Beacons at the museum: Pacific Science Center to roll out location-based Mixby app next month — from geekwire.com by Todd Bishop

Excerpt:

Seattle’s Pacific Science Center has scheduled an Oct. 4 public launch for a new system that uses Bluetooth-enabled beacons and the Mixby smartphone app to offer new experiences to museum guests — presenting them with different features and content depending on where they’re standing at any given moment.

 

Also see:

 

From DSC:
The use of location-based apps & associated technologies (machine-to-machine (M2M) communications) should be part of all ed tech planning from here on out — and also applicable to the corporate world and training programs therein. 

Not only applicable to museums, but also to art galleries, classrooms, learning spaces, campus tours, and more.  Such apps could be used on plant floors in training-related programs as well.

Now mix augmented reality in with location-based technology.  Come up to a piece of artwork, and a variety of apps could be launched to really bring that piece to life! Some serious engagement.

Digital storytelling. The connection of the physical world with the digital world. Digital learning. Physical learning. A new form of blended/hybrid learning.  Active learning. Participation.

 

 

 

Addendum on 9/4/14 — also see:

Aerohive Networks Delivers World’s First iBeacon™ and AltBeacon™ – Enabled Enterprise Wi-Fi Access Points
New Partnership with Radius Networks Delivers IoT Solution to Provide Advanced Insights and Mobile Experience Personalization

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aerohive Networks® (NYSE:HIVE), a leader in controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-managed mobile networking for the enterprise market today announced that it is partnering with Radius Networks, a market leader in proximity services and proximity beacons with iBeacon™ and AltBeacon™ technology, to offer retailers, educators and healthcare providers a cloud-managed Wi-Fi infrastructure enabled with proximity beacons. Together, Aerohive and Radius Networks provide complementary cloud platforms for helping these organizations meet the demands of today’s increasingly connected customers who are seeking more personalized student education, patient care and shopper experiences.

 

Also:

 

 

 

PewResearchIoTThriveBy2025

 

Also see:

Where the Internet of Things could take society by 2025 — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla

Excerpt:

The Pew Research Center Internet Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center released the report on Wednesday, May 14, as part of an ongoing future of the Internet series inspired by the Web’s 25th anniversary. Eighty-three percent of these experts, which included education leaders, agreed that the Internet of Things would have “widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025.” The remaining 17 percent said it would not, and both camps elaborated on their answers in paragraph form.

Their explanations fall under six major points:
  1. The Internet of Things and wearable computing will take major steps forward in the next 11 years.
  2. Increased data from connected things will cause privacy concerns to come to the forefront and encourage the growth of profiling and targeting people, which will greatly inflame conflicts in various arenas.
  3. Despite advancement in information interfaces, most people won’t be connecting their brains to the network.
  4. Complicated, unintended consequences will arise.
  5. A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network.
  6. Relationships will change depending on people’s response to the Internet of Things.

 

 

From DSC:
As with most technologies, there will be positives and negatives about the Internet of Things.  To me, the technologies are tools — neutral, not value-laden — and it’s how we use them that adds moral, political, legal, ethical, or social perspectives/elements to them.  With that said, I’m quite sure that the IoT will have unintended consequences (#4 above).  Also, item #5 — “A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network” — is especially troublesome to me, along with the topic of privacy concerns as mentioned in #2.

 

 

What educationally-related affordances might we enjoy from these TV-related developments?

MakingTVMorePersonal-V-NetTV-April2014

 

EducationServiceOfTheFutureApril2014

 

CONTENTS

  • Content discovery and synchronization
    With access to rich data about their subscribers and what they do, operators can improve recommendation, encourage social TV and exploit second screen synchronization.
  • Recordings get more personal
    One of the next big steps in multiscreen TV is giving people access to their personal recordings on every screen. This is the moment for nPVR to finally make its entrance.
  • Evolving the User Experience
    As service providers go beyond household level and address individuals, the role of log-ins or context will become important. There is a place for social TV and big data.
  • The role of audio in personalization
    Audio has a huge impact on how much we enjoy video services. Now it can help to personalize them. ‘Allegiance’ based audio choices are one possibility.
  • Making advertising more targeted
    Addressable advertising is in its infancy but has a bright future, helping to fund the growth of on-demand and multiscreen viewing.

 

Some excerpts from this report:

Good content should be matched by good content discovery , including recommendations. The current state-of -the-art is defined by Netflix.

Today’s TV experience is worlds apart from the one we were talking about even five years ago. We’ve witnessed exponential growth in services such as HD and have moved from a model in which one screen is watched by many, to many screens (and devices) being available to the individual viewer, what is today called TV Everywhere.  Having multiscreen access to content is driving the demand for a more personalised experience, in which the viewer can expect to see what they want, where, and when. While video on-demand (VOD) has been a great method for delivering compelling content to viewers, it is not always a truly seamless TV-like experience, and traditionally has been limited to the living room. The growing demand for the personalised experience is driving seismic change within the TV industry, and we’ve seen great strides made already, with time-shifted TV and nPVR as just two examples of how we in the industry can deliver content in the ways viewers want to watch. The next step is to move towards more advanced content discovery, effectively creating a personalised channel or playlist for the individual user.

As the tools become available to deliver personalized experiences to consumers, content owners can better create experiences that leverage their content. For example, for sports with multiple points of action, like motor racing, multiple camera angles and audio feeds will allow fans to follow the action that is relevant to their favourite racing team. And for movies, access to additional elements such as director’s commentaries, which have been available on Blu-ray discs for some time, can be made available over broadcast networks.

 

 

From DSC:
Some words and phrases that come to my mind:

  • Personalization.
  • Data driven.
  • Content discovery and recommendation engines (which could easily relate to educational playlists)
  • Training on demand
  • Learning agents
  • Web-based learner profiles
  • Learning hubs
  • What MOOCs morph into
  • More choice. More control.
  • Virtual tutoring
  • Interactivity and participation
  • Learning preferences
  • Lifelong learning
  • Reinventing oneself
  • Streams of content
  • Learning from The Living [Class] Room

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

streams-of-content-blue-overlay

 

Apple iBeacon: signs of new direction — from theage.com.au by Garry Barker]

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

For local initiatives, I consulted two Australian pioneers of iBeacon technology and related educational app development: Geoff Elwood, chief executive and founder of Melbourne-based Specialist Apps (specialistapps.com); and Paul Hamilton, an Apple distinguished educator, and primary school teacher at Matthew Flinders Anglican College at Buderim, Queensland.

Both are highly respected developers of educational technology and iBeacon is the latest of their passions.

Hamilton says he was the first person in the world to use iBeacon technology in a school. At Matthew Flinders he has installed three iBeacons for interactive technology, library and art learning zones. His website, appsbypaulhamilton.com, includes videos showing them at work.

Elwood’s largest installation so far is at Bryanston, an elite coeducational school based in a country mansion on a 160-hectare estate beside the River Stour in Dorset.

Bryanston employs a student management application that uses an online eLockers information system, distributed by the iBeacon network. ”With iBeacons, a teacher can use an eLocker application to quickly form a proximity group, press a button on the iPad and transmit a notification to students within the proximity to open an eLocker that is blinking on their screens. The app is both transmitter and receiver, but we have taken the technology beyond just transmitting and receiving to establishing direct relationships between teachers and students, individually or in groups,” Elwood says.

 

 

 

TVs are becoming the next app battleground — from by Emily Adler

Excerpt:

The app store phenomenon, centered on smartphones and tablets, has been the biggest story in software for the past five years.

Its next logical destination: the living room, via smart TVs and set-top boxes connected to the Internet.

  • The smart TV app revolution is inevitable: People spend four hours in front of their TVs in the U.S., and 63% of all global ad spending goes to TVs. The old guard, represented by cable and entertainment conglomerates, will not be able to fend off improvements like those that apps are bringing to mobile phones.
    .
  • The smart TV revolution will not just be led by new TVs with built-in Internet connections, it will also result from consumer adoption of less expensive game consoles or set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, which transform traditional TVs into smart TVs with access to app stores. At least 20% of U.S. consumers already have their TVs connected in one of these ways.

