On 12/11/2011,
in 21st century, Australia, collaboration, expectations, learning spaces, smart classrooms, student-related, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
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- Open lounge – An informal space where you can hold ad-hoc or planned gatherings, whilst still having access to screens or projectors to share work and ideas together. There are skype enabled screens, wireless audio, printing facilities, hot water for tea & coffee or chilled water for filling your water bottle. WIFI is available throughout.
- Common Spaces 1& 2 – Meeting, presentation or discussion space equipped with an interactive data projector and writable Idea-paint walls, capacity 12-20 (depending on layout)
- Hothouse Studio – Meeting, presentation or discussion space equipped with interactive data projector and writable Idea-paint walls, capacity 18-26 (depending on layout)
- Sessional staff office – An open office that provides 3 workstations for staff or sessionals to use for temporary office space, available on a first come basis.
On 11/15/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, analytics, Augmented Reality (AR), career development, CMS/LMS, collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, game-changing environment, online learning, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 10/28/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, reinvent, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), television, tools, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
On 10/19/2011,
in 21st century, collaboration, future, generational differences, mobile technologies, technology (general), web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
WorkTech11 West Coast: A report from the trenches — from thefutureofwork.net by Jim Ware
Headings/excerpt:
- Randy Knox
- Nokia Silicon Valley
- Hamid Shirvani, President California State University, Stanislaus
- Urban Design: Panel Debate
- Kevin Kelly, author, “What Technology Wants”
- Nathan Waterhouse, Ideo
- Marie Puybaraud, Johnson Controls, and Sudhakar Lahade, Steelcase
- Vwork: Michael Leone, Regus, and Philip Ross, CEO Unwired and the Cordless Group
- Rational Mobility: Kevin Kelly, GSA (The “Other” Kevin Kelly)
- Going Mobile: Dawn Birkett, Salesforce.com and Bryant Rice, DEGW
- Mobility and Virtual Work: Panel Debate
On 10/13/2011,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, collaboration, convergence, digital audio, digital video, global / globalization, Google, mobile learning, mobile technologies, tablets, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Polycom® RealPresence™ Mobile — now for both the iPad and Android-based devices
Take video collaboration mobile with the first enterprise HD software solution for Motorola and Samsung tablets
Polycom® RealPresence™ Mobile is a new, free-to-download software solution that extends our legendary HD video collaboration technology, built on the Polycom RealPresence Platform, beyond the office and conference room to your Apple® iPad® 2, Motorola XOOM™ and Samsung Galaxy Tab™ tablet PCs.
Also see:
Addendum on 10/18/11:
On October 12, Polycom president and CEO Andy Miller gave a keynote address during the CTIA Enterprise & Applications™ 2011 conference in San Diego, Calif., discussing video collaboration in today’s mobile society. During his keynote, Andy presented key industry trends, and share how Polycom is delivering video to mobile platforms, extending HD video collaboration technology beyond the office and conference room. The keynote included a live demonstration of a game-changing mobile video solution for enterprises – the Polycom® RealPresence™ Mobile.
On 10/13/2011,
in adjunct faculty, blended learning, collaboration, communities of practice, data related items, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, learning ecosystem, learning theories, physics, social learning / networks, strategy, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Building Learning Communities 2011 Keynote: Dr. Eric Mazur — from November Learning
Excerpt:
Today, we are officially relaunching our opening keynote from BLC11 with Dr. Eric Mazur. Dr. Mazur is the Area Dean of Applied Physics and Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
In his keynote, Dr. Mazur shares his vast research on teaching and learning. Students in Dr. Mazur’s class are moving far away from the traditional stand and deliver lectures given in many k-12 and university classrooms around the world, and they are gaining a much deeper understanding of the material being taught in the process.
As you watch this video, we invite you to take some time and respond to one or more of the following questions…
From DSC:
What I understood the key points to be:
- Teaching and learning should not be about information transfer alone; that is, it’s not about simply having students “parrot back” the information. That doesn’t lead to true learning and long-term retention.
- The more a teacher is an expert in his/her content, the more difficulty this teacher has in understanding how a first time learner in this subject struggles
- Rather we need to guide and use peer instruction/social learning/collaboration amongst students to construct learning and then be able to apply/transfer that learning to a different context
- Lecturing is not an effective way to create a long term retention of information
- Peer instruction/human interaction creates effective learning
- “The plural of anecdotes is not data.”
- Eric is seeking data and feedback to sharpen his theories of how to optimize learning
- Technology serves pedagogy — technology should afford a new mode of learning
- Towards that end, Eric and team working on “Peer instruction 2.0”
- How do I design good questions? Optimize the discussions? Manage time? Insure learning is taking place?
