57 ideas to decompress from *gestures* all of this – Washington Post
On 01/21/2021,
in geography / geology, health, parents/guardians, participation, passions, podcasting, religion, society,
by Daniel Christian
On 12/21/2020,
in creativity, entrepreneurship, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, internet, IT in HE, passions, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, youth,
by Daniel Christian
The woman who created the technology behind internet calls explains what it takes to innovate — from bigthink.com by Gayle Markovitz
She’s the reason you’re able to work and chat from home.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
If you’ve ever wondered how a Zoom call works, you might want to ask Marian Croak, Vice-President of Engineering at Google.
This is the woman who invented “Voice over Internet Protocol”: the technology that has enabled entire workforces to continue to communicate and families and friends to remain in touch throughout 2020’s lockdowns – and inevitably beyond.
What can kids teach tech innovators?
Wonder and naivete are powerful tools. Croak argues that children have rich imaginations – which is the fuel of invention. “You need to be childlike. A little naïve and not inhibited by what’s possible.”Matlali’s work with disadvantaged teenagers brings her directly into this world, where she sees that “children are passionate but hopeful for the future. For them, everything is possible. You want kids to have the imagination and passion for them to achieve their dreams.”
Croak said her motivation for 2021 was to keep her own childlike curiosity going, forgetting about her personal circumstances and focusing on the “painpoints”.
Also see:
Marian’s entry out at Wikipedia.org where it says:
She joined AT&T at Bell Labs in 1982.[4] She advocated for switching from wired phone technology to internet protocol.[2][5][6] She holds over two hundred patents, including over one hundred in relation to Voice over IP.[7] She pioneered the use of phone network services to make it easy for the public to donate to crisis appeals.[8][9] When AT&T partnered with American Idol to use a text message voting system, 22% of viewers learned to text to take part in the show.[10][11] She filed the patent for text-based donations to charity in 2005.[10] This capability revolutionised how people can donate money to charitable organisations:[12] for example, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake at least $22 million was pledged in this fashion.[13] She led the Domain 2.0 Architecture and managed over 2,000 engineers.[14][15]
On 11/28/2020,
in blogs / blogging / vlogging, business, creativity, culture, Daniel S. Christian, entrepreneurship, experimentation, Facebook / Meta Platforms, health, internet, motivation, participation, passions, reinvent, relationships, social media, society, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, web design and production, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Building your own website is cool again, and it’s changing the whole internet — from protocol.com by David Pierce
Writers, creators and businesses of all kinds are looking to set up their own space online again. To do that, companies are trying to figure out how to deal with two very different internets.
Excerpt:
Websites are back. After years of being sucked into the vortexes of Facebook and Yelp pages, devoting their time to amassing Twitter followers and Instagram likes, creators and businesses alike have seen the benefits of hanging up their own shingle again. Legions of writers are setting up Substack newsletters. Millions of people and businesses are setting up shop for the first time online using Squarespace or WordPress. Wix reported 7.8 million new users in the last quarter alone, and more than 29% revenue growth.
…
Substack doesn’t see itself as a newsletter platform, or an email-based product. The company is fundamentally interested in fostering direct relationships between readers and writers, rather than let them be mediated by companies whose interests are not always aligned with either side.
The driving force behind all that growth? Thanks to a pandemic closing stores, keeping people at home and leaving a lot of people without jobs, the only way to move forward is to figure out the internet.
From DSC:
Though I really like WordPress — and this blog uses it — look at the stock performance in 2020 for Wix!
Our youngest daughter and I are going to set up a blog for her, as she loves to write. The idea was from her and my wife, but I love it! I think it’s highly motivating to her and she can have a voice…that she can share her writings with others. She’s got quite an imagination — so look out all! 🙂
On 11/10/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, neurodivergent/special needs, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, psychology, reinvent, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, user experience (UX), virtual K-12 schools, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Temperament-Inclusive Pedagogy: Helping Introverted and Extraverted Students Thrive in a Changing Educational Landscape — from onlinelearningconsortium.org by Mary R. Fry
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
So how do we take these different approaches to learning into account and foster a classroom environment that is more inclusive of the needs of both extraverts and introverts? Let’s first distinguish between how extraverts and introverts most prefer to learn, and then discuss ways to meet the needs of both. Extraverts tend to learn through active and social engagement with the material (group work, interactive learning experiences, performing and discussing). Verbalizing typically helps extraverts to think through their ideas and to foster new ones. They often think quickly on their feet and welcome working in large groups. It can be challenging for extraverts to generate ideas in isolation (talking through ideas is often needed) and thus working on solitary projects and writing can be challenging.
In contrast, introverts thrive with solitary/independent work and typically need this time to sort through what they are learning before they can formulate their thoughts and articulate their perspectives. Introverted learners often dislike group work (or at least the group sizes and structures that are often used in the classroom (more on this in a moment)) and find their voice drowned out in synchronous discussions as they don’t typically think as fast as their extroverted counterparts and don’t often speak until they feel they have something carefully thought out to share. Introverted learners are often quite content, and can remain attentive, through longer lectures and presentations and prefer engaging with the material in a more interactive way only after a pause or break.
