music

This is how blockchain will change your life — from medium.com by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

Excerpt:

Enter the blockchain, the first native digital medium for peer to peer value exchange. Its protocol establishes the rules — in the form of globally distributed computations and heavy duty encryption — that ensure the integrity of the data traded among billions of devices without going through a trusted third party. Trust is hard-coded into the platform. That’s why we call it the Trust Protocol. It acts as a ledger of accounts, a database, a notary, a sentry, and clearing house, all by consensus.

Blockchain technology: Redefining makerspaces — from worlds-of-learning.com by Laura Fleming

Excerpt:

My own personal fascination with blockchain technology lies in its potential for makerspaces and its role in the Maker Movement. The blockchain by nature is decentralized (peer-to-peer), distributed and open-source…the blueprint for makerspaces. Makerspaces both in and out of schools are about decentralizing and widening-access. This includes not only access to the spaces themselves, but also to equipment and resources. I have written before about he potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) in a makerspace. Blockchain technology could further open up access and use of resources, making our educational system that much more open and flexible.

Within schools, giving students credit for the skills they gain in a makerspace is always a challenge. The blockchain offers a real possiblity for managing and processing these types of credentials. Outside of school, no standard exists for certification or credentialing in a makerspace. You might be certified to use a tool in one makerspace, but walk into another and not be able to use that same tool there. Blockchain technology can help streamline and create a new standard for these types of certifications.

New platform aims to make it easier to develop for blockchain — from adigaskell.org

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Blockchain is undoubtedly one of the hottest technologies around at the moment. Whilst it has gained most of its notoriety for the Bitcoin financial technology, it also has a number of other possible applications.

For instance, John Holden and Greg Irving from the University of Cambridge use blockchain technology as a means of making clinical trial documents immutable. The pair wanted to tackle the thorny issue of ensuring that research data is untampered with, so that external people can have confidence in the results from the trials.

They highlighted the use of blockchain in cardiovascular diabetes and ethanol research via a report published on the F1000 website.

Bitcoin transaction initiated from fed offices, for the first time — from fee.org
Blockchain technology is maturing very quickly

Excerpt:

Some remarkable things are happening in the bitcoin/blockchain space. It’s hard to believe that just seven years ago, this technology was first revealed on an email list followed by just a handful of cypherpunks, who should be remembered by history as brilliant and dedicated innovators of a revolutionary technology. Today what they did has grabbed the attention of the world’s largest financial institutions and central banks.

And why? It’s clear this innovation is not going away. It’s simply a better method for exchanging value globally. It is a technology that will influence—if not define—the future of payments and money. It is already disrupting the status quo in more ways than even the best experts can track, especially in emerging markets.

Four of us blockchainers actually visited Janet Yellen [Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System] in her office.

Can IBM really make a business out of blockchain? — from fortune.com by Jeff Roberts

Excerpt:

One of the loudest evangelists is IBM, which has been touting the potential of blockchain—a technology that can allow companies to create quick, tamper-proof ledgers—to transform everything from finance to trading to insurance.

On Tuesday, IBM announced the formal launch of a so-called “Bluemix Garage” in New York, where developers can experiment with financial-tech software and explore new forms of blockchain innovation.

It’s a fine idea and one that could serve IBM’s long-term strategic interests. Namely, if developers flock to IBM’s platform, the company will be well-positioned to grab a big share of the “blockchain-as-a-service” market—a still nascent industry dedicated to helping firms navigate the world of ledgers, smart contracts, and all that other good stuff.

Excerpt:

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), or ‘blockchain’, has started to receive increasing media attention and investment from several sectors including governments, financial services and the creative industries. The potential application in relation to music is of particular interest, as it appears to offer solutions to problems artists have highlighted for decades – around transparency, the sharing of value and the relationships with intermediaries that sit between the artist and fan, the central and most important relationship in music.

If blockchain technology can help the commercial and contractual relationships in music keep pace with technology and the communication between artists and fans then it could be truly revolutionary.

Pink Floyd: Blockchain technology in music could be ‘truly revolutionary’ — from ibtimes.co.uk by Ian Allison
A research team at Middlesex University has released their ‘Music on the blockchain’ report.

