From DSC:
The idea of rich, interactive, multimedia-based textbooks comes to mind when I see this type of posting….talk about the power of digital storytelling! 🙂
Also…for a bit of humor here:
On 07/16/2010,
in Apple, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, e-books, e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, interactivity, multimedia, publishing,
by Daniel Christian
On 07/16/2010,
in blended learning, collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, design, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, library / librarians, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, teaching & learning, training / L&D, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
For those of you involved with creating learning labs, smart classrooms, group study areas, etc. — or for those who want to enable more efficient group collaboration within your classrooms — you need to check out Steelcase’s Media:Scape product line.
One of the pieces of this configuration that I love is that they have created an easy-to-use interface in a puck-like device. What I want to see happen is for students to pull up to a movable/reconfigurable table, connect their device, and click the puck to “play” their media for the class (without interrupting the flow of the class).
Also, one monitor on the “totem” can be used for one set of information/data — or even a remote speaker via videoconferencing for example — and the other monitor can be used for someone else’s data/desktop.
Here are some images for you:
Also see the Media:Scape ad/video:
This product line is also available through Custer Workplace Interiors.
On 07/12/2010,
in cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, education reform, future of higher education, game-changing environment, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, using teams,
by Daniel Christian
Evaluating Part-Time Faculty — from Academic Impressions by Daniel Fusch
This fall, the US Department of Education is expected to release a report showing a further drop in the percentage of US faculty who are tenured or tenure-track (which as of 2007 had already dropped to 31%, down from 57% in 1975). This comes on the heels of a recent study published in the journal Educational Policy that showed lower persistence rates for freshmen who have many of their courses taught by adjuncts, prompting fresh debate over what the increased use of contingent faculty may mean for the quality of education.
From DSC:
I don’t mean to be critical or find fault here…but I do wonder how many resources are put into full-time faculty’s training and development in terms of helping them learn how to TEACH (vs. doing research, publishing their findings, etc.). Teaching is tough and is both a science and an art. Few can be good at everything.
Also, I think there is an emphasis on teaching at some institutions, but there may be more of an emphasis on publishing and doing research at other institutions.
For example, I went to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Currently, NU charges about $55,000 a year to go there. Does the student get top notch TEACHING? In many cases, I doubt it. The students may get subject matter experts (SME’s) who know their subject matter like the back of their hand or they make be taking a course from someone who has carved out a name for himself/herself in a particular discipline…but that doesn’t mean they know how to teach that material. Also, it doesn’t mean that many students will ever get to take a class from these folks, as they may be getting a grad student teaching some of their core courses…I know I did.
Also, this is all the more reason that teams of specialists will be/should be used to create and deliver content. You want the best SME’s you can get…but you need to back them up with the resources to create the best all-around product. You need the skillsets found in instructional designers, programmers, web designers, interaction designers, graphic designers, legal experts, etc. — the best that you can afford to create engaging, interactive, multimedia-based, personalized content.
You can bet that the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education” will get this right! And when they do, watch out. They will leave many institutions in their dust.
On 07/02/2010,
in Adobe, animation, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, innovation, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online learning, online media, pedagogy, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, simulations, storytelling, strategy, teaching & learning, training / L&D, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/29/2010,
in digital textbooks, e-readers, multimedia, publishing, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
App/Books are in fact a new category of entertainment; a combination of book and software application that leverages the best of both mediums. An App/Book is interactive, it can have sound, video, animations. It is more like a random access film than a book in some ways. You watch or listen or interact with any part of the book at any time. Actually, that’s not even a good enough description. An App/Book is potentially more than an application, a book, or a film.
On 06/24/2010,
in digital learning, education technology, future, future of higher education, learning spaces, multimedia, new media literacies, online media, smart classrooms,
by Daniel Christian
The Next Generation of Digitally Enhanced Learning — from The Journal by Scott Aronowitz
At the recent Ed Tech Summit, a technology consultant took a distant look at the future of education, based on both widespread speculation and technologies currently on the market and in development
In his lecture at the Ed Tech Summit at the InfoComm 2010 conference in Las Vegas, Mark S. Valenti, founder and president of Pittsburgh-based technology consulting firm The Sextant Group, delved into the myriad of ways in which advancing technology will continue to enhance, improve, and expand education–both K-12 and post-secondary education–as well as the shifts in priorities and attitudes such advancements will likely cause.
In Valenti’s “big picture” view of the next stage of education, there will be several significant changes, some of which we are already witnessing, that will alter the entire landscape for “providers” of education and related services, e.g., colleges and universities, vocational and trade institutes, public and private K-12 schools, etc., as well as for teachers and students:
* The process will continue to become more technology-dependent;
* There will be increased demand for access, in terms of user capacity, frequency, transmission speed, and content capacity, leading to increased demand for bandwidth;
* Information will become increasingly media rich, which will also impact bandwidth demand; and
* The individual will increasingly become both a consumer and a producer of information, leading to shifts in the dynamic between educators and the educated.
…
Finally, such technology will lead to a rethinking of the architecture of learning spaces themselves. “Collaboration across time and space will drive facility design [in the coming years]. We’re seeing technologies like Skype become commonplace. We’re seeing major investments from companies like Cisco in things like TelePresence, which is a prime example of cross-collaboration.” Valenti said he believes that, in the long run, in addition to the changes in teaching and learning methods, the physical space that accommodates learning will also change. Classrooms driven by multimedia, virtual hands-on combinations of laboratories and lecture spaces, and the aforementioned virtual operating rooms are all examples of the digitally enhanced learning spaces on the horizon.
On 06/24/2010,
in education technology, multimedia, new media literacies, strategy, teaching & learning, tools, trends,
by Daniel Christian
Highlights from the New Media Consortium’s Summer 2010 Conference — by Alan Levine
…
Whether you were there or not, below you will find our collection of media and highlights from the 2010 Summer Conference, hosted by the University of Southern California.
- USC 2010 NMC welcome web site and video
- Keynotes
- Mimi Ito: Learning with Social Media: The Positive Potential of Peer Pressure and Messing Around Online– full video recording
- John Seely Brown: A New Culture of Learning – full video recording
- Center of Excellence Award Winners- videos
- Photo Safari Showcase -slideshow of work by participants in the Pre-Conference Digital Photography Workshop
- Poster and Interactives Award Winners
- Five Minutes of Fame – video coming soon
- Conference Bloggers
- Photos Shared in Flickr
- Twitter activity: twapperkeeper archive or twitter search results
- Invitation video for NMC 2011 hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison
On 06/11/2010,
in Adobe, animation, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, internet, multimedia, web design and production,
by Daniel Christian
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 arrives — from webmonkey by Michael Calore
After spending many months on development and beta testing, Adobe has released the latest version of its Flash Player.
You can download Flash Player 10.1 for Mac, Windows and Linux at Adobe’s website. You’ll need to shut down all of your browsers while it installs. There’s a version of Flash Player 10.1 coming for Android, but it won’t be ready until later this summer. A beta version is available in the Android Marketplace if you want to test it out.
This release is significant for a number of reasons…
On 06/11/2010,
in digital textbooks, multimedia, publishing, tablets, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
From Kno’s blog:
So how did this all get started? The eTextbook has been available for almost a decade now, yet has not taken off. This was our starting point – we asked the question – why haven’t eTextbooks taken off?
Students are immersed in the digital world, with their computers, access to the web, and social networking on their phones. But, most of this is an “add-on” to their 18 (or more) pounds of a physical textbooks. Textbooks are heavy, costly, and awkward to carry around, but still they are the central reference source for majority of students. Why is that? Why hasn’t a digital device taken off, providing students with a lighter, cheaper, and more functional alternative?
Answering this question was simple: talk to the students, and let them tell us what’s going on. So, that’s exactly what we did, and the answer was surprisingly clear. Students have a “relationship” with their textbooks and build their studying habits around them. Things like seeing both pages in a two page spread, the way they hold their books, using a highlighter, writing on sticky notes they’ve placed on a page, even putting their finger in the book to look something up while holding their place. Lighter and cheaper is a good start, but not enough. It’s this relationship with the textbooks that needs to be carried over to the digital world.
Also see:
Kno dual-screen tablet appears at D8, we go hands-on — from Engadget
Also see:
Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook — from by Priya Ganapati
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/kno-textbook-tablet/#ixzz0qZRvJoRW
On 06/10/2010,
in engagement / engaging students, learning preferences, learning theories, memory, multimedia, pedagogy,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/10/2010,
in digital audio, digital video, disruption, game-changing environment, IT in HE, multimedia, online media, telecommunications, telepresence, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
InfoComm 2010: Rich media driving the ‘Evolution of the Network,’ Cisco exec declares — from The Journal
“Just looking at what’s going on on networks around the world, it’s incredible. Traffic is literally exploding on networks,” de Beer told InfoComm attendees. “[Networks of the past were built] around data and [were] optimized for Web traffic. In just two or three years from now, when 90 percent of traffic is video, those networks will have to look fundamentally different.”
De Beer is predictably bullish on video and, especially, telepresence. Earlier this quarter Cisco completed a $3.3 billion buyout of videoconferencing and telepresence solutions provider Tandberg to help it stake a claim in what Cisco has estimated to be a $34 billion market for collaborative technologies.
He pointed to a future for collaboration that make it easier for users to create and manipulate rich media and for IT departments to deliver these technologies while also cutting back on the need for end-user support.
He added: “When it comes to rich human interactions, being able to easily create, find, share, consume, and manage content is very important. And we believe the network, what we now term as ‘medianet,’ which you should think of as the evolution of the network that is ready for rich media,… will play a very important part.”