From DSC:
Could/would a next-generation learning platform that has some Artificial Intelligence (AI) features baked into it — working in conjunction with a cloud-based learner profile — be of assistance here?
That is, maybe a learner could self-select the type of learning that they are: introverted or extroverted. Or perhaps they could use a sliding scaled to mix learning activities up to a certain degree. Or perhaps if one wasn’t sure of their preferences, they could ask the AI-backed system to scan for how much time they spent doing learning activities X, Y, and Z versus learning activities A, B, and C…then AI could offer up activities that meet a learner’s preferences.
(By the way, I love the idea of the “think-ink-pair-share” — to address both extroverted and introverted learners. This can be done digitally/virtually as well as in a face-to-face setting.)
All of this would further assist in helping build an enjoyment of learning. And wouldn’t that be nice? Now that we all need to learn for 40, 50, 60, 70, or even 80 years of our lives?
On 11/05/2020,
in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, distance education, education, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, learning theories, liberal arts, love of learning, media/film, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, online tutoring, participation, passions, platforms, remote teaching and learning, simulations, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, universities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Many people talk about engagement when they discuss learning, and with good reason. It seems to me that what they are really getting at is the topic of getting and maintaining someone’s *attention.* Attention is the gatekeeper to further learning. I wonder if some of the next generation learning platforms that employ some level of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled features, will look to a learner’s preferences (as stored in their cloud-based learner’s profile) in order to help gain/maintain such attention.
And this also helps explain why allowing more learner agency — i.e., more choice, more control — in pursuing their own interests and passions really helps: A motivated learner is paying closer attention to what’s going on.
From DSC:
And along these lines, that’s one of the key reasons I’d like to see more involvement from the Theatre Departments, Computer Science Departments, and from those involved with creative writing across the land — in terms of helping develop content for remote and online-based education. Actors, actresses, set designers, costumer designers, audio/video editors, programmers/software developers, and more who could collaborate on these kinds of ideas.
Last comment on this. I don’t mean that we should present our classes like many advertisements do (i.e., running a thousand images by me within 30 seconds). But changing things up periodically — both visually and audibly — can help regain/reset your students’ attentions.
On 11/02/2020,
in education, educational games / serious games, geography / geology, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, passions, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Gift ideas for young geology lovers and rockhounds — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler
On 10/30/2020,
in Daniel S. Christian, education, engagement / engaging students, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, parents/guardians, passions, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online,
by Daniel Christian
DC: Throughout this piece I see: “More choice. More control.”#leaning #learningexperiencedesign #education #K12 #educationreform https://t.co/LyKI4mONAG
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) October 30, 2020
From DSC:
Instead of the way I put it in the above graphic, they use words like empowerment and agency. But the bottom line is the same. Huge energy gets released when students own their own learning and are intrinsically motivated (i.e., can pursue their own interests, passions). Parents, teachers, profs should know about this and encourage it.
On 10/22/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, architecture, art, attention, biology, business side of he, career development, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, geography / geology, global / globalization, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, journalism, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, love of learning, maker movement, mathematics, media/film, Michigan, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, music, online learning, online media, participation, passions, photography, platforms, project-based learning, reinvent, research, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, writing, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC…by the way, another title for this blog could have been:
WIN-WIN situations all around! The Theatre Departments out there could collaborate with other depts/disciplines to develop highly engaging, digitally-based learning experiences!
The future of drama and the theatre — as well as opera, symphonies, and more — will likely include a significant virtual/digital component to them. While it’s too early to say that theatre needs to completely reinvent itself and move “the stage” completely online, below is an idea that creates a variety of WIN-WIN situations for actors, actresses, stage designers, digital audio/video editors, fine artists, graphic designers, programmers, writers, journalists, web designers, and many others as well — including the relevant faculty members!
A new world of creative, engaging, active learning could open up if those involved with the Theatre Department could work collaboratively with students/faculty members from other disciplines. And in the end, the learning experiences and content developed would be highly engaging — and perhaps even profitable for the institutions themselves!
[DC: I only slightly edited the above image from the Theatre Department at WMU]
Though the integration of acting with online-based learning materials is not a new idea, this post encourages a far more significant interdisciplinary collaboration between the Theatre Department and other departments/disciplines.
Consider a “Dealing with Bias in Journalism” type of topic, per a class in the Digital Media and Journalism Major.
- Students from the Theatre Department work collaboratively with the students from the most appropriate class(es?) from the Communications Department to write the script, as per the faculty members’ 30,000-foot instructions (not 1000-foot level/detailed instructions)
- Writing the script would entail skills involved with research, collaboration, persuasion, creativity, communication, writing, and more
- The Theatre students would ultimately act out the script — backed up by those learning about sound design, stage design, lighting design, costume design, etc.
- Example scene: A woman is sitting around the kitchen table, eating breakfast and reading a posting — aloud — from a website that includes some serious bias in it that offends the reader. She threatens to cancel her subscription, contact the editor, and more. She calls out to her partner why she’s so mad about the article.
- Perhaps there could be two or more before/after scenes, given some changes in the way the article was written.
