From DSC:
Could MOOCs morph into a freemium model?
That is, a person might take a MOOC to see if they are interested in that particular topic. If they are, they might finish the MOOC. If they are really interested in that topic, perhaps the MOOC becomes the on ramp into a stream of content whereby the student pays a small amount for a subscription (could be monthly, yearly, up to a lifetime, other) to a constantly curated stream of content on that topic.
Just thinking out loud.
Behind the immersiveness trend: Why now? — from deepmediaonline.com by Frank Rose with a thanks to Digital Rocking Chair for the Scoop on this
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
When JWT Intelligence announced its “10 Trends for 2014 and Beyond” recently, trend #1 was “immersive experiences.” Certainly you can feel this in New York: From Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (now running for nearly three years) to MoMA’s Rain Room to Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room, people are willing to pay top dollar or line up for hours to experience something all-encompassing and beyond the ordinary. But why?
The new report—based on a survey of Internet users in the US and the UK, on assessments from JWT planners around the world, and on interviews with outside observers (myself included)—lists six key reasons. Interestingly, only two have anything to do with advances in technology or production techniques. The remaining four stem from broad societal shifts—shifts that are tied to, but in many cases a reaction against, the always-on nature of the digital world.
From DSC:
Notice one of the first slides.
It mentions the word attention. I submit to you that these types of immersive experiences will impact how easy it is or hard it is to get our students’ attentions. If we can’t get our students’ attentions, we have zero (0) chance of getting the information into their short term and/or long term memories.
This is why I’d like to see more transmedia-based storytelling and digital storytelling occurring within K-20. We should have students create the experiences using content taken directly from the course’s learning objectives. Such as course could be multidisciplinary in nature, helping students find roles that they enjoy doing while learning the content.
However, on the other side of things…I need to post another slide (below) as well. Some students might not like this type of learning experience at all. Thus, we need to offer more choice, more control to our students…letting them pick the assignments/pathways to their learning that work best for them.
Four radically different models in higher ed worth considering — from onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com by Debbie Morrison
Excerpt:
Yet there are few models in practice that offer face-to-face education experiences that are truly transformational. However, I suggest the four models presented here are worth pondering; two created from scratch, and two that changed within an existing framework.
To reiterate, the institutions discussed here are not virtual schools, each provides face-to-face undergraduate learning experiences where technology is leveraged to facilitate learning. The schools are also committed to teaching foundational subjects—courses from the humanities, yet each provides unique learning experiences that challenge the traditional model in some way. Each institution takes a different approach, though all encourage learners to choose a learning path, to be self-directed, to follow their interests, and establish their own learning goals. All seek to engage young people in learning, prepare students to think critically and to guide them to find their passion.
From DSC:
First some recent/relevant postings:
IFTTT’s ingenious new feature: Controlling apps with your location — from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert
An update to the IFTTT app lets you use your location in recipes. Image: IFTTT
Excerpt:
IFTTT stands athwart history. At a point where the software world is obsessed with finding ever more specialized apps for increasingly specific problems, the San Francisco-based company is gleefully doing just the opposite. It simply wants to give people a bunch of tools and let them figure it out. It all happens with simple conditional statements the company calls “recipes.” So, you can use the service to execute the following command: If I take a screenshot, then upload it to Dropbox. If this RSS feed is updated, then send me a text message. It’s great for kluging together quick, automated solutions for the little workflows that slip into the cracks between apps and services.
4 reasons why Apple’s iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design — from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert
Excerpt:
You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that’ll appeal to you most. You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone, and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap. You go to your local watering hole, have a round of drinks, and just leave, having paid—and tipped!—with Uber-like ease. Welcome to the world of iBeacon.
It sounds absurd, but it’s true: Here we are in 2013, and one of the most exciting things going on in consumer technology is Bluetooth. Indeed, times have changed. This isn’t the maddening, battery-leeching, why-won’t-it-stay-paired protocol of yore. Today we have Bluetooth Low Energy which solves many of the technology’s perennial problems with new protocols for ambient, continuous, low-power connectivity. It’s quickly becoming big deal.
The Internet of iThings: Apple’s iBeacon is already in almost 200 million iPhones and iPads — from forbes.com by Anthony Kosner
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Because of iBeacons’ limited range, they are well-suited for transmitting content that is relevant in the immediate proximity.
From DSC:
Along the lines of the above postings…I recently had a meeting whereby the topic of iBeacons came up. It was mentioned that museums will be using this sort of thing; i.e. approaching a piece of art will initiate an explanation of that piece on the museum’s self-guided tour application.
That idea made me wonder whether such technology could be used in a classroom…and I quickly thought, “Yes!”
For example, if a student goes to the SW corner of the room, they approach a table. That table has an iBeacon like device on it, which triggers a presentation within a mobile application on the student’s device. The students reviews the presentation and moves onto the SE corner of the room whereby they approach a different table with another/different iBeacon on it. That beacon triggers a quiz on the material they just reviewed, and then proceeds to build upon that information. Etc. Etc. Physically-based scaffolding along with some serious blended/hybrid learning. It’s like taking the concept of QR codes to the next level.
Some iBeacon vendors out there include:
Data mining, interaction design, user interface design, and user experience design may never be the same again.
