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.
 

5 steps for creating a custom makerspace — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

The maker movement has created opportunities for all educators to give students authentic learning opportunities that go beyond the typical classroom experiences and to rethink traditional learning environments to include those that nurture the kinds of creativity and innovation that will benefit our students both in school and beyond. We know children learn by exploring and playing and doing and making and that these kinds of things lead to deeper engagement. The maker movement embodies opportunities for experimentation and innovation to occur across all grade levels and all content areas.

Physical makerspaces have allowed us the opportunity to pull some of this excitement of the maker movement into our schools. Makerspaces can help set the stage for meaningful student learning, as well as help cultivate a culture of innovation within a school. My makerspace inspires innovation, passion, and personal motivation and interests, and has encouraged students to pursue STEM subjects and careers.

 

 

Top ten makerspace favorites of 2015 — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

The most successful makerspaces include tools, materials and resources that inspire and allow for an environment rich with possibilities, allowing all students the opportunity for open-ended exploration.  In addition to tried-and-true favorites such as Spheros, Makey-Makey kits, littleBits, and Legos, there is now such a vast array of makerspace-related products available.

As this year draws to a close, we can’t help but reflect upon some of our favorite makerspace things.  Upon doing so, Travis Lape and I, have compiled a list of our ‘Top Ten Favorite Makerspace Items of 2015’.  In this post, we have provided links to all of the products, as well as a brief description of each. It is our hope, that this versatile and fun list will get you thinking about things you have never thought of before and help your makerspaces to continue to grow and evolve.

 

 

Resources for youth makerspaces — from makered.org

 

MakerEd-Oct2015

 

 

6 Back to the Future projects as cool as the movie — from makezine.com by Lisa Martin

 

Delorean-MakerOct2015

 

 

 

 

From DSC:
Could 3D printers help students trying to learn about geometry, calculus, data visualizations, and the like?  These articles seem to think so, and so do I:


 

3Dprint-math

 

 

 

 

 

3Dprint-math2

 

Also see:

Schools, Universities Largest Market for 3D Printers — from educationnews.org

Excerpt:

Schools and universities are beginning to incorporate 3D printers into their curricula more often, and now make up the largest market for 3D printers under $2,500.

Contrary to expectations, educational institutions buy more 3D printers than individuals. The number of US schools that have 3D printers hasn’t been quantified, but 5,000 schools have MakerBot’s 3D printers, and they are only one of the major sellers. Others include Stratasys, 3D Systems, and Variquest.

3D printer purchases are expected to double in 2016 to 496,500 shipments. By 2019, numbers could reach 5.6 million. These statistics come from a report by Gartner Inc., an independent technology research company.

 

The North Face uses IBM’s Watson to make online shopping smarter — from thestreet.com by Rebecca Borison

Excerpt:

Aiming to solve one of e-commerce’s challenges of not offering personalized service, VF Corp’s “The North Face” on Monday launched a new online shopping tool using IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence system.

The tool, which is powered by Fluid and called XPS, guides a consumer through the online store to better find what he or she is looking for.

E-commerce today doesn’t generally give the personal attention a consumer might get when he walks into a store and is greeted by a human being. This new tool seeks to address that challenge.

 

NorthFace-Watson-Dec2015

 

 

Watch this robot solve a Rubik’s Cube in a world record 2.39 seconds — from singularityhub.com by Jason Dorrier

.

 

 

Novo Nordisk, IBM Watson Health to create ‘virtual doctor’ — from wsj.com by Denise Roland
Software could dispense treatment advice for diabetes patients

Excerpt:

Novo Nordisk A/S is teaming up with IBM Watson Health, a division of International Business Machines Corp., to create a “virtual doctor” for diabetes patients that could dispense treatment advice such as insulin dosage.

The Danish diabetes specialist hopes to use IBM’s supercomputer platform, Watson, to analyze health data from diabetes patients to help them manage their disease.

