HeresToSummerDanielChristian-May32013
(Ok, a little early, but now that Michigan has experienced some warmer weather, I’m game!)

NationalMusicWeek2013

 

Also see:

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Online music lessons in the key of see

 

From DSC:
Reminds me of this graphic/idea I was thinking of a while back…

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ChoirPracticeByDanielSChristian

DanielSChristian-MadeTop50MustReadITBlogsInHigherEdTech-4-29-13

 

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From DSC:
I’m honored to be part of a list of people/organizations who strive to help people become lifelong learners.  I’d like to say thanks to Jimmy Daly, Tara Buck, and to those folks out there who are trying to help others build their own learning ecosystems!

 

The graphic below is from:
How strong is the business/IT relationship in your industry? — from Gartner.com by Mark P. McDonald; with thanks to Mr. Stephen Landry for putting this resource out on LinkedIn.

 

2013-Gartner-Executive-Programs-CIO-Survey---April-2013

 

 

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asdfsadf

Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc (GOOG), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Ecosystems are widening moats — from insidermonkey.com

Apple smartphone strategy: It’s the ecosystem — news.investors.com

The strength of Apple’s ecosystem remains its greatest asset and will secure customers and profits despite slowing growth and margin dips — from tbrnewsommentary.wordpress.com by Beau Skonieczny, Analyst
iPad continued to fuel growth and healthy margins for Apple despite headwinds

 

From DSC:
Those of us working in the tech side of the house know how difficult it is to navigate this space. The targets are always moving, and determining which tool to go with has changed through these last few years.  It used to be about individual tools (and sometimes still is).  But increasingly, one needs to fly at the 50,00-foot level and ask how the ecosystems are playing out and how an individual tool fits into a greater ecosystem or platform.  Some ecosystems that come to my mind right now include: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

 

 

 

The IT conversation we should be having — from HBR.org by Jim Stikeleather

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

It is a conversation about the increasing importance of information technology and the role it must assume in every enterprise, regardless of size, industry or geography.

Our observations:

  • CEOs are demanding more visible value from their CIOs, in terms of generating revenue, gaining new customers, and increasing customer satisfaction.
  • Increasingly, the CIO and IT must be seen less as developing and deploying technology, and more as a source of innovation and transformation that delivers business value, leveraging technology instead of directly delivering it.
  • The CIO must be responsible and accountable if technology enables, facilitates or accelerates competition that the C-suite didn’t see coming, or allows the enterprise to miss opportunities because the C-suite did not understand the possibilities technology offered.
  • CIOs today must adapt or risk being marginalized.

 

From DSC:
This is critical in the higher ed space as well!

The majority of the higher education industry still isn’t getting it — we are operating in a brand new ball game where technology must be used strategically It’s not just about building and maintaining the infrastructure/plumbing anymore (though that is extremely important as well). It’s about the strategic, innovative use of IT that counts from here on out.

 

 

Why mobile learning is the future of workplace learning [infographic by UpsideLearning; as found on wiredacademic.com]

From DSC:
Here’s a portion of the infographic that I want to highlight — look at how many streams of content are flowing by (perfect for building one’s own learning ecosystem!)

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informal-learning-portion-April-2013

 

 I would add augmented reality-based apps
to the on-demand and embedded areas as well…

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What's the best way to deal with ever-changing streams of content? When information has shrinking half-lives?


Below are some resources and some inspirational items re: learning spaces — from Calvin College’s Learning Spaces Learning Community, one of the Learning Communities that have been discussing and researching various items at Calvin College since last fall.   Members include Debra Buursma*, Jo-Ann VanReeuwyk*, Joel Adams, Pat Bailey, Marcie Pyper, Cynthia Slagter, and Daniel Christian.

* Co-Leaders of the Learning Spaces Learning Community


 

 

 

From DSC:
Steven VanderLeest maintains a blog called Deus Ex Machina (Latin for “God in the Machine”). The other day he wrote the words that I remember singing at First Prebyterian Church of Evanston many years ago. This morning, those words come back to me and I can’t help but post something in light of the situation that occurred last night and continues to occur this morning in Boston — an event which is all over the American media, but the type of event that regrettably occurs all too frequently throughout the world (bombings, killing, violence, hatred, evil, and more).  My soul is troubled, heavy, and cries out:

Kyrie, eleison!
Christe, eleison!
Kyrie, eleison!

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

…and then the words come to my mind…”We are all in this boat together.”

 

 

 

Tagged with:  

NovoED-StanfordApril2013

 

About

NovoEd is the only online learning platform that provides a connected, effective and engaging learning environment for students using a combination of techniques in crowd sourcing, design and analysis of reputation systems, and algorithm design.

NovoEd’s philosophy is to advance the online learning experience by making online courses more experiential, interactive, and collaborative. On our platform, students not only have access to lectures by thought leaders and professors from top universities, but they are also able to form teams with people around the world and work on class projects.

NovoEd uses online learning to deliver learning opportunities at massive scale. We offer courses and programs by thought leaders in a wide range of fields and in partnership with universities. By fostering online collaboration, team work and project-based learning, we nurture problem solving, collaboration, and leadership while addressing specific topics and business opportunities.

Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) says:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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TheStateOfTheHeart3

Looking at a sampling (below) of the emerging technologies starting to hit the landscapes…

I am struck with the thought that, we need as many hearts of flesh out there as possible! 

I hope that these types of very powerful technologies are used by people who care about each other and who respect the dignity of others; those who lift up and value life.


The connected TVs are here… interactive programming & native apps will follow— from venturebeat.com by Habib Kairouz

 

The connected TVs are here… interactive programming & native apps will follow
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Excerpt:

Innovative devices have always fueled new application ecosystems. The software industry was enabled by the WinTel PC platform; and hundreds of thousands of websites were built once the PCs became “connected.” In the last few years, we have witnessed the same trend in mobile; more than 700,000 apps have been created for Web-enabled phones. We’ll soon see connected TVs fueling a similar ecosystem of interactive programming and native apps. With nearly a quarter of all U.S. households currently using connected TVs (according to eMarketer), we have reached the tipping point of mass adoption.

As opposed to the disastrous impact the Internet had on the print industry, I see the innovation of the connected TV market as a tremendous, yet accretive, evolution as opposed to a threat. Here’s why:

My reflections on “MOOCs of Hazard” – a well-thought out, balanced article by Andrew Delbanco


From DSC: Below are my reflections on MOOCs of Hazard — from newrepublic.com by Andrew Delbanco — who asks:  Will online education dampen the college experience? Yes. Will it be worth it? Well…


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While I’m not sure that I agree with the idea that online education will dampen the college experience — and while I could point to some amazing capabilities that online education brings to the table in terms of true global exchanges — I’ll instead focus my comments on the following items:

 

1) Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are recent experiments — ones that will continue to change/morph into something else.
They are half-baked at best, but they should not be taken lightly. Christensen, Horn, Johnson are spot on with their theories of disruption here, especially as they relate to innovations occurring within the virtual/digital realm.  For example, the technologies behind IBM’s Watson could be mixed into the list of ingredients that will be used to develop MOOCs in the future.  It would be a very powerful, effective MOOC indeed if you could get the following parties/functionalities to the table:

  • IBM — to provide Watson like auto-curation/filtering capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, as well as data mining/learning analytics expertise, joined by
  • Several highly-creative firms from the film/media/novel/storytelling industry, who would be further joined by
  • Experts from Human Computer Interaction (HCI)/user interface/user experience design teams, who would be further joined by
  • Programmers and interaction specialists from educational gaming endeavors (and from those who can design simulations), joined by
  • Instructional designers, joined by
  • The appropriate Subject Matter Experts who can be reached by the students as necessary, joined by
  • Those skilled in research and library services, joined by
  • Legal experts to assist with copyright issues, joined by
  • Other specialists in mobile learning,  3D, web development, database administration, animation, graphic design, musicians, etc.

It won’t be long before this type of powerful team gets pulled together — from some organizations(s) with deep pockets — and the content is interacted with and presented to us within our living rooms via connected/Smart TVs and via second screen devices/applications.

2) The benefits of MOOCs
  • For colleges/universities:
    • MOOCs offer some serious marketing horsepower (rather than sound pedagogical tools, at this point in time at least)
    • They are forcing higher ed to become much more innovative
    • They provide great opportunities to build one’s personalized learning networks, as they bring forth those colleagues who are interested in topic A, B, or C
    • They move us closer to team-based content creation and delivery
      .
  • For students:
    • They offer a much less expensive option to go exploring disciplines for themselves…to see if they enjoy (and/or are gifted in) topic A, B or C
    • They provide great opportunities to build one’s personalized learning networks, as they bring forth those colleagues who are interested in topic A, B, or C
    • They provide a chance to see what it’s like to learn about something in a digital/virtual manner

3)  The drawbacks of MOOCs:
  • MOOCs are not nearly the same thing as what has come to be known as “online learning” — at least in the higher ed industry. MOOCs do not yet offer what more “traditional” (can I say that?) online learning provides: Far more support and pedagogical/instructional design, instructor presence and dialog, student academic support services, advising, more student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction, etc.
    .
  • MOOCs are like drinking from a firehose — there are too many blogs/RSS feeds, twitter feeds, websites, and other resources to review.

4) It would be wise for all of us to be involved with such experiments and have at least a subset of one’s college or university become much more nimble/responsive.

 

Also see:

Dual screen: The evolution of the second screen — from blog.brightcove.com by Albert Lai

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Educational Gamification
In a previous post, we asked readers to suggest their ideas for dual screen applications. One of the more intriguing responses was the suggestion to create companion educational games to accompany associated video content.

In a dual screen experience, as video content is displayed on the television, the application can engage the viewer with relevant and education activities, from content reinforcement to spelling to trivia to memory “games.” One can imagine an interactive amalgamation of Dora the Explorer, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, and Schoolhouse Rock!

 

 

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

 

 

Addendum on 4/8/13:

New test for computers: Grading essays at college level — from nytimes.com by John Markoff
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Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times
EdX, a nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
will release automated software that uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers.

 

Excerpt:

EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.

© 2024 | Daniel Christian