From DSC:
A note to Double Robotics — can you work towards implementing M2M communications?

That is, when our Telepresence Robot from Double Robotics approaches a door, we need for sensors on the door and on the robot to initiate communications with each other in order for the door to open (and to close after __ seconds). If a security clearance code is necessary, the remote student or the robot needs to be able to transmit the code.

When the robot approaches an elevator, we need for sensors near the elevator and on the robot to initiate communications with each other in order for the elevator to be summoned and then for the elevator’s doors to open. We then need for the remote student/robot to be able to tell the elevator which floor it wants to go to and to close the elevator door (if if hasn’t already done so).

Such scenarios imply that we need:

  1. Industry standards for such communications
  2. Standards that include security clearances (i.e., “OK, I’ll let you into this floor of this public building.” or “No, I can’t open up this door without you sending me a security clearance code.”)
  3. Secure means of communications

 

DoubleRobotics-Feb2014

 

 

 

doublerobotics.com -- wheels for your iPad

 

 

A major request/upgrade might also include:

  • The ability for the Double App on the iPad to make recordings, have an auto send option to send those recordings to the cloud, and then provide transcripts for those recordings. This could be very helpful for accessibility reasons, but also to provide students/learners with a type of media that they prefer (video, audio, and/or text).

 

 

 

10 C-Suite jobs of the future — from fastcompany.com by Jared Lindzon; with thanks to Norma Owen for posting this on her Future Workforce newsletter
Step aside, chief innovation officers, and make way for chief automation officers and chief freelance relationship officers.

Excerpts:

With questions about the future of middle management, many believe that corporations will soon beef up their core leadership teams, allowing them to keep foundational business knowledge close to the top while delegating the increasingly complex attributes of the modern organization to in-house, executive-level experts.

These changes are expected to bring a slew of new positions into the C-suite…

With many considering a significant expansion of the C-suite imminent, here are a few new titles that we may see added in the near future:

  • Chief Ecosystem Officer
  • Chief User Experience Officer
  • Chief Automation Officer
  • Chief Freelance Relationship Officer
  • Chief Intellectual Property Officer
  • Chief Data Officer
  • Chief Privacy Officer
  • Chief Compliance Officer
  • …and others
 

Augmented Reality Chemistry Experiments with Elements 4D — from whiteboardblog.co.uk

Excerpt:

Elements 4D is a neat Augmented Reality chemistry app for iOS and Android devices which provides a fun way to look at various different chemical reactions.

The app uses blocks that are inscribed with the symbols of 36 elements from the periodic table. The site will eventually sell ready-made cubes, but you can download paper templates for free here.

When viewed through the app, these blocks instantly transform a simple, inanimate object into dynamic, dimensional, 4D representations of each element.

Also see:
Elements4D-July2015

 

 

Toss your manual overboard—augmented reality aims at big industry — from arstechnica.com by Lee Hutchinson
Papers, diagrams, and checklists would be replaced with intuitive visual tools.

Excerpt:

GE is focusing efforts on constructing an extensible “field maintenance manual” intended to be used for industrial equipment. The use case being tested in the labs is with oil and gas; researchers in GE’s Research Center in Brazil are building software that they hope will replace the need to deal with bulky printed maintenance manuals—manuals which have to be kept up to date and which lack any kind of interactivity.

 

 

New Microsoft Tool Takes the Pulse of Higher Education
Bing Pulse in the Classroom, a new student response system designed for higher education, launched this week.

Excerpt:

A new student response tool designed by a team at Microsoft will soon be giving teachers instant feedback on how their lessons are going.

Bing Pulse in the Classroom, a free online tool designed to make higher education lectures more dynamic, was released Thursday. The technology lets teachers ask students questions to get a real-time “pulse” of the lesson to ensure a teacher isn’t getting too far ahead of the class.

A feature not included in Pulse in the Classroom’s first iteration was live video streaming. Nesho says this capability will soon be added, and it could be a game changer for higher education classes that incorporate distance learning. Using a live video stream along with the Pulse feature set, the platform comes closer to an all-inclusive classroom experience.

 

 

Microsoft pioneers new ‘machine teaching’ technology to bring machine learning to the masses — from winbeta.org by Joseph Finney

Excerpt:

Tech companies are constantly building and testing technology which could cause the next paradigm shift in how the world communicates, creates, and consumes. Many big names including Google, IBM and Microsoft are investing in machine intelligence and machine learning. Now Microsoft believes they have created the next generation of machine learning which they call machine teaching. While the name ‘machine teaching’ does not instantly communicate the purpose or intent of the new tech the underlying concept is simple.

Essentially, like Henry Ford brought the automobile to the masses, Microsoft wants to bring machine learning to everyone. Many companies are focused on making their machine learning algorithms more accurate, but Patrice Simard believes more advances can be driven by bringing machine learning to the masses.

 

 Also relevant here/see:
What Every Manager Should Know About Machine Learning — from hbr.org by Mike Yeomans
A primer on machine learning — from loop.ai
A tour of Machine Learning Algorithms #BigData #MachineLearning — from mo-data.com
In this post we take a tour of the most popular machine learning algorithms.

 

 

 

Microsoft launches site for teachers taking Minecraft into the classroom — from theguardian.com
Minecraft in Education portal aims to get educators sharing tips on how Mojang’s popular game can be used to teach children

 

 

The Scoop on Periscope: Broadcast Live Video to the World — from learninginhand.com by Tony Vincent
[Tony includes a nice infographic in this posting.]

 

 

 

PeriodicTable-WearableTech-July2015

 

 

First Look: Jaunt’s VR Camera Codenamed NEO — from by Jonathan Nafarrete

Excerpt:

Jaunt has announced the launch of a new professional grade VR camera series codenamed “NEO” that will enable the next generation of filmmakers to produce the highest quality VR experiences.

Industrial Design by LUNAR.

 

 

 

 

Leap Motion’s Augmented-Reality Computing Looks Stupid Cool — from wired.com

Excerpt:

This demo, in which a standard desktop computer is reimagined as a three-dimensional workstation of the future, offers a glimpse of what that might look like.

The project came out of a hackathon at Leap Motion, whose nifty gesture-recognizing sensor acts as a sort of finger-scale Kinect for desktop software. Using a prototype Leap sensor, a developer-kit Oculus Rift, a team of engineers built an augmented-reality work environment in which regular desktop applications jump out of the computer and into 3-D space. It’s a new computing interface hovering in front of a traditional personal computer sitting on a wood table—three generations of the “desktop,” one on top of another.

 

 

Apps That Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved By Teachers — from kqed.org b

 

Michelle Luhtala/Edshelf

 

 

 

 

 

 

EdTech 2015: What’s Coming Down the Innovation Pipeline — from medium.com by Daniel Rezac
Brace Yourselves for a New Wave of Classroom Integration

 

 

 

 

Office 365 Open Source plugins for Moodle: getting better all the time — from msopentech.com

Excerpt:

[On June 26th, 2015] we shared the news that the upcoming Cypress release of Open edX, the most popular open source MOOC (massive open online course), will include new features for tighter integration with Office 365. Those features are the result of our open source collaboration with members of the Open edX community.

In addition to the new work we’re doing with Open edX, we continue to work with Remote-Learner (a leading Moodle partner) to make improvements and additions to the open source Office 365 plugins for Moodle. Moodle is the most popular open source learning management system (LMS), and the Office 365 plugins were released in January of this year. In this post, we’d like to share a few details about the great work Remote-Learner is doing to evolve the plugins.

 

 

 

 

New math app turns 2-D problems into 3-D solutions for Nova Scotia students — from trurodaily.com by Zane Woodford, Metro Halifax

Excerpt:

HALIFAX – A new augmented reality application for iPhones, iPads and Android devices brings math problems off the page for Nova Scotia students – illustrating angles, curves and the dreaded Pythagorean theorem in three dimensions.

 

© Metro Halifax/Jeff Harper
Grade 9 student Nathaniel Jarmash uses an augmented reality app
to work on his math problems at Sir Robert Borden Junior High School.

 

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

Excerpts:

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

 

 

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

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

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

 

 

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

Excerpt:

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

Apple-6-8-15

 

AppleHomekit-Watch-6-8-15

 

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

 

What’s next? GM predicts jobs of the future — from media.gm.com; with thanks to Norma Owen for the resource
Top 10 jobs of the future that will drive exciting technologies

Excerpt:

  • Electrical engineers
  • Analytics expert
  • Interaction designers
  • Web programmer
  • Autonomous driving engineer
  • Customer care experts
  • Sustainability integration expert
  • Industrial engineer
  • 3D Printing engineer
  • Alternative propulsion engineer

 

 

 

What work will look like in 2025 — from fastcompany.com by Gwen Moran
The experts weigh in on the future of work a decade from now.

Excerpt (emphasis):

Seismic Shift In Jobs
The jobs picture either delivers on technology’s promise or plunges us into a dystopian future. The same interconnected technology that will change how goods and services are delivered will “hollow out” a number of skilled jobs, Brynjolfsson says. Clerical work, bookkeeping, basic paralegal work, and even some types of reporting will be increasingly automated, contracting the number of jobs available and causing a drop in wages. And while more technology might create new and different types of jobs, so far we’ve seen more job loss than creation in these areas, he says.

Who wins? Specialists, the creative class, and people who have jobs that require emotional intelligence like salespeople, coaches, customer-service specialists, and people who create everything from writing and art to new products, platforms and services, Brynjolfsson says. Jobs in health care, personal services, and other areas that are tough to automate will also remain in demand, as will trade skills and science, technology and mathematics (STEM) skills, says Mark J. Schmit, PhD, executive director of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia.

However, this winner/loser scenario predicts a widening wealth gap, Schmit says. Workers will need to engage in lifelong education to remain on top of how job and career trends are shifting to remain viable in an ever-changing workplace, he says.

 

 

 

 

Here’s how you build an augmented reality game for HoloLens — from theverge.com by Adi Robertson

Excerpt:

Programming a hologram sounds like something that should be done with some kind of special cybergloves on a computer the size of a ‘60s IBM mainframe. But at Build 2015, Microsoft has been quietly taking developers through the “Holographic Academy,” a 90-minute training session that teaches them the basics of building projects for its HoloLens augmented reality headset. I’m not a developer, but Microsoft let me and some other journalists go through it as well — and it turns out that basic hologram creation is, if not exactly straightforward, at least pretty understandable.

 

From DSC:
Will designing learning-related games for augmented reality and virtual reality become an area of specialty within Instructional Design? Within Programming/Computer Studies-related programs? Within Human Computer Interface design programs or User Experience Design programs?  Will we need a team-based approach to deliver such products and services?

I wonder how one would go about getting trained in this area in the future if you wanted to create games for education or for the corporate training/L&D world? Will institutions of higher education respond to this sort of emerging opportunity or will we leave it up to the bootcamps/etc. to offer?

 

 

Also see:

 

P90178908_highRes

 

 

Also see:

  • New Demo of Microsoft HoloLens Unveils the Future of Holographic Computing — from seriouswonder.com by B.J. Murphy
    Excerpt:
    What happens when you combine holographic technology with augmented reality and the Internet of Things (IoT)? Well, it would appear that you’ll soon be getting a hands-on experience of just that, all thanks to the Microsoft HoloLens. At the Build Developers Conference, Microsoft had unveiled the HoloLens and shocked the world on just how far we’ve come in developing legitimate, functional augmented reality and holographic computing.

 

future-hololens

 


50 exemplars of effective practice in support of students’ digital experiences — from jisc.ac.uk

These 50 exemplars explore how colleges and universities are responding to the challenges of supporting the digital student experience. They show the importance of involving students not only in improving infrastructure and provision but in designing relevant curriculum activities.

Sections include:

  • Prepare and support students to study successfully with digital technologies
  • Deliver a relevant digital curriculum
  • Ensure an inclusive student experience, using technology to overcome disadvantage
  • Provide a robust, flexible digital environment
  • Develop coherent policies for ‘Bring Your Own’
  • Engage students in dialogue about their digital experience and empower them to make changes
  • Take a strategic, whole-institution approach to the digital student experience


 

Also see:

 

JISC-EnhancingStudentExp-Apr2015

 

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

 

 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

 

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

 

 

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

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.

 

Madcap and Metaio team up for augmented reality documentation — from blog.metaio.com by Jack Dashwood

Excerpt:

Documentation is a huge industry and with humanity’s continuing pursuit of technology, it’s not slowing down. Instead, documentation methods are growing and diversifying into mediums beyond the traditional paper manual.

Madcap’s newest update, Madcap Flare 11, has taken documentation even further. By leveraging Metaio’s Augmented Reality technology, Flare is now able to export documentation with Augmented Reality content. In a world of increasingly complex and abstract concepts, Augmented Reality provides much needed simplicity, with intuitive 3D models, live video, and dynamic linking between static printed content and digital information.

 

MadcapMetaio-March2015

 

 A video of Audi’s Augmented Reality Manual, back from August 2013:

 

 

From DSC:
Also…what affordances might this present for educators, instructional designers, and the like?

 

 

 
 

NeuBible-March2015
Ex-Apple designer rethinks the Bible for a mobile world — from fastcodesign.com by Ainsley O’Connell
Kory Westerhold and his cofounder, Yahoo design director Aaron Martin, give Co.Design an exclusive look at their beautiful new Bible app.

Excerpt:

Fast-forward to 2015, and Westerhold, now a product designer at Twitter, has teamed up with Aaron Martin, a design director at Yahoo and childhood friend. Today, after months of sketching and development, they released NeuBible, an elegant and radically simplified mobile app for the Bible.

Their goal, Westerhold says, was to “get rid of everything between you and scripture.”

 

Also see:

NeuBible-March2015-2

 

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

Excerpts:

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

Areas discussed:

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

 

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

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

 

 

MoreChoiceMoreControl-DSC

 

 

 

Also, some other graphics come to my mind:

 

MakingTVMorePersonal-V-NetTV-April2014

 

EducationServiceOfTheFutureApril2014

 

 

 

NHL-VirtualReality-WatchFromAnySeat-3-14-15

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.

 

 

NBA-VirtualReality-WatchFromAnySeat-3-14-15

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.

 

NEXTVR-March2015

 

 

OculusRift-InSportsSXSW-2015

 

 

 

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:

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.

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian