Microsoft unveils Xbox One: the ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system — from microsoft.com

Excerpt:

REDMOND, Wash. — May 21, 2013 — A new vision for the future comes to life today as Microsoft Corp. unveils Xbox One , the all-in-one gaming and entertainment system created for today and the next generation. At Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., the company showcased how Xbox One puts you at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.

“Xbox One is designed to deliver a whole new generation of blockbuster games, television and entertainment in a powerful, all-in-one device,” said Don Mattrick, president, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Our unique, modern architecture brings simplicity to the living room and, for the first time ever, the ability to instantly switch across your games and entertainment.”

With Xbox One, games push the boundaries of realism, and TV obeys your commands. Say “Xbox On” to launch your personalized Xbox One Home screen, discover what is popular on TV or see friends’ latest gaming achievements all using the most natural interface — your voice. The more you interact with Xbox One, the more it gets to know you and learns what you like.

 

From DSC:
Here’s the item I find particularly interesting (emphasis DSC):

  • Skype for Xbox One.
    Specially designed for Xbox One, talk with friends on your TV in stunning HD, or for the first time ever, hold group Skype calls on your TV.

 

Digization, sole growth engine for Europe’s creative industries? — from inaglobal.fr/en/… by Nicolas Vaquier
[NEWS] According to a recently published study entitled The Digital Future of Creative U.K., digitization is the sole growth engine for Europe’s creative industries.
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Excerpt from Conclusion:

Finally, the study delivers conclusions for the whole of the creative industries and forecasts for their future. It notes that with the fragmentation of media consumption, advertising money is now divided between a number of players. While total advertising revenues have climbed, individual companies can no longer expect profits to be as high as they were in the past. Online advertising is still a challenge, and the monetization of already existing content will not be enough to meet it. The Digital Future of Creative U.K. furthermore highlights the complementarity of digital and analog, refuting the idea of one technology’s cannibalization of the other, using the example of catch-up television.

The study announces the transformation of the value creation chain. The horizontal integration of production, distribution and marketing intermediaries that prevailed in the traditional system will be dissolved by more profitable digital alternatives, diminishing the importance of these intermediaries. The study predicts that the concept of “chain” will furthermore be replaced by that of a “network” of relations, with consumption and participation at its heart. The rise in the number of players and the lowering of entry barriers will thus allow for greater quantity as well as relevance of content on offer.

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Games grow up: Colleges recognize the power of gamification — from edtechmagazine.com by Jacquelyn Bengfort
Universities enliven education through the power of play.

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Jane McGonigal on Gamification – IBM Connect 2013 Day 3 – Jan 30, 2013– with thanks to the curation done on this by siobhan-o-flynn
Description:
World renowned game designer, Jane McGonigal, dropped some amazing facts about gamification that will change your perspective. IBM Connect 2013 Session on Gamification

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A history of media streaming and the future of connected TV — from guardian.co.uk by Alex Zambelli
We’re close to broadly available HD streaming which could trigger mass adoption of connected TV. 

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internet streaming real shockwave flash netflix

 

 

A precursor to…

 

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

Games for a Digital Age: K-12 Market Map and Investment Analysis — from joanganzcooneycenter.org by John Richards, Leslie Stebbins and Kurt Moellering
January 28, 2013

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From DSC:

In real estate, one hear’s the mantra:
Location. Location. Location.

In higher education, I have it that we’ll be hearing this for a while:
Experimentation. Experimentation. Experimentation.

Consider the following reflections on Steve’ Kolowich’s solid article, The new intelligence (from InsideHigherEd.com)

Excerpt:

And for the largest public university in the country, it is hardly fiction. Arizona State University has become ground zero for data-driven teaching in higher education. The university has rolled out an ambitious effort to turn its classrooms into laboratories for technology-abetted “adaptive learning” — a method that purports to give instructors real-time intelligence on how well each of their students is getting each concept.
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From DSC:
Besides being used in blended learning environments…some predictions:

  • These technologies will become integrated into what MOOCs eventually morph into and provide a significant piece of the assessment/guidance puzzle
  • Such tools will be a part of one’s future learning ecosystem
  • Such tools will be part of interactive, massively open online educationally-related games
  • Such tools will be integrated into personalized learning agents — spiders/recommendation engines that scan the web for relevant items that one needs to complete one’s cognitive gaps in a subject/topic
  • They will be accessible from your living room as well as from your mobile devices
  • They will integrate into web-based learner profiles

It’s the sort of thing I was trying to get at with this graphic from 3 years ago:
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Like a mechanic...

 

Please don’t misunderstand me, the human mind is far beyond the complexity of an engine. But I still think that there will be more tools & technologies developed that will help the teachers/professors in their efforts to guide students into the knowledge of a discipline.