 

 

 

CES 2016: driverless cars and virtual reality to dominate at world’s biggest technology show — from mirror.co.uk
The world’s biggest technology showcase kicks off in Las Vegas on 6 January 2016. Here’s what we know about what will be happening at the Consumer Electronics Show

 

 

 

Build an automatic cookie decorating machine with LEGO Mindstorms — from lifehacker.com by Patrick Allan

Excerpt:

Decorating cookies by hand can be a pleasant activity, but with a LEGO Mindstorms set, you can crank out a bunch of perfectly iced cookies in no time at all.

 

 

World’s First Holographic Navigation System — from machinetomachinemagazine.com

Excerpt:

PARIS – The United States is the first commercial market to receive two innovative telematics devices that apply aerospace technology to land navigation. WayRay Navion is an augmented reality navigation system that projects holographic GPS imagery and driver notifications onto the windshield of a car, a first-of-its-kind for the automobile aftermarket. WayRay Element is a smart tracker that can be plugged into the diagnostics port of any automobile for monitoring driver performance, safety and fuel efficiency. The solutions arrive courtesy of WayRay, a Swiss startup dedicated to the advancement of connected car telematics, and Orange Business Services, a B2B global telecom operator and IT solutions integrator.

 

 

 

How to create a makerspace — from campustechnology.com by Leila Meyer
“Making” experts share the basics of building spaces for collaboration, innovation and hands-on learning

Excerpt:

Makerspaces, where students, faculty and staff from diverse fields can come together to create, learn and work, are popping up on college and university campuses across the country. Here’s how to build a “maker” facility to support multi-disciplinary collaboration, hands-on learning and experimentation at your institution.

 

For K-12, also see:

 

Tools We Like: Spotlight on IDEO’s EE Lab — from labs.ideo.com by Sara Breselor
Prototyping essentials from breadboards to toaster ovens

Excerpt:

Mark Harrison has been building stuff at IDEO for more than 15 years (see Mark’s post on his all-time favorite workarounds). He’s one of the most knowledgeable tinkerers around, and he’s just finished putting together an electrical engineering lab at IDEO Palo Alto, stocked with every useful tool and device he could get his hands on. He wants to encourage more people to start building, and the lab is open to anyone with an idea. “I don’t want people to think that it’s specialized. You don’t have to be an engineer to come use the lab,” he says. “We’ve stocked it so that anybody can come in here, pick up an arduino and start prototyping.

Here’s a quick tour of the tools Mark considers essential…

 

 

 

 

Putting Away the Books to Learn — from medium.com by Jackie Ashton; with thanks to Angela Maiers for this resource
The “maker” movement has swept across schools in California and beyond. Can it fundamentally change K-12 education?

Excerpt:

The room, which more closely resembles a fabrication studio than middle school classroom, boasts tools like a drill press, torch, welder, laser cutter, forge, and 3D-printer. Books with titles like Fabrication: Essays on Making Things & Making Meaning and The Geometry of Sheet Metal Work rest on a shelf. Safety goggles and a collection of posters around the room remind students to “respect” the tools and keep in mind “what they can do to you if not used with thought and care.”

East Bay School for Boys (EBSB) is one of many schools across the country?—?and in the Bay Area in particular?—?that sees great value in offering its students DIY (do-it-yourself) learning experiences, as opposed to traditional learning via rote memorization or teacher-led lesson plans. It’s part of the “maker” movement?—?that is, the trend of encouraging people to build new devices from scratch?—?which has exploded in recent years, from elementary school classrooms to Silicon Valley board rooms.

In the education world, public, private, and charter schools alike are empowering kids to roll up their sleeves and jump on the experiential bandwagon. Teachers encourage students to tinker with materials like e-textiles, conductive thread, 3D printed objects, and Makey Makey, a simple invention kit that anyone can use.

