research

Preparing for the Digital University: A review of the history & current state of distance, blended, & online learning [Siemens, Gasevic, Dawson]

On 04/30/2015, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, Australia, blended learning, Canada, change, distance education, education technology, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, history, hybrid learning, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, organizational change, pace of change, pedagogy, research, social learning / networks, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technology (general), trends, UK, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt:

It is our intent that these reports will serve to introduce academics, administrators, and students to the rich history of technology in education with a particular emphasis of the importance of the human factors: social interaction, well-designed learning experiences, participatory pedagogy, supportive teaching presence, and effective techniques for using technology to support learning.

The world is digitizing and higher education is not immune to this transition. The trend is well underway and seems to be accelerating as top universities create departments and senior leadership positions to explore processes of innovation within the academy. It is our somewhat axiomatic assessment that in order to understand how we should design and develop learning for the future, we need to first take a look at what we already know. Any scientific enterprise that runs forward on only new technology, ignoring the landscape of existing knowledge, will be sub-optimal and likely fail. To build a strong future of digital learning in the academy, we must first take stock of what we know and what has been well researched.

During the process of completing this report, it became clear to us that a society or academic organization is required to facilitate the advancement and adoption of digital learning research. Important areas in need of exploration include faculty development, organizational change, innovative practices and new institutional models, effectiveness of teaching and learning activities, the student experience, increasing success for all students, and state and provincial policies, strategies, and funding models. To address this need, we invite interested academics, administrators, government and industry to contact us to discuss the formation of an organization to advocate for a collaborative and research informed approach to digital learning.

February 2015
George Siemens
Dragan Gasevic
Shane Dawson

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

Apple Introduces its Watch, ResearchKit, a new MacBook; HBO NOW on Apple TV/iPad/iPhone

On 03/09/2015, in Apple, design, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, mobile technologies, research, technologies for your home, television, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Also see:

Spring Forward Event — from apple.com
See the Apple Watch in action (in six GIFs) — from fortune.com by Jason Cipriani
Everything you need to know about Apple’s Watch Event — from yahoo.com by Dan Tynan
Apple failed to explain why we need a smartwatch, but it did give us a hint — from businessinsider.com by Steve Kovach

Adaptivity Tops Gartner’s Strategic Tech List for Ed [Schaffhauser]

On 03/03/2015, in analytics, assessment, data related items, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, mobile learning, mobile technologies, research, social learning / networks, strategy, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Adaptivity Tops Gartner’s Strategic Tech List for Ed — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Even as education spending is projected to inch up two percent this year to reach $67.8 billion worldwide, the way in which school districts, colleges and universities are spending that money is evolving to reflect the growing digital nature of teaching and learning, according to Gartner. In a new report, “Top 10 Strategic Technologies Impacting Education in 2015,” the business IT consulting firm ranked 10 innovations and tech trends that it believes the education CIO should plan for in 2015.

Many of the technologies aren’t emerging from within education itself, said Gartner Vice President Jan-Martin Lowendahl. They’re being “driven by major forces such as digital business and the consumerization and industrialization of IT.”

…

1. Adaptive Learning
2. Adaptive Digital Textbooks
3. CRM
4. Big Data
5. and 6. Sourcing Strategies and ‘Exostructure’
7. Open ‘Microcredentials’
8. Digital Assessment
9. Mobile
10. Social Learning

Learning Spaces – Lernwelten: The largest international database on learning space development and global trends.

On 02/13/2015, in adult learning, colleges, community colleges, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning spaces, library / librarians, research, smart classrooms, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

“Learning Spaces – Lernwelten”. New database to view global trends for the first time! — by Professor/Dr. Richard Stang for the Learning Research Center at Media University Stuttgart; the database is curated by Stefan Volkmann

Excerpt:

Database structure:

1 Facet between introductory, visually inspiring, and theory & research materials

2 Physical Spaces & Institutions – schools, universities, libraries, adult education, etc.

3 Digital & Hybrid Spaces

4 Design and Architectual Aspects

4.2.4 Information Technology Integration

4.2.4.2 Mobile Devices

4.5 Service Design

5 Organizational, practical and methodic aspects

5.1 Policy & Strategy

5.2 / 5.3 organisational & cooperation structures

5.4 Project Cycle & -Management

5.5 Stakeholder-driven Innovation

6 Learning types and demographic change

7 Stakeholders – Learners of all ages, teachers, practitioners, designer, and decision makers

8 Languages – especially English, German, and Scandinavian

9 Countries and Regions

Also see:

Learning Spaces database released — from designinglibraries.org.uk
Media University Stuttgart, Germany, has released the largest international database on learning space development.
Excerpt:
From academic to public libraries, from schools to adult education – digital environments fuse with physical learning landscapes, and offer learners, as well as institutions themselves, unforeseen possibilities. However, realising this very potential requires radically new measures in project management, organisational structures and stakeholder interaction. The database will address all these issues by providing the most current and comprehensive range of resources on learning spaces, visions and trends.

Addendum 2/13/15:

The article therein mentions:

FLEXSpace
and
The Learning Space Rating System

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.”

Business and Education: Collaborating for success [hrzone.com]

On 12/09/2014, in Australia, business, collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Europe, generational differences, higher education, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, research, training / L&D, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Business and Education: Collaborating for success — from hrzone.com

Excerpt:

Our latest report explores the relationship between the corporate learning experience and the education system.‘Business and education’ addresses such issues as engaging Gen Y, MOOCs and corporate learning, academic research for learning strategy, and learning analytics and puts the commercial partner right at the heart of some of today’s most crucial conversations around learning.

Contents:

Introduction
Rebecca Stromeyer, Managing Director, ICWE GmbH
Jon Kennard, Editor, TrainingZone.co.uk
Ian Myson , Director of Partnerships and Product Management, CMI

Making the link between academia and corporate learning
Anita Pincas, Visiting Fellow, Institute of Education

Digital Higher Education through partnership
Gilly Salmon, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Western Australia
Ben Mackenzie, Director, Learning Transformations at Swinburne
University of Technology

Big Data and Analytics in Education and Corporate Learning
Ger Driesen, Consultant, Challenge Leadership Development Academy

How to engage Generation Y in the workplace
Martin Couzins, Founder, LearnPatch

Ten ways MOOCs can underpin your corporate learning strategy
Donald Clark, Founder, Epic Group Ltd

From DSC:
I’m posting this item in support of such collaborations. As I mentioned the other day, we need stronger, more well-thought out spectrums of growth/scaffolding and collaborations amongst the worlds of K-12, higher ed, and the corporate world.

A room where executives go to get help from IBM’s Watson [Simonite; MIT Technology Review]

On 08/06/2014, in business, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, research, strategy, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt:

First, Watson was brought up to speed by being directed, verbally, to read over an internal memo summarizing the company’s strategy for artificial intelligence. It was then asked by one of the researchers to use that knowledge to generate a long list of candidate companies. “Watson, show me companies between $15 million and $60 million in revenue relevant to that strategy,” he said.

After the humans in the room talked over the results Watson displayed on screen, they called out a shorter list for Watson to put in a table with columns for key characteristics. After mulling some more, one of them said: “Watson, make a suggestion.” The system ran a set of decision-making algorithms and bluntly delivered its verdict: “I recommend eliminating Kawasaki Robotics.” When Watson was asked to explain, it simply added. “It is inferior to Cognilytics in every way.”

From Steelcase: How Classroom Design Affects Student Engagement

On 07/23/2014, in active learning, collaboration, engagement / engaging students, higher education, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, motivation, participation, research, smart classrooms, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Also see:

Report: Classroom Design Improves Student Engagement — from campustechnology.com by Joshua Bolkan | 07/22/14
Classrooms designed for active learning can improve student engagement, according to new research from Steelcase, a company that provides furniture for use in educational settings.

Excerpt:

Findings of the study, which was conducted by Lennie Scott Webber, director of education environments globally at Steelcase Education and appeared in the peer-reviewed Planning for Higher Education Journal, include:

Seventy-two percent of students surveyed said that making their classroom more flexible improved their motivation to attend class;

Eighty-four percent of participating students said they were more engaged in classroom activities in a flexible classroom;

Seventy-two percent of students surveyed told researchers that they believed they would earn a higher grade in the flexible classroom;

Students rated the flexible classroom higher on 12 different measures of engagement, such as collaboration, focus, comfort with participation and active involvement; and

When measured, student engagement levels were higher in the flexible classrooms than in the traditional classroom with row and columns of desks.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC — with thanks to Mr. Joe Byerwalter for this resource):

What is the future of learning? FIRST® LEGO® League teams will find the answers. In the 2014 FLL WORLD CLASS? Challenge, over 230,000 children ages 9 to 16* from over 70 countries will redesign how we gather knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Teams will teach adults about the ways that kids need and want to learn. Get ready for a whole new class – FLL WORLD CLASSSM!

FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. During FLL WORLD CLASSSM, teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. They will also choose and solve a real-world question in the Project. Throughout their experience, teams will operate under FLL’s signature set of Core Values.

*9-14 in the US, Canada, and Mexico

Also see:

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

Excerpt:

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

Their explanations fall under six major points:

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

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

MIT Technology Review’s “10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014”

On 05/14/2014, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, collaboration, data related items, emerging technologies, engineering, mobile technologies, research, robotics, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014 — from MIT Technology Review

Also see:

MIT Lists its 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014 – Part 1 — from WFS.org

Online learning at public universities: Building a new path to a college degree [learninghouse.com]

On 02/11/2014, in colleges, higher education, online learning, research, universities, by Daniel Christian

Online Learning at Public Universities: Building a New Path to a College Degree — from learninghouse.com

SOME KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT:

State colleges are embracing online learning
Student discipline is the greatest barrier to success
Unexpected impact: CAOs reported that offering online courses provided new pedagogy for face-to-face instruction, enabled traditional students to enroll in online courses, and increased institutional capacity to offer more classes.
Online learning can generate revenue
What the future holds: When asked about plans for the next one to two years, the most frequent responses were to add fully online certificate programs and to increase international enrollment. Using MOOC content in on-ground courses came in third.

A recording of the webinar is at:

Online Learning at Public Universities A Survey of AASCU Members — from youtube.com; published on Nov 11, 2013
The results of a survey of chief academic officers from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities reveals how public institutions are using online learning in higher education, and what their plans for the future are.

Research Application for the 21st Century: A Video for Every Scientific Article [JOVE.com]

On 02/05/2014, in biology, chemistry, online learning, physics, psychology, research, by Daniel Christian

Research Application for the 21st Century: A Video for Every Scientific Article — from jove.com on January 20, 2014

Excerpt:

Last week, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, introduced a web application allowing scientists to view their text-based scientific articles in a 21^st century format.

Named the Ask JoVE button, this new web application, or bookmarklet, generates a collection of peer-reviewed videos demonstrating the techniques used in a given scientific paper. It offers researchers the opportunity to watch the crucial components of a procedure, thereby reducing experimental error and the time it takes to learn the experiment.

“We created this new feature because we want to visualize all the science literature in the world,” said JoVE’s CEO, Dr. Moshe Pritsker, “For every science article you read, click on the Ask JoVE button and immediately see videos of experiments related to this article, filmed at the best university labs.”

Learning Ecosystems

Apple Introduces its Watch, ResearchKit, a new MacBook; HBO NOW on Apple TV/iPad/iPhone

Business and Education: Collaborating for success [hrzone.com]

A room where executives go to get help from IBM’s Watson [Simonite; MIT Technology Review]

From Steelcase: How Classroom Design Affects Student Engagement

The Internet of Things will thrive by 2025 [Pew Research; Anderson & Rainie]

Online learning at public universities: Building a new path to a college degree [learninghouse.com]

Research Application for the 21st Century: A Video for Every Scientific Article [JOVE.com]

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