 

From DSC:

  1. Keep an eye on the convergence of the telephone, the television, and the computer.
    .
  2. Start thinking of ways that you could provide learning/educationally-based experiences with second screen apps. What would that experience look and act like?
    .
  3. If such “channels” come to fruition — and happen to coincide with MOOCs and advances in cognitive computing (such as IBM’s Watson) — the word disruption comes to mind.
    .
  4. The trick, then, will be to offer streams of content that are relevant, and up-to-date.
    .
  5. Such a platform could be used in learning hubs throughout the world, as well as in hybrid/blended classrooms — while also addressing lifelong learners from their living rooms.
    .
  6. Such a platform could take Communities of Practice to an entirely new level.

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

streams-of-content-blue-overlay

 

 

 

Addendum/also see:

 

IoE-SmartTVs-Feb2014

 

 

 

 Some potential tools to display information on an iPad at an art gallery/small museum:


  • InDesign:
    “Use interactive PDFs with hyperlinks to achieve an app-like behaviour. We created the presentation with all buttons and target pages in Adobe InDesign CS5 and exported the whole thing as an interactive PDF.”  (From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4573715)
  • Keynote for the iPad – though it doesn’t look like you can lock things down; though you can have a password on a file.
  • Book Creator
  • In the gallery, provide an iPad on a mount/stand and link to a blog or webpage, then lock the browser.  If you want to use this method to display several pages, one could build a series of webpages and insert META-HTTP-EQUIV tags in the header sections of the HTML.  That tag could be used to time how long a web page was on the screen and then redirect people to another web page after a period of time.

 

From DSC:
The above listing doesn’t address the numerous design & development firms out there that could create an app for you.

Where I could easily see this sort of thing going is towards a machine-to-machine type of communication whereby a chip on the piece of artwork “talks” to mobile devices to bring up additional information (re: that piece of art) on the patron’s device.  iBeacon-like technology comes to mind; or NFC.

 

 

From DSC:
I see the following items in the classrooms/learning spaces/”learning hubs” of the future:

  • iBeacon-like technology, quickly connecting the physical world with the online world (i.e. keep an eye on the Internet of Things/Everything  in the classroom); this may take place via wearable technology or via some other means of triggering events
  • Remote presence
  • Access to Artifical Intelligence (AI)-based resources
  • Greatly enhanced Human Computer Interactions (HCI) such as gesture-based interactions as well as voice and facial recognition
  • Interactive walls
  • BYOD baked into almost everything (requiring a robust networking infrastructure)
  • More makerspaces (see below for examples)
  • Tables and chairs (all furniture really) are on wheels to facilitate room configuration changes
  • Setups that facilitate collaborative/group work

 

 


Below are some other recent items on this topic:


 

To Inspire Learning, Architects Reimagine Learning Spaces — from MindShift by Allison Arieff

 

MakerLab_web

Excerpt:

As K–12 schools refocus on team-based, interdisciplinary learning, they are moving away from standardized, teach-to-test programs that assume a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Instead, there is a growing awareness that students learn in a variety of ways, and the differences should be supported. The students often learn better by doing it themselves, so teachers are there to facilitate, not just to instruct. Technology is there as a tool and resource, not as a visual aid or talking head.

 

 

3D printers and laser cutters?… it’s the classroom of the future — from standard.co.uk by Miranda Bryant

 

 

Rethinking our learning spaces — from rtschuetz.blogspot.com by Robert Schuetz

 

ClassroomMoveableFurnitureITESMCCM 02
CC Wikimedia – Thelmadatter

Excerpt:

Heutagogy, unlike pedagogy, focuses on self-directed learning. As learning and education become more heutaogical, shouldn’t our learning spaces accommodate this shift? What are the features and characteristics that define a modern learning space? Notice, that I have not used the word classroom. Several days of researching this topic has challenged my thinking on the concept of classroom. This verbiage has been replaced with terms like; ideation lab, innovation space, maker pods, gamer zone, and learning sector. The concept of specific learning zones is not new.

