The type of learning materials that can be produced by an organization such as Virtual Heroes is the type/quality of material that will be produced in a vision that I have been calling “The Forthcoming Walmart of Education.

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http://virtualheroes.com/index.asp

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Also see:

From DSC:
This is why I would encourage the U.S. government to see if they can get 1-2 billion — from the billionaires who are donating much of their wealth to charitable causes — in order to create such professionally-done, interactive, engaging, team-created learning materials.
Then make those materials available — free of charge — throughout the world.


Podcasting: Ideas for teachers — from Learning Objects Community — posted by Nancy Rubin

What is a podcast and how can I teach with it? If you are wondering what a podcast is, that might be a good place to start. Podcasts are basically audio files that can be produced with a standard computer, a microphone, software, and a web site where you will post your completed podcasts. Audio podcasts are usually an MP3 file and are the most common types of podcasts. Enhanced podcasts can have images to go along with the audio. They can also have chapter markers, making it easier to skip to different portions of an episode. Enhanced podcasts are not necessarily supported by all devices. Video podcasts are movies, complete with sound. Video podcasts can be in a variety of formats, but MPEG-4 is the most popular and the only format that will play on iPod and iPad.

Some classroom ideas for podcasting:

  • Record directions for students
  • Record lessons
  • Record supplemental materials
  • Record instructions for a substitute teacher
  • Record classroom rules
  • Interview people at your school
  • Create a news show and discuss current events
  • Record a speech
  • Record student readings so they can hear what they sound like

Also see:

iPad app: Shakespeare in bits -- Romeo and Juliet

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Developer Website: www.shakespeareinbits.com or Mindconnex Learning Limited

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-in-bits-romeo/id370803660?mt=8

Reviewer Name: Elisabeth LeBris who blogs at lebrisary.blogspot.com

Buffett, Gates persuade 40 billionaires to donate half of wealth — from OregonLive.com

SEATTLE — Forty wealthy families and individuals have joined Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity.

Those who have joined the Giving Pledge, as listed on its website, are: Paul G. Allen, Laura and John Arnold, Michael R. Bloomberg, Eli and Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Michele Chan and Patrick Soon-Shiong, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Ann and John Doerr, Larry Ellison, Bill and Melinda Gates, Barron Hilton, Jon and Karen Huntsman, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, George B. Kaiser, Elaine and Ken Langone, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, Lorry I. Lokey, George Lucas, Alfred E. Mann, Bernie and Billi Marcus, Thomas S. Monaghan, Tashia and John Morgridge, Pierre and Pam Omidyar, Bernard and Barbro Osher, Ronald O. Perelman, Peter G. Peterson, T. Boone Pickens, Julian H. Robertson Jr., David Rockefeller, David M. Rubenstein, Herb and Marion Sandler, Vicki and Roger Sant, Walter Scott Jr., Jim and Marilyn Simons, Jeff Skoll, Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor, Jim and Virginia Stowers, Ted Turner, Sanford and Joan Weill and Shelby White.

From DSC:
This is fantastic news! Excellent. I’m a big supporter of various charities myself — albeit with far fewer O’s ($$) behind the amounts of my checks than what these folks are able to provide!  🙂     But it got me to thinking…

If the United States government — or the government from another interested nation — could even get 1-2 billion of this enormous accumulation of wealth, think what could be done to create interactive, multimedia-based, engaging, customized/personalized, online learning-based materials that could be offered FREE of charge to various age groups/cognitive levels. Creative simulations and animations could be built and offered — free of charge — to students throughout the world. The materials would be available on a variety of devices for maximum flexibility (laptops, notebooks, iPads, iPhones, tablet PCs, workstations, etc.)

An amazing amount of digital scaffolding could be provided on a variety of disciplines. THIS could represent the Walmart of Education that I’ve been talking about…wow!

Education remix: New media, literacies, and the emerging digital geographies — from Australian Policy Online by Lalitha Vasudevan [via GetIdeas.org blog]

This article explores instances of youth educating themselves beyond the boundaries of school through engagement with and production of ‘digital geographies’, or the emerging landscapes that are being produced through the confluence of new communicative practices and available media and technologies.

A framework of digital geographies, which is grounded in theories of spatiality, literacies, and multimodality, is used to analyze the social media practices and multimedia artifacts produced by two court-involved youth, who are part of an ongoing, multi-year ethnography of an alternative to incarceration program. Attention to digital geographies, and attendant communicative practices, can yield important insights about education beyond the school walls. The conclusion addresses the implications of this research for meaningful educational contexts for adolescents’ literacies and how learning might be conceptualized and designed within school.

Can college students learn as well on iPads, e-books?

Murdoch says iPad is a game changer — from PadGadget.com

News Corp announced their 4Q numbers [August 4] and during the earning call News Corp CEO, Rupert Murdoch, said the iPad was a “game changer” for the media industry.

News Corp has eagerly embraced the iPad and was one of the first media companies to launch a newspaper title for Apple’s new device.  The Wall Street Journal app quickly shot to the top of the apps charts and has been a top download since the launch of the iPad back in April.

News Corp management is very excited by the tablet format with Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey saying the iPad has “transformed people’s expectations and the opportunities around mobile.”  Carey went on to say “it is also a device that for the first time really starts to deliver on the promise of multimedia, where you can see how you could…go between what traditionally would be video content, printed content, advertising that really is attractive that you could penetrate through and engage with.”

Also see:
New online business model will succeed, says Rupert Murdoch

From DSC:
We need to deliver content in multiple ways…and let the students select what works best for them. If a particular student doesn’t connect with the information in one way, perhaps he/she will via another method.

For example…drawing from my own collegiate learning experience, I know that I would have benefited greatly from the use of animations in chemistry and organic chemistry…as I struggled all the way through those courses. I never connected with the material.

Also, they say that one really understands something when one has to teach it…so perhaps we could mentor students as they create their own teaching materials. The class of 2011 could start something…and the class of 2012 could tweak it…followed by the class of 2013, etc.

I tried to capture this a while back in the following graphic:

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JISC -- tutorials on digital video

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JISC - tutorials on digital audio

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Also see:

Virtual Training Site

Tagged with:  

Make Me a Story
Teaching Writing Through Digital Storytelling

Make Me a Story

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“Just as writing can be a process of discovery, so can digital storytelling, where images, words, and music all work together to create meaning.” — Lisa Miller

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Excerpt of contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Stories That Matter
Chapter 2: How Do Writers Tell (Digital) Stories?
Chapter 3: Taking Students Through the Writing Process, Part 1
Chapter 4: Taking Students Through the Writing Process, Part 2
Chapter 5: Learning Through Digital Storytelling: Standards and Assessment

About the author

Lisa C. Miller is an associate professor of journalism at the University of New Hampshire and has worked on digital stories with elementary school teachers and students.

  • Multimedia
  • Cross-disciplinary
  • Networked projects
  • Music-related

Within these parameters, the work of the center extends into fine arts, education, health sciences, business, and computer science. As Tavel Center associates collaborate with researchers in these areas, new modes of creative thought innovation and expression emerge.

IUPUI Arts & Technology Research Center

The story of the Department of Music and Arts Technology began in the mid-1990s when the shared campus of Indiana University and Purdue University began offering what was the first United States-based master of science degree in music technology. The focus was on educating students on computer-based music technology, multimedia and interactive design, and multimedia production techniques.

Also see:
The technology that saved a university degree program
— from InsideHigherEd. by Dian Schaffhauser

Creating Digital Magazines — from Adobe by Dave Dickson on July 19, 2010

Earlier this year when WIRED Magazine launched its digital edition (and sold more issues than the newsstand version without cannibalizing print sales) we noted that it was created with InDesign CS5 along with new publishing technologies. Today, we’ve released a short video that overviews these new technologies, including more detail on how they fit into the digital magazine authoring workflow.

Late this summer, we’ll post these new publishing technologies on Adobe Labs so a broad set of media, corporate and retail catalog publishers will be able to create compelling content experiences. Using this Digital Magazine Solution, these publishers can create immersive content without having to hire additional developers or invest in extensive retraining for staff. Publishers can add interactivity without writing code via InDesign and create monetizable digital magazines for the Apple iPad – with other platforms and devices expected in the future.

InDesign CS5 + Digital Content Bundler


The “.issue” Format + Digital Content Viewer
This new .issue format is a compressed file format that contains vertical and horizontal magazine layouts, metadata, code to enable interactivity, and associated assets (images, video, etc.) Once the layouts have been packaged into the .issue format, the file is then rendered and displayed to the end-user using a publisher-branded Digital Content Viewer. The WIRED Reader, for example, is the first instance of a publisher-branded viewer. This Digital Content Viewer allows readers to interact with and navigate through the magazine content (including via the innovative “browse” mode). Previously we announced the Digital Content Viewer for Apple iPad; in the future we also expect to develop the Digital Content Viewer on Adobe AIR for desktops and other devices.

Creating digital magazines -- from Adobe

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