Optimizing web media for mobile learning — from The Upside Learning Solutions Blog by Abhijit Kadle
We’ve recently been delivering simple content just-in-time for access through the websites that are designed to run on mobile devices. It was easier said than done, here are some lessons we picked up along the way.
From DSC:
Thanks Abhijit for sharing the lessons/learnings/advice/resources here!
Our Keynote Thought Leaders include:
Our Learning Themes in 2010:
— Resource from Scott Meech, and his resource-packed 8/14/10 presentation here.
Leveraging digital media across the higher education campus
Phil Ice, Ed.D., Dir. of Course Design, R&D, American Public University System
Sebastian Diaz, Ph.D., J.D., Assoc.Professor, Technology, Learning and Culture, West Virginia University
Ellen Wagner, Ph.D., Executive Director, WCET
Note: This webinar from earlier today was sponsored by Adobe. This is the white paper from that webinar, which contains the below excerpts:
The Multimedia Landscape in Higher Education
In higher education, the effective integration of rich multimedia assets and platforms (and the requisite design and development skills demanded for their effective use) has become an expectation from schools of design, art, and communications. Engineering and journalism programs have recognized that as technology transforms industries, students with design and development proficiencies are in high demand. The obvious value of improving analytical and digital communications for teachers is now being addressed through initiatives such as the i3 Fund. Relatively less attention has typically been given to the integration and use of multimedia in other disciplines.
Emerging New Media Literacy in Academia
This paper has thus far explored the implications that collaborative, creative software solutions have on how we evaluate academic work. Just as importantly, one needs to consider the changing nature of how we communicate that work within the Academy. As the prices for video cameras continue to fall, the expectations for manifesting our work in new media formats will continue to rise. Given the availability of software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, we are finding that it is increasingly quite reasonable to expect that students possess the tools and skills necessary to produce representations of their work in dynamic visual formats, as is evidenced by www.YouTube.com. Although for a while it was believed that YouTube was an online version of America’s Favorite Home Videos, it is dangerous to assume that this phenomenon is merely a fad among the younger generation. Today’s YouTube is a marketing machine used by commercial and nonprofit entities alike, an online school and a news portal as well. YouTube serves as an accurate indicator of how newer generations will express themselves personally, artistically, and academically through what is commonly referred to as new media literacy.
Conclusion
Members of the Academy should anticipate that in the future conventionally printed papers will be replaced by much more dynamic multimedia representations of academic work. This applies not only to student assignments, examinations, and theses; it also applies to faculty work. Even as we begin to struggle with the fundamental shift from paper-based publication of work to electronic formats on the Internet, we also need to anticipate that in the near future, this research will take on new media formats. To help our faculty prepare for these changes, academic institutions must develop formal and informal faculty development initiatives to address the changes. In anticipation of these changes, it is imperative that academic departments and colleges begin to embrace technologies like Adobe Creative Suite such that we continue to develop our own intellectual capital as well as that of our respective institutions and the Academy.
From DSC:
I appreciated this well-done webinar. I also appreciate the work Adobe has done in the past and is currently doing.
I must say though, I struggle with how much we can load onto 1 person’s plate — i.e. the faculty member. We need a more team-oriented approach I think…as the bar continues to get higher and higher…and 1 person just can’t do it all anymore.
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Ambient Insight reports strong US mobile learning market — from Ambient Insight by Sam S. Adkins, Chief Research Officer
US mobile learning revenues reached $632.2 million in 2009
“New suppliers are entering the market at a steady pace,” reports Chief Research Officer, Sam S. Adkins. “A very new trend is the emergence of dozens of new native Mobile Learning development tools and delivery platforms that were built from the ground up to develop and manage Mobile Learning. It is also interesting that three new types of packaged content emerged in 2009 and 2010.”
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As I sat down to review The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, which was provided to me as the online version, I wondered, how would this textbook look on my new iPad? Would it be readable? Would it be better than on my desktop? Would it be any better than a “real” textbook? Could this be a new era where information really does get to the bedside?
The short answer is yes—The ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine Online is very readable on the iPad, and as such I think it marks another step in the ongoing shift of information online, making it more mobile. But is an online textbook the answer to “point of care” information in medicine? No, but it is a very useful step forward in helping bring evidence-based information and guidelines to clinicians into day to day practice.
Innovate to Educate: [Re]Design for Personalize Learning — from mobl21.com/blog
The Symposium on [Re]Design for Personalized Learning has begun.
An initiative of the SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) with ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), this collaborative effort asserts that the education system can more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of all students through a true paradigm shift from a mass production to a mass customization learning system.
An excerpt from the SIIA-ASCD-CCSSO Symposium Primer:
Some education leaders are becoming more focused on personalizing learning as critical to meeting the needs of all students. They understand that changing student outcomes requires transforming their experience and our current education system. They recognize the definition of educational insanity: offering the same type of education model over and over again, and expecting a different result. These leaders also see that educational equity is not simply about equal access and inputs, but as importantly requires that a student’s educational path, curriculum, instruction and schedule be personalized to meet her unique needs. Reform efforts that continue to focus on the factory model, one-size fits all approach to learning are unlikely to make a sufficient difference for too many students in this knowledge-age when expectations are higher than ever.
In contrast to trends in other industries to personalize products, services, and the user experience – in part by leveraging continually evolving technologies – education has only scratched the surface on the potential to personalize the learner experience. Such efforts continue to be the exception rather than the rule and often represent a “tweaking” of the traditional model rather than the necessary systemic redesign of how we educate our children. Similarly, students have come to expect personalization in every other aspect of their lives, including through services like Facebook, Netflix and iTunes, to name a few. If Google and Amazon can thoughtfully leverage customer data and virtual communities to better serve each person’s unique preferences and interests from afar, then education can do so for each student from a near — to understand each one’s performance level, learning style and learning preferences and then adjust instructional strategies and content to meet those needs.
Read the full primer here: http://www.siia.net/pli/primer.doc
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From DSC:
Eventually, we will have to deal with some major changing student expectations. Perhaps that’s this year..? Next year? 5 years down the line…? I’m not sure. But with the storm brewing, we don’t want to discount changing student expectations. We need to adapt and deliver and meet changing expectations.
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Discussions on four current topics in academic technologies — from Ruben Puentedura
The slides from [Ruben Puentedura’s] recent presentations at Swarthmore College are now online:
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Example slide from “Learning with games, learning from games”:
