platforms

Everything you need to know from today’s Apple WWDC Keynote — from techcrunch.com by Greg Kumparak

Excerpts:

The Next Version Of OS X — Apple announced OS X 10.11, or “OS X El Capitan”.
iOS 9
Siri is getting smarter
Split Screen iPad Apps: Perhaps the biggest feature of all, and something that has been rumored for ages: the iPad is getting split screen apps. You’ll now be able to run two apps at once, side by side. (Split screen iPad apps are limited to the latest/most powerful iPad hardware: the iPad Air 2)
Picture in picture video
CarPlay goes wireless
Swift 2: Apple also announce Swift 2, the second iteration of their new programming language.
watchOS 2
Apple Music: As long rumored, Apple is launching a Spotify/Rdio competitor. It’s $9.99 per month, or $14.99 on a family plan (with support for up to 6 accounts)

The Apple Watch just got a lot more useful — from fastcompany.com by John Paul Titlow
Apple’s WatchOS 2 is here and it will let developers build native, much more capable apps.

Excerpt:

If you had your doubts about the Apple Watch, Cupertino just made it much more interesting. At the Worldwide Developers Conference this morning, Apple announced WatchOS 2, a new version of the watch’s operating system that lets developers build native apps for the device.

Watch OS 2 will also ship with a number of new features, like the ability to set photo watch faces, reply to email, take FaceTime audio calls, use Apple Pay’s new virtual loyalty cards, and get mass transit directions.

Apple introduces “News”: An old idea with big potential — from fastcompany.com by John Paul Titlow
WWDC 2015 Update: Apple just unveiled News, a Flipboard-Style news aggregation app that will ship with iOS 9.

Excerpt:

Apple is now a Flipboard competitor. When iOS 9 ships in the fall, it will include a new app called News, a newspaper, magazine, and blog aggregator that will feel very familiar to anyone who’s ever used Flipboard, Pulse, or one of the many other apps of this nature. The new app was unveiled by Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing, Susan Prescott, this afternoon at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple Maps in iOS 9 adds public transit, local business search — from cio.com by Marco Tabini

Kevin shows some of the great things developers can do with the new version of WatchKit.

Announcements from Google I/O 2015

On 05/29/2015, in computer science, education technology, emerging technologies, Google, internet, machine-to-machine communications, Near Field Communication (NFC), platforms, programming, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Google has shipped over 1 million Cardboard VR units — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

Google revealed today that Cardboard has quietly become the leading VR platform in terms of platform reach – over 1 million Cardboard units have shipped to users so far, a 100 percent increase on the 500,000 milestone it announced in December last year.

Cardboard’s progression is a testament to Google’s approach, which favors simplicity and low barriers to entry instead of freaky real verisimilitude and expensive, high-powered hardware. Google first revealed Cardboard at last year’s I/O event, throwing it out there almost as an afterthought and a seeming subtle dig at Facebook’s high-priced acquisition of Oculus VR.

Google’s Project Brillo is an OS for the home — and a lot more — from computerworld.com by Zach Miners

Excerpt:

Google has made a big play for the Internet of Things, announcing a new OS on Thursday that will connect appliances around the home and allow them to be controlled from an Android smartphone or tablet.

Dubbed Project Brillo, it’s a stripped down version of Google’s Android OS that will run on door locks, ovens, heating systems and other devices that have a small memory footprint, and allow them to communicate and work together.

Google takes another shot at mobile payments with Android Pay — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Russell

Excerpt:

At its I/O developer conference today, Google announced Android Pay, a new payments solution native to its mobile operating system. In addition to making it easier to pay at a merchant’s point of sale via NFC, the new system lets merchants integrate payments directly into their apps for selling physical goods and services using an Android Pay API rather than integrating a third-party provider like Venmo or PayPal.

Google launches Android M preview with fingerprint scanner support, Android Pay, improved permissions and battery life
— from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

As expected, Google today announced the developer preview release of the next version of Android at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. With Android M (which will get its full name once it’s released to users), Google focuses mostly on fit and finish, but the company also added a number of new features to its mobile operating system. It’s no surprise that Android M won’t feature any major new design elements. The last release, Android Lollipop, introduced Google’s Material Design language, after all, and there are still plenty of developers who haven’t even migrated their apps over.

Android M will be able to give you contextual info about what’s happening in your Android Apps — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

Google Now has long helped Android users get timely information about local traffic, movies that are playing locally and other information based on their commutes, browsing history and other data. With Android M, which Google announced today, the Now service is getting even smarter and more contextual. When you tap and hold the home button in Android M, Google will grab the information from the application you are using at that moment and Now will try to give you the right contextual information about what you are looking at in that app. Google Calls This ‘Google Now on Tap.’

Chromecast gets autoplay, queuing, second screen and multiplayer game powers — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

Google’s Chromecast is a quiet little media secret agent turning the search giant into a big time home entertainment player. All told, users of Cast-enabled software have hit the little button to put their small-screen content up on the big screen a total of 1.5 billion times in the U.S. alone, and Chromecast floats other Google boats, too – users increase their YouTube viewing time by 45 percent on average once they start using the device, for instance.

Chromecast (and Cast-enabled devices, including the Nexus Player and the Nvidia Shield) is about to get more powerful, thanks to a handful of new features announced at I/O this year. These new abilities turn the streamer into a much more robust media device, making it easy to see how Cast could underpin the home theater or media room of the near future. Here’s what Chromecast developers and users can look forward to coming out of this year’s show:

Google Play gets more family-friendly with content ratings, filtering by age and interest — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

In April, Google announced a new developer-facing program called “Designed for Families” which allowed mobile app publishers the option to undergo an additional review in order to be included in a new section focused on kids’ apps within Google Play. Today, the company officially unveiled that section — or sections, as it turns out — at its I/O developer conference.

Parents searching Google’s mobile app store will now be able to tap on a new “Family” button indicated with a green, smiley faced star icon in order to find the family-friendly content across apps, games, movies and TV homepages.

There’s also a “Children’s Books” button on the Books homepage, where parents can also filter the selection by age range and genre.

Google’s new Cloud Test Lab lets Android developers quickly test their apps on top Android devices for free — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

Google launched a new project at its I/O developer conference today that will make it easier for developers to check how their mobile apps work on twenty of the most popular Android devices from around the world. Sadly, the service will only roll out to developers later this year, but if you are interested, you can sign up to join the pilot program here.

It’s no secret that the diverse Android ecosystem makes life harder for developers, given that they can’t simply test their apps on a small number of popular devices and assume that everything will run smoothly for all users. Most developers keep a few phones and tablets handy to test their apps on, but few have access to a wide variety of recent devices to test every revision of their apps on.

Google Photos breaks free of Google+, now offers free, unlimited storage — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

Google officially announced its long-rumored revamp of its photo-sharing service, Google Photos, at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco today. The killer feature? Users can now backup up full-resolution photos and videos – up to 16MP for photos and 1080p for videos – to Google’s cloud for free. The service will roll out to Android, iOS and web users starting today, the company says.

The free storage option makes more sense for those with point-and-shoot cameras, and lets you keep a copy of your photos that’s good for your typical printing and photo-sharing needs. However, those with DSLR cameras or who want to store their photos and videos in their original sizes can choose a different plan which taps into your Google Account’s 15 GB of free storage. This is what was available before, and you can add to your storage quota as needed for a fee.

Android developer news from Google I/O 2015 — from lynda.com by David Gassner

Excerpt:

The keynote featured a smorgasbord of new technologies and additions/improvements to existing platforms. A stream of presenters followed each other across the stage, each talking about what was new for 2015. They covered Android, Chrome, and Chromebooks, virtual reality, 360-degree camera arrays, a stripped-down version of Android for the internet of things, and many other geeky new toys. Here’s what’s coming to an Android device or Android developer workstation near you.