 

 

Also see:
  • Clarity Matrix MultiTouch
    Interactive LCD Video WallThe Clarity™ Matrix MultiTouch LCD Video Wall is an ultra-slim profile touch screen video wall ideal for public spaces or collaboration environments. Utilizing the latest touch technology, Clarity Matrix MultiTouch enables up to 32 touch points and allows multiple users to simultaneously interact with video wall without affecting other users.
Clarity-Matrix-MultiTouch-1-13

 

 

From DSC:
In addition to video walls and large multitouch surfaces…we need to start thinking about how we might integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) into the classroom.  For example,  what might occur if technologies like Apple’s iBeacon were in the blended/hybrid classroom?  Tony goes to corner A, and up pops a video re: XYZ for him to check out on the large multitouch display.  Tony then moves across the room, to another corner of the room, and up pops a quiz or an assignment related to what Tony saw in the first corner of the room.  Available on one of the windows on the video wall is of a remote specialist on the subject.  Tony clicks on the “Connect with specialist” button and finds himself in a videoconference with this remote specialist/tutor on a portion of the video wall.

As learning hubs* grow, these technologies might be very useful.

* where some of the content is electronically
delivered 
and where some of the content
is discussed in a face-to-face manner

 

Predictions 2014: Wager on the Internet of Everything — from blogs.cisco.com by Chet Namboodri and Bob Parker

Excerpt:

You heard it first here: “In 2014, the Internet of Everything (IoE) will accelerate the growth of manufacturing industries to outpace overall U.S. GDP growth by >3x.”

As my colleague Jim Grubb points out, the IoE itself is no longer a prediction in-and-of-itself.  The joining of people, process, data and things to transform information into actions and create new capabilities, richer experiences and unprecedented opportunities is already a global reality.  Just how IoE impacts our economies and industries —including what many believe to be an American Manufacturing Renaissance— is what remains for our collective imaginations, innovations and entrepreneurial ingenuity.

To gain some insights and guidance on manufacturing movements, I turn to industry analyst expertise.  Bob Parker, IDC Group Vice President, last week hosted the IDC Manufacturing Insights 2014 Predictions: Worldwide Manufacturing, one in a series of annual web conferences where IDC analysts share their industry outlook for the upcoming year in the form of a Top 10 Predictions.  Below, I provide a recap of what Bob and his team had to say about global IT investment trends and business initiatives relating to key process areas within manufacturing, along with my contentions around the impact of IoE on the manufacturing economy and why I believe we will see a growth inflection in the industry next year.

 

 

From DSC:
First some recent/relevant postings:



IFTTT’s ingenious new feature: Controlling apps with your location
— from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert

 

An update to the IFTTT app lets you use your location in recipes. Image: IFTTT

 

Excerpt:

IFTTT stands athwart history. At a point where the software world is obsessed with finding ever more specialized apps for increasingly specific problems, the San Francisco-based company is gleefully doing just the opposite. It simply wants to give people a bunch of tools and let them figure it out. It all happens with simple conditional statements the company calls “recipes.” So, you can use the service to execute the following command: If I take a screenshot, then upload it to Dropbox. If this RSS feed is updated, then send me a text message. It’s great for kluging together quick, automated solutions for the little workflows that slip into the cracks between apps and services.

 

If This, Then That (IFTTT)

IFTTT-Dec2013

 

4 reasons why Apple’s iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design — from wired.com by Kyle VanHemert

Excerpt:

You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that’ll appeal to you most. You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone, and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap. You go to your local watering hole, have a round of drinks, and just leave, having paid—and tipped!—with Uber-like ease. Welcome to the world of iBeacon.

It sounds absurd, but it’s true: Here we are in 2013, and one of the most exciting things going on in consumer technology is Bluetooth. Indeed, times have changed. This isn’t the maddening, battery-leeching, why-won’t-it-stay-paired protocol of yore. Today we have Bluetooth Low Energy which solves many of the technology’s perennial problems with new protocols for ambient, continuous, low-power connectivity. It’s quickly becoming big deal.

