ASTD TechKnowledge 2013 Conference Backchannel: Curated Resources — from David Kelly
Excerpt:
I am a huge proponent of backchannel learning. There are many conferences I would love to be able to attend, but my budget can only accommodate one or two each year. The backchannel is an excellent resource for learning from a conference or event that you are unable to attend in-person.
Also see David’s posting:
From DSC — with a special thanks to Mr. Michael Haan, Technology Integration Specialist at Calvin College, for this resource
Now we’re talking! The Mondopad from InFocus is starting to morph into what I thought the “chalkboard of the future” might look like. Now I’d like to see:
Key features:
Also see the information out at Precision Data Products:
Google’s absolutely amazing & extraordinary office in Tel Aviv, Israel –from theultralinx.com by Oliur Rahman
From DSC:
Thanks Oliur for a great portfolio of images/ideas! Here are just a few examples of some very cool spaces that encourage learning, creativity, innovation, and collaboration:
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How NOT to design a MOOC: The disaster at Coursera and how to fix it — from onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com by Debbie Morrison
Excerpt/update:
Note: I’m also enrolled in Coursera’s E-learning and Digital Cultures, with University of Edinburgh, which is so far excellent. What I wrote in this post is exclusive to the course Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application. I also completed Introduction to Sociology, through Coursera last year which was quite good.
Update: This course is now ‘suspended’. Participants received this email February 2, at 4:17 pm (PST). “We want all students to have the highest quality learning experience. For this reason, we are temporarily suspending the “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application” course in order to make improvements. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. We will inform you when the course will be reoffered.”
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From DSC:
There will be many more disasters I’m sure. But as with learning, failure is to be expected (some would say mandatory) and learning is messy. This is especially true when technological change and innovation are moving at ever-increasing speeds.
The questions that comes to my mind after reading this are:
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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:
It’s the sort of thing I was trying to get at with this graphic from 3 years ago:
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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!!!
LG’s 55” OLED television is thin as a pencil and first to market — from singularityhub.com
Microsoft’s epic plan to turn your living room into a giant TV — from
How big is your TV? 40 inches? 50 inches? Well, what if it were the size of your whole room?
From DSC:
And if they can do that, what might the applications be for educationally-related applications? Perhaps something like this.
CES 2013: trends in connected TV — from guardian.co.uk
Michael Berliner on why all media professionals should be keeping a close eye on smart TVs in 2013
The coming automatic, freaky, contextual world and why we’re writing a book about it — from scobleizer.comby Robert Scoble
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
First, the short version of today’s news. Shel Israel and I are collaborating on a book, titled, The Age of Context: How it Will Change Your Life and Work.
The long version:
A new world is coming. It’s scary. Freaky. Over the freaky line, if you will. But it is coming. Investors like Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen are investing in it. Companies from Google to startups you’ve never heard of, like Wovyn or Highlight, are building it. With more than a couple of new ones already on the way that you’ll hear about over the next six months.
First, the trends. We’re seeing something new happen because of:
Also see:
Also see:
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Book Description
Release date: January 18, 2013
The Information Age? Think again.
Change is everywhere: how we communicate, what we do for a living, the values we hold, the way we raise our children, even the way we access information. Thanks to a global economy, the force of the Internet, and the explosion of mobile technology, we have—almost imperceptibly—been ushered into a new era, the Shift Age, in which change happens so quickly that it’s become the norm.
Man-made developments—such as tools, machines, and technology—defined previous ages, but the Shift Age will be defined by our own power of choice. In Entering the Shift Age, leading futurist David Houle argues that we are going through a major collapse of legacy thinking, eroding many of the thought structures that have defined the last two hundred years of humanity. Houle identifies and explains the new forces that will shape our lives—including remote workplaces, the cloud, “24/7” culture, speed-of-light connectivity, creativity, and the influence of Millenials and Digital Natives—for the next twenty years.
In this eye-opening book, Houle navigates this pivotal point in human history with clarity and anticipation, focusing on the power of human consciousness and the direct influence we can impart on everything from healthcare to media to education. According to Houle, we are more independent than ever before. We are in control.
There’s no “going back” to the way things were. Reality is changing ever faster, and ENTERING THE SHIFT AGE is your guide to keeping up.
From DSC:
Though I haven’t read the book, I would probably take a different angle/perspective on some things here. Yet, this work seems important in that it addresses the constant change — and pace of change — that we find ourselves and our world in.
Less is more — from Harold Jarche
Excerpts:
If you were to sum up the psychology of learning in three words, it would be ‘less is more’. – Donald Clark
In FrogDesign’s presentation on Design is Hacking How we Learn, slide #27 clearly shows where the emphasis of our learning efforts should be, and where organizations should place the most support and resources: practice.
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From DSC:
In the corporate world, my thought is to provide the training as to where and how employees can get/stay in the know — especially by encouraging the use and ownership of blogs, social media, and developing/leveraging their personal learning networks. But also to provide the infrastructure and tools — the plumbing if you will — to allow for people to quickly connect with each other and to easily share information with each other (i.e. to develop their own learning ecosystems). Formal classes won’t cut it. As Harold and other members of the Internet Alliance have long been saying, it’s about informal learning. (Speaking of his Internet Alliance colleagues, Charles Jennings recently discussed how the pace of change is affecting the corporate world big time; and, just as in higher ed, being able to adapt is key to staying relevant.)
As a relevant aside…my issue with my Master’s Program in Instructional Design for Online Learning was that there was too much emphasis on theory and not enough emphasis on practice.
Specialty classroom technologies — from centerdigitaled.com
Session was moderated by Tom Ryan, Ph.D. | Sr. Fellow, Center for Digital Education | Former CIO, Albuquerque Public Schools
Resources
Example slides:
Also see:
Excerpt:
Today Udacity is thrilled to announce a partnership with San Jose State University to pilot three courses — Entry-Level Mathematics, College Algebra, and Elementary Statistics — available online at an affordable tuition rate and for college credit. To my knowledge, this is the first time a MOOC has been offered for credit and purely online. Much credit for this partnership goes to Mo Qayoumi and Ellen Junn, president and provost of SJSU, and to the five fearless SJSU professors who have chosen to work with us at Udacity to explore this new medium. The offices of Governor Brown and CSU Chancellor White have also been critically important to this partnership for their leadership and expediency. Last but not least, I want to personally thank our great Udacians who, like everyone on this list, have worked endless hours to drive innovation.
Over the past year, MOOCs have received a lot of attention in the media and education circles mostly because so many students are taking advantage of the course for free. Predictions that MOOCs would fundamentally change higher education often revolved around the fact that the courses have unprecedented reach and affordability.
From DSC:
Given that such “Walmarts of Education” (i.e. solid learning at a greatly reduced prices) continue to develop, what’s our/your plans for responding to this trend? How are we/you going to compete? What’s our/your vision and strategy? By the way, you can look all you want to for data — but at the end of the day, it’s likely with this sort of thing that you won’t find all of the data that you require to make a decision. Examples:
VideoScribe HD by Sparkol — with thanks to Sue Gorman (@sjgorman) whose post on Twitter said, “VideoScribe HD -create Fast Drawing videos…awesome!”
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Nine rules for stifling innovation — from blogs.hbr.org by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
From DSC:
The above posting reminds me of the phrase…”culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
On the flip side of things, see:
Jan. 17, 10 a.m. EST:
The winners of the News Challenge: Mobile
Jan. 18, 12:30 p.m. EST :
Hear the winners talk about their projects via live webstream at www.knightfoundation.org/live. The presentations are part of a gathering at Arizona State University on the future of mobile media.
To stay updated, follow @knightfdn and #newschallenge on Twitter.
The Knight News Challenge accelerates media innovation by funding the best breakthrough ideas in news and information. Winners receive a share of $5 million in funding – and support from Knight’s network of influential peers and advisors to help advance their ideas.Innovators from all industries and countries are invited to participate. Previously run once a year, the Challenge is running three times in 2012, to more closely mirror the pace of innovation. Each round has its own theme.
With a special thanks for the above resource going out to my sister, Sue Ellen Christian, Associate Professor of Journalism at Western Michigan University; and if I may put in a plug for her work, please see my sister’s latest book:
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