 

 

 

Also see:

 

 

makerspace-laura-fleming-oct2015

 

makerspace2-laura-fleming-oct2015

 

 

Thingiverse helps make 3D printing easy for student beginners — from edtechmagazine.com by D. Frank Smith
A new startup guide to 3D printing takes students by the hand in their first foray into the magic of makerspaces.

Excerpt:

3D printing is becoming more common at schools across the world, but there’s still a skills gap in using this new technology.

To help overcome that gap, Thingiverse, an online repository of 3D printing designs hosted by the 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot, recently launched JumpStart — an online resource for newcomers to the 3D design discipline. JumpStart is geared specifically with early learners in mind, says Laura Taalman, MakerBot’s senior product manager for education.

 

Also see:

JumpStart-Oct2015

 

From DSC:
The following app looks to be something that the “makers” of the programming world might be interested in. Also, it could be great for those learners interested in engineering, robotics, and/or machine-to-machine communications; using this app could help start them down a very promising path/future.

 

Tickle-Sept2015

From their website:

Programming re-imagined for the connected world.
Learn to program Arduino, drones, robots, connected toys, and smart home devices, all wirelessly. Tickle is easy to learn, fun to use, and 1000x more powerful!

Easy to learn, yet incredibly powerful!
Start learning programming the same way as Computer Science courses at Harvard and UC Berkeley. Tickle is used by makers and designers around the world to create custom robots and interactive projects, including Stanford University computer scientists.

Spark your imagination.
Create stunning games and interactive stories using our library of animated characters and sounds. With the ability to program devices to interact with other devices and virtual characters, the possibilities are limitless.

1000X the super (programming) power.
If you’ve tried Scratch, Hopscotch, Tynker, Blockly, Scratch Jr, Kodable, Pyonkee, mBlock, or Code.org, now you can go beyond the screen and program your own connected future.

 

The Eight-Minute Lecture Keeps Students Engaged — from facultyfocus.com by Illysa Izenberg; with thanks to Ove Christensen for mentioning this on his paper.li-based e-newsletter

Excerpt:

Numerous studies have demonstrated that students retain little of our lectures, and research on determining the “average attention span,” while varying, seems to congregate around eight to ten minutes (“Attention Span Statistics,” 2015), (Richardson, 2010). Research discussed in a 2009 Faculty Focus article by Maryellen Weimer questions the attention span research, while encouraging instructors to facilitate student focus.

When I began teaching in 2006, I assumed that students could read anything I say. Therefore, my classes consisted of debates of, activities building on, and direct application of theories taught in the readings—no lectures.

But I noticed that students had difficulty understanding the content in a way that enabled accurate and deep application without some framing from me. In short, I needed to lecture—at least a little. This is when I began the eight-minute lecture. If you’re worried that eight minutes is too long, I discovered that when students experience many short lectures throughout the semester, they learn to focus in those bursts, in part because they know the lecture will be brief.

How to implement the eight-minute lecture

 

From DSC:
This reminds me of a graphic I did back in 2010, asking, “Is it getting harder to get through the gate?”

 

If attention can be visualized as a gate...is it getting harder to get through the gate?

 

Also:

 

We first have to make it through the gate!

 

 

Also, this reminds me of the growing trend that’s occurring across the United States of implementing makerspaces and more active learning-based classrooms — i.e., creating collaborative, participatory learning environments.

 

 

The future of learning spaces is open ended — from eschoolnews.com by Lucien Vattel

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The spaces we inhabit have a profound effect on how we inhabit them. Space induces a particular way of feeling, of being. What are we saying to our children with we line them up in 5×8 rows facing the same direction toward a voice of authority? What do we say about desks that lock us in place, where the majority of movement within our gaze is eyes forward, eyes down? I remember my surprise when I walked into first grade for the very first time. The change from kindergarten to first grade was extreme. I looked at the arrangement of desks and thought, “what game is this?” It was a game I would play for the rest of my developing years. I was disappointed. I knew it could be better than this.

