Compete to expand your vocabulary
With Elevate Showdown, you race to match words to descriptions, playing against your friends in group mode using a custom Apple TV controller app, or versus competitors from around the world with Game Center integration. In group mode, you can play against up to three other people, while Game Center pits you head-to-head with a competitor.
10 must-have Apple TV apps — from pcmag.com by Jordan Minor Enjoy the App Store experience on your television with our Apple TV app starter set.
New York, NY – December 22, 2015 – Littlstar, the premier global network dedicated to virtual reality and 360 video, today announced the launch of its Apple TV app. The app, which is the first to bring immersive content to the new Apple TV platform, gives users access to a wide range of 360 video content from well-known brands.
From DSC: Listed below are some potential tools/solutions regarding bringing in remote students and/or employees into face-to-face settings.
First of all, why pursue this idea/approach at all?
Because schools, colleges, universities, and businesses are already going through the efforts — and devoting the resources — to putting courses together and offering the courses in face-to-face settings. So why not create new and additional revenue streams to the organization while also spreading the sphere of influence of the teachers, faculty members, trainers, and/or the experts?
The following tools offer some examples of the growing capabilities of doing so. These types of tools take some of the things that are already happening in active learning-based classrooms and opening up the learning to remote learners as well.
Each Bluescape workspace is larger than 145 football fields, a scale that allows teams to capture and build upon every aspect of a project.
A single Bluescape workspace enables unlimited users to work and collaborate in real time.
Edits to your Bluescape session happen instantly, so geographically distributed teams can collaborate in real time.
Write or type on multi-colored notecards that you can easily move and resize. Perfect for organizing and planning projects.
Ideate and quickly iterate by writing and drawing in a full range of colors and line thicknesses. Works with iOS devices and Bluescape multi-touch displays.
Add pictures and write on the workspace via the iOS App for iPads.
Securely access your Bluescape workspaces with a web browser, our iOS app, or our multi-touch displays.
Easily share what’s on your computer screen with other people.
Bluescape creates persistent online workspaces that you can access at any time that works for you.
Work with any popular website like Google, YouTube or CNN in your workspace.
Drag and drop files like JPEGs and PNGs into your Bluescape workspace for inspiration, analysis, and valuation.
Share your screen instantly during online or in-person meetings.
Use the same touch gestures as you do on smart phones, even handwriting on your iPad.
The RoboSHOT 12 is for small to medium sized conference rooms. This model features a 12X optical zoom and a 73° wide angle horizontal field of view, which provides support for applications including UCC applications, videoconferencing, distance learning, lecture capture, telepresence and more.
The RoboSHOT 30 camera performs well in medium to large rooms. It features a 30X optical zoom with a 2.3° tele end to 65° wide end horizontal field of view and provides support for applications including House of Worship productions, large auditorium A/V systems, large distance learning classrooms, live event theatres with IMAG systems, large lecture theatres with lecture capture and more.
It’s a vision that involves a multitude of technologies — technologies and trends that we continue to see being developed and ones that could easily converge in the not-too-distant future to offer us some powerful opportunities for lifelong learning!
Consider that in won’t be very long before a learner will be able to reinvent himself/herself throughout their lifetime, for a very affordable price — while taking ala carte courses from some of the best professors, trainers, leaders, and experts throughout the world, all from the comfort of their living room. (Not to mention tapping into streams of content that will be available on such platforms.)
So when I noticed that Lynda.com now has a Roku channel for the big screen, it got my attention.
Lets add a few more pieces to the puzzle, given that some other relevant trends are developing quite nicely:
tvOS-based apps are now possible — and already there are over 2600 of them and it’s only been a month or so since Apple made this new platform available to the masses
Now, let’s add the ability to take courses online via a virtual reality interface — globally, at any time; VR is poised to have some big years in 2016 and 2017!