Google I/O 2015: How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu — from zdnet.com by Kevin Tofel
Summary: Google’s new Now On Tap feature, coming with Android M, shows a future where you don’t hunt through home screens and menus to find an app. The right apps come to you.

Chris Dede: The Future of Digital Learning [webinar/session recording from Adobe]

On 04/24/2015, in 21st century, active learning, Adobe, analytics, biology, blended learning, creativity, curriculum, data related items, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, future, geography / geology, ideas, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning theories, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, participation, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, real-world assignments, research, science, student-related, teaching & learning, tools, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Chris uses ecoMOBILE and ecoMUVE to highlight the powerful partnerships that can exist between tools and teachers — to the benefits of the students, who can enjoy personalized learning that they can interact with. Pedagogical approaches such as active learning are discussed and methods of implementing active learning are touched upon.

Chris pointed out the National Research Council’s book from 2012 entitled, “Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge & Skills in the 21st Century” as he spoke about the need for all of us to be engaged in lifelong learning (Chris uses the term “life-wide” learning).

Also, as Chris mentioned, we often teach as we were taught…so we need communities that are able to UNlearn as well as to learn.

Also see:

The CreateEdu Channel on YouTube

Reflections on “What does ‘learning’ have to learn from Netflix?” [Clark]

On 03/17/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, experimentation, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, technologies for your home, television, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, by Daniel Christian

What does ‘learning’ have to learn from Netflix? — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpts:

Of course, young people are watching way less TV these days, TV is dying, and when they do watch stuff, it’s streamed, at a time that suits them. Education has to learn from this. I’m not saying that we need to replace all of our existing structures but moving towards understanding what the technology can deliver and what learners want (they shape each other) is worth investigation. Hence some reflections on Netflix.

Areas discussed:

Timeshifting
Data driven delivery — Netflix’ recommendations engine
Data driven content
Content that’s accessible via multiple kinds of devices
Going global

From DSC:
I just wanted to add a few thoughts here:

The areas of micro-credentials, nano-degrees, services like stackup.net, big data, etc. may come to play a role with what Donald is talking about here.
I appreciate Donald’s solid, insightful perspectives and his thinking out loud — some great thoughts in that posting (as usual)
Various technologies seem to be making progress as we move towards a future where learning platforms will be able to deliver a personalized learning experience; as digital learning playlists and educationally-related recommendation engines become more available/sophisticated, highly-customized learning experiences should be within reach.
At a recent Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference, one of the speakers stated, “People are control freaks — so let them have more control.” Along these lines…ultimately, what makes this vision powerful is having more choice, more control.

MoreChoiceMoreControl-DSC

Also, some other graphics come to my mind:

Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision – some sharp innovations here!

On 02/27/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, mobile learning, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, second screen apps, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Example snapshots from
Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision

Combine these concepts into a multitouch, interactive “video wall” or Smart TV-related apps: Some incredible opportunities for collaborative learning!

On 02/16/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, business, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, online media, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, second screen apps, smart classrooms, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, TVs, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Check out some of the functionality in these solutions. Then imagine if these solutions were in the size of an entire wall in a classroom or in a corporate L&D facility. Whew!

Some serious opportunities for collaboration would arise for remote learners –as well as those located in the face-to-face setting
What new affordances would be present for those teaching in K-12, higher ed, or trainers working within the training/learning and development fields? Conversations/discussions would be recorded — to be picked up at the next session. In the meantime, learners could review the discussions at their own pace.
What if all of this were possible in your future Smart/Connected TV?
I’m also talking here about a vendor that could offer solutions that K-12 systems and institutions of higher ed could afford; some of the solutions below have much of what I’m envisioning here, but are out of the price range. Or the product is multitouch and fairly large, but it doesn’t offer the collaborative features of some of the other products here.

Ideum’s touch walls come close to what I’m talking about in this posting. If they could add some functionality for seeing/bringing in/collaborating with remote learners — as found in Mezzanine — then that would be great!

Also see:

Also see bluescape — but these excellent, innovative solutions are out of the price range for most K-12 and higher ed institutions:

The future of work
There’s an app for that — from economist.com
Freelance workers available at a moment’s notice will reshape the nature of companies and the structure of careers

Excerpt:

HANDY is creating a big business out of small jobs. The company finds its customers self-employed home-helps available in the right place and at the right time. All the householder needs is a credit card and a phone equipped with Handy’s app, and everything from spring cleaning to flat-pack-furniture assembly gets taken care of by “service pros” who earn an average of $18 an hour.
…
Handy is one of a large number of startups built around systems which match jobs with independent contractors on the fly, and thus supply labour and services on demand.
…
The obvious inspiration for all this is Uber, a car service which was founded in San Francisco in 2009 and which already operates in 53 countries; insiders say it will have sales of more than $1 billion in 2014.
…
This boom marks a striking new stage in a deeper transformation. Using the now ubiquitous platform of the smartphone to deliver labour and services in a variety of new ways will challenge many of the fundamental assumptions of 20th-century capitalism, from the nature of the firm to the structure of careers.
…
The on-demand economy will inevitably exacerbate the trend towards enforced self-reliance that has been gathering pace since the 1970s. Workers who want to progress will have to keep their formal skills up to date, rather than relying on the firm to train them (or to push them up the ladder regardless). This means accepting challenging assignments or, if they are locked in a more routine job, taking responsibility for educating themselves. They will also have to learn how to drum up new business and make decisions between spending and investment.

Also see:

Professional Millennials and super-powered smartphones are changing the working world — from medium.com and Liquid Talent

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

This is the year when modern technology squarely intersects with the economy and the workforce. This is the the year that marks a noted change in how we work as individuals, and as a collective. This is the year of the Millennial Generation takeover in our professional world. This is the year that marks the beginning of the Independent Workforce Revolution.

Why?

Two reasons:

1) Millennials take over
Millennials are the largest generation at 82 million strong. They do not have the same priorities as past generations and their professional incentives are quickly changing. They care less about maximizing profit, finding a secure job and taking 2.5 weeks of vacay. In fact, 54% of Millennials assert that they want to start a company one day, or already have. This generation is now 50% of the workforce, and will be 75% of the workforce by 2020. These percentages may seem staggering but with 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring everyday (every single day!) we can see this tectonic shift happening before our very eyes.
2) Mobile technology
We have our economies in our pocket. We can work anytime from anywhere, and source professional opportunities with a simple swipe. The proliferation of mobile productivity apps (ie Slack), globalized workforce platforms (ie eLance) and professional networks (ie LinkedIn) show the power and growth in professional, mobile technologies.

From DSC:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again to those of us working in K-12 and in higher education:

We need to be sure that we’re preparing our students to know how to run their own businesses. They need to know how to survive and thrive as freelancers — because chances are they will be freelancing at various points in their career. Our curricula should already be in the process of being updated to address these critical skills. More courses on entrepreneurship for example; also some basic accounting courses as well as coursework involving programming, brainstorming, marketing, and how to use various technologies to collaborate, stay organized, and manage one’s time.

The above items also stress the need for lifelong, accessible/affordable learning; and for constant adaptation and for reinventing oneself in order to remain marketable in the workplace.

Addendum on 2/18/15:

New tech companies say freelancing is the future of work. But there’s a downside for workers. — from washingtonpost.com by Lydia DePillis
More companies are switching their workforce to freelance. Policy needs to catch up.

Excerpt:

If the nation’s way of regulating work revolves around a relationship between an employee and employer, what happens when that relationship no longer exists?

IBM Awards University of Texas at Austin Top Spot in Watson Competition — from indiaeducationdiary.in

Excerpts/applications (emphasis and numbering via DSC):

New York: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the first winner of its Watson University Competition, part of the company’s partnership with top universities through its cognitive computing academic initiative. The winning team of student entrepreneurs from the University of Texas at Austin will receive $100,000 in total in seed funding to help launch a business based on their Watson app, which offers the promise of improved citizen services.
…
The University of Texas at Austin took home top honors with a new app called 1) CallScout, designed to give Texas residents fast and easy access to information about social services in their area. Many of Texas’ 27 million residents rely on the state’s social services – such as transportation, healthcare, nutrition programs and housing assistance – though they can have difficulty finding the right information.
…
“These academic competitions expose students to a new era of computing, helps them build valuable professional skills, and provides an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life.”

…
Two other innovative projects rounded out the top three finalists in the competition. Students from the University of Toronto took second place with 2) “Ross,” an app that allows users to ask Watson legal questions related to their case work, speeding research and guiding lawyers to pertinent information to help their case. In third place, students from the University of California, Berkeley, designed a new app called 3) “Patent Fox” that conceptualizes patent ideas, simplifies queries, streamlines filing processes and provides confidence-ranked, evidence-based results.
…
“Through this program we have been able to create a unique experience that not only enabled our students to develop skills in cognitive computing, app development and team work, but also in business development.”

A college completion idea that’s so simple. Why aren’t we doing it? [Phillips]

On 12/03/2014, in collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, higher education, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, platforms, policy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, universities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A college completion idea that’s so simple. Why aren’t we doing it? — from huffingtonpost.com by Brad Phillips

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

This week’s White House “College Opportunity” summit will focus on an overlooked area with enormous potential for student success: K-12 and higher education working together to improve college completion. It sounds so simple and obvious. In fact many assume it’s already happening. After all both groups of educators share the same students, just at different points in their education careers. Why wouldn’t they share information about students and coordinate efforts to help students be successful?

…

The process of closely analyzing high school to college data is eye opening for both K-12 and college educators. Faculty discover that while they both may be calling a subject Algebra or English, what is taught and assigned can be very different, setting up students for a struggle.

In Southern California, high school teachers and college faculty members participating in English Curriculum Alignment Project (ECAP) shared years of transcript information Examining student performance over time, educators learned that what was taught in High School English did not align with what was expected in college English.

From DSC:
I’ll take that one step further and say that we need stronger continuums between K-12, higher ed, and the corporate/business world. We need more efforts, conversations, mechanisms, tools, communities of practice, and platforms to collaborate with each other. That’s what I try to at least scratch the surface on via this Learning Ecosystems blog — i.e., touching upon areas that involve the worlds of K-12, higher ed, and the corporate/business world. We need more collaborations/conversations along these lines.

learningnow.tv <-- An example of a significant piece of our future learning ecosystems? Quite possibly.

On 12/01/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, media/film, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, second screen apps, social learning / networks, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, TVs, UK, using teams, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From their website: (emphasis DSC)

LEARNING NOW tv is a live-streamed internet tv channel bringing you inspirational interviews, debates and round tables, and advice and guidance on real world issues to keep you up-to date in the world of learning and development.

Membership to the channel is FREE. You will be able to interact with us on our social channel during the live stream as well as having a resource of the recorded programmes to refer to throughout the year.

Learning Now tv is run and produced by some of the L&D world’s leading experts who have many years’ experience of reporting the real-world issues for today’s learning and development professionals.

I originally saw this at Clive Sheperd’s posting:
TV very much alive for learning professionals

Also see:

This new service makes me think of some related graphics:

Addendum on 12/2/14 — from Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie – December 2, 2014 | #857

Idea – Courses in the Air:
There were representatives from airlines, Aviation Authorities and even Panasonic – which makes the interactive movie and TV systems on long distance airplanes. So, I rolled out one of my “aha ideas” that I would love to see invented sometime: Courses in the Air.

What if a passenger could choose to take a mini-course on a 4 to 14 hour flight. It would be a MOOC in the Sky – with video, reading and interactive elements – and someday might even include a real time video chat function as well. The learner could strive to earn a “badge” or roll them up into a certificate or degree program – that they pursued over several years of flights. It would be an intriguing element to add to international travel.

Here’s a peek at the Minerva Project’s classroom of the future — from washingtonpost.com by Matt McFarland
Check out five ideas that could impact the way we live, work and play.

Excerpt:

“Think of the fanciest version of Google Hangouts or Skype designed to be a classroom,” explains a student. “It’s very different than a traditional classroom, but in a way it’s what a traditional classroom distilled down to its purest form I feel like would look like,” says another.

Also see:

iBeacons, sensors, & similar M2M communications: Connecting the physical world with the digital world

On 10/16/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, communications, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, library / librarians, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC), participation, pedagogy, platforms, play, second screen apps, smart classrooms, tablets, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), wearables, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
iBeacons, sensors, & similar machine-to-machine (M2M) communications: Connecting the physical world with the digital world while opening up enormous possibilities for education & training-related applications.

DanielChristian-Combining-Digital-Physical-Worlds-Oct2014

The amazing ways new tech shapes storytelling — from stuff.tv by Stephen Graves

Excerpt:

From the moment some singer-poet livened up his verse performances with a musical instrument, technology has changed entertainment. The printing press, theatrical lighting, the cinema, radio, cinematic sound – they’ve all either impacted on existing storytelling forms, or created whole new ones.

In recent years, the arrival of digital formats and non-linear editing changed TV. Existing TV formats like drama benefited from the same level of technical polish as films; and at the same time, the ability to shoot and edit large amounts of footage quickly and cheaply created a whole new form of storytelling – reality TV.

…

Streaming media’s one thing – but the biggest tech leap in years is, of course, your smartphone. Texting during films may infuriate but whipping your phone out in the cinema may become an integral part of the story: the 2013 film App used a second-screen app to display extra layers of narrative, synced to the film’s soundtrack. There are books that use second-screen apps: last year’s Night Film lets you scan tags in the physical book to unlock extra content, including mocked-up websites and trailers.

Also see:

Niantic Labs’ John Hanke: alternate reality games are the future of storytelling — from stuff.tv by Stephen Graves
The brains behind Google Earth and location-based game Ingress talks augmented reality, wearable tech and ARGs

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. [Bernstein]

On 09/28/2014, in art, communications, convergence, creativity, digital storytelling, innovation, media/film, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, platforms, play, story, storytelling, transmedia, by Daniel Christian

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. –– from indiewire.com by Paula Bernstein
A new wave of creators is blurring the lines of storytelling to span multiple platforms. Here, a handful of those creators from this year’s New York Film Festival Convergence program explain what convergence means to them.

Comment from DSC:
If this trend continues, I would guess that it would affect education as well. That is, students no longer want to be passive consumers, but active participants. Hmmm…sounds very familiar to me. Aren’t we already there (i.e., active learning, project-based learning, makerspaces, and more)?

Also see:

YFF Convergence: What’s to Be Gained With Immersive Storytelling? — from by Kel O’Neill | Indiewire September 25, 2014 at 12:31PM
In this guest post, Kel O’Neill, an alumnus of the New York Film Festival’s Convergence section, who co-created “Empire” with Eline Jongsma, explains the benefits of immersive storytelling.

Check Out ‘The Empire Project:’ An Interactive Documentary Making Its World Premiere at the NYFF Convergence –– from indiewire.com by Paula Bernstein
“Empire,” the new project from the transatlantic filmmaking team of Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, is a perfect example of true interactivity and transmedia storytelling.

Learning Ecosystems

Some of the announcements from Apple today

Announcements from Google I/O 2015

Mary Meeker: Internet Trends 2015

The amazing ways new tech shapes storytelling [Graves]

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. [Bernstein]

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