Excerpt:

According to the report, there are four main areas where blockchain could transform the music industries:

A single, networked database for music copyright information, rather than the many, not-quite-complete databases maintained at present;
fast, frictionless royalty payments, whereas payments can currently take years;
transparency through the value chain, allowing musicians and their managers to see exactly how much money they are owed, as opposed to a culture of non-disclosure agreements and “black boxes”; and
access to alternative sources of capital, with smart contracts – contracts implemented via software – potentially transforming crowdfunding and leading to the establishment of ‘artist accelerators’ on the model of tech start-ups.

Using blockchain to re-imagine learning — from medium.com by Ben Blair, co-founder of Teachur

Excerpt:

In her recent blog, KnowledgeWorks Senior Director of Strategic Foresight Katherine Prince lists six challenges that K-12 education faces. I’m not going to go all panacea on you, but let me illustrate how blockchain technology could address at least one of those issues and gesture to how it could play an important — if not central — part in addressing all six.

Why can’t the “One Day University” come directly into your living room — 24×7? [Christian]

On 04/21/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, history, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, marketplaces, mathematics, media/film, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, psychology, reinvent, religion, science, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

An idea/question from DSC:
Looking at the article below, I wonder…“Why can’t the ‘One Day University‘ come directly into your living room — 24×7?”

This is why I’m so excited about the “The Living [Class] Room” vision. Because it is through that vision that people of all ages — and from all over the world — will be able to constantly learn, grow, and reinvent themselves (if need be) throughout their lifetimes. They’ll be able to access and share content, communicate and discuss/debate with one another, form communities of practice, go through digital learning playlists (like Lynda.com’s Learning Paths) and more. All from devices that represent the convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer (and likely converging with the types of devices that are only now coming into view, such as Microsoft’s Hololens).

You won’t just be limited to going back to college for a day — you’ll be able to do that 24×7 for as many days of the year as you want to.

Then when some sophisticated technologies are integrated into this type of platform — such as artificial intelligence, cloud-based learner profiles, algorithms, and the ability to setup exchanges for learning materials — we’ll get some things that will blow our minds in the not too distant future! Heutagogy on steroids!

Want to go back to college? You can, for a day. — from washingtonpost.com by Valerie Strauss

Excerpt:

Have you ever thought about how nice it would be if you could go back to college, just for the sake of learning something new, in a field you don’t know much about, with no tests, homework or studying to worry about? And you won’t need to take the SAT or the ACT to be accepted? You can, at least for a day, with something called One Day University, the brainchild of a man named Steve Schragis, who about a decade ago brought his daughter to Bard College as a freshman and thought that he wanted to stay.

One Day University now financially partners with dozens of newspapers — including The Washington Post — and a few other organizations to bring lectures to people around the country. The vast majority of the attendees are over the age 50 and interested in continuing education, and One Day University offers them only those professors identified by college students as fascinating. As Schragis says, it doesn’t matter if you are famous; you have to be a great teacher. For example, Schragis says that since Bill Gates has never shown to be one, he can’t teach at One Day University.

…

We bring together these professors, usually four at at a time, to cities across the country to create “The Perfect Day of College.” Of course we leave out the homework, exams, and studying! Best if there’s real variety, both male and female profs, four different schools, four different subjects, four different styles, etc. There’s no one single way to be a great professor. We like to show multiple ways to our students.

Most popular classes are history, psychology, music, politics, and film. Least favorite are math and science.

See also:

Addendum:

LinkedIn makes all Lynda.com courses available on Apple TV — from venturebeat.com

We know the shelf-life of skills are getting shorter and shorter. So whether it’s to brush up on new skills or it’s to stay on top of evolving ones, Lynda.com can help you stay ahead of the latest technologies.