Lynda.com and LinkedIn.com’s fairly recent merger and their developing capabilities to offer micro-credentials, badges, and competency-based education (CBE) — while keeping track of the courses that a learner has taken
The need for lifelong learning is now a requirement, as we need to continually reinvent ourselves — especially given the increasing pace of change and as complete industries are impacted (broadsided), almost overnight
Big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to pick up steam; for example, consider the cognitive computing capabilities being developed in IBM’s Watson — which should be able to deliver personalized digital playlists and likely some level of intelligent tutoring as well
Courses could be offered at a fraction of the cost, as MOOC-sized classes could distribute the costs over a greater # of people and back end systems could help grade/assess the students’ work; plus the corporate world continues to use MOOCs to cost-effectively train their employees across the globe (MOOCs would thrive on such a tvOS-based platform, whereby students could watch lectures, demonstrations, and simulations on the big screen and then communicate with each other via their second screens*)
As the trends of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) pick up, relevant courses/modules will likely be instantly presented to people to learn about a particular topic or task. For example, I purchased a crib and I want to know how to put it together. The chip in the crib communicates to my Smart TV or to my augmented reality glasses/headset, and then a system loads up some multimedia-based training/instructions on how to put it together.
Streams of content continue to be developed and offered — via blogs, via channels like Periscope and Meerkat, via social media-based channels, and via other channels — and these streams of multimedia-based content should prove to be highly useful to individual learners as well as for communities of practice
Anyway, these next few years will be packed with change — the pace of which will likely take us by surprise. We need to keep our eyes upward and outward — peering into the horizons rather than looking downwards — doing so should reduce the chance of us getting broadsided!
*It’s also possible that AR and VR will create
a future whereby we only need 1 “screen”
Addendum: After I wrote/published the item above…it was interesting to then see the item below:
MUNICH, Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of its global headquarters for Watson Internet of Things (IoT), launching a series of new offerings, capabilities and ecosystem partners designed to extend the power of cognitive computing to the billions of connected devices, sensors and systems that comprise the IoT. These new offerings will be available through the IBM Watson IoT Cloud, the company’s global platform for IoT business and developers.
Virtual reality — once the stuff of science fiction — is still in its infancy. But there’s already a gold rush around the technology, which plunges viewers into a simulated 3-D environment and lets them explore their surroundings as if they were really there.
Technology and entertainment giants are betting billions that virtual reality is much more than a passing fad, one that will revolutionize the way we experience movies, news, sporting events, video games and more.
Meanwhile, filmmakers and other creators are grappling with an entirely new storytelling language and dealing with some formidable challenges — claustrophobic headsets that can make people cybersick.
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Here, some of the other pioneers in film, journalism, sports and gaming talk about the potential and struggles of building a new art form from the ground up.
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“You really engage on scene in a way that gives you this incredible connection to where you are,” Ms. de la Peña said. “And that’s why, early on, I was calling it an empathy generator, an empathy machine.”
8 characteristics of good online video — from ecampusnews.com by Meris Stansbury Instructor-led video is a must in online learning, but not all videos are successes. Here are eight tips to help educators create effective online videos for their courses.
Excerpt:
According to a report published in the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, instructor-generated video can have a positive influence on student satisfaction with, and engagement in, online courses. But not all videos are created equal.
Research conducted by the American Academy of Neurology also reveals that “watching videos helps boost brain plasticity,” or the ability of the brain to undergo physical changes at any age. Learners who were trained to perform a particular task through videos performed better than those who learned through images and text, the researchers found—and they concluded that video has a “higher impact on the brain.”
However, researchers emphasize that the format of the video, its platform, and the subject are all variables in the video’s effectiveness.
“Creating interesting, professional videos does take some planning and technical skill,” says eLearn Magazine. “There’s also a fear of perceived high cost. But none of these barriers are insurmountable. By employing … tips to know when to use it, how to maximize its effectiveness, and how to keep costs reasonable, you can make video a key part of your next online course.”
Here are eight tips to help educators create videos for their online courses…
From DSC: A quick reflection here. Frame rates, compression, having the right equipment and recording facilities, how best to frame a shot, knowing about proper lighting and placement of microphones, and more…hmmm…and we expect the faculty member to know/do all this as well as keep up with their knowledgeabase of their particular discipline? Not likely in many cases. Time’s too limited — even if all of the required gifts and/or interest levels were there (which is asking a lot).
This is why I’m big onusing TEAMS of specialists.Depending upon the quality of your products/services that your organization is willing to accept, flipping the classroom or using video in online-based learning requires a team of specialists.
We’re thrilled to announce that Coursera content will now be available onApple TV.
Since our beginning, one of our primary goals has been to make learning more accessible for everyone. Our mobile platform brought an on-demand learning experience to people’s busy, on-the-go lifestyles, and now, we’re extending availability to your home. Regardless of where in the world you are located, you’ll now be able to learn from top university professors and renowned experts without the expense of travel or tuition.
TV availability isn’t only a first for Coursera—it marks Apple TV’s first ever introduction of online learning to its platform. Everything you can do online at Coursera, you’ll now be able to do from the comfort of your own living room:browse our entire catalogue of courses, peruse new topics, and watch videos from some of the top academic and industry experts.
From DSC: Coursera takes us one step closed to a very powerful learning platform — one that in the future will provide a great deal of intelligence behind the scenes. It’s likely that we will be using personalized, adaptable, digital learning playlists while enjoying some serious levels of interactivity…while also making use of web-based learner profiles (the data from which will either be hosted at places like LinkedIn.com or will be fed into employers’ and universities’ competency-based databases). The application development for tvOS should pick up greatly, especially if the collaboration capabilities are there.
For example, can you imagine marrying the functionalities that Bluescape provides with the reach, flexibility, convenience, and affordances that are unfolding with the new Apple TV?
Truly, some mind-blowing possibilities are developing. In the not too distant future, lifelong learning won’t ever be the same again (not to mention project-related work).
This is why I’m big on the development and use of team of specialists — as an organization may have
a harder time competing in the future without one.
Paul Pattison and Luke Minaker knew they were onto something when they got an email from the mother of a nine-year-old who read the first instalment of their interactive story, Weirdwood Manor.
“She wrote that she couldn’t get her son to pick up a book,” said Pattison, technical director of All Play No Work, producer of the iPad app. “She got the app for her son and he went through it in two nights. He finished both books.
“And then because we don’t have book 3 out yet, unprompted by her he went over to the bookshelf and pulled off a paperback and started reading chapter books again.”
While the storytelling app had already shot to ‘Best New App’ in Apple’s app store, chalking up 5,000 downloads in the first two weeks after it was released, the realization that it converted a reluctant nine-year-old to an avid reader confirmed for Pattison and Minaker they were on the right track.
“It is a common theme we have been hearing,” said Pattison. “They get to this age range of eight to 12 and they stop being interested in reading. Video games, Snapchat – all these other things dominate.
“Although we’re an app in digital, what we really wanted to do is re-engage kids in reading, tap into their imagination, have them rediscover that.”
About the only thing that remains constant in e-book publishing is that it changes—everything from the services to marketing strategies. Here, I’ve attempted to round-up all the good resources I know of related to (1) learning to publish an e-book, (2) finding the right e-publishing services, and (3) staying on top of changes in the industry.
Topics/areas that Jane provides resources for include:
Excellent Book-Length Guides
Getting Started & Principles
Producing a Solid Product
Sales, Marketing, and Promotion
Getting Reviews
Tools for Creating & Formatting E-Books
Tools for Creating Enhanced, Multimedia, or Full-Color E-Books
Major E-Book Retailers
Major E-Book Distributors & Services
To Find Freelance Help
Authors Who Blog About E-Book Publishing
News & Trends About E-Book Publishing
I NEVER imagined I would get hooked on reading comic books on a TV screen. That changed last week after I picked up a new Apple TV.
The new device, which is similar to a set-top box and brings video and music from the Internet to a television, now has an app store. So I downloaded Madefire, one of the first apps available for the new device. Madefire adds a twist to digital comics with sound effects, music and motion, bringing the panels to life on the big screen. Within minutes, I was bingeing on a series about Superman turning into a corrupt dictator.
Playing with apps is just one new feature of the revamped Apple TV, which will ship this week. It’s that plethora of innovations and apps that leads me to conclude that the upgraded $149 box is now the best TV streaming device you can get for your money.
(Reuters) – Apple’s loyal army of software developers is joining the tech giant in its bid to conquer the living room with a new version of Apple TV, creating apps for the big screen that they hope will attract users and unlock a rich source of revenue.
A long-awaited update to Apple TV, which launched in 2007, will start shipping in 80 countries on Friday.
Apple views apps as the future of television. An App Store is the centerpiece of the new device, and hundreds of apps will be ready at launch, including gaming, shopping and photography.
Although developers have already been able to make apps for smart TV rivals, Apple’s vast base of developers will set the device apart, analysts say. And developers say they relish the opportunity to reach users in a more intimate setting.
Pre-orders for the new Apple TVhave begun. Well, technically, the new Apple TVs; the latest model comes in two sizes. Oh, and the previous version remains available too. For the first time in Apple TV history, you’ve got options. Now it’s time to figure out which one’s right for you.