From DSC:
For those of us working in higher education, read this article and keep an ongoing pulse check on the changing K-12 situation. Those students will be on our doorsteps before we know it — bringing with them their own/new set of expectations for their learning experiences. These expectations will have major implications for our teaching and learning environments.
Pharrell Williams debuts 24-hour, interactive music video for ‘Happy’ — from theverge.com by Amar Toor; with thanks to Mr. Colton Credelle for this item
Excerpt:
On Thursday, at the stroke of midnight, pop impresario Pharrell Williams debuted the video for his new single, “Happy.” It’s 24 hours long.
The video, available for streaming on 24hoursofhappy.com, features various dancers lip-synching to Williams’ single throughout the course of a day in Los Angeles. The four-minute, upbeat song is played on loop, with each cycle introducing a new dancer (or dancers) at a different location. Viewers can fast-forward or move backward using a clock interface that hovers over the display, and share specific moments on Twitter or Facebook. The dancers, meanwhile, include both anonymous extras and celebrities like Magic Johnson, Steve Carrell, and of course, Williams himself.
Also see:
From DSC:
How might this relate to educationally-related videos?
And for those of you in marketing and retail out there, could be some sharp/beneficial applications for you all here.
Learning in ‘the Living [Class] Room’
From campustechnology.com by Mary Grush and Daniel Christian
Convergent technologies have the ability to support streams of low-cost, personalized content, both at home and in college.
Next-gen schools thriving in Detroit — from GettingSmart.com
Excerpts:
Blended/hybrid learning: Combining the best of both worlds
“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”
— Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along
qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13
From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?
Also see:
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.
Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.
As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.
Addendum on 11/25:
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
For the first time, IBM will open up Watson as a development platform in the Cloud to spur innovation and fuel a new ecosystem of entrepreneurial software app providers who will bring forward a new generation of applications infused with Watson’s cognitive computing intelligence.
…
The Watson Ecosystem empowers development of “Powered by IBM Watson” applications. Partners are building a community of organizations who share a vision for shaping the future of their industry through the power of cognitive computing. IBM’s cognitive computing cloud platform will help drive innovation and creative solutions to some of life’s most challenging problems. The ecosystem combines business partners’ experience, offerings, domain knowledge and presence with IBM’s technology, tools, brand, and marketing.
Xbox, watch TV: inside Microsoft’s audacious plan to take over the living room — from by Nilay Patel
Can the Xbox One finally kickstart the TV revolution?
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Taking over your cable box also means the Xbox can overlay your TV signal with interesting information: a voice-activated channel guide, pop-up notifications when you get a Skype call and Xbox Live invites, a new NFL app that shows you real-time fantasy stats. You can even snap the TV window to the side of the screen while you play games. Your nasty cable interface is still there, but it allows the Xbox One to replace the cable box as the primary living-room entertainment device and go from gaming console to major new computing platform.
…
So the entire Xbox One is designed around what you might call a bold compromise: instead of directly integrating TV, the system hijacks it. Rather than plugging your cable box and Xbox into the TV separately, you first plug the cable box into the Xbox, and then the Xbox into the TV. Your cable box is still there, and still doing all the heavy lifting of providing TV, but now it’s doing it in service of the overall Xbox One experience. Smith describes it as “augmenting” the cable box experience in an effort to eliminate the friction of switching between games, apps, and TV.
From DSC:
The battle for the living room continues. I hope that we can eventually leverage these developments not just for entertainment, but for creating, contributing, sharing, absorbing, and discussing streams of content. The creative possibilities involving transmedia-based storytelling are exciting in this type of environment as well.
Study: Teachers love EdTech, they just don’t use it — from edudemic.com by Katie Lepi
Excerpt:
EdTech Is Essential!
However…
From DSC:
Looking at this solid posting from edudemic and Katie Lepi, I can’t help but ask:
I’d like to add some potential factors to the list of why educational technologies might not be being implemented in certain situations:
With the rapid pace of change, time is no longer on our side. That is, it doesn’t serve our students well if it takes us 2-3 generations to get teachers, professors, and trainers ready to use all of the relevant technologies. That is a pipe dream and we need to abandon it asap. No one has all of the gifts that they need. We need to work with teams of specialists. It will take team-based efforts to create and deliver learning environments, products, and services that feature more choice and more control for our students. They — and all of us actually — are encountering a different world every single day that we wake up. Are we preparing them for it?
Accreditation on the block as lawmakers look to innovation — from EvoLLLution NewsWire
Excerpt:
Accreditation and federal financial aid policies are in line to be overhauled as lawmakers start to debate the possibility of mainstreaming some of higher education’s most recent innovations.
During a recent hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, numerous federal senators pointed toward competency-based education and hybrid models of online education as examples of strategies that could revolutionize higher education. However, they were concerned by the role of federal financial aid rules and regional accreditation boards in keeping these innovations from reaching the wider higher education marketplace.
It is expected that a number of bills will be introduced in the coming days to overhaul the regulatory systems that govern American postsecondary education. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) plans to unveil a bill to move accreditation responsibilities from the region to the state. This would allow greater market access to non-institutional education providers, which are typically unaccreditated and cannot compete with traditional institutions on an even footing.