“20 awesome BYOD & mobile learning apps” plus 9 other items about ed tech-related apps and/or tools

On 04/06/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, assessment, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, digital storytelling, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, Google, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, mathematics, Microsoft, mobile learning, mobile technologies, music, open courseware and systems, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, web-based collaboration, writing, by Daniel Christian

20 awesome BYOD and mobile learning apps — from edutopia.org by Vicki Davis; updated 2/4/16

Excerpt:

We have now been Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for three years, and boy, do the students bring it. They bring it all! We have iPads, Surface, iPhones, Droids, Chromebooks, Macs, and PC laptops. Here’s my current thinking.

7 best Google apps and tools — from interestingengineering.com

Google Keep
Google Scholar
Gmailify
Google Lego
Google Mars
Google Developers
Google Sky

Chrome Music Lab

Excerpt:

Music is for everyone. So this year for Music In Our Schools month, we wanted to make learning music a bit more accessible to everyone by using technology that’s open to everyone: the web. Chrome Music Lab is a collection of experiments that let anyone, at any age, explore how music works. They’re collaborations between musicians and coders, all built with the freely available Web Audio API. These experiments are just a start. Check out each experiment to find open-source code you can use to build your own.

My challenge to you – 8 things all teachers should learn about #edtech — from ictevangelist.com by Mark Anderson

Excerpt:

I love the School Report scheme that the BBC run via Newsround. We all remember the Newsrounds of our youth. For me it was John Craven who made me watch it whenever it was on. It was this report I saw recently on eight things teachers should learn, which got me thinking about eight things I thought teachers should learn about edtech.

My work sees me regularly helping teachers learn different things related to the use of technology and so in this post, I’m going to talk about the eight things I think teachers should learn with #edtech to help support their use of technology to enhance learning in the classroom.

Mark mentions: Google, Padlet, Kahoot, Socrative, Camera, Microphone, Twitter, Videoconferencing software

Quiz accommodations for students in Canvas and Moodle — from thejournal.com by Emmett Dulaney03/16/16

Excerpt:

As we move toward interacting more with students who have an individualized education program (IEP) indicating that they need additional time on tests and quizzes or just need to deal with life issues, it is imperative that the learning management system (LMS) depended upon by an instructor and student alike be properly configured for such accommodations. Canvas and Moodle are currently two of the most popular learning management systems, and both offer the ability to make adjustments to quiz functions within the course without compromising the overall structure of the course. In this article, we will examine how to do so and offer some tips on situations where they are relevant.

Use these Chrome apps to unleash students’ creativity — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

[The] Chrome web store is packed full of all kinds of educational apps and extensions some of which are also integrated with Google Drive. For those of you looking for a handy resource of Chrome apps to use with students in class, check out this comprehensive chart. In today’s post we are sharing with you a collection of some practical Chrome extensions to unleash learners creativity. Using these resources, students will be able to engage in a number of creative literacy activities that will allow them to multimodally communicate their thoughts, share their ideas and develop new learning skills.

Integrating technology and literacy — from edutopia.org by Frank Ward

Excerpt:

How do you work technology into the pedagogy, instead of just using something cool? That task can be especially daunting in language arts literacy classrooms where reading and writing skill development is the crux of daily lessons. However, as 1:1 technology initiatives roll out, integrating technology into the classroom is our reality.

With hundreds of sites, apps, Chrome extensions, and platforms available, choosing the right ones can seem overwhelming. As an eighth-grade language arts teacher, I’ve experienced this myself. Following are four tools that can help provide immediate formative assessment data as well as top-of-the-rotation feedback to help students develop personal learning goals.

If, like my school, you’re in a “Chromebook District,” these suggested tools will work well because all integrate perfectly when you sign in with your Google ID, limiting the need for multiple passwords. This saves a lot of student confusion, too.

Teachers are using theater and dance to teach math — and it’s working — from washingtonpost.com by Moriah Balingit

Excerpt:

This giggly play session actually was a serious math lesson about big and small and non-standard measurements. Dreamed up by Richardson and kindergarten teacher Carol Hunt, it aims to get the children to think of animal steps as units of measurement, using them to mark how many it takes each animal to get from a starting line to the target.

Teachers call such melding of art and traditional subjects “art integration,” and it’s a new and increasingly popular way of bringing the arts into the classroom. Instead of art as a stand-alone subject, teachers are using dance, drama and the visual arts to teach a variety of academic subjects in a more engaging way.

Some older items include:

Tech Tip: Using Nearpod for math instruction — from smartblogs.com

Storytelling app a hit; launches a new chapter in transmedia — from blogs.vancouversun.com

Excerpt:

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.”

.

Predictions on the future of digital media [Csathy]

On 01/11/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, digital audio, digital video, emerging technologies, future, media/film, music, trends, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Predictions on the future of digital media — from techcrunch.com by Peter Csathy

Excerpt:

It’s pundit time — this time, digital media style. Last year I predicted challenges to YouTube’s dominance in online video, a beginning of cord cutting and the unbundling of video services, and an explosion in short form video content. This year the media landscape will continue to shift as VR grows up and consolidation takes over.

Touchpress for Apple TV

Earthlapse

Expand your vocabulary with Elevate Showdown on Apple TV — from appadvice.com by Jeff Byrnes

Excerpt:

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.

Excerpt (some example apps):

You can now explore 360-degree videos on Apple TV, no VR headset required — from fastcompany.com by Peter Wade
With a new app by Disney-backed virtual reality firm Littlstar, Apple TV users can access the platform’s library of 360-degree videos.

Related item:

Littlstar is the first to bring immersive 360 video to Apple TV — from twinkle.littlstar.com

Excerpt:

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.

Everything you need to know about the new Apple TV App Store — from blog.appfigures.com

Excerpt:

App showdown: Roku vs. Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Fire TV vs. Android TV — from macworld.com

Celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven’s 245th Year <-- in a very fun, clever way!

On 12/20/2015, in art, creativity, Google, history, interactivity, music, participation, play, by Daniel Christian

Celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven’s 245th Year <– a fun Google Doodle

A virtual reality revolution, coming to a headset near you [Lorne Manly at nytimes.com]

On 11/19/2015, in art, journalism, media/film, multimedia, music, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

A virtual reality revolution, coming to a headset near you — from nytimes.com by Lorne Manly

Excerpts:

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.
…
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.
…
“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.”

Empowering Students Through Multimedia Storytelling — from edutopia.org by Michael Hernandez

Excerpt:

Recent studies have proven that stories can change perceptions and even make people more tolerant. Rather than wait to be defined by others, it’s important that students learn to create understanding by sharing their story, their worldview, their concerns, and their triumphs with others.

Groups like Youth Radio and Cause Beautiful are empowering teens in poor and minority-majority neighborhoods to become multimedia journalists. Kids in these programs learn how to tell and share their own stories with a local or national audience.

No matter your class demographics or grade level, ELA and social studies teachers should integrate similar projects in their own classrooms, because every student will benefit from learning to craft a compelling visual story backed by persuasive facts and ideas.

What Is Multimedia Storytelling?
Students use video, audio, photography, web, and social media to craft documentaries and nonfiction stories about the world around them. These interdisciplinary projects allow students to focus on creating an authentic product that many people outside the classroom and their neighborhoods will see.

From DSC:
I am passionate about multimedia because the components of it — digital audio, digital video, text, graphics, animations, digital photography, and more — can create hugely powerful pieces of communication. Students need to be able to communicate — online. But it’s not just students. Each one of us needs to have an online-based footprint now in order to remain marketable. Multimedia can help relay our stories, our work, our dreams. It unleashes enormous amounts of energy and creativity inside of us.

I wish that more teachers and faculty members would seek to integrate multimedia-based assignments into their courses — or at least encourage the idea that this can be one of the acceptable ways that assignments can be turned in. At the same time, it can be one of the more interesting ways to assess learning and comprehension. Online-based resources like Lynda.com can help get students, teachers, and professors up the learning curves.

Announcements from yesterday’s Special Event from Apple

On 09/10/2015, in Apple, corporate / business world, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, music, smart/connected TV, technologies for your home, technology (general), television, wearables, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
On 9/9/15, Apple held their September Event 2015. Below are some of the articles/items that capture some of the announcements from that event.