- Eric is working with several other colleagues to create a system for building and using data analytics to give useful information to instructor about who’s “getting it” and who isn’t; about how we learn
- Peer instruction not without issues — how people group themselves and who students choose to collaborate with can be problematical
- Why not have the system do the pairing/grouping?
- System uses algorithms, facial recognition, posture analysis; cameras, microphones
- Surveys also used
- The system is attempting to help Eric and his team learn about learning
- The system being used at Harvard and by invitation only
Eric ended with a summary of the 2 key messages:
- Education is not about lecturing
- We can move way beyond the current technologies and use new methods and technologies to actively manage learning as it happens
From DSC:
After listening to this lecture, the graphic below captures a bit of what he’s getting at and reflects some of my thinking on this subject as well. That is, we need diagnostic tools — along the lines of those a mechanic might use on our cars to ascertain where the problems/issues are:
On 10/10/2011,
in Apple, collaboration, communications, Google, mobile learning, mobile technologies, tools, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Vidyo: Video conferencing on the iPad, iPhone and Android tablets and smartphones
Ad-hoc Room System
VidyoMobile on iPad 2 joining an HD multipoint video conference at 720p with 4 other laptops and a room system. (Note: This picture has not been photoshopped in any way.)
On 10/03/2011,
in assessment, collaboration, education, global / globalization, society,
by Daniel Christian
On 09/30/2011,
in adjunct faculty, career development, collaboration, communities of practice, faculty, professional development, research, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
On 09/08/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, collaboration, education reform, education technology, future, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, Michigan, project-based learning, real-world assignments, smart classrooms, teachers, teaching & learning, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
On 08/23/2011,
in collaboration, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Yesterday, one of the organizations within our college hosted a conference call using Wimba Classroom. For those of you unfamiliar with Wimba Classroom, it’s really a set of web-based collaboration tools that offer such functionality as:
- Videoconferencing
- Audio-conferencing
- Interactive whiteboard space
- Chat
- Application sharing capabilities
(Last summer, Blackboard purchased both Elluminate and Wimba Classroom and have since created Bb Collaborate 11 from these two product lines.)
What I’ve learned about Wimba Classroom is that it’s best used as a Skype-on-steroids type of setup. That is, when one remote person is communicating with other remote persons — and all parties use headphones with attached microphones on them for their audio outputs/inputs. It is best when none of the participants are a group of people sitting in one room. I say this because when you have a group of people in one location and you want to use VOIP-related technologies (i.e. for “free” communications), then you need to have a set of speakers powerful enough to cover the room. However, the audio output from the speakers can present some seriously-frustrating issues with the microphone in that room — especially if any participant has the Lock Talk feature turned on (feedback/echoing occur here).
I’m very disappointed with Wimba for not having innovated more here over the last 1-2 decades — they’ve been in the business quite a while before it was known as Wimba. Perhaps Blackboard Collaborate 11 will address some of these problems and introduce some noise-cancelling software to eliminate these sorts of communication frustrations.
Now, I’ve lost another internal customer and I’m forced into the “Have you driven a Ford lately?” mode with these folks; as any experienced Instructional Technologist or ID will tell you, this is a veeeeryyy frustrating and disappointing place to be in.
The bright side to this situation is our Implementations Consultant — who has been in my shoes before and knows what that’s like to be there. He’s been a big help through the last 2-3 years. He recommended some different microphones that may help better address some of these issues and I thought that I would pass this information along in case it’s helpful to someone else out there:
I must be honest though — I’m seriously considering a lobbying effort to move our college away from using Wimba/Bb Collaborate 11 and towards WebEx Meeting Center or Adobe Connect. (Big Blue button and some others may be on the table as well, but my initial-but-not-completely-up-to-date guess is that other products don’t offer the same level of quality as WebEx or Connect.)
In retrospect (hindsight’s always 20-20, right?), I should have not been pursuaded by Wimba’s pitch that they focus solely on the education space — as that perspective may not be worth bragging rights these days (I’m constantly reminded that the education space doesn’t innovate as well as some other sectors/industries do).
Anyway…hopefully, this posting will help someone out there. Also, it is highly possible that my relevant skillsets need further enhancements here! So feel free to give me some further education — I’m always up for expanding my learning ecosystem! 🙂
On 08/07/2011,
in collaboration, professional development, teachers, teaching & learning, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
edWeb.net – Networking, resource sharing, collaboration, and professional development for the education community
Also see: