t be stopped by security-related concerns. Vendors will find ways to address them, hackers will counter-punch, and the security-related wars will simply move/expand to new ground. But the wave won’t be stopped.

So when we talk about “classrooms of the future,” let’s think bigger than we have been thinking.

ThinkBiggerYet-DanielChristian-August282013

Also see:

What does the Internet of Things mean for meetings? — from meetingsnet.stfi.re by Betsy Bair

Excerpt:

The IoT has major implications for our everyday lives at home, as well as in medicine, retail, offices, factories, worksites, cities, or any structure or facility where people meet and interact.
…
The first application for meetings is the facility where you meet: doors, carpet, lighting, can all be connected to the Internet through sensors. You can begin to track where people are going, but it’s much more granular.
…
Potentially you can walk into a meeting space, it knows it’s you, it knows what you like, so your experience can be customized and personalized.
…
Right now beacons are fairly dumb, but Google and Apple are working on frameworks, building operating systems, that allow beacons to talk to each other.

Addendum on 1/14/16:

Huddle Space Products & Trends for 2016 — from avnetwork.com by Cindy Davis
Excerpt:
“The concept is that you should be able to walk into these rooms, and instead of being left with a black display, maybe a cable on the table, or maybe nothing, and not know what’s going on; what if when you walked into the room, the display was on, and it showed you what meeting room it was, who had the meeting room scheduled, and is it free, can just walk in and I use it, or maybe I am in the wrong room? Let’s put the relevant information up there, and let’s also put up the information on how to connect. Although there’s an HDMI cable at the table, here’s the wireless information to connect.

Learning Ecosystems

“The Gigantic List of Augmented Reality Use Cases”, plus 5 other items re: AR, MR, and VR

Reflections on “Thinking about the future of work to make better decisions about learning today” [Gorbis]

My notes from last week’s “Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference” [Christian]

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