storytelling

A solid variety of tools & apps

On 04/07/2015, in Adobe, Apple, art, Augmented Reality (AR), creativity, digital storytelling, education technology, geography / geology, Microsoft, storytelling, tools, Uncategorized, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Augmented Reality can be a reality in your art classroom — from theartofed.com

Excerpt:

Last fall, I attended a technology conference where I went to a session on augmented reality technology (AR) and how it can be used in the classroom. I was blown away by the possibilities of this tech concept and its ability to modify our students’ current reality into a compelling, virtual experience of interactive information.

AR in your Art Classroom
There are dozens of AR apps, programs and resources out there that can help encourage curiosity and inspire critical thinking and intense creativity in your students. Here are a few augmented reality options that you can start infusing into your art curriculum.

Aurasma

ARPhoto#2

Jaunt VR wants to (virtually) change the way we travel — from cntraveler.com
Gaming is just the beginning. The real future of virtual reality lies in hacking the global travel experience.

52 of the best apps for your classroom in 2015 — from list.ly by Terry Heick

Adobe’s Slate is a [new] visual storytelling app for the iPad — from techcrunch.com; also an article at CampusTechnology.com on this app

The top 50 apps for creative minds — from theguardian.com
Our pick of the best tablet and smartphone tools to enable you to make video, music, art and more

[Microsoft’s] Sway is now collaborative—create and edit together with others! — from blogs.office.com by the Sway Team

Excerpt:

When we announced Sway, we knew that people would want to work on standout class projects, eye-catching business reports, engaging vacation recaps, or more, together—it’s the way things are done now, right? But Sway up until now has been a tool for individual authors to create polished content in a new and interactive way to share with their audiences. However, we know you’ve asked for shared editing in Sway in our feedback channels (such as UserVoice), and that Office has delivered real-time editing and collaboration features for years, allowing people to work together to share their collective ideas. On top of that, we can’t tell you how many times that we on the Sway team have said to each other, “I wish I could work on this Sway with you!” So now we’re rolling out co-authoring in Sway!

Microsoft debuts Office Lens, a document-scanning app for iOS and Android — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

Microsoft [on 4/2/15] launched Office Lens, a mobile document scanner app that works with OneNote, for iOS and Android smartphones. The app, which allows users to snap photos of paper documents, receipts, business cards, menus, whiteboards, sticky notes and more, was first launched a year ago as an application designed only for Windows Phone devices.

5 free (or low cost) tools for Flipped Learning— from Campus Technology’s April/May 2015 edition

Doceri
Explain Everything
Office Mix
Screencast-O-Matic
Verso

AppStudio for ArcGIS — with thanks to Dr. Jason Van Horn (Associate Professor Geology, Geography & Env Studies at Calvin College) for this resource
Your mobile mapping apps, built in a snap

Excerpt:

AppStudio for ArcGIS is a groundbreaking tool in the GIS app revolution. It lets you convert your maps into beautiful, consumer-friendly mobile apps ready for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and publish them using your own brand to all popular app stores – no developer skills required.

Moodle Mobile 2 is coming: updated look and feel of the application, transition to Ionic Framework — from moodlenews.com

Excerpt:

A few weeks ago Juan Leyva introduced a demo site for Moodlers to check out the 2nd version of Moodle Mobile the ever improving official mobile application for the learning management system. The major changes include a shift to Ionic framework which will greatly enhance the developers’ ability to focus on new features development.

Some of the best storytelling apps for elementary students — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

The apps below are particularly useful for elementary students but they can also be used with other age groups. Elementary teachers often complain about the paucity of apps that are kids appropriate compared with apps for other age groups. So we thought it would be useful to create a section in this blog devoted entirely to apps specifically curated for elementary teachers. After we have covered math and writing apps, today’s post features some very good iPad storytelling apps to use with young kids. You can use these apps to help kids develop a wide range of basic literacy skills that include: writing, reading and speaking.

5 great writing apps for elementary students — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

The selection we curated for you today contains some useful iPad apps to use with elementary students to help them with their writing. Some the things your kids will get to learn from these apps include: learning how to write letters, learning phonics and spelling, composing syllables by combining vowels and consonants, and several other basic literacy skills. Some of these apps also include tracking features which allow teachers and parents to keep updated about the progress of their kids.

Addendum on 4/8/15:

An entirely reimagined way to work is here! — from blogs.adobe.com
Excerpt:
[On April 6th] Adobe made available Adobe Document Cloud with all-new Acrobat DC – and, in so doing, offers people and organizations worldwide a better and more efficient way to work.

Addendum on 4/9/15:

Apple releases update to OS X, introduces new Photos app — from talkingnewmedia.com by D.B. Hebbard

Addendums on 4/13:15:

Six ways to make movies on a smartphone — from quib.ly by Laura Celada
Excerpt:

Have you tried using mobile devices to make movies? Film-making is such a great way for your children to express themselves and nurture their creativity and imagination. We’ve selected the most powerful apps and programs that can even the least techy kids become creative moviemakers.
None of these require any special equipment, just a tablet or a smartphone. Children can take videos, edit their work and make professional quality movies on the go. Check out the list below and bring out the Spielberg in them. Maybe next year you and your little thinker might be walking down the red carpet…
.
Nice for Every Device: 15 Tech-Agnostic Tools — from edsurge.com
Posting included tools for:
Student Response Systems
Student Collaboration Activities
English Language Arts/Social Studies
Math/Science
80 Twitter Tools for Almost Everything — from hongkiat.com

“The leap from film to VR is even bigger than the leap from radio to film was.”

On 03/27/2015, in change, communications, digital storytelling, drama/theater, ideas, immersion, media/film, story, storytelling, television, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

6 ways Virtual Reality will change filmmaking — from indiewire.com by DJ Roller

Excerpt:

From the Chauvet Cave paintings of 30,000 years ago, to 6K digital cinema today, we’ve always told stories, we just do it differently as media changes. There’s a new leap in storytelling happening now. Virtual Reality (VR) is going to change the way we express ourselves, communicate with each other and experience the world. That may sound like hyperbole. If anything it’s an understatement. There are innumerable ways VR will change filmmaking that we can’t see yet. Here are a few changes that have already arrived:

From seeing to experiencing
The leap from film to VR is even bigger than the leap from radio to film was. There was sound, then sight. With VR, an even more immersive sensation is added: presence. People who try it say, “I was at the Golden Gate Bridge,” not, “I saw the Golden Gate Bridge.” They describe it as if they’re there. And with live VR, it’s an almost indescribable sensation of being there. It’s different from VR that’s recorded. People will regard it as an experience they’ve never had before.

…

The leap from film to VR is even bigger than the leap from radio to film was.

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier [Rutledge]

On 12/22/2014, in attention, digital storytelling, engagement / engaging students, innovation, new media literacies, participation, psychology, story, storytelling, transmedia, by Daniel Christian

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier — from div46amplifier.com by Pamela Rutledge, PhD, MBA; Director, Media Psychology Research Center Adjunct Faculty, Fielding Graduate University

Excerpt:

Media literacy is an increasingly pressing issue for media psychologists and educators who strive to prepare people of all ages to function well in a media-rich, globally connected world. The ever-expanding integration of media technologies in our daily lives, from social media platforms to mobile apps, have challenged our understanding of just what it means to be literate in the 21^st century (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009). The emerging trend of transmedia storytelling will continue to push the envelope even farther. Transmedia storytelling goes beyond the need to segment such skills as search and collaboration. It demands the ability to recognize, understand, and interact with narrative threads across multiple modalities, not just within them.

Transmedia storytelling is the design and distribution of a story that is coordinated across multiple media channels. Each channel offers unique content, using the strengths of each medium to its best advantage to build a larger, richer story. Transmedia storytelling is intentionally designed for participation, drawing the audience in as co-creators to expand and develop the narratives.

Transmedia storytelling may not seem particularly different or profound until you consider that all information is translated into narrative in our meaning-making brains. We embody the stories we tell. Stories are how we assign causality, consciously process sensory input and imagery, and create associations so we can commit experience to memory. Stories are how we make sense of our selves, our lives, and our futures in the world around us (Polkinghorne, 1988).

2014 Innovating Pedagogy Report [openuniversity.edu]

On 12/09/2014, in analytics, assessment, learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, open courseware and systems, pedagogy, social learning / networks, storytelling, UK, by Daniel Christian

2014 Innovating Pedagogy Report

Featured in 2014’s annual report:

Massive open social learning
Learning design informed by analytics
Flipped classrooms
Bring your own devices
Learning to learn
Dynamic assessment
Event-based learning
Learning through storytelling
Threshold concepts
Bricolage

A smorgasboard of tools [digital storytelling, creating quizzes/polls in class, learning piano, career counseling, VR, & more]

On 11/12/2014, in assessment, creativity, digital storytelling, education technology, educational games / serious games, K-12 related, multimedia, music, story, storytelling, tools, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

Digital Storytelling Resources from Classroom 2.0 Live (Oct 2014) — from speedofcreativity.org by Wesley Fryer

Excerpt:

…I facilitated a 60 minute webinar on Classroom 2.0 Live about digital storytelling. This was an “open mic” session, which is similar to facilitated conversations at EdCamps. The webinar is archived on YouTube, and referenced links are included in this LiveBinder.

These are some of the links I saved from the webinar, which were shared by participants. This was an excellent session and I learned about several new resources I’m anxious to try with my own students in digital storytelling projects!

Murmur Project – Toronto (place-based digital storytelling using cell phones for playback)
StoryboardThat – Web-based tool for project storyboarding
BitStrips for Schools – comic -based digital storytelling
Bay Farm School Digital Tour (using QR codes)
6th Grade Roller Coaster Physics Project
Dot Day at Bay Farm Project
Make Beliefs Comix
The Cloud Coaster
City of San Leandro History Walk (A Boy Scout Eagle Project)
Digital Storytelling Pearltrees site by Shelly Terrell
Voki (create speaking avatars)
Morfo (free iOS app to turn a photo into a talking avatar)
Tools for Screen Captures, Digital Storytelling, & Video
Out of Eden Walk

.

9 Free Tools For Digital Storytelling — from hongkiat.com by Fahad Khan

Excerpt from How Can English Teachers Benefit from Digital Storytelling Tools — from edtechreview.com by Prasanna Bharti

Digital Storytelling Tools for Students

.

Creative storytelling with Storehouse — from blogs.elon.edu by Analise Godfrey (Storehouse was created by former Apple User Experience Evangelist, Mark Kawano)

.

Over 40 web tools to create quizzes and polls in class — from educatorstechnology.com

.

Theia
Introducing a new and exciting world view, Theia smart glasses naturally integrate augmented reality together with your reality using unique technology and seamless design.

.

Platform lets users share documents with real-time audio comments — from springwise.com
Blrt is offering both real-time and anytime sharing of documents, with integrated drawing and voice commenting tools.

Excerpt:

The platforms that businesses most commonly use to communicate with both colleagues and clients — phone, email, face-to-face meetings and video chat — are typically only used one at a time. If it’s just a quick chat, you pick up the phone, if you need to send a document you send an email. But is there a way to make multimedia collaboration more seamless through a single platform? We recently wrote about Talko, which aims to make voice calls more like emails. Now a similar service, Blrt, is offering both real-time and anytime sharing of documents, with integrated drawing and voice commenting tools.

10 great iPad apps for teaching and learning piano — from educatorstechnology.com

Circle of Fifths – music theory reference

Osmo

.

30 Ways Google Glass Works in Classrooms [#Infographic] — from edtechmagazine.com by D. Frank Smith
From allowing student to connect virtually with peers and teachers to helping identify learning difficulties, the wearable tech has clear potential as an aid.

An App to Make Career Counseling More Like a Video Game — from chronicle.com by Rebecca Koenig

.

Microsoft Research gives us a glimpse of future gaming with RoomAlive — from InterestingEngineering.com

.

LinkedIn Introduces New Tools for Students Choosing Universities — from eduniverse.org by Philippe Taza

Excerpt:

Regardless of whether you agree with their criteria or the general practice of creating rankings, their newest initiative is undoubtedly an impressive leveraging of Big Data, applying complex algorithms to LinkedIn’s vast database of 313 million users to derive interesting conclusions for both students and those marketing higher education.

Lync to Become Skype for Business — from MikeBrandesAV.com

Excerpt:

Microsoft is rebranding it’s unified communication platform Microsoft Lync. Microsoft plans to retool their approach to unified communications, and launch under the name “Skype for Business” in 2015. Microsoft originally acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011.

The Redmond, WA based software giant made significant strides into the Unified Communications space, offering a cost-competitive unified communications platform which included Telephony, Chat, Collaboration and Video Conferencing all from the desktop, laptop or tablet.

The 10 best creative apps for tablets — from Creative Bloq

Excerpt:

Over recent years, many great drawing and painting apps have become available for tablets and smart phones. Here’s our pick of the most comprehensive packages on the market.

ArtRage

This clever app scans and solves maths problems instantly using your phone’s camera — from businessinsider.com.au

Excerpt:

While it seems likely that most will use PhotoMath to sidestep actual learning, PhotoMath includes a “Steps” button that cleverly walks you through the steps from the original equation to the final answer.

Addendum on 11/2014 — some music-related apps from the November 2014 edition of The Journal:

Team-based content creation/delivery is pulling ahead of the pack!

On 11/04/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, higher education, immersion, innovation, interactivity, learning ecosystem, love of learning, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, online learning, participation, play, psychology, real-world assignments, relationships, religion, social learning / networks, social media, society, sociology, story, storytelling, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, transmedia, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Last week I attended the 20th Annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference. While there, I was inspired by an excellent presentation entitled, “A Disruptive Innovation: MSU’s Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Are You Ready to Survive a New Way of Learning?“ The four team members from Michigan State University included:

Glenn R. Stutzky | Course Instructor
Keesa V. Muhammad | Instructional Designer
Christopher Irvin | Instructional Designer
Hailey Mooney | Course Librarian

Check out the intro clip on the website about the course:

From the description for the presentation:

This session highlights MSU’s award winning, groundbreaking online course that fuses social theory, filmmaking, social media, and viral marketing while students survive an apocalyptic event. http://zombie.msu.edu/

MSU created and used powerful digital storytelling and multimedia to overlay real, experiential, immersive learning. Important content was relayed, but in a way that drew upon your emotions, your ability to solve problems and navigate in a world where you didn’t have all of the information, your ability to work with others, and more.

“This innovative course integrates current research and science on catastrophes and human behavior together with the idea of a zombie apocalypse. In doing so, we actively engage with students as they think about the nature, scope, and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and the Earth itself.”

“Our innovative approach to teaching and learning features: students as active participants, the instructor becomes the facilitator, storytelling replaces lectures, zombies become the catalyst of teaching, a “zombrarian” (librarian) drives research, and the students emerge as digital storytellers as a way of assessing their own learning.”

Others outside MUS have found out about the course and have requested access to it. As a result of this, they’ve opened it up to non-credit seeking participants and now various people from police forces, Centers for Disease Control, and others are able to take the course. To make this learning experience even more accessible, the cost has been greatly reduced: from $1600+ to just $500. (So this talented team is not only offering powerful pedagogies, but also significant monetary contributions to the university as well.)

For me, the key thing here is that this course represents what I believe is the direction that’s starting to really pull ahead of the pack and, if done well, will likely crush most of the other directions/approaches. And that is the use of teams to create, deliver, teach, and assess content – i.e., team-based learning approaches.

So many of the sessions involved professional development for professors and teachers – and much of this is appropriate. However, in the majority of cases, individual efforts aren’t enough anymore. Few people can bring to the table what a talented, experienced group of specialists are able to bring. Individual efforts aren’t able to compete with team-based content creation and delivery anymore — and this is especially true online, whereby multiple disciplines are immediately invoked once content hits the digital realm.

In this case, the team was composed of:

The professor
Two Instructional Designers
and a librarian

The team:

Developed websites
Designed their own logo
Marketed the course w/ a zombie walking around campus w/ brochures and a walking billboard
Used a Twitter stream
Used a tool called Pensu for their students’ individual journals
Made extensive use of YouTube and digital storytelling
Coined a new acronym called MOLIE – multimedia online learning immersive experience
Used game-like features, such as the development of a code that was found which revealed key information (which was optional, but was very helpful to those who figured it out). The team made it so that the course ended differently for each group, depending upon what the teams’ decisions were through the weeks
Used some 3D apps to make movies more realistic and to create new environments
Continually presented new clues for students to investigate. Each team had a Team Leader that posted their team’s decisions on YouTube.

They encouraged us to:
THINK BIG! Get as creative as you can, and only pull back if the “suits” make you! Step outside the box! Take risks! “If an idea has life, water it. Others will check it out and get involved.”

In their case, the idea originated with an innovative, risk-taking professor willing to experiment – and who started the presentation with the following soliloquy:

Syllabi are EVIL

Syllabi are EVIL and they must die!
Listen to me closely and I’ll tell you why.
Just want students to know what is known?
See what’s been seen?
Go – where we’ve been going?
Then the Syllabus is your friend,
cuz you know exactly where you’ll end.
But if you want to go somewhere new,
see colors beyond Red, Green, and Blue.
Then take out your Syllabus and tear-it-in-half,
now uncertainty has become your path.
Be not afraid because you’ll find,
the most amazing things from Creative Minds,
who have been set free to FLY,
once untethered from the Syllabi.

Glenn Stutzky
Premiered at the 2014
Online Learning Consortium International Conference
October 29, 2014

“The number of infected in Michigan has reached critical mass.” CSM Quintero #sw290 pic.twitter.com/F6m8ZaoRyG

— MSU Zombie (@MSUZombies) June 19, 2014

They started with something that wasn’t polished, but it’s been an iterative approach over the semesters…and they continue to build on it.

I congratulated the team there — and do so again here. Excellent, wonderful work!

By the way, what would a creative movie-like trailer look like for your course?

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

How an interactive book, ‘Alice,’ is making $70K a week on iOS [Cheredar]

On 09/30/2014, in Apple, art, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, Google, interactivity, K-12 related, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, participation, storytelling, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

.

Excerpt:

Alice is presented as a mobile app, but it’s technically a book that can be read on iPads and Android tablets. The story is based on the classic Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and it features beautiful illustrations you can interact with by touching the tablet screen, as well as an engaging narrator reading each page.

“Regular e-books have limitations, and I wanted to create a new level of engagement. I wanted to combine interactive experience along with film ‘feel,’” Paletz said in an interview. “The application is an art book, a conceptual book, and an educational book all in one, so it has something for everyone.”

From DSC: With a shout out to
Laura Devaney who posted this on Twitter.

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.

Transmedia and education: How transmedia is changing the way we learn — from thedigitalshift.com by Carolyn Sun

From

Transmedia -Illustration By Oanh Le

Excerpt:

Transmedia, a broad descriptive word that literally translated means “across media” and encompasses many strategies that transverse industries, is generally regarded as the use of multiple media platforms to tell a story or story experience. Though the word “transmedia” is thought to have entertainment franchise origins, its adaptation for education purposes is both valuable and becoming more and more common. While teachers like Sansing are using coding and programming in their language arts instruction, others are taking advantage of increasingly sophisticated apps and interactive media for classroom use.

Also see:

The Science of Storytelling [Infographic] — from socialtimes.com by Christie Barakat
The chemical and psychological makeup of our minds affects how we consume content: Our brains are wired to connect with compelling stories.

Hypermedia storytelling — from kirkbowe.com
Museum exhibitions as dynamic storytelling experiences using the latest technology

Excerpt:

The secret of many great storytellers lies in their ability to adapt delivery to their audiences, even as they speak. Storytelling is at its best when it is not a one-way monologue but rather an experience which is shaped by the teller and the listener together. Underpinning this is the notion of real-time mutual discovery.

Great museum exhibitions tell great stories. But for practical reasons they lack a dynamic edge, unable to see the faces and hear the thoughts of the people walking around them. This is because many exhibitions are, to some extent, static place-holders for the mind and soul of the curator or curation team.

One of my passions is researching into how to use technology to bring a vibrant storytelling relationship to the fore. Recently, advances in certain areas of mobile technology have begun to show me that the potential is now there for the cultural heritage sector to take advantage of it.

…

But how about the cultural sector? Many museums have already experimented with mobile interaction through the use of printed codes, such as QR codes, which visitors must scan with their devices. Bluetooth Smart removes that cumbersome step: visitors need only be with proximity of a beacon in order for your app to provide them with the contextual information you wish to deliver. The technology has many different potential applications:

– Place a beacon in each room of the exhibition. Your app then triggers a screen of scene-setting background information for the room as the visitor enters. No need to have congestion points around wall-mounted text at the door.

– Place a beacon under selected objects or cases. As visitors walk up to the object, your app detects the beacon and provides commentary, video, or a three-dimensional representation of the object. No need for visitors to type in an object number to a traditional electronic guide.

From DSC:
This has major implications — and applications — for teaching and learning spaces! For blended/hybrid learning experiments. Such technologies can bridge the physical and virtual/digital worlds!

Another interesting application, providing access to published content from a specific location only:

Imaginative use of iBeacon gives bar patrons free access to Newsstand magazines

As you read, the app adds music/sound effects, based on where you are in the story & the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.

On 04/19/2014, in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, innovation, interactivity, multimedia, reading, story, storytelling, tools, transmedia, by Daniel Christian

New children’s book combines modern technology and storytelling — from iwantpop.com by

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

MONTREAL, April 15, 2014 /IWANTPOP.COM/ — Jonathan Belisle, a Montreal teacher, script writer and web entrepreneur, has developed the ultimate storytelling system. It’s a combination of old and new, traditional mythology and modern technology, a mixture of fantasy and reality.

Wuxia the Fox is a transmedia project that comes as an illustrated book paired with an iPad app. “The app reacts to what it hears and sees,” explained Belisle. “As you read the story, the app adds the music and sound effects, based on where you are in the story and the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.”

The iPad app triggers new scenes of content using image recognition, and transforms into a musical instrument when interacting with small wooden blocks provided with the book.

Also see:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathanbelisle/wuxia-the-fox-augmented-book-and-ipad-app

Also, another interesting item:

Predicting the future of cinema: No limits — and the web wins — from variety.com by David Cohen

Excerpt:

He said today’s tech already offers hints of what the future will bring: screens large and small that can duplicate nearly anything the eye can perceive; cameras that let filmmakers choose framing, depth of field, focus and brightness in post, rather than on the day of shooting; fast networks that permit “collaboration at the speed of thought” and allow people to work together regardless of how far apart they are.

From DSC:
As I was watching “The Future of Higher Education: MOOCs and Disruptive Innovation,” a video recorded last August, (GW’s School of Business) Dean Doug Guthrie mentioned a company named In the Telling. The name of that company piqued my curiosity, so I went to look at that company, and what instantly struck me about their offerings were the use of:

A team-based approach to education
The use of digital storytelling
Software as a Service

Dean Guthrie’s comments on interaction, community building, and customization rang true for me, but it was the customization part that really grabbed me. And there too, most likely it will take a team of people to understand and use the data, to build the algorithms that Doug was talking about to deliver the learning trees of the future (and I would add the phrases/terms learning paths and learning playlists).

I have it that as MOOCs continue to morph and as the perfect storm in higher education continues to amass, those institutions who implement a team-based approach to content creation, delivery, and assessment will be the ones who thrive in the future.

This thought was further brought home when I viewed Phil Hill and Michael Feldstein discussing “Online Learning – What Is It Good For?” Consider the appearance of the word TEAM in the following graphics:

APP Ed Review (appedreview.org) & the Global Education Database (gedb.org)

On 04/11/2014, in 21st century, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, art, biology, Bring your own device (BYOD), chemistry, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, engineering, Google, graphics, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, maker movement, mobile learning, multimedia, new media literacies, open courseware and systems, passions, physics, platforms, play, political science, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, publishing, science, simulations, STEAM-related, storytelling, student-related, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

App Ed Review

From the About Us page (emphasis DSC):

App Ed Review is a free searchable database of educational app reviews designed to support classroom teachers finding and using apps effectively in their teaching practice. In its database, each app review includes:

A brief, original description of the app;
A classification of the app based on its purpose;
Three or more ideas for how the app could be used in the classroom;
A comprehensive app evaluation;
The app’s target audience;
Subject areas where the app can be used; and,
The cost of the app.

Also see the Global Education Database:

From the About Us page:

It’s our belief that digital technologies will utterly change the way education is delivered and consumed over the next decade. We also reckon that this large-scale disruption doesn’t come with an instruction manual. And we’d like GEDB to be part of the answer to that.

It’s the pulling together of a number of different ways in which all those involved in education (teachers, parents, administrators, students) can make some sense of the huge changes going on around them. So there’s consumer reviews of technologies, a forum for advice, an aggregation of the most important EdTech news and online courses for users to equip themselves with digital skills. Backed by a growing community on social media (here, here and here for starters).

It’s a fast-track to digital literacy in the education industry.

GEDB has been pulled together by California residents Jeff Dunn, co-founder of Edudemic, and Katie Dunn, the other Edudemic co-founder, and, across the Atlantic in London, Jimmy Leach, a former habitue of digital government and media circles.

Addendum:

Favorite educational iPad apps that are also on Android — from the Learning in Hand blog by Tony Vincent

Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch to showcase the power of interactive video at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit at MIPTV 2014 [businesswire.com]

On 04/08/2014, in digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, Europe, interactivity, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, play, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, story, storytelling, user experience (UX), writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch to showcase the power of interactive video at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit at MIPTV 2014 — from businesswire.com

Excerpt:

“Interactive videos that respond to children’s preferences can transform TV and educational programming from a passive experience to an active one that is fun and engaging. With kids today growing up with interactive devices, they have an appetite to do more with content than sit back and have it delivered to them in a one-way stream,” Bloch said. “With the potential to create wonderful learning experiences for children, The Summit provides a global stage for attendees to make meaningful changes in the technologies used for entertainment and education.”

Also see:

MIPTV: “Future of Kids TV Summit” announced — from
80 senior programming execs to map out digital strategies for kids entertainment.

Excerpt:

“I’m thrilled to be present at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit to discuss how content creators can create a digital playground for children,” said Bloch. “Interactive videos invite kids to continually engage and shape the story differently each time. I look forward to exploring new ways for the entertainment industry to help kids become active participants instead of passive viewers.”

The Future of Kids’ TV Summit is the latest in MIPTV’s established line-up of forward-looking events, following on the heels of the International Drama Coproduction Summit and the Digital Minds Summit. These forums are now recognised by key industry executives as must-attend events in their business agenda.

Learning Ecosystems

A solid variety of tools & apps

Aurasma

“The leap from film to VR is even bigger than the leap from radio to film was.”

Transmedia Literacy: Expanding the Media Literacy Frontier [Rutledge]

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]

As you read, the app adds music/sound effects, based on where you are in the story & the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.

Reflections on “In the Telling” — it’s going to take a team-based approach to compete in the future

Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch to showcase the power of interactive video at the Future of Kids’ TV Summit at MIPTV 2014 [businesswire.com]

Categories

Tags