From Apple.com:

Apple Introduces iPhone 6s & iPhone 6s Plus
Apple Brings Innovation Back to Television with The All-New Apple TV
The App Store, Siri Remote & tvOS are Coming to Your Living Room
Apple Introduces iPad Pro Featuring Epic 12.9-inch Retina Display
Apple Pencil & Smart Keyboard Bring Breakthrough Levels of Precision & Utility to iPad Pro
Apple Introduces watchOS 2 with Native Apps and New Gold & Rose Gold Aluminum Apple Watch Sport Models
Native Apps, New Watch Faces, Time Travel & More Arrive with watchOS 2 September 16

Apple Watch Finally Getting Native Apps, New Features Next Week — from wsj.com by Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Excerpt:

Native apps will arrive on the Apple Watch as a part of a major update known as WatchOS 2. The promise is that native apps will be able to run faster on the watch, though the watch isn’t free of the iPhone yet. The Apple Watch doesn’t have it’s own cellular connection, so any information an app wants to pull from the Internet (like live sports scores, transit times, or messages from friends) it’ll still rely on an iPhone to pull all that off.

Still, the promise of any added speed here is significant. Unlike smartphone apps which are built to consume your attention for minutes at a time, Apple Watch apps are built to get you in and out with the information you need in a matter of seconds.

Developers can register now to apply for a new Apple TV hardware ahead of general release, supplies limited — from 9to5mac.com

Apple unveils next generation iPhone 6s, 6s Plus — from by Jason Cipriani
The tech giant introduced a new touch-sensitive technology called 3D Touch to its next generation smartphones.

Excerpt:

Apple added pressure-sensitive technology to its new iPhones, which the company is calling 3D Touch. The technology can launch features and perform a variety of functions when varying levels of force are applied to the screen.

A side comment from DSC for those students involved with graphic design, digital media, and/or with communications:
Study the work that the folks did who were in charge of presenting the complex, technical information — but doing so in a way that was extremely polished, engaging, and professionally done. The videos, for example, were very well done. My hats off to these extremely creative folks — they are clearly at the top of their industry.

Addendum on 9/11/15:

New Apple TV release date, specs, price and news — from techradar.com by Nick Pino

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality app brings art history to life — from creativebloq.com

Excerpt:

Dazzle It is a cool new augmented reality app that lets you remix artwork from artists including the Sir Peter Blake, Godfather of Pop Art – best known for designing the 1967 Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.

Developed by digital design agency, Corporation Pop, it combines the latest augmented reality techniques with design to bring history to life. And notably, unlike most augmented reality apps, you don’t need a pre-supplied marker to view what you create in a real-world scene.

7 Great Augmented Reality Apps for Your Classroom — from teachercast.net

Apps Discussed on the Show:

Aurasma
Anatomy 4D
ColAR
Spacecraft 3D
AR Flash Cards
Elements 3D
Google Translate

Angus park to host augmented reality performance — from scotsman.com with thanks to Woontack Woo for his posting on this

Excerpt:

A FOREST park in Angus is to host the UK’s first live theatrical performance featuring augmented reality (AR) technology.

By downloading an app, audiences will be able to spot magical creatures through their smartphones and capture them on camera, before sharing the images with friends and family on social media.

DragonQuest, which will be performed in Monikie Country Park, allows visitors to wander around a forest using their smartphone to create images of fantastical creatures in addition to real-life characters and events on the set.

Here are the signs that point to Apple’s next big innovation in computing, according to one analyst — from businessinsider.com

Check Out How These Teachers and Students are Using Augmented Reality — from emergingedtech.com

Using Augmented Reality for Learning and Teaching — from edtechreview.in by Prasanna Bharti

Excerpt:

Various Application of Augmented Reality in Learning Different Subjects

Astronomy: AR can be used to make student understand about the relationship between the Sun and the Earth. Here AR technology can be used with 3D rendered sun and earth shapes.

Chemistry: Teachers can demonstrate what a molecule and atoms consist of using AR technology.

Biology: Teachers can use Augmented Reality to showcase their student’s body structure or anatomy. Teachers can show their students different types of organ and how they look in a 3D atmosphere. Students can even study human body structure on their own by using devices with AR embedded technology in it.