The company put out the call for app submissions on Wednesday for tvOS. The Apple TV App Store will debut as Apple TV units are shipped out next week.
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The main attraction of Apple TV is a remote with a glass touch surface and a Siri button that allows users to search by voice. Apple tvOS is capable of running apps ranging from Airbnb to Zillow and games like Crossy Road. Another major perk of Apple TV will be universal search, which allows users to scan for movies and television shows and see results from multiple sources, instead of having to conduct the same search within multiple apps.
Apple CEO Tim Cook hopes the device will simplify how viewers consume content.
From DSC: The days of developing for a “TV”-based OS are now upon us: tvOS is here. I put “TV” in quotes because what we know of the television in the year 2015 may look entirely different 5-10 years from now.
Once developed, things like lifelong learning, web-based learner profiles, badges and/or certifications, communities of practice, learning hubs, smart classrooms, virtual tutoring, virtual field trips, AI-based digital learning playlists, and more will never be the same again.
Addendum on 10/26/15: The article below discusses one piece of the bundle of technologies that I’m trying to get at via my Learning from the Living [Class] Room Vision:
No More Pencils, No More Books — from by Will Oremus Artificially intelligent software is replacing the textbook—and reshaping American education.
Excerpt: ALEKS starts everyone at the same point. But from the moment students begin to answer the practice questions that it automatically generates for them, ALEKS’ machine-learning algorithms are analyzing their responses to figure out which concepts they understand and which they don’t. A few wrong answers to a given type of question, and the program may prompt them to read some background materials, watch a short video lecture, or view some hints on what they might be doing wrong. But if they’re breezing through a set of questions on, say, linear inequalities, it may whisk them on to polynomials and factoring. Master that, and ALEKS will ask if they’re ready to take a test. Pass, and they’re on to exponents—unless they’d prefer to take a detour into a different topic, like data analysis and probability. So long as they’ve mastered the prerequisites, which topic comes next is up to them.
“Here’s looking at you, Kid” – Presentation From BSD Future Ready Summit
Getting students started creating videos can seem like a daunting task. There isn’t enough time in the day to get your regular subjects done, how are you supposed to give students time to create videos? I am here to tell you it can be done. I hope that this post/presentation will provide what you need to get started.
Students can create videos on a variety within the context of what they are learning right now. Video story problem for math, a how to science experiment, or a book trailer that covers important story traits are all good ideas. Here is a list of apps, PDF Templates, and equipment that can be helpful when creating movies.
Switcher Studio is a mobile video app that lets you sync up to four iPhones and iPads to record and stream LIVE video to services like YouTube and Ustream. Insert photos and graphic overlays, manage multi-view effects, and more.
From DSC: Now let’s take this one step further.
If REMOTE learners could switch between cameras at any point, NOW we’re talking! That is, it would be great if we could set up 3-4 cameras in a face-to-face classroom, and let the remote learners switch between whichever viewing angle/feed that they want to see at any given point in time (i.e., the professor, the whiteboard, the computer, other).
Addendum on 10/15/15: also see:
Touchcast Studio in a Box: Excerpt:
TouchCast Studio in a Box allows you to transform your iPad into a full, interactive video studio. The TouchCast Studio includes a green screen, lapel mic, mini-tripods, iPad and iPhone holders. Paired with the TouchCast App, you will be able to use the green screen to transport yourself.
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And don’t forget to add video apps (vApps) to make your video interactive. Your audience can tap these to dive deeper into other videos, web pages and more.
In this first-ever higher education “gear of the year” guide, Campus Technology has turned to hundreds of education professionals to tell us which products in 29 categories are truly the best. We cover the gamut of technology from 3D printers to wireless access points. In almost every category you’ll find the Platinum, Gold and Silver picks to help you short-list your shopping, fuel your decision-making or perhaps start a friendly debate on campus.
From DSC: Imagine what learning could look like w/ the same concepts found in theSkreens kickstarter campaign? Where you can use your mobile device to direct what you are seeing and interacting with on the larger screen? Hmmm… very interesting indeed! With applications not only in the home (and on the road), but also in the active classroom, the boardroom, and the training room.
Packed house at WilmerHale for the Robot Launch 2015 judging – although 2/3rds of the participants were attending and pitching remotely via video and web conferencing.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