I beseech the corporate world to get involved more here — and not with the end goal of earning profits — but rather, with the aim of making the world a better place and giving a huge gift to the generations yet born. 

I urge the corporate world to reach into their deep pockets (1.X trillion in cash at this point in time) and team up with our youth/teachers/professors/instructional designers/programmers/etc. to develop sophisticated, educationally-related, engaging games that are relevant to the world that our youth will be growing up in; and/or create interactive simulations that provide more choice/more control to the learners. 

I urge more of the corporate world to join Knewton and Pearson and allocate some significant resources to help develop the next gen learning tools.  I’ll bet that we’ll be amazed at what can be produced! Your daughters, sons, granddaughters, and grandsons will really appreciate the work that you did for them!!!

 

 

ECAR2012

 

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Example slides from today’s presentation:


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 ECAR2-2012

 

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ECAR3-2012

 

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 ECAR4-2012

 

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ECAR5-2012

 

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ECAR6-2012

 

 

From DSC:
I also support one of the questions which, paraphrasing, asked, “Do you pulse check students’ expectations?

 

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Talk about the creative side of computing! Turning video games into live music -- meet the Tacit Group

 

From DSC:
Some serious cross-disciplinary work/fun/experimentation going on here!

 

Engaging children with the siren call of the app — from the New York Times by Geraldine Fabrikant

Excerpt:

Each summer for several years, a two-week seminar at the American Museum of Natural History has allowed 25 youngsters to use technology to resurrect a prehistoric marine animal by designing realistic 3-D models and sea environments.

Every year, the program, “Virtual World Institute: Cretaceous Seas,” for children ages 11 to 14, fills up quickly.

Proceedings from recent MSU's Meaningful Play Conference

 

Papers/tracks
(You can view the abstracts or complete papers where available.)

  • Beyond Just Crunching Numbers: Games for Learning Math and Science
  • Classroom is a Game: Technological and Educational Insights for Games for Learning
  • Game Design and Designers
  • Game Evaluation
  • Game Mechanics and Design Principles
  • Games and Data: Between Design and Research
  • Games, Ethics and Rhetoric
  • Games: Legal, Economic, and Policy Insights
  • Gamification
  • Gaming for the Sake of Healthy Mind and Body
  • Gender and Games
  • Innovation in Game Design
  • Is it the Age of Dragon Age?
  • Modding: Design and Analysis
  • Motivation, Engagement, and Enjoyment during Gameplay
  • Observe, Listen, and Learn: Studying Games Using Ethnographic Methodology
  • Social Gaming and Collaborative Play
  • The World of MMOs
  • Thinking Differently about Games 4 Learning
  • Understanding Games through the Lens of Narrative
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Meet Ms. Siri, your new teacher — from fastcompany.com by Anya Kamenetz
The next generation of artificial intelligence from the lab that built the iPhone’s Siri is powering an educational game.

From DSC:
Even with all of the technological advancements, I see the need for effective teachers, mentors, professors, instructors like never before.  Although their roles may change, we’ll still need them big time. We may see students creating more of the content, while teachers guide them along the way.

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About

In each game episode, you play as Dak, Sera, and young Hystorian Riq as they travel back in time to fix one of the Great Breaks. Use your Hystorian’s Guide to discover what has gone wrong in history. Then, the story continues as you explore the open environment and play mini games such as lock picking or white-water rafting. Along the way you will also complete side quests and speak with historical characters who will aid you in — or perhaps deter you from — your quest.

The Infinity Ring game boasts an immersive open-world environment in which players are free to explore a 3-D representation of sites around the globe and throughout time. The game is available on desktop computers. Coming soon for mobile and tablet devices.

Also see:

Scholastic goes global to promote its latest transmedia epic — from digitalbookworld.com
NEW MULTI-PLATFORM TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE SERIES
infinity ring™ LAUNCHES WITH global promotional campaign
FROM SCHOLASTIC
KIDS CAN PREVIEW THE INFINITY RING ONLINE GAME ON WWW.INFINITYRING.COM STARTING TODAY
Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, today announces a massive worldwide campaign to promote INFINITY RING™, a new multi-platform time travel adventure series for children ages 8-12, launching on August 28th simultaneously in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand with “Book 1: A Mutiny in Time” by New York Times bestselling author James Dashner.  As the pioneering force behind the groundbreaking and international bestselling The 39 Clues® series, Scholastic expands its innovative multi-platform publishing program with Infinity Ring, a fully immersive reading experience which combines books, an interactive “Hystorian’s Guide” map, and an online game experience where readers travel back in time to “fix” history.

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20 schools innovating with digital tools — from Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill
Excerpt:
Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, “Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?” That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions!

© 2024 | Daniel Christian