online learning

Google Glass: Surgery tool of the future? [Ferro] From DSC: Some serious potential for mobile/distance learning.

On 09/10/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), Bring your own device (BYOD), communications, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, Google, innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, second screen apps, social learning / networks, teaching & learning, teaching online, telecommunications, telepresence, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

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Also see:

Wearable tech at the workplace — from connectedworldmag.com

Excerpt:

Wearable sensors are the latest tech-related fashion craze, but not just for consumers. Businesses could soon make use of sensors affixed to hats, watches, glasses, and more. Equipped to provide workers with much-need data about the surrounding environment, these devices may soon invade the job and redefine the workplace—much like tablets and smartphones did just a few years back.

Naturally, businesses have been discussing how something like Google Glass could be used at work. Even the BYOD (bring your own device) phenomenon has the potential to extend to wearable technology, with workers bringing their personal smart watches and glasses for use at work. However, the potential for wearable sensors could be much greater, with specific applications created for targeted industries.

From DSC:
Some serious potential for mobile/distance learning here. What if, instead of a surgeon, that person was an archaeologist on a dig speaking to students in their living rooms, on mobile devices, and/or in classrooms somewhere else…? An electrician fixing a broken transformer on the electrical grid and talking through what she is fixing…? The possibilities are numerous.

See Andrew Vanden Heuvel’s work on this as well:

How Andrew Vanden Heuvel is revolutionizing education from outside the classroom
Find out what this Google Glass Explorer and online science teacher thinks about online learning and the future of education.
Teaching with Glass
STEMbite: An Experiment in Teaching with Google Glass
Explorer Story: Andrew Vanden Heuvel [through Google Glass]
STEMbite (other/more)

Moving back to the surgery…one last thought/idea here:

What if there were several people wearing Google Glasses and the learners/students could pick the camera angle that they wanted to see?

Content as a Service (CaaS) — from knowledgestarblog.wordpress.com by David Grebow

Excerpt:

The etextbook in 2018 will be dramatically different than the etextbook of today. It will be coupled to an app that will provide you with Content as a Service (CaaS). CaaS will include many of the following features (and more that have yet to be imagined):

Multimedia
Simulations
Educational Games
Animations
Pre- and post-tests
Formative and Summative Quizzes
Adaptive testing
Networked Social Learning
Study groups
Analytic Datasets
Virtual and Flipped classes
Communities of Learning and Practice
Virtual classes.

Also see:

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Faith Lutheran School in Plano offers free trial of live, online high school classes [Crawford]

On 09/09/2013, in 21st century, distance education, education technology, homeschooling/homeschoolers, internet, K-12 related, new business models, online learning, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, United States, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

Faith Lutheran School in Plano offers free trial of live, online high school classes — from by Amy Crawford

Excerpt:

This year, Faith Lutheran High School in Plano, Texas will offer live online high school classes using two-way HD-video streaming through the Internet. This allows home-schooled students or others across the country to participate in some of the school’s classes in real time.

I originally saw this at etale.org:
Example of a school that embraces the unbundling of education

Excerpt (emphasis by Bernard Bull):

What is new about this latest offering at Faith Lutheran High School is that they are using the two-way video as a tool to offer unbundled services. This is a private tuition-based school and instead of offering a single package service (full tuition and full participation in the school or nothing), they are offering an à la carte menu. Choose the courses that interest you, and use them to support your otherwise personalized home school curriculum.

…

I continue to argue that this unbundling provides us with a glimpse into the future of k-12 education, especially k-12 education that provides an alternative to traditional public schools. Separate all of the distinct attributes of a given school and imagine a model where families and students can pick and choose from those services, paying only for what they use (in the case of private schools).

Will IBM’s Watson — or a similar set of technologies — be a key ingredient of our future MOOCs? [Christian]

On 09/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, global / globalization, health, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, research, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, training / L&D, trends, ubiquitous learning, United States, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
IBM Watson continues to expand into different disciplines/areas, which currently include:

Healthcare
Finance
Customer Service

But Watson is also entering the marketing and education/research realms.

I see a Watson-type-of-tool as being a key ingredient for future MOOCs and the best chance for MOOCs to morph into something very powerful indeed — offloading the majority of the workload to computers/software/intelligent tutoring/learning agents, while at the same time allowing students to connect with each other and/or to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) as appropriate.

The price of education could hopefully come way down — depending upon the costs involved with licensing Watson or a similar set of technologies — as IBM could spread out their costs to multiple institutions/organizations. This vision represents another important step towards the “Walmart of Education” that continues to develop before our eyes.

Taking this even one step further, I see this system being available to us on our mobile devices as well as in our living rooms — as the telephone, the television, and the computer continue to converge. Blended learning on steroids.

What would make this really powerful would be to provide:

The ability to create narratives/stories around content
To feed streams of content into Watson for students to tap into
Methods of mining data and using that to tweak algorithms, etc. to improve the tools/learning opportunities

Such an architecture could be applied towards lifelong learning opportunities — addressing what we now know as K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development.

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Adobe launches a new learning service – KnowHow [Adobe.com]

On 08/30/2013, in Adobe, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, elearning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, professional development, programming, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Adobe launches a new learning service – KnowHow — from blogs.adobe.com; with thanks to Dr. Tony Karrer (@elearningPosts) for posting this on Twitter

Excerpt:

If you have been learning through video playlists and always thought:

Wouldn’t it be great it I could scribble notes on top of the video? <– From DSC: Idea for future “textbooks”?
Why not add text in the context of the video I am learning from? <– For future “textbooks”…?
Why can’t I go back and forth between videos easily? <– For future “textbooks”…?

You are not alone.

Also see:

IBM and USTA captivate tennis fans with immersive second screen experience [MarketWatch.com]

On 08/28/2013, in analytics, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, health, IBM, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, second screen apps, social learning / networks, streams of content, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

IBM and USTA captivate tennis fans with immersive second screen experience — from MarketWatch.com
Analytics, cloud, mobile and social computing technologies deliver US Open to fans’ fingertips

Excerpt:

The innovative digital US Open environment provides fans, players, broadcasters and media with access to a range of Big Data insights streaming from the courts, including stats, facts, videos, live scoring, and historical and real-time analysis of tennis data served to tablets, smartphones, PCs and other devices.

Also see:

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From DSC:
Questions I wonder about:

How might this sort of thing help us in education? What if, instead of a tennis match, it was a debate on X vs. Y…?
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Could we use it in educational gaming apps?
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If so, what sorts of apps that lean on social learning could we create?
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How could professional development/conferences use this type of immersive second screen experience? What sorts of opportunities for participation would open up?
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Could we develop things like this that help us learn things IN REAL TIME from the streams of content flowing by? (Do learning agents employ this sort of thing?)

Somewhat-related items:

College students bring targeted media to doctors’ waiting rooms — from entrepreneur.com by Michelle Goodman

Excerpt:

Their idea was to sell doctors’ offices prepackaged video segments containing tips on diet, exercise and other lifestyle tweaks patients could make to improve their health. A TV screen in the reception area would broadcast this programming, modeled after segments on shows such as Today, while patients waited for appointments.

To test the idea, Agarwal, Shah and classmate Derek Moeller bought TVs and DVD players, culled content from the internet and distributed the equipment and “shows” to 50 doctors in five states.

MOOCing the Liberal Arts? Technology and Relationship in Liberal Arts Education
The Thirteenth Annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts
February 13 – 15, 2014

Some additional questions for next year’s “Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology”

On 08/27/2013, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, higher education, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, student-related, teaching & learning, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Inside Higher Ed 2013 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology — by Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman

From DSC:
I would like to propose some additional — and/or different — questions for next year’s survey:

Original question:

Can online courses achieve learning outcomes that are equivalent to inperson courses?

Another potential question:

How will face-to-face courses compete with what’s being achieved via online/digitally-based courses and mechanisms? (One potential answer, go hybrid.)

Original questions:

What do professors and administrators see as the most important indicators of quality in online education? How does the quality of online courses compare with the quality of inperson courses?

Another question:

If we turned the level of scrutiny (which is good and appropriate, BTW) that’s being applied to online courses to our face-to-face (F2F) courses, how would our F2F courses look/perform? How would they compare in terms of quality, achieving learning outcomes, and in terms of long-term ROI?

Original question:

What do faculty and technology officers make of MOOCs (massive open online courses), and how do they perceive media coverage of the phenomenon?

Another potential question (to students, ed tech staff, admins, faculty members):

What might MOOCs morph into and how might those innovations affect the higher education landscape?

Other questions:

Should we be looking to faculty members to initiate change? Or somewhere else?
(Faculty members’ plates are full, they may or may not believe in the value/benefits of technology, they may or may not be gifted in using technology, and many faculty members don’t have the incentive systems necessary to move forward with online learning or even enhance their F2F courses with more hybrid-based learning approaches.)
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Will it take a team-based approach to be competitive in the future?
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(Addressed to faculty members teaching F2F courses)
Do you know each student’s name in your F2F course and what each of them are majoring in? How often do you talk to them? Do you keep track of who you’ve talked to and when? Do you know what goals each of your students are pursuing? How often can/do they contact you? Do you find it more difficult to engage your students in the year 2013 as opposed to 2000? Do you hold the power to change things at your institution? If so, what have you done with that power?
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Are curriculums keeping up with what’s needed or are institutions of higher education falling behind? Are we being responsive enough, realizing that the rate/trajectory of change is now exponential, not linear?

Transmedia stories and games explained — from splash.abc.net.au by Dr. Christy Dena; with thanks to The Digital Rocking Chair for Scooping this onto Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age
Opportunity abounds in the area of ‘transmedia projects’, or stories and games that span more than one medium or artform. Dr Christy Dena explains this evolving area of education. This is Part 1 in her blog series.

Excerpt:

One of the areas I work in is ‘transmedia’ or ‘cross-media’ writing and design. I work in the area as a practitioner, and also as an educator for industry professionals and undergraduate students. Transmedia or cross-media fundamentally refers to projects that span more than one medium; for example, a book and computer. I work in creating transmedia stories and games, and so also teach students about making their own. Over my two articles for ABC Splash, I share some of the approaches I use when giving students the opportunity to make their own transmedia stories and games.

Opening the door to transmedia projects — from splash.abc.net.au by Dr. Christy Dena
In her second article on transmedia projects, Dr Christy Dena shares the guidelines she’s created to open the door to this form of education in schools.

Excerpt:

It is important that students are given at least two media locations to work with, such as a website and poster. I always include a live event of some kind as well.

Obama’s Ratings for Higher Ed [Jaschik]

On 08/22/2013, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, education technology, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, by Daniel Christian

Obama’s Ratings for Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Scott Jaschik

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

WASHINGTON — President Obama appears to be making good on his vow to propose a “shake-up” for higher education.

Early Thursday, he released a plan that would:

Create a new rating system for colleges in which they would be evaluated based on various outcomes…

Link student aid to these ratings…

Create a new program that would give colleges a “bonus” if they enroll large numbers of students eligible for Pell Grants.

Toughen requirements on students receiving aid.

…

The White House also said President Obama is “challenging” colleges to “adopt one or more” of practices he called “promising” to “offer breakthroughs on cost, quality or both.” Among them: competency-based learning that moves away from seat time, course redesign (including massive open online courses), the use of technology for student services, and more efforts to recognize prior learning.

Also see:

ShakingUpHigherEd-Barack-Obama-August-22-2013

What types of innovative learning experiences can be crafted as “TV” becomes more interactive, participatory, and engaging? [Christian]

On 08/21/2013, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, media/film, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, participation, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The massive convergence of the telephone, the television, and the computer continues. How that media gets to us is also changing (i.e. the cord cutting continues).

What types of innovative learning experiences can be crafted as “TV” becomes more interactive, participatory, and engaging? What happens if technologies like WebRTC make their way into our browsers and we can videoconference with each other without having to download anything?

What doors open for for us when Google, Apple, or an Amazon.com delivers your “shows” vs. NBC/ABC/CBS/etc.?

The items below cause me to reflect on those questions…

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Streaming devices lead the way to Smart TV — from nytimes.com by Brian Stelter

Julia Yellow

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Is Google ready to buy its way into TV with an NFL deal? — from allthingsd.com by Peter Kafka

Excerpt:

Here’s a fun combination to ponder: The world’s most powerful media company and America’s most popular sport.

That could happen if Google buys the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, the all-you-can-eat subscription-TV service currently owned by DirecTV.

Cord Cliff Coming: What happens to TV when Netflix streams live events? — from allthingsd.com by Ben Elowitz, CEO, Wetpaint

Addendums on 8/22/13:

CBS, Time Warner Cable, and the Disruption of TV — from newyorker.com by Ken Auletta
Netflix inks exclusive deal for first-run Weinstein films — from cnet.comThe Internet’s biggest on-demand video service will stream movies from the indie film studio before any other pay-TV providers starting in 2016, the same year it kicks off a similar Disney deal.
Vevo reportedly inks music video content deals with Apple and Samsung, Apple TV app could launch this week — from appleinsider.com by AppleInsider Staff
Music video platform Vevo is said to have signed deals with both Apple and Samsung to deliver streaming and on-demand content via set-top boxes and television sets, with a possible Apple TV debut coming as soon as this week.
Disney’s ESPN Holds Preliminary Talks for Web-Based TV –– from bloomberg.com by Christopher Palmeri & Andy Fixmer
Why Apple should buy NFL digital rights — from money.cnn.com by David Goldman
The tv of tomorrow and the living room of the future— from visual.ly <– a very solid infographic

The tv of tomorrow and the living room of the future

by beutlerink.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

What happened in online learning over the summer? [Parts 1, 2, and 3 by Tony Bates]

On 08/20/2013, in adjunct faculty, Canada, community colleges, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, society, universities, by Daniel Christian

What happened in online learning over the summer? – 2 — by Tony Bates

Excerpt:

MOOCs
Peters, M. (2013) Massive Open Online Courses and Beyond: the Revolution to Come Truthout, August 17

This is an excellent, comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of where MOOCs are going.

What Michael Peters does is to set MOOCs within ‘a wider set of socio-technological changes that might be better explained within a theory of postindustrial education focusing on social media as the new culture.‘

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Also see:

What happened in online learning in the summer? – 1 — by Tony Bates
What happened in online learning in the summer? – 3 — by Tony Bates

Turn education into a lifelong experience — from clomedia.com by Caroline Mol and Nick Van Dam
MOOCs ensure development remains relevant. The future of work depends on people’s ability to build intellectual capital.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Most of the discussions about MOOCs focus on the experience and potential impact on higher education, which we will not discuss here. Rather, we will talk about their impact on the 21st century workforce and corporations. It is very exciting that, according to edX, more than 50 percent of enrollments in such courses are professionals from all over the world.

Looking at market dynamics, increasing globalization, rapid advancements in technology and the continuously changing business environment, it becomes increasingly important that people up their game and continue to invest in their development to stay relevant in the workforce.

…

In addition to employing people with the right skills, corporations are looking more and more for specialized expertise in the so-called human cloud — the virtual, on-demand workforce. Success for a 21st century workforce is leaders’ ability to predict which competencies will be valued in the future and to accelerate mastery of those competencies.

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From DSC:
While I might take some different viewpoints on a couple of things in the article, the importance of reinventing oneself — i.e. staying relevant — is key; and what MOOCs morph into might be a key ingredient for the corporate world.

StayingRelevantDanielChristian-August2013

Some concepts/innovations that empower our learning ecosystems [Christian]

On 08/16/2013, in 21st century, analytics, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, elearning, emerging technologies, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, more voice more choice more control, motivation, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Introducing…the Learning Dashboard — from khanacademy.org on Thu, 15 Aug 2013

Excerpt:

The new learning dashboard is your personal homepage on Khan Academy. The dashboard gives you an easy way to find the best next things for you to do. It has a bunch of really cool things designed to help you learn math, and soon other subjects, really well on your own or with a coach.

From DSC:
This is the type of innovation that makes online/blended learning even more powerful/useful.

The NYT just made it way easier to remix its journalism — from by Robinson Meyer
Bringing the simple power of logic (if! then!) to the social web

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The New York Times has now opened a channel at the website If This, Then That (IFTTT). For journalism hackers and tinkering readers, this is fine news.

IFTTT is elegantly useful and usefully elegant. For a variety of sites and services (Evernote! Instagram! Dropbox!), IFTTT combines “triggers” and “actions,” so that when one thing happens on one service, something else happens on another. You can say, if I take a picture on Instagram, then automatically save it to Dropbox.

Or: If my Facebook profile picture changes, then (automatically) change my Twitter picture too.

It even connects to SMS, so you can say: If it begins to rain in my zipcode, then text me about it.

From DSC:
How might this concept be used in conjunction with digital playlists/learning? If I finished the XYZ module over here at U of X, then start ABC over here at ___.

Apple gears up for the video discovery wars — from fastcolabs.com by Michael Grothaus
Think Apple’s Matcha.tv acquisition was about its programming guide service? You’re probably wrong. There’s a new war brewing in online video: helping users find the stuff they want.

From DSC:
Instead of discovering videos only, how about discovering items along the lines of what you are trying to learn more about? i.e. Matcha.tv meets Google Alerts meets IBM’s Watson.

The Coming Big Data Education Revolution — from by Doug Guthrie
Big data, not MOOCS, will give institutions the predictive tools they need to improve outcomes for individual students

Excerpt (emphasis):

Don’t get me wrong, online learning will fundamentally transform higher education, bridging distances and creating access in ways that have not been possible before. But, in this arena, MOOCs are not a transformative innovation that will forever remake academia. That honor belongs to a more disruptive and far-reaching innovation – “big data.” A catchall phrase that refers to the vast numbers of data sets that are collected daily, big data promises to revolutionize online learning and, in doing so, higher education.

Big data in the online learning space will give institutions the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for individual students. By designing a curriculum that collects data at every step of the student learning process, universities can address student needs with customized modules, assignments, feedback and learning trees in the curriculum that will promote better and richer learning.

edShelf: Find the right educational tools for your needs

On 08/13/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, biology, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, creativity, digital learning, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, homeschooling/homeschoolers, interactivity, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, love of learning, mathematics, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, participation, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, science, simulations, social learning / networks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

With thanks to
Robin Good for curating this item

The battle of the ecosystems: Apple, Google, Microsoft, & Amazon.com [Christian]

On 08/12/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, business, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Google, higher education, innovation, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, media/film, Microsoft, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social media, student-related, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, ubiquitous learning, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The battle of the ecosystems: Apple, Google, Microsoft, & Amazon.com — by Daniel Christian with thanks to Krista Spahr, Michael Mandeville, Bill Vriesema, and Adam Tozer from Calvin College for their feedback/inputs on this.

PDF version here [1.35MB]

Also see:

A game of ecosystems: Measuring ecosystem performance — from visionmobile.com by Andreas Pappas

Addendums on 8/13/13:

Battle of the media ecosystems: Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft — from computerworld.com by Michael deAgonia, Preston Gralla, JR Raphael
Four large tech ecosystems are currently vying for our attention — and for our dollars. How well are they succeeding?
Apple still tops the App Store despite Google Play growth — from tapscape.com

Learning Ecosystems

Adobe launches a new learning service – KnowHow [Adobe.com]

Transmedia stories and games explained [Dena]

Obama’s Ratings for Higher Ed [Jaschik]

What happened in online learning over the summer? [Parts 1, 2, and 3 by Tony Bates]

Turn education into a lifelong experience [Mol & Van Dam]

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