We look inside current learning spaces and look at the world; there is a big disconnect. It’s not reflective. We as a society have agreed by doctrine that our children will come together in a building and learn, and yet we allow our kids to be behind desks for a majority of their developing years. We evolve behind desks. Think of that! Students don’t need places to sit, listen and write. Instead, they need places to connect, explore, discover and relate. They need places of support. We spend over a decade being conditioned to receive and compete, imagine if space invoked us to support each other, everyday and in every way.

We need environments that help realize that within us there are unbounded treasures. We need environments that shine a light on our potential and provide opportunities to express ourselves.

 

Schools at their heart should be human potentiality incubators.

 

 

The NMC Releases the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving library leaders and staff a valuable guide for strategic planning. The format of the report was designed to provide these leaders with more in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

“Nowhere on university campuses has technology had a more sweeping impact than on their libraries,” says Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the NMC and co-principal investigator for the project. “It is critically important for the field that the unique needs and perspectives of those who work in academic and research libraries are at the center of this second annual report.”

 

NMCReport-LibraryEdition2015

 

NMCReport-LibraryEdition2015-TOC

 

The Lassonde Studios — a first-of-its-kind hybrid residence hall and startup incubator at the University of Utah — was conceived in much the same way that university officials hope students will dream up their own projects once the building opens next year.

— Calvin Hennick

 

Higher Ed Expands Reach Through Video Conferencing — from edtechmagazine.com by Calvin Hennick
Don’t call them dorms — 21st century residence halls offer flexible spaces where students can connect and collaborate using high-tech tools.

Excerpt:

“I started talking to students about what I could do to help them make their companies more successful,” recalls Troy D’Ambrosio, executive director of the university’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. One student told D’Ambrosio that he had all the engineering help he needed, but lacked ways to connect with students who had design and sales backgrounds. Another student, who was making a product that used boiling water to run lights and charge smartphones, worked primarily at a garage off campus, at the home of his business partner’s mother. He told D’Ambrosio that he simply wanted access to an on-campus working space. Still other students said such a space should be open around the clock, in case entrepreneurial inspiration struck at 3 a.m.

“That’s where the residential component tied in to create a 24-hour, immersive experience,” says D’Ambrosio. “That all gelled together.”

 

 

Also relevant/see:

Richard Branson: Three ways higher education can create more entrepreneurs — from virgin.com by Jack Preston

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Here the Virgin Group founder outlines three changes that he would make to the system in order to produce more entrepreneurs.

  1. Encouraging students to start-up
  2. Shorten degrees
  3. Install the importance of networking in students
 

From Zeina Chalich:

 

 

 

 

Hackathons as a new pedagogy — from edutopia.org by Brandon Zoras

Excerpts:

Students are coming out of school expected to solve 21st-century problems and enter into occupations that haven’t even been imagined yet. Schooling is not designed in this manner, so we wanted to give students an opportunity to solve problems in authentic contexts, using 21st-century skills and collaboration techniques. We wanted to break down walls between classrooms and have students use interdisciplinary skills to solve problems with teams of their peers, with mentors, and with industry professionals.

Why a Hackathon?
Hackathons have become a new way of doing business, creating products, advancing healthcare, and innovation. The energy is high, and so are the stakes. Can you turn an idea into a product over the course of a weekend? But let’s move beyond that. Let’s look at the teaching and learning within a hackathon. Hackathons are really the ultimate classroom.

It is within hackathons that students are utilizing their skills and knowledge to solve problems. It’s project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and STEM all wrapped up into one activity! It’s about design thinking and truly a 21st-century learning opportunity. Students are working collaboratively within mixed-ability groups to examine problems and come up with solutions.

Benefits For Students
A huge learning factor is failure. Often, school protects students from failure, and students always manage to mix A with B to get C. The hackathon, though, enables a support system where, once an obstacle or failure throws a wrench in students’ plans, they work as a team to get around it.

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian