social learning / networks

Reflections on “Harvard Business School Intros HBX Live Virtual Classroom” [Kelly]

On 08/26/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future of higher education, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, new business models, online learning, social learning / networks, student-related, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

HBX Intros HBX Live Virtual Classroom — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

Harvard Business School‘s HBX digital learning initiative today launched a virtual classroom designed to reproduce the intimacy and synchronous interaction of the case method in a digital environment. With HBX Live, students from around the world can log in concurrently to participate in an interactive discussion in real time, guided by an HBS professor.

Built to mimic the amphitheater-style seating of an HBS classroom, the HBX Live Studio features a high-resolution video wall that can display up to 60 participants. Additional students can audit sessions via an observer model. An array of stationary and roaming cameras capture the action, allowing viewers to see both the professor and fellow students.

HBX Live’s virtual amphitheater
(PRNewsFoto/Harvard Business School)

Also see HBX Live in Action.

I think that this type of setup could also be integrated with a face-to-face classroom as well (given the right facilities). The HBX Live concept fits right into a piece of my vision entitled, “Learning from the Living [Class] Room.”

Several words/phrases comes to mind:

Convenience. I don’t have to travel to another city, state, country. That type of convenience and flexibility is the basis of why many learners take online-based courses in the first place.
Global — learning from people of different cultures, races, backgrounds, life experiences.
The opportunities are there to increase one‘s cultural awareness.
HBX Live is innovative; in fact, Harvard is upping it’s innovation game yet again — showing a firm grasp/display of understanding that they realize that the landscape of higher education is changing and that institutions of traditional higher education need to adapt.
Harvard is willing to experiment and to identify new ways to leverage technologies — taking advantage of the affordances that various technologies offer.

BTW, note how the use of teams is a requirement here.

Also see:

Harvard Business School really has created the classroom of the future — from fortune.com by John A. Byrne

Excerpt:

Anand, meantime, faces the images of 60 students portrayed on a curved screen in front of him, a high-resolution video wall composed of more than 6.2 million pixels that mimics the amphitheater-style seating of a class HBS tiered classroom

Should You Buy the Hype? An Inside Look at the Virtual Reality Landscape — from singularityhub.com by Howie Leibach

Excerpts:

Consequently in 2014, less than two years after the Kickstarter, Facebook acquired Oculus for $2.2 billion dollars, and in doing so legitimized the VR industry overnight.

“We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and augmented reality will become part of people’s daily life,” said Zuckerberg.

With his track record for sniffing out “what’s next” and a distribution network of 1+ billion people, many have been quick to infer VR has a very bright future. Some analysts are already predicting VR will generate $30 billion in revenue by 2020, and many of Zuckerberg’s Silicon Valley counterparts haven’t hesitated to make similar predictions.

VR is still perhaps one or two years away from going mainstream, but more consumers are being exposed to it than ever before. Advancements in headset technology regularly make front page news on CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and Wired. VR has even infiltrated the holy grail of pop-culture, prominently featured (and lampooned) on a recent episode of South Park.

But none of this VIP treatment matters if the product can’t sell. With the consumer Oculus Rift six to twelve months away, some are still on the fence, debating if they should buy the hype.

Realistically, many businesses don’t have time to wait and are already bracing for a future with VR in it. As executives scramble to invest in their own VR initiatives, many want to know what’s actually happening in the space.

Below are excerpts from Greenlight VR’s July Research Report, which investigate trends on the state of the industry, including VR growth, investments and opportunities.

Also see:

Which Way Next? A New Singularity Hub Channel to (Re)Imagine the Future — from singularityhub.com by Sveta McShane; also see all of the items on the Which Way Next? channel.

What might our learning ecosystems look like by 2025? [Christian]

On 07/31/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, business side of he, career development, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, liberal arts, lifelong learning, marketplaces, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

This posting can also be seen out at evoLLLution.com (where LLL stands for lifelong learning):

From DSC:
What might our learning ecosystems look like by 2025?

In the future, learning “channels” will offer more choice, more control. They will be far more sophisticated than what we have today.

That said, what the most important aspects of online course design end up being 10 years from now depends upon what types of “channels” I think there will be and what might be offered via those channels. By channels, I mean forms, methods, and avenues of learning that a person could pursue and use. In 2015, some example channels might be:

Attending a community college, a college or a university to obtain a degree
Obtaining informal learning during an internship
Using social media such as Twitter or LinkedIn
Reading blogs, books, periodicals, etc.