Physics: Physics is one of the subjects where AR technology can be used perfectly. Various kinematics properties can be easily understood by using AR technology.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality can take us to the world’s greatest museums — from venturebeat.com by Mike Minotti

London's The Courtauld Gallery.

How Virtual Reality Can Close Learning Gaps in Your Classroom — from edsurge.com

Excerpt:

Virtual Reality (VR) may be the type of educational breakthrough that comes along once in a generation, heralding a tectonic shift toward immersive content for teaching and instruction.

By presenting a complete view of the world in which it is situated, VR offers a new opportunity to close some of the pedagogical gaps that have appeared in 21st century classroom learning. These gaps stem from the fact that curriculum and content in education have not caught up with rapid technology advancements.

Below I introduce three of these gaps and how they might be addressed by virtual reality content soon to be produced and distributed commercially.

Google Cardboard offers virtual trip for Lawrence students — from www2.ljworld.com

Excerpt:

The Lawrence school district recently purchased 20 Google Cardboards, which beginning this school year are available for teachers to check out for use in their classrooms, said Joe Smysor, the district’s technology integration specialist. Cardboard works in conjunction with a smartphone app to deliver a 3-D, 360-degree navigable image. Students can use apps with Cardboard to virtually visit museums, landmarks or cities around the world.

“It’s going to allow teachers to take their class on field trips where school buses couldn’t otherwise go,” Smysor said. “That could be back 100 years in the past, or underwater.”

Virtual college tours with cardboard, a smartphone and YouVisit — from mystatesman.com by Omar L. Gallaga

Excerpt:

While college students are settling into their dorms, it’s already time for next year’s class of high school students to narrow down their potential school choices and schedule campus visits. Or maybe they can just stay home and start the journey virtually.

A site called YouVisit has a surprisingly large set of virtual-reality college tours available. All the major Texas colleges are represented, and one of them, Trinity University, has been making a big push to get cheap sets of cardboard VR goggles out to families at recruiting events such as college fairs. Trinity sent me a pair of the cardboard glasses. The virtual visit to the campus certainly wasn’t the same as being there, but to get at least a visual sense of what the campus looks like and to be generally wowed by the 3-D/360-degree effect, it was worth the trip.

Regis University Creates Remote Campus Tours with Primacy’s Virtual Reality Experience — from businesswire.com
Jesuit university builds on rich tradition of innovation by enabling immersive virtual tours using Oculus Rift technology and virtual reality headsets

Excerpt:

FARMINGTON, Conn. & DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Regis University today unveiled a unique new way for prospective students to tour and experience the school’s scenic 100-acre campus. Through an interactive, immersive experience created by independent agency Primacy, students are able to put on an Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset and immediately be transformed to the campus where they can get a full, 360-degree tour as if they were on site – including viewing daybreak runs at Red Rocks, being immersed in Regis’ experiential nursing skills lab and visiting the campus pub to watch a live Jenga game.

GoPro is now selling its crazy 16-camera virtual reality rig — from theverge.com by Sean O’Kane
‘Odyssey’ is only available to pros

Excerpt:

Odyssey is the first camera rig built specifically for Google’s Jump platform, which was also announced at this year’s I/O conference. Jump is an entire virtual reality ecosystem that, in theory, will make it easier to both create and consume VR content. With Jump, Google created open plans that companies can use to build their own 16-camera rig (GoPro just happened to be the first), as well as assemble software that can recreate the scene being captured in much higher quality than most existing image stitching software can. Eventually, Jump videos will be hosted in YouTube; think of it as the next logical step following YouTube’s inclusion of 360-degree videos earlier this year.

Behind the Scenes of a Virtual Reality Beethoven Concert — from recode.net by Eric Johnson

Excerpt:

Are you a classical music fan? It’s a question most people would probably say no to, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic knows that.

“People are intimidated by classical music,” said Amy Seidenwurm, the Philharmonic’s director of digital initiatives. “They don’t come to concerts because they feel it might not be for them.”

But to change those minds, the LA Phil is turning to virtual reality. For the next month, it will be driving around the Los Angeles area to parks, festivals and museums, in a van outfitted with real carpeting and seats from the Walt Disney Concert Hall — and six Samsung Gear VR headsets, which have been loaded with a special video performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. (You know the one: Dun-dun-dun DUNNNN.)

Inside Industrial Light & Magic’s secret Star Wars VR lab — from theverge.com by Bryan Bishop
ILMxLab isn’t just exploring the future of entertainment… they’re already making it

Addendums on 9/10/15:

The Top 10 Virtual Reality Headsets of 2015 — from avatargeneration.com

5 augmented reality apps to alter your world — from cbronline.com with thanks to Woontack Woo for his posting on this
Learn more about Dazzle It, Streetmuseum, Skyview, Blippar and Colorblind Fix.

Excerpt:

Ever wanted to see the world around you in a different way? These apps will transform your phone into a portal to a world of altered perceptions.

That ‘useless’ liberal arts degree has become tech’s hottest ticket — from forbes.com by George Anders; with a shout out to Krista Spahr for bringing this item to my attention

Except:

What kind of boss hires a thwarted actress for a business-to-business software startup? Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s 42-year-old cofounder and CEO, whose estimated double-digit stake in the company could be worth $300 million or more. He’s the proud holder of an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Canada’s University of Victoria and a master’s degree from Cambridge in philosophy and the history of science.

“Studying philosophy taught me two things,” says Butterfield, sitting in his office in San Francisco’s South of Market district, a neighborhood almost entirely dedicated to the cult of coding. “I learned how to write really clearly. I learned how to follow an argument all the way down, which is invaluable in running meetings. And when I studied the history of science, I learned about the ways that everyone believes something is true–like the old notion of some kind of ether in the air propagating gravitational forces–until they realized that it wasn’t true.”
…
And he’s far from alone. Throughout the major U.S. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger. Engineers may still command the biggest salaries, but at disruptive juggernauts such as Facebook and Uber, the war for talent has moved to nontechnical jobs, particularly sales and marketing. The more that audacious coders dream of changing the world, the more they need to fill their companies with social alchemists who can connect with customers–and make progress seem pleasant.

Addendum on 8/7/15:

STEM Study Starts With Liberal Arts — from forbes.com by Chris Teare
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Much has been made, especially by the Return on Investment crowd, of the value of undergraduate study in the so-called STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Lost in the conversation is the way the true liberal arts underpin such study, often because the liberal arts are inaccurately equated solely with the humanities. From the start, the liberal arts included math and science, something I learned firsthand at St. John’s College.

This topic is especially on my mind since reading the excellent article George Anders has written for Forbes: “That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket” In this context, understanding the actual origin and purposes of the liberal arts is all the more valuable.

PRAISE: a social network for online music learning [ec.europa.eu]

On 07/24/2015, in collaboration, communities of practice, elearning, Europe, multimedia, music, online learning, online tutoring, social learning / networks, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

PRAISE: a social network for online music learning — from ec.europa.eu
Community feedback and advanced analytics, combined with lesson planning and monitoring tools for teachers make this social learning platform, PRAISE, a step forward in collaborative online learning.

Excerpt:

Feedback is essential for learning,’ says Carles Sierra, Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council and coordinator of the PRAISE project. The project aims at filling a gap in online learning by creating a social network for music education with tools for giving and receiving feedback.

Using PRAISE’s Music Circle platform, music students can upload recordings of their playing and receive detailed feedback from other members of the community. Advanced tools let reviewers place their comments as annotations at exactly the right place in the audio signal representation.

‘Students’ peers can say “this crescendo is very nice” or “this passage is very expressive”,’ explains Professor Sierra. ‘This timeline of structured comments and this level of granularity have been lacking in online approaches to giving feedback on music.’

Also see their videos at:

Some free & paid tools for editing / creating your own digital audio & music

On 05/15/2015, in A/V -- audio/visual, digital audio, music, new media literacies, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Free audio editors will be covered below; so this section discusses some other options that are not free:

Also you might want to consider the following tool, depending upon what you want to accomplish:

Garageband is a great entry level tool (with multiple tracks) that can help you record voiceovers, create your own music, add sound effects and more.