- Once the scenes were shot, the digital video editors, programmers, web designers, and more could take that material and work with the faculty members to integrate those materials into an engaging, interactive, branching type of learning experience.
- From there, the finished product would be deployed by the relevant faculty members.
[DC: Above images from the Theatre Department at WMU]
Colleges and universities could share content with each other and/or charge others for their products/content/learning experiences. In the future, I could easily see a marketplace for buying and selling such engaging content. This could create a needed new source of revenue — especially given that those large auditoriums and theaters are likely not bringing in as much revenue as they typically do.
Colleges and universities could also try to reach out to local acting groups to get them involved and continue to create feeders into the world of work.
Other tags/categories could include:
- MOOCs
- Learning from the Living[Class]Room
- Multimedia / digital literacy — tools from Adobe, Apple, and others.
- Passions, participation, engagement, attention.
- XR: Creating immersive, Virtual Reality (VR)-based experiences
- Learning Experience Design
- Interaction Design
- Interface Design
- …and more
Also see:
What improv taught me about failure: As a teacher and academic — from scholarlyteacher.com by Katharine Hubbard
In improv, the only way to “fail” is to overthink and not have fun, which reframed what failure was on a grand scale and made me start looking at academia through the same lens. What I learned about failure through improv comes back to those same two core concepts: have fun and stop overthinking.
…
Students are more engaged when the professor is having fun with the materials (Keller, Hoy, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2016), and teaching is more enjoyable when we are having fun ourselves.
On 09/04/2020,
in active learning, Alternatives, blended learning, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, mathematics, Michigan, more voice more choice more control, motivation, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, participation, passions, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, programming, reading, social learning / networks, society, STEAM-related, streams of content, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Below are but some of the changes to the learning ecosystems out there. Certainly, more are coming.
Ex-Google employees form virtual tech ‘school’ for gap year students amid college closures — from cnbc.com by Jennifer Elias
KEY POINTS
- Current and former Google employees are forming an online program aimed at preparing students for the workforce if they’re taking time off school due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- It comes as many college students defer school as universities shift learning models to mostly online amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Google execs past and present have volunteered to mentor college students on topics ranging from career trajectory to how to stand out in virtual Zoom interviews.
Along these lines, see:
- Google has a plan to disrupt the college degree — from inc.com by Justin Bariso
Google’s new certificate program takes only six months to complete, and will be a fraction of the cost of college.
Excerpt:
Google recently made a huge announcement that could change the future of work and higher education: It’s launching a selection of professional courses that teach candidates how to perform in-demand jobs. These courses, which the company is calling Google Career Certificates, teach foundational skills that can help job-seekers immediately find employment. However, instead of taking years to finish like a traditional university degree, these courses are designed to be completed in about six months.
From DSC:
Also, to see some more changes to the learning ecosystems out there, set up a Google Alert (or something similar in Feedly or via another tool) for “Learning Pods,” “Pandemic Pods,” and/or the “growth of homeschooling.” Here’s but one recent example:
Life can be very hard for autistic, gifted and special needs learners. Autistic and gifted learners often times struggle in school because they learn very differently than their peers. These special learners need a personalized approach to their education that allows them to learn in their own way at their own pace.
Many times parents and students feel as if they are the only ones like them in the world. This can often times lead to isolation and frustration. It is important for all autistic, gifted and special needs to unite in order to support one another. We are named Academic Warriors because all our students are superheroes in a world that doesn’t always understand and/or appreciate them. We help our students to become strong, independent and positive learners despite what the world may think of them.
It is the mission of Academic Warriors to help create positive learning experiences and communities throughout the United States for autistic, gifted and special needs learners. We offer online courses, programs, private school and in person events that foster an unique learning environment that promotes unity among all our students and families. We strive to create online and in person learning communities in every state that will provide educational opportunities for all families of autistic, gifted and special needs students. Together we can create a better world for the autistic, gifted and special needs learner.
From DSC:
As part of a homeschooling-based situation, my wife received the following item for one of our daughters (who needs additional/personalized assistance to learn). Simultaneously, she and our daughter sent them a Michigan Exchange Box. Very cool.
I believe my wife found this out at the following group in Facebook:
Some channels out on Youtube that have to do with learning:
(and by the way, according to Jane Hart’s recent Top 200 Tools for Learning, YouTube is in the #1 spot for the 5th year in a row!)
“Horse Sense Tutoring Services is a unique resource that combines the power of Equine Assisted Learning with evidence-based reading and math strategies that engage the mind, body, and emotions in learning. We use the principles of discovery, experience, movement, reflection, and connection in partnership with our horse friends.
…
Based at The Barn for Equine Learning…my program offers targeted reading, math, and basic horsemanship tutoring for students in grades K – 8. Horses become teaching and learning partners as students experience academics and social-emotional learning in a whole new way.
If you are looking for a unique tutoring and confidence-building experience for your child, PM for more information. Sessions are held outdoors and/or in an open barn setting.
(Small group field trips with an introduction to basic horsemanship skills are also available).
From DSC:
So these are just a few examples of how the learning ecosystems are changing out there! Surely, there will be more changes coming down the pike.