Also see:
- twitter.com/tysonkimberly
- A straightforward guide to using Pinterest in education — from edudemic.com by Katie Lepi
On 12/13/2012,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, blogs / blogging / vlogging, career development, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, machine-to-machine communications, metacognition / metacognitive skills, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, real-world assignments, robotics, student-related, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
“Mom! Check out what I did at school today!”
If you’re a parent, don’t you love to hear the excitement in your son’s or daughter’s voice when they bring home something from school that really peaked their interest? Their passions?
I woke up last night with several ideas and thoughts on how technology could help students become — and stay — engaged, while passing over more control and choice to the students in order for them to pursue their own interests and passions. The idea would enable students to efficiently gain some exposure to a variety of things to see if those things were interesting to them — perhaps opening a way for a future internship or, eventually, a career.
The device I pictured in my mind was the sort of device that I saw a while back out at Double Robotics and/or at Suitable Technologies:
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The thoughts centered on implementing a growing network of such remote-controlled, mobile, videoconferencing-based sorts of devices, that were hooked up to voice translation engines. Students could control such devices to pursue things that they wanted to know more about, such as:
- Touring the Louvre in Paris
- Being backstage at a Broadway musical or checking out a live performance of Macbeth
- Watching a filming of a National Geographic Special in the Fiji Islands
- Attending an IEEE International Conference in Taiwan
- Attending an Educause Conference or a Sloan C event to get further knowledge about how to maximize your time studying online or within a hybrid environment
- Touring The Exploratorium in San Francisco
- Touring the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago
- Being a fly on the wall during a Senate hearing/debate
- Seeing how changes are made in the assembly lines at a Ford plant
- Or perhaps, when a student wheels their device to a particular area — such as the front row of a conference, the signal automatically switches to the main speaker/event (keynote speakers, panel, etc. via machine-to-machine communications)
- Inviting guest speakers into a class: pastors, authors, poets, composers, etc.
- Work with local/virtual teams on how to heighten public awareness re: a project that deals with sustainability
- Virtually head to another country to immerse themselves in another country’s language — and, vice versa, help them learn the students’ native languages
For accountability — as well as for setting aside intentional time to process the information — students would update their own blogs about what they experienced, heard, and saw. They would need to include at least one image, along with the text they write about their experience. Or perhaps a brief/edited piece of digital video or audio of some of the statements that they heard that really resonated with them, or that they had further questions on. The default setting on such postings would be to be kept private, but if the teacher and the student felt that a posting could/should be made public, a quick setting could be checked to publish it out there for others to see/experience.
Real world. Engaging. Passing over more choice and control to the students so that they can pursue what they are passionate about.
On 12/10/2012,
in Adobe, multimedia, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, tools,
by Daniel Christian
On 12/07/2012,
in career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, professional development, training / L&D, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 12/07/2012,
in Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, new business models, professional development, tools, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpts from John Katzman’s Keynote:
Higher ed is made up of a series of smaller markets — niches [From DSC: What’s your niche?]
- Elite level
- Mid level
- Entry level
Might have 2-3 high quality programs; and many smaller programs with lower production levels.
Fewer players of larger size
Consolidation is going to occur w/in higher ed. Besides consolidation, there will be collaboration/pooling of resources, and/or the hollowing out within higher ed.
From DSC:
Not that this is new…but looking at the above image, I wonder if more 100% online-based courses and schools will adopt this sort of “space”/interface as a sort of entryway into their institution’s materials.
On 12/06/2012,
in blended learning, Canada, higher education, hybrid learning, online learning, professional development,
by Daniel Christian
On 11/27/2012,
in Apple, professional development,
by Daniel Christian
Apple Webcast Review: Getting to Know iTunes U — from edcetera.com by Jennifer Funk
Excerpt:
Apple just launched its three-part webcast series exploring the ways educators can use iTunes U. The webcasts
Part one of the series, which you can watch on demand from a Safari browser here, featured two Apple representatives and two educators who gave a general overview of the platform, offered examples of use in both high school and college classes, and answered educator questions.
If you don’t have an extra 45 minutes to watch the webcast, check out the highlights below.
On 11/16/2012,
in Adobe, career development, creativity, professional development, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- Inspiring the next generation of thinkers — from edudemic.com (added this link on 11/19/12)
- Creativity should be taught like Math or Science — from Adobe by Jon Perera, Vice President, Adobe Education
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Excerpt:
Around the world, educators are fostering creative thinking with their students. We see this every day across both K-12 and higher education in compelling, engaging ways. I remembera 4th grade reading class that I attended where the teacher read aloud to students while sitting around a “virtual campfire” she’d created with iMovie – the students loved it. At the same time, we hear a lot about a growing emphasis on, “teaching to the test” that can sometimes result in a decreased focus on creativity – we think this is a huge problem for our students and for the global economy. College-educated professionals agree. I wanted to share newly-released results of what more than 1000 college graduates say about the importance of creativity in education.
On 11/15/2012,
in analytics, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, data related items, IT in HE, leadership, professional development, strategy, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Reflecting on the Top IT Issues of 2012 — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser
- Updating IT professionals’ skills and roles to accommodate new technologies and changing IT delivery models
- Supporting IT consumerization and bring-your-own device programs
- Developing a cloud strategy
- Improving the institution’s operational efficiency through IT
- Integrating IT into institutional decision-making
- Using analytics to support the important institutional outcomes
- Funding IT initiatives
- Transforming the institution’s business with IT
- Supporting research with high-performance computing, large data, and analytics
- Establishing and implementing IT governance throughout the institution
Also see:
Involving students in IT — — from campustechnology.com by Keith Norbury
IT shops are turning to students to staff help desks, troubleshoot, and more. For schools, it’s a way to cut costs; for students, it’s a learning experience and a pathway to employment.
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On 10/18/2012,
in online learning, professional development,
by Daniel Christian
I just wanted to thank everyone who put on — and participated in — a great 18th Annual Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning last week in Orlando, Florida! (~1600 on site attendees and ~1300 virtual attendees)
And if you’re reading this Ray Schroeder and/or Karen Vignare,
a special thanks out to you for your presentation on the MOOCs
and on the work you all have been doing for years.
Also see:
- MOOCs and the rest of ‘online’ — from InsideHigherEd.com by Doug Lederman
- Keynote Address: Democratizing Higher Education by Sebastian Thrun, VP & Fellow Google
On 10/15/2012,
in career development, changing business models, Daniel S. Christian, marketplaces, professional development, research,
by Daniel Christian
After hearing Sebastian Thrun’s keynote last week at the Sloan Consortium Conference on online learning — where he at one point alluded to the creation of “rockstar professors” arising from the current day MOOCs — and after reading the following item, I wonder…
…are we already owning our own personal brands more and more…?
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Academia.Edu overhauls profiles as the onus falls on researchers to manage their personal brands — from techcrunch.com by Kim-Mai Cutler
On 10/05/2012,
in Daniel S. Christian, online learning, professional development,
by Daniel Christian
On 10/01/2012,
in 21st century, career development, professional development, robotics, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Top 10: Best jobs for robots 2012 — from roboticsbusinessreview.com by Tom Green
Help wanted: humans need not apply
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Also on that page, a link to:
From DSC:
Why do I keep putting these items re: robotics up on a blog called Learning Ecosystems? Off the top of my head, here are a couple of the reasons why:
- Each year, more workers are losing their jobs to robots. Such workers, if they want to remain in the workforce, are going to need to go back and do some more learning. Lifelong learning continues its way to becoming the norm now. To put it another way…we are potentially leaving a large swath of people behind in this quickly moving technological age — with a larger swath amassing unless such folks can reinvent themselves. Such reinventing work will likely require obtaining some new skills and/or knowledge
- It relates to engineering and computer science, two (of the many) disciplines that I’m interested in and like to keep an eye on.