For some free audio editors, see:

6 free audio editors for your e-learning courses — from by Tom Kuhlmann

Also, and more along the music-creation lines, see:

The best music creation apps for teachers — from educatorstechnology.com
Logic Pro X is a major step up from there, addressing the needs of power users and professionals who want to create their own music.
The ProTools suite of tools are meant for power users and professionals as well.
Flat: Write music scores in your web browser

A beautiful visual on the impact of music education on kids’ cognitive skills — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Does music education really improve kids cognitive skills? The answer, in our view, is hard to determine and it requires a series of longitudinal studies across different cultural and ethnic groups. However, certain small-scale studies such as the ones cited in the visual below do provide a preliminary evidence in favour of the correlation between taking music lessons and improvement in certain cognitive skills. For instance, in a study of 96 children aged 5-7 years old, those who received 7 months of supplementary music and arts classes earned higher mathematics scores than those with the schools’ typical music and arts training. In another collection of studies that involved a larger base of participants from high schools, researchers were able to identify a strong correlation between music instruction and higher reading test scores.
…
More specifically, the visual cites six key areas positively impacted by music education: math skills, reading skills, memory, IQ, SAT scores, and planning.

iOS Synths and AudioMux Are Great Fun! — from by Paul Shimmons — where Paul mentions NanoStudio on his iPhone, LogicX, and the AudioMux app.

Addendum:

Write lyrics on your music scores — from blog.flat.io

Leeds College of Music educates students with Junaio [metaio.com]

On 04/24/2015, in Augmented Reality (AR), innovation, instructional design, mobile learning, music, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, training / L&D, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Leeds College of Music educates students with Junaio — from blog.metaio.com

Excerpt:

If you’ve ever seen a mixing console before, then you already know what I’m talking about. Those consoles can be a headache to prospective sound engineers in the industry, and to the laymen, it’s nearly impossible to figure out how to maneuver all the knobs and buttons. It’s no wonder that Ruth Clark and Craig Golding of Leeds College of Music set out to come up with a better solution to make audio equipment approachable for their undergraduate students.

First of all, using an e-learning software package called Articulate Storyline, they provided the students with an interactive manual that taught them how to use audio mixing equipment. But this application alone didn’t satisfy Clark and Golding. They also reached out to Matt Ramirez, Senior Augmented Reality Developer at Jisc, the charity offering digital services and solutions to UK education and research, to create something that was far beyond the original scope of the project. The manual was enhanced with Augmented Reality – deployed in Junaio – giving students an easy and innovative way to visualize the various panels and buttons on the mixer console with color-coded overlays: by tapping on the colored parts, students were then able to get additional information for each panel in real time.

Find those hymns for your Easter Celebration at Hymnary.org!

On 04/02/2015, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, Michigan, music, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

HeIsRisen

Hymnary.org:
A comprehensive index of over 1 million hymn texts, hymn tunes, and hymnals, with information on authors and composers, lyrics and scores of many hymns …

Browse Popular Hymns
Browse Popular Hymns These are the 250 hymns published the…
Explore Hymnary.org
For Developers. CSV dump of the entire Hymnary…
Melody Search
To search, enter a tune below; otherwise, you can get help…
Scores
A Mighty Fortress. It’s said that Luther himself took a…
My Hymnals
Hymnary‘s My Hymnals feature highlights search…
About Us
Do you search for hymns and worship music for worship…
My FlexScores
Hymnary.org FlexScores are a revolutionary type of…
My Starred Hymns

Psalm 97:9 (NIV)

For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.

Learning Ecosystems

Predictions on the future of digital media [Csathy]

8 items re: the new Apple TV — including an extraordinary way to experience classical music!

Celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven’s 245th Year <-- in a very fun, clever way!

A virtual reality revolution, coming to a headset near you [Lorne Manly at nytimes.com]

That ‘useless’ liberal arts degree has become tech’s hottest ticket [Anders; Forbes]

Some free & paid tools for editing / creating your own digital audio & music

Find those hymns for your Easter Celebration at Hymnary.org!

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