In 2025, there will likely be new and powerful channels for learning that will be enabled by innovative forms of communications along with new software, hardware, technologies, and other advancements. For examples, one could easily imagine:

That the trajectory of deep learning and artificial intelligence will continue, opening up new methods of how we might learn in the future
That augmented and virtual reality will allow for mobile learning to the Nth degree
That the trend of Competency Based Education (CBE) and microcredentials may be catapulted into the mainstream via the use of big data-related affordances

Due to time and space limitations, I’ll focus here on the more formal learning channels that will likely be available online in 2025. In that environment, I think we’ll continue to see different needs and demands – thus we’ll still need a menu of options. However, the learning menu of 2025 will be more personalized, powerful, responsive, sophisticated, flexible, granular, modularized, and mobile.

Highly responsive, career-focused track

One part of the menu of options will focus on addressing the demand for more career-focused information and learning that is available online (24×7). Even in 2015, with the U.S. government saying that 40% of today’s workers now have ‘contingent’ jobs and others saying that percentage will continue climbing to 50% or more, people will be forced to learn quickly in order to stay marketable. Also, the 1/2 lives of information may not last very long, especially if we continue on our current trajectory of exponential change (vs. linear change).

However, keeping up with that pace of change is currently proving to be out of reach for most institutions of higher education, especially given the current state of accreditation and governance structures throughout higher education as well as how our current teaching and learning environment is set up (i.e., the use of credit hours, 4 year degrees, etc.). By 2025, accreditation will have been forced to change to allow for alternative forms of learning and for methods of obtaining credentials. Organizations that offer channels with a more vocational bent to them will need to be extremely responsive, as they attempt to offer up-to-date, highly-relevant information that will immediately help people be more employable and marketable. Being nimble will be the name of the game in this arena. Streams of content will be especially important here. There may not be enough time to merit creating formal, sophisticated courses on many career-focused topics.

With streams of content, the key value provided by institutions will be to curate the most relevant, effective, reliable, up-to-date content…so one doesn’t have to drink from the Internet’s firehose of information. Such streams of content will also offer constant potential, game-changing scenarios and will provide a pulse check on a variety of trends that could affect an industry. Social-based learning will be key here, as learners contribute to each other’s learning. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will need to be knowledgeable facilitators of learning; but given the pace of change, true experts will be rare indeed.

Microcredentials, nanodegrees, competency-based education, and learning from one’s living room will be standard channels in 2025. Each person may have a web-based learner profile by then and the use of big data will keep that profile up-to-date regarding what any given individual has been learning about and what skills they have mastered.

For example, even currently in 2015, a company called StackUp creates their StackUp Report to add to one’s resume or grades, asserting that their services can give “employers and schools new metrics to evaluate your passion, interests, and intellectual curiosity.” Stackup captures, categorizes, and scores everything you read and study online. So they can track your engagement on a given website, for example, and then score the time spent doing so. This type of information can then provide insights into the time you spend learning.

Project teams and employers could create digital playlists that prospective employees or contractors will have to advance through; and such teams and employers will be watching to see how the learners perform in proving their competencies.

However, not all learning will be in the fast lane and many people won’t want all of their learning to be constantly in the high gears. In fact, the same learner could be pursuing avenues in multiple tracks, traveling through their learning-related journeys at multiple speeds.

The more traditional liberal arts track

To address these varied learning preferences, another part of the menu will focus on channels that don’t need to change as frequently. The focus here won’t be on quickly-moving streams of content, but the course designers in this track can take a bit more time to offer far more sophisticated options and activities that people will enjoy going through.

Along these lines, some areas of the liberal arts* will fit in nicely here.

*Speaking of the liberal arts, a brief but important tangent needs to be addressed, for strategic purposes. While the following statement will likely be highly controversial, I’m going to say it anyway. Online learning could be the very thing that saves the liberal arts.

Why do I say this? Because as the price of higher education continues to increase, the dynamics and expectations of learners continue to change. As the prices continue to increase, so do peoples’ expectations and perspectives. So it may turn out that people are willing to pay a dollar range that ends up being a fraction of today’s prices. But such greatly reduced prices won’t likely be available in face-to-face environments, as offering these types of learning environment is expensive. However, such discounted prices can and could be offered via online-based environments. So, much to the chagrin of many in academia, online learning could be the very thing that provides the type of learning, growth, and some of the experiences that liberal arts programs have been about for centuries. Online learning can offer a lifelong supply of the liberal arts.

But I digress…
By 2025, a Subject Matter Expert (SME) will be able to offer excellent, engaging courses chocked full of the use of:

Engaging story/narrative
Powerful collaboration and communication tools
Sophisticated tracking and reporting
Personalized learning, tech-enabled scaffolding, and digital learning playlists
Game elements or even, in some cases, multiplayer games
Highly interactive digital videos with built-in learning activities
Transmedia-based outlets and channels
Mobile-based learning using AR, VR, real-world assignments, objects, and events
…and more.

However, such courses won’t be able to be created by one person. Their sophistication will require a team of specialists – and likely a list of vendors, algorithms, and/or open source-based tools – to design and deliver this type of learning track.

Final reflections

The marketplaces involving education-related content and technologies will likely look different. There could be marketplaces for algorithms as well as for very granular learning modules. In fact, it could be that modularization will be huge by 2025, allowing digital learning playlists to be built by an SME, a Provost, and/or a Dean (in addition to the aforementioned employer or project team). Any assistance that may be required by a learner will be provided either via technology (likely via an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled resource) and/or via a SME.

We will likely either have moved away from using Learning Management Systems (LMSs) or those LMSs will allow for access to far larger, integrated learning ecosystems.

Functionality wise, collaboration tools will still be important, but they might be mind-blowing to us living in 2015. For example, holographic-based communications could easily be commonplace by 2025. Where tools like IBM’s Watson, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Deepmind, and Apple’s Siri end up in our future learning ecosystems is hard to tell, but will likely be there. New forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will likely be mainstream by 2025.

While the exact menu of learning options is unclear, what is clear is that change is here today and will likely be here tomorrow. Those willing to experiment, to adapt, and to change have a far greater likelihood of surviving and thriving in our future learning ecosystems.

PRAISE: a social network for online music learning [ec.europa.eu]

On 07/24/2015, in collaboration, communities of practice, elearning, Europe, multimedia, music, online learning, online tutoring, social learning / networks, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

PRAISE: a social network for online music learning — from ec.europa.eu
Community feedback and advanced analytics, combined with lesson planning and monitoring tools for teachers make this social learning platform, PRAISE, a step forward in collaborative online learning.

Excerpt:

Feedback is essential for learning,’ says Carles Sierra, Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council and coordinator of the PRAISE project. The project aims at filling a gap in online learning by creating a social network for music education with tools for giving and receiving feedback.

Using PRAISE’s Music Circle platform, music students can upload recordings of their playing and receive detailed feedback from other members of the community. Advanced tools let reviewers place their comments as annotations at exactly the right place in the audio signal representation.

‘Students’ peers can say “this crescendo is very nice” or “this passage is very expressive”,’ explains Professor Sierra. ‘This timeline of structured comments and this level of granularity have been lacking in online approaches to giving feedback on music.’

Also see their videos at:

Beyond Active Learning: Transformation of the Learning Space — from educause.edu by Mark S. Valenti

Excerpt:

The past decade has seen exciting developments in learning space design. All across the United States and around the world, across seemingly every discipline, there is interest in creating new, active, project-based learning spaces. Technology-rich and student-centric, the new learning spaces are often flexible in size and arrangement and are a significant departure from the lecture hall of yesterday. These developments are not the result of any one factor but are occurring as the result of changes in student demographics, technology advances, and economic pressures on higher education and as the result of increasing demands from employers. The nature of work today is inherently team-based and collaborative, often virtual, and geographically distant. Companies are seeking creative, collaborative employees who have an exploratory mindset. Employers seek graduates who can be more immediately productive in today’s fast-paced economy. Colleges and universities around the country are responding by creating flexible, multimodal, and authentic learning experiences. It’s a complex ecosystem of education—and it’s evolving right before our eyes. What an amazing time to be in education and to be a part of the transformation of the learning space!

…

The next generation of learning spaces will take all the characteristics of an active learning environment—flexibility, collaboration, team-based, project-based—and add the capability of creating and making. Project teams will be both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary and will likely need access to a broad array of technologies. High-speed networks, video-based collaboration, high-resolution visualization, and 3-D printing are but a few of the digital tools that will find their way into the learning space.

Figure 1. The T-Shaped Professional

Credit: Developed by IBM (Jim Spohrer, IBM Labs) and Michigan State University and
modified on March 16, 2015. Reprinted with permission.

CMU’s active learning classrooms improve STEM students’ learning — from cmich.edu; with thanks to Krista Spahr for this item
Environments support collaborative conversation, development of real-world skills

Excerpt:

The active learning difference
Through state-of-the-art technology, students spend their class time in active learning classrooms collaborating on assignments and solving problems rather than listening to lectures. Faculty become coaches and guides instigating thoughtful discussions and debates. Often, students watch faculty members’ online lectures before each class session begins.

Studies have shown that active learning classrooms and their settings allow students to learn up to three times more and retain greater knowledge, strengthen student-faculty relationships and improve student performance. Active learning also is proven to increase the likelihood that students in STEM disciplines will continue in those programs and removes the gap between the success of male and female students.

…

The flipped classroom can be associated with more collaborative, experiential, constructivist learning. “Faculty become coaches and guides instigating thoughtful discussions and debates. Often, students watch faculty members’ online lectures before each class session begins.”

6 Secrets of Active Learning Classroom Design — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser
While the basic elements of active learning classrooms are well known, no one-size-fits-all template exists. Here’s how to achieve the custom fit your school needs.

Excerpt:

4 Questions to Guide Classroom Design
By next year, the University of Oklahoma will have nearly a dozen active learning spaces, up from one in 2012. Every single classroom looks different from the others, and that’s by design. Chris Kobza, manager of IT learning spaces, and Erin Wolfe, director of strategic initiatives, have honed their process down to four simple questions:

What’s the vision?
What’s the focus?
How flexible?
What’s the budget?

The process starts when they sit down with the person or people who want to redo a room to find out what they envision — is it maximum technology or maximum flexibility? “It’s a real casual conversation but you can learn enough about what their expectations for the space are, what the expectations for their faculty are, what they hope the students get out of the space,” said Kobza.

Reasons and Research – Why Schools Need Collaborative Learning Spaces — from emergingedtech.com by Kelly Walsh
There are Many Reasons Why Flexible, Active Learning Classrooms Should be Widely Adopted

Excerpt:

The power of Active Learning: “Many of today’s learners favor active, participatory, experiential learning—the learning style they exhibit in their personal lives. But their behavior may not match their self-expressed learning preferences when sitting in a large lecture hall with chairs bolted to the floor.”

Kelly references the
Learning Spaces compilation out at Educause:

From DSC:
Don’t like the phrase “active learning?” I’m compiling a list of other words/phrases/thoughts that one can use:

Collaborating on assignments and solving problems
Collaborative learning
Actively engaged learning
Peer instruction
Thinking out loud with one another
Constructionist / constructivist learning
Developing real-world skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, negotiating, and teamwork
Students have the opportunity to work in groups, solve complex problems and be creative
Emphasis on small-group activities
Immersed in discussion
Flexible in size and arrangement
Experiences and opportunities to better understand the material
Students are extremely engaged in what they are doing, and their thinking is being refined.
Creating and making; creativity
Effective interactions of small groups of people within communal spaces
Putting the focus on students doing the work of learning
Increased motivation via more hands-on opportunities
Sharing / exchanging ideas
Participatory

‘The shift is changing the way teachers plan, present lessons and share information. Students no longer need to all do the same thing to learn about a topic. This change is enhancing the quality of work teachers are receiving back from students, and is creating an environment where students are involved in the creation (versus consumption) of content that aids their learning. “A major change comes in the direct instruction piece. As teachers, we’re moving from simply giving information and offering a passive learning experience, to serving as a facilitator and guiding student inquiries. This method is allowing them to be active participants in their own education,” said Alder Creek Middle School teacher Vicki Decker. (Source)

Addendum on 7/17/15:

Designing Active Learning Classrooms — from dbctle.erau.edu; with thanks to Tim Holt out at holtthink.tumblr.com for the original posting that led me to this resource
Excerpt:
Active Learning Classrooms (also known as Active Learning Spaces or Learning Studios) are classrooms or other physical spaces designed with active learning in mind. In particular they are student-centered rather than instructor-centered. Students often sit in groups instead of rows to support collaborative learning, and some classrooms even have movable tables or desks. Students also sometimes have their own computers or tablets, and there may be multiple displays around the classroom, since students are not facing in one direction. Researchers have found that active learning classrooms have positive influences on student learning and engagement. Below are videos, examples, research studies, and assessment instruments related to active learning spaces.

A somewhat related addendum:

50 alternatives to lecturing — from teachthought.com

What Learners Really Want — from clomedia.com by Todd Tauber
Listen to your learners: They want speed, diversity and adaptability in internal development programs.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Everyone knows most learning happens beyond the classroom walls and outside learning management systems. But new research shows just how much — and the data are startling.

In the past year, learning technology company Degreed conducted two separate surveys that show workers spend four to five times more time on self-directed learning than on internal or external learning offerings. They invest more than 14 hours a month, on average, learning on their own but just two to three hours on employer-provided learning.

Those numbers should inform how and why development needs to evolve — urgently.
…
Learners want easier and faster access to answers. Degreed found almost 70 percent of workers say the first thing they do when they need to learn something for their jobs is Google it, then read or watch what they find. About 42 percent look for a live or online course, but they do it on their own. Fewer than 12 percent turn to their learning organization first.

Learning and development people do pretty much the same thing. They are “Googling it” too, and not just because it’s expedient. By a 3.5 to 1 margin, people believe self-directed learning is more effective in helping them succeed at work than taking part in company sponsored learning. These are mature adults. They have a good idea what they need.
…
Learners want to leverage the whole learning ecosystem. Informal learning initiatives should be valued because workers believe as much as 60 percent of the knowledge and skills they use on the job comes from informal learning.

From DSC:
I agree with Todd that this is where learning ecosystems come in. Employees are trying to use a variety of tools and methods to tap into streams of up-do-date content.

To me, the charter of those involved with corporate training/development should be to help employees learn about the current set of tools available to them and how to use such tools. Then do the necessary research to give employees a place to begin using those tools — such as whom should a particular group of employees should follow on Twitter or Scoop.It, which websites/blogs are especially well done and applicable to their particular positions and area of expertise, etc.

The pace of change has changed and at times, it’s moving too fast to create formal learning materials. We need to tap into streams of content. Perhaps those in corporate U’s could even be helping to curate and create the most beneficial streams of content for their employees in key strategic areas — and doing so using small, bite-sized chunks. They could recommend — and to some degree even provide — the platforms employees could use for self-directed learning. This self-directed learning wouldn’t be all alone though — each employee would be building and interacting with folks within their own Personal Learning Network (PLN); each person’s learning ecosystem would likely look different from others’ learning ecosystems.

Also relevant/see:

Heutagogy Community of Practice

IRIS.TV Finds Adaptive Video Personalization Increases Consumption by 50% — from appmarket.tv by Richard Kastelein

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IRIS.TV, the leading in-player video recommendation engine, reports that its programmatic video delivery technology, Adaptive StreamTM, has increased video consumption by 50% across all its clients. The results of these findings just further solidifies that consumption of online video is significantly enhanced by a personalized user experience.

By integrating Adaptive StreamTM in their video players and mobile apps, IRIS.TV’s clients are able to deliver the most relevant streams of video to their viewers, just like TV. Yet unlike TV, viewers’ feedback is captured in real-time through interactive buttons, allowing the stream to dynamically adapt to the changing preferences.

Press Release: IRIS.TV Launches Personalized End-screen for Online Video with Kaltura — from iris.tv
IRIS.TV Partners with Kaltura to offer programmatic content delivery and in-player thumbnail recommendations

Excerpt:

Los Angeles, May 4, 2015 – IRIS.TV the leading programmatic content delivery system, today announced a new dynamic, personalized end-screen plugin for Kaltura, provider of the leading video technology platform.

IRIS.TV’s new plugin for Kaltura will offer clients of both a personalized and dynamic stream of video along with a personalized end-screen framework. Publishers can now provide users with both dynamic streams of video – powered by consumption and interaction – along with thumbnail choices specific to their real-time consumption habits. This new integration supplies publishers with additional tools to deliver a more personalized viewing experience in order to maximize viewer retention and video views. The partnership is aimed to help consumers discover relevant and engaging content while viewing across all connected devices.

From DSC:
Now imagine these same concepts of providing recommendation engines and personalized/dynamic/interactive streams of content, but this time apply those same concepts to delivering personalized, digital learning playlists on topics that you want to learn about. With the pace of change and a shrinking 1/2 life for many pieces of information, this could be a powerful way to keep abreast of any given topic. Team these concepts up with the idea of learning hubs — whereby some of the content is delivered electronically and some of the content is discussed/debated in a face-to-face manner — and you have some powerful, up-to-date opportunities for lifelong learning. Web-based learner profiles and services like Stack Up could continually populate one’s resume and list of skills — available to whomever you choose to make it available to.

Along these lines, also see:

Nearly 1 billion TV sets Internet connected by 2020 — from appmarket.tv
Excerpt:

The number of TV sets connected to the Internet will reach 965 million by 2020, up from 103 million at end-2010 and the 339 million expected at end-2014, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.Covering 51 countries, the Connected TV Forecasts report estimates that the proportion of TV sets connected to the Internet will rocket to 30.4% by 2020, up from only 4.2% at end-2010 and the 12.1% expected by end-2014. South Korea (52.7%) will have the highest proportion by 2020, followed by the UK (50.6%), Japan (48.6%) and the US (47.0%). – See more at: http://www.appmarket.tv/connected-tv/2572-nearly-1-billion-tv-sets-internet-connected-by-2020.html#sthash.BJWdCgbv.dpuf

McDonnell – HTML5 is the true Second Screen, Social TV winner — from appmarket.tv
Excerpt:
After years of evolution, the W3C has finally declared the HTML5 standard complete. When Steve Jobs “declared war on Flash” he gave HTML5 a fighting chance of dominance. In parallel, businesses started to recognise the potential of Social TV or “Second Screen” behaviour to re-invigorate old media and drive revenue to newer social platforms like Twitter. The ensuing debate centred on winners and losers, but with such a diverse global broadcasting market and no social network with dominance in all countries, could the web standard be the ultimate winner? I think it already is.

MOOCs emerge as disruptors to corporate learning [Meister]

On 06/16/2015, in 21st century, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, disruption, experimentation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, social learning / networks, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

MOOCs emerge as disruptors to corporate learning — from forbes.com by Jeanne Meister

Excerpts:

Our company, Future Workplace, wanted to uncover how pervasive this revolution was in corporate learning. Our survey entitled Leveraging MOOCs and Open Learning Assets In The Workplace was fielded to 222 heads of Human Resources, Corporate Learning and Talent Management. We also conducted a number of interviews with senior HR leaders to understand the drivers behind creating a company MOOC, the benefits and barriers, and the long term impact of MOOCs on corporate learning.

Four findings emerged as a wake-up call for Chief Human Resource Officers, Chief Learning Officers as well as senior business leaders.

Finding #1: MOOCs offer companies an innovative online learning design for employees plus the ability to externally offer MOOCs to attract potential new hires and new customers.

Finding #2: Companies want to go beyond creating MOOCs to also curate a wide range of open learning assets.

Finding #3: The top three barriers to experimenting with MOOCs inside companies include a lack of budget, technical and security issues and a lack of skills among corporate learning professionals to design MOOCs.

Finding #4: Top resistors to experimenting with the MOOC model were employees in the Corporate Learning Department.

Institutions say this is the new priority in higher education — from ecampusnews.com by Ron Bethke; with a shout out to eduwire.com for their comments/posting on this
Survey reveals institutions, like UC Irvine, are putting greater effort into tracking graduates’ success and helping them continue learning through short-term programs.

Excerpt:

The days of warmly wishing graduates farewell and good luck after four years is not a sustaining strategy for colleges and universities, says a new report. Instead, offering online programs to keep graduates coming back to the institution for continuing career education is quickly becoming higher-ed’s newest must-offer.
…
Simply better understanding how graduates are doing isn’t the only way institutions are showing their commitment to lifelong career success. Though only 4 percent of respondents currently offer short-term alternative credentials such as digital badges and short-term certificates for graduates changing careers or looking to learn new skills, 50 percent of responding senior executives plan to add these customizable certificates to their portfolio in the next five years, with another 30 percent planning to offer digital badges in the same time frame.

“Universities and colleges want better ways to connect with alumni for years to come,” said EAB Practice Manager Carla Hickman. “This means offering not just surveys, but also new, intensive learning opportunities that support lifelong achievement and success of students.”

UC Irvine, for example, is currently working on setting up special communities for alumni taking various MOOCs on Coursera, in order to bring more graduates back to learn in more meaningful ways.
…
“[Millennials] are seeking short-format courses and credentials for ‘just-in-time’ and ‘just enough’ education.

From DSC:
Given the pace and far-reaching impact of today’s changes, lifelong learning is now a requirement. Learning new things, staying on top of trends, peering out into the future to see what’s coming down the pike — these are important actions that we all need to take to remain marketable. If we see robots, algorithms, and automation coming into the neighborhood of our particular jobs, then we had better be looking and preparing for something else. At that point, we’ll need to pivot…to adapt…to change.

Speaking of change, the article above reminds me of a potentially more utilized “distribution channel” — or model, if you will — that universities, colleges, and businesses could be moving towards in the future. And that is, that organizations could be moving towards providing streams of relevant, curated, dependable content to learning hubs around the globe. Hubs that feature blended learning where some of the content is beamed in from Subject Matter Experts (such as professors, teachers, trainers, and others) and some of the content is dealt with in a face-to-face manner. The beamed in content could be done synchronously and/or asynchronously. And as people often like to learn with others around a physical location, I could see this type of model taking off.

It would feature smaller, bite-sized chunks of content and investigations into a topic. But the model would have to allow for such a learning provider to be nimble and responsive — always up-to-date. That way they could provide such “just-in-time” and “just enough” learning.

Other words that come to my mind here — both as individuals and as institutions — are the following:

Reinvent
Staying relevant
Surviving
Being responsive

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/staff, 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

Automated, creative & dispersed: The future of work in the 21st century — from The Economist

Date Published:
May 20th 2015

Excerpt:

The key findings are as follows:

In the next decade-and-a-half, digital technology will dissolve the concept of work as we know it.
The growing use and sophistication of automation will shift the emphasis of human employment towards creativity and social skills.
This new reality of work will require a new, more nurturing approach to management.

Contents

About the research
Executive summary
Introduction
Your workplace is… everywhere
The hospital of the future
Creative and social skills will dominate the automated world
The bank of the future
Well-being and employee development top the management agenda
The university of the future
The government of the future
Conclusion
Appendix: Survey results

This requires university workers to develop new skills, she says. Ms Shutt predicts that in the future lecturers will be encouraging more of their students to take work placements or even launch their own start-ups, and developing relationships that give industry a greater input
into the direction of research. “We need to develop skills in interaction with business and in preparing students for the work world.”

As “TV” continues to morph, what new educational opportunities/affordances might result from this convergence?

On 04/17/2015, in communications, communities of practice, convergence, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, media/film, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, social learning / networks, social media, technologies for your home, television, tools, transmedia, TVs, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The articles below illustrate the continued convergence of multiple technologies and means of communication. For example, what we consider “TV” is changing rapidly. As this space changes, I’m looking for new opportunities and affordances that would open up exciting new approaches and avenues for educationally-related learning experiences.

Hootsuite and Tagboard team up to power social TV workflow — from adweek.com by Kimberlee Morrison

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

More and more TV viewers are engaging with second screen devices while they watch broadcasts. A new partnership between Hootsuite and Tagboard hopes to bridge the gap between television and second screen social experiences.

Tagboard is a social media aggregation and curation platform that allows users to manage incoming social media posts for display, either on television broadcasts, or on screens at live events, and Hootsuite is a social media campaign management program. Their partnership enables integration for mutual users for real-time engagement.

Capture social content on display and TV with Hootsuite and Tagboard — from blog.hootsuite.com

Excerpt:

Adding social content to live TV broadcasts and sports games is a proven way to capture and keep your audience’s attention.

But the process isn’t that easy. For one, digital teams need to ensure that they review each piece of content (to keep it safe for the big screen), and this can create complicated and slow social media workflows.

To help streamline this process, Hootsuite has integrated with Tagboard, an innovative social media display tool, to provide an easy way to capture social content and incorporate it into on-air broadcasts, live event screens, or on digital platforms.

With the Tagboard app for Hootsuite, your team can put relevant and timely social content on air within seconds—when it matters most to the viewer.

KUSA Weather Touchscreen 2 women anchors.png

Introducing the Tagboard App for Hootsuite — from blog.tagboard.com
Social TV is easier than ever with Tagboard’s new app for Hootsuite

“MIT study shows how educational videos could be better” plus other tips, tricks, tools & resources re: digital video

On 03/27/2015, in digital learning, digital video, education technology, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, social learning / networks, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

MIT study shows how educational videos could be better — from bostinno.streetwise.co by Clinton Nguyen

Excerpt:

Subgoal labeling turned out to be a big success for users, and that mode of thinking transferred to newer tasks beyond the initial one.

“Immediately [after the first task], we asked people to attempt another problem, and we found that the people who got the subgoal labels attempted more steps and got them right more often, and they also took less time,” said Mark Guzdial, a professor at Georgia Tech who’s who’s had a hand in similar research for the past five years.

“When we asked them to try a new problem that they’d never seen before, 50 percent of the subgoal people did it correctly, and less than 10 percent of the people who didn’t get subgoals did that correctly,” he said.

Tips for choosing and using educational videos in your classroom — from edtechreview.in by Prasanna Bharti

Excerpt:

No matter if you are an expert of technology or novice, there are a lot of ways by which you can use technology easily in teaching to make lecture more interesting and engaging, one of the best way is to use educational videos. However, you need to be thoughtful before choosing and using them.

Items on Meerkat* and Periscope*

Hashtag automatically uploads users’ Meerkat* posts to YouTube — from springwise.com
Meerkat users can now add #Katch to their Twitter posts and the service will automatically record their livestreams and post them on YouTube.

Excerpt:

One of the major successes of this month’s SXSW festival was Meerkat — a live streaming app which enables users to create and broadcast video footage in the moment. Videos are shared with the world, live, via the user’s own Twitter account, before disappearing forever into the ether of internet-past. That was until hacker Tarikh Korula launched #Katch, a simple hashtag which enables Meerkat users to auto upload their livestreams to YouTube, immortalizing them forever.

Want to save Meerkat* videos to YouTube? Katch’s hashtag wants to help — from mashable.com by Adario Strange

Twitter launches its own live video streaming app, Periscope — from talkingnewmedia.com by D.B. Hebbard
Periscope, which streams live video to your Twitter feed, launches a couple weeks after competitor Meerkat entered the App Store

* Meerkat and Periscope are tools to Tweet live video

Sharing TV Clips Socially (and Legally) with Whipclip — from adweek.com by Adam Flomenbaum

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Whipclip – an app that lets viewers splice and share (legally) TV clips – has launched today, and has secured partnerships with major broadcast networks, including Comedy Central, ABC, CBS, FOX, VH1, A&E and Lifetime, Bloomberg, OWN and truTV. In December, we wrote about the company raising $20 million to launch the service.
…
“The days of awkwardly holding your phone up to the TV to record and share your favorite moments may be coming to an end. Whipclip enables users to find and create their favorite TV and music clips and share them intimately with their closest friends or broadly across their entire social network,” said Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Whipclip. “Not only benefitting the users but also providing the content owners with a viral user driven method to find new audiences.”

* From DSC:
What if we were talking about lectures on the TV…
what new affordances might there be?

Wipster and Adobe Voice — from markdubois.info by Mark DuBois

Excerpt:

I have been experimenting with the Wipster application for a few weeks. Essentially, this is a site where you post a video for others to review and approve. They can add comments in the video (as it plays). Although the service is not free, I am finding this to be very helpful for work I am doing with our student chapter of Web Professionals as well as within various courses I teach. What I find most beneficial is the use of Adobe Voice to generate short videos on a topic and then seek feedback via Wipster.

Also, though this isn’t just about video, I’m going to include it here anyway:

Sharing our inspiration from the Learning Technologies conference with links to all our liveblogs — from joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com

Excerpt:

Sibrenne and myself arrived last Friday at Rotterdam airport with a head full of inspiration from the Learning Technologies conference and fresh air from our walk along the Thames. In this blogpost we compile some reflections and provide links to all our liveblogs, so that you may choose which ones to read. Something which struck us when we reflected on all different sessions.
…
If you’d like to read our liveblogs, choose one or several of the 13 liveblogs below:

Addendum on 3/29/15:

A nicer way to share YouTube™ videos! – EdTechReview™ — from edtechreview.in

If the NBA & NHL can do this, what about applying this in education & training?

On 03/16/2015, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, business, changing business models, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, formal learning, future, global / globalization, health, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, immersion, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, play, second screen apps, social learning / networks, technologies for your home, training / L&D, transmedia, TVs, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt:

AUSTIN, TX – Virtual reality is featured prominently at South By Southwest Sports this year, from using it to better train athletes with Oculus Rift to how it could transform the fan experience watching basketball, football and hockey at home.
…
The NHL had its first successful test of a 360-degree virtual reality experience at its Stadium Series game between the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings last month, mounting cameras around the glass that filmed HD images in the round.

Excerpt:

When basketball lovers aren’t able to trek to stadiums near and far to follow their favorite teams, it’s possible that watching games on a bar’s widescreen TV from behind bowls of wings is the next best thing. This may no longer be true, however, as a wave of court-side, 3D virtual game experiences is becoming available to superfans with Oculus gear.

Earlier this month, NextVR showed off its new enhanced spectator experiences at the 2015 NBA All-Star Technology Summit with virtual reality (VR) footage of an October 2014 Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers match-up in Rio de Janeiro. The NBA also already announced plans to record VR sessions of the NBA All-Star Game, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest, and the Sprite Slam Dunk event and practice.

From DSC:
In the future, will you be able to “pull up a seat” at any lecture — throughout the globe — that you want to?

Alternatively, another experiment might relate to second screening lectures — i.e., listening to the lecture on the main/large screen — in your home or office — and employing social-based learning/networking going on via a mobile device.

Consider this article:

Twitter Aims To Hook TV Viewers With Radical New Mobile Service
Twitter’s TV Timeline lets viewers focus on one show while second-screening

TV-friendly social network Twitter is testing a new Social TV service on iPhones which provides users with content and interaction about only one TV show at a time.

The aim is to give users significantly better engagement with their favourite shows than they presently experience when they follow a live broadcast via a Twitter hashtag.

This radical innovation in Social TV design effectively curates just relevant content (screening out irrelevant tweets that use a show’s hashtag) and presents it in an easy-to-use interface.

If successful, the TV Timeline feature will better position Twitter as it competes with Facebook to partner with the television industry and tap advertising revenue related to TV programming.

Wow! Do these new apps point to a major, new, door-opening concept?

On 03/11/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, career development, Daniel S. Christian, entrepreneurship, ideas, innovation, social learning / networks, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Wow!

The two apps listed below could represent a new, major, door-opening concept! Such a concept could usher in an era that provides many new affordances — affordances made possible by the presence of beacon-related technologies (or similar machine-to-machine communications). If this is/becomes the case, we should expect to see a whole new wave of this kind of application, especially as wearables gain traction.

This startup is using iBeacon to make In Real Life (IRL) networking more efficient — from technical.ly by Brady Dale
A pair of Amazon and Fab.com alums are working on a new way to answer the age-old question:

“Who should I meet here and are they relevant to my background?”

Excerpt:

We’ve all been frustrated by the notion of networking. You walk into a meetup full of people you don’t know, but you do know something about them. Say, for example, it’s a meetup of developers. You know that lots of people there are devs, but what kind? And just because it’s an Android devs meetup, for example, that doesn’t mean that’s what they all actually do. It also doesn’t mean that there aren’t a bunch of other people circulating who are simply trying to network but aren’t actually developers.

The best you can do is start walking up to people and asking — but often your pick is a miss. If you have an objective when you go networking, how can you improve your chances of finding the people you want to find? One startup that’s working on a solution is Surf Labs. The new, two-person company, cofounded by Amazon and Fab.com alums, has released two iOS products that could make it more likely that you will find the person you are looking for.

Surf Labs’ first product is called LiNK…and their second product is called LiNK Spaces.

A rendering of how a LiNK Spaces dashboard could work in a coworking space.
(Image courtesy of Surf Labs)

Addendum on 3/16/15:

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