 

The Internet of iThings: Apple’s iBeacon is already in almost 200 million iPhones and iPads — from forbes.com by Anthony Kosner

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Because of iBeacons’ limited range, they are well-suited for transmitting content that is relevant in the immediate proximity.

 

 


 

From DSC:
Along the lines of the above postings…I recently had a meeting whereby the topic of iBeacons came up. It was mentioned that museums will be using this sort of thing; i.e. approaching a piece of art will initiate an explanation of that piece on the museum’s self-guided tour application. 

That idea made me wonder whether such technology could be used in a classroom…and I quickly thought, “Yes!” 

For example, if a student goes to the SW corner of the room, they approach a table. That table has an iBeacon like device on it, which triggers a presentation within a mobile application on the student’s device.  The students reviews the presentation and moves onto the SE corner of the room whereby they approach a different table with another/different iBeacon on it.  That beacon triggers a quiz on the material they just reviewed, and then proceeds to build upon that information.  Etc. Etc.   Physically-based scaffolding along with some serious blended/hybrid learning. It’s like taking the concept of QR codes to the next level. 

Some iBeacon vendors out there include:

Data mining, interaction design, user interface design, and user experience design may never be the same again.

 

— from Hari Gottipati

Excerpt:

What is iBeacon?

Using Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE), iBeacon opens up a new whole dimension by creating a beacon around regions so your app can be alerted when users enter them. Beacons are a small wireless sensors placed inside any physical space that transmit data to your iPhone using Bluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Smart).

For example, imagine you walk into a mall with an iPhone 5s (comes with iOS 7 and iBeacon). You are approaching a Macy’s store, which means your iPhone is entering into Macy’s iBeacon region. Essentially iBeacon can transmit customized coupons or even walking directions to the aisle where a particular item is located. It can prompt a customer with special promotions or a personalized messages and recommendations based on their current location or past history with the company. Smartphones that are in an iBeacon zone will benefit from personalized microlocation-based notification and actions.

iBeacon demonstration example mobile shopping

 

 

Also see:

 

 

From DSC:
How can this sort of thing be used in blended/hybrid learning environments? Will this be a part of our next generation smart classrooms/teaching spaces? A new way to take attendance? Share/distribute personalized content?

 

 

Learning from the Living (Class) Room [Grush & Christian]

CampusTechnology-12-5-13-DSCLivingClassRoom

 

Learning in ‘the Living [Class] Room’
From campustechnology.com by Mary Grush and Daniel Christian
Convergent technologies have the ability to support streams of low-cost, personalized content, both at home and in college.

 

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

DanielChristian-A-proposal-to-Apple-MS-Google-IBM-Nov182013

 

 

 

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along

qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

 

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

 

internet of things

 

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

 

Addendum on 11/25:

 

SmartTVFeatures

 

 

 

 

IBM-Opening-up-Watson---11-15-13

 

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

For the first time, IBM will open up Watson as a development platform in the Cloud to spur innovation and fuel a new ecosystem of entrepreneurial software app providers who will bring forward a new generation of applications infused with Watson’s cognitive computing intelligence.

The Watson Ecosystem empowers development of “Powered by IBM Watson” applications. Partners are building a community of organizations who share a vision for shaping the future of their industry through the power of cognitive computing. IBM’s cognitive computing cloud platform will help drive innovation and creative solutions to some of life’s most challenging problems. The ecosystem combines business partners’ experience, offerings, domain knowledge and presence with IBM’s technology, tools, brand, and marketing.

 

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

Learning from the Living [Class] Room  — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room.  I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition.  This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a teambased approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.) 


To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:


  1. What do you mean by “the living [class] room”?
  2. Why consider this now?
  3. What are some examples of apps and tech for “the living [class] room”?
  4. What skill sets will be needed to make “the living [class] room” a reality?

 

 


Alternatively, these videos can be found at:


 

DanielSChristianLearningFromTheLivingClassRoom-CampusTechnologyNovember2013

.

 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian