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On 05/13/2013,
in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, tools, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Interactive whiteboards are front and center in college classrooms — from edtechmagazine.com
A look at whiteboards at New York’s Touro College.
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From DSC:
We currently have 3 types of Interactive WhiteBoards (IWB’s) on our campus: Epson BrightLinks, SMART Boards, and/or an Eno Board from PolyVision.
However, the idea of using mobile interactive whiteboards is becoming increasingly popular — i.e. being able to annotate on an iPad, for example, and having everyone in the class see these annotations. I’ve seen some K-12 folks use Apple TV for this type of thing, but Apple’s multi-cast wireless protocol doesn’t work as well for us in a campus environment. I’ve also seen/heard of people using one of the following solutions listed below as well. (I wish I had more time to check each of them out, but I’ll simply list them for you here.)
- AirServer
- Doceri Desktop
“With built-in remote desktop control you can access and annotate over files resident on your Windows PC or Mac and present them to your classroom or audience when a projector is connected.” - Splashtop Whiteboard
“This app allows me to not only control my computer remotely but I am able to see my entire desktop on my iPad and then mark up over ANY text or video!” - ExplainEverything.com
- Nearpod.com
- Doodlecastpro.com
- Educreations
- Scribbeo
“Annotate video & images directly on screen” http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribbeo/id496099951?mt=8 - Coach’s Eye
“Annotate your video using lines, arrows, circles, squares and freehand tools.” http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coachs-eye/id472006138?mt=8 - Ink2Go
“You can easily write on top of any other application that is currently active on the desktop, even on a running video.” http://ink2.eyepowergames.com/
On 05/08/2013,
in adjunct faculty, change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education reform, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, pace of change, passions, personalized/customized learning, real-world assignments, reinvent, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Also, from Steve Wheeler’s Are you a meerkat or an ostrich?
Etienne Wenger recently declared: ‘If any institutions are going to help learners with the real challenges they face…(they) will have to shift their focus from imparting curriculum to supporting the negotiation of productive identities through landscapes of practice’ (Wenger, 2010).
We live in uncertain times, where we cannot be sure how the economy is going to perform today, let alone predict what kind of jobs there will be for students when they graduate in a few years time. How can we prepare students for a world of work that doesn’t yet exist? How can we help learners to ready themselves for employment that is shifting like the sand, and where many of the jobs they will be applying for when they leave university probably don’t exist yet? It’s a conundrum many faculty and lecturers are wrestling with, and one which many others are ignoring in the hope that the problem will simply go away. Whether we are meerkats, looking out and anticipating the challenges, or ostriches burying our heads in the sand, the challenge remains, and it is growing stronger.
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Also see:
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Also see:
- The Nature of the Future: The Socialstructed World — from nextberlin.eu by Marina Gorbis, Institute for the Future
Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (iftf.org) discussed the evolution of communication and its consequences at NEXT13. She analyzed the perks and challenges of the new relationship-driven or “socialstructed” economy, stating that “humans and technology will team up”. Her new book ‘The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World’ was published in early 2013. Watch her inspiring talk on April 23, 2013 at NEXT13.
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From DSC:
My best take on this at this point:
- Give students more choice, more control of their learning
- Help them discover their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
- Help them develop their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
- Provide content in as many ways as possible — and let the students work with what they prefer to work with
- Implement story, emotion, creativity, and play as much as possible (providing plenty of chances for them to create what they want to create)
- Utilize cross-disciplinary assignments and teams
- Integrate real-world assignments/projects into the mix
- Help them develop their own businesses while they are still in school — coach them along, provide mentors, relevant blogs/websites, etc.
- Guide them as they create/develop their own “textbooks” and/or streams of content
On 03/12/2013,
in Daniel S. Christian, engagement / engaging students, formal learning, hearts -- matters of the heart, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, love of learning, participation, passions, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
THIS is what it could look like if students OWNED their own learning and could pursue their own passions! — A powerful piece! Well worth your time if you are involved with — or concerned about — education in any way, shape, or form.
The video starts off with this troubling/deep assertion by a student (which I’m sure varies in actuality across the board):
- “It’s crazy that…in a system that is meant to teach…and to help the youth, there is NO voice from the youth at all.”
From DSC:
A few radical — but powerful ideas — to help students OWN their own learning (something that they will need for the rest of their lives):
- More choice, more control
- Research what you want to research — “The most important thing about your question is that you ACTUALLY WANT to know the answer.”
- Students pursue their own passions — be that an interest in music, art, science, aviation, or in another discipline.
- Student present their findings to each other — which involves more of a team-based approach (i.e. peer pressure in a positive way here, strongly encouraging each other to do their best work so as not to let others down)
- Peer evaluation
- No quizzes
- No grades
- Often no adults in the room; if adults are there, they are acting more as guides and facilitators
- Multiple types of “assignments”/activities — some individualistic, some group work, some long-term
A couple of questions kept running through the back of my mind:
- Did they hand select these particular students for this program?
- If so, what were the predominant characteristics of those students?
With that said, this is a very powerful piece — well worth your time to check out.
On 03/11/2013,
in A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, innovation, IT in HE, K-12 related, mobile learning, mobile technologies, participation, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The worlds of K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development are all seeking solid solutions to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or the Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) solution. (The way I see it, it would sure be helpful it Apple worked with the other relevant vendors to establish better wireless networking protocols.) Anyway, below are some items on this topic:
How to BYOT for Learning? –– from shift2future.com by Brian Kuhn
Responding to the “Shift to the Future” — from seanrtech.blogspot.com by Sean Robinson
BYOD: 7 reasons to leave them to their own devices — from Donald Clark Plan B
Ten reasons the iPad is an awesome tool for classrooms and education — from isource.com with thanks to Krista Spahr, Senior Instructional Designer at Calvin College, for this resource
The 4 easiest ways to mirror the iPad (comparison chart) — from edudemic.com by Seth Hansen; working off of a similar posting from Tony Vincent
Strategies for taking flight with BYOT — from byotnetwork.com
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills identified 4 critical areas of learning for students that include creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. In Forsyth County Schools, we’ve been working hard with parents, teachers and students to embrace learning with student-owned technologies; something we call Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT). What we know for sure is that BYOT is really more like Bring Your Own Learning because we’ve discovered that it is NOT about the technology – it IS about the learning.
From DSC:
This aligns well with Alan November’s replacing “one-to-one” with “one-to-world.”
But whether we use the acronomyns BYOD, BYOT or BYOL (or whatever), it’s all about students being able to contribute content (hopefully that they created) and participate in the discussions.
From June 2012
From October 2009:
Building off of Steelcase’s media:scape product line
On 02/20/2013,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, online learning, participation, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, technologies for your home, television, transmedia,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt:
It’s not unusual for a science fiction television show to spin off a video game. What is unusual is linking the show and the game together on an ongoing basis, with plot elements and characters from each crossing over to the other. In April, gaming company Trion Worlds and the Syfy cable television channel will unveil Defiance, the first such crossover massively multiplayer online game (MMO) and TV show.
From DSC:
Transmedia.
Multimedia.
Interactivity.
Participation.
Gamification.
Sounds like there must be something here for the next gen of learners — and learning from the living room.
Also see:
- Six fascinating, informative, and just plain good lectures on videogames in iTunes U — from forbes.com by Carol Pinchefsky
On 01/24/2013,
in Google, ideas, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, motivation, participation, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
Can you apply Google’s 20% time in the classroom? — from guardian.co.uk/teacher-network by Stuart Spendlow
Google offers its engineers 20% of their timetable to work on their own projects. Keen to see if it could work for education, Stuart Spendlow introduced the idea to his own classroom
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20% time developed a class of intrinsically motivated learners who strive to
make themselves proud without any fear whatsoever of making mistakes,
says Stuart Spendlow.
Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy
make themselves proud without any fear whatsoever of making mistakes,
says Stuart Spendlow.
Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy
On 01/14/2013,
in analytics, attention, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, mobile learning, open courseware and systems, personalized/customized learning, play, United States,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
A solid infographic is out at Knewton.com — of which I want to highlight 2 portions of it (below).
This first excerpt is not to dog teachers but rather it’s meant to support them and to say that we need to change a losing game (at least a part of the solution in ed reform is to get out of the business of focusing so much on standardized tests and another part of the solution resides in the second graphic below):
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Also relevant see:
- Let children’s play (with technology) be their work in education — from Jackie Gerstein
On 01/07/2013,
in emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, platforms, project-based learning, real-world assignments, robotics, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC: I originally saw this at
Mindstorms EV3: LEGO Education unveils its next generation robotics platform
from HackEducation.com by Audrey Watters
On 12/07/2012,
in engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, mathematics, real-world assignments, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
On 11/15/2012,
in 21st century, Australia, innovation, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning spaces, smart classrooms,
by Daniel Christian
Description of video:
Stephen Harris, Principal of Northern Beaches Christian School, gives a short tour of the SCIL Building, an open-plan, multi-modal learning space for student-directed learning. The SCIL Building features spaces and furniture than foster a range of learning modes and styles.
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On 07/18/2012,
in attention, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas,
by Daniel Christian
4 ways to gamify learning in your classroom — from tophatmonocle.com
Excerpt:
This post explores the role of gamification in education and provides four examples of how you can bring the learning method into your classroom.
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Top Hat Monocle closes $8M to bring gamification to university classrooms — from betakit.com
Excerpt:
Today another student engagement platform, Top Hat Monocle, announced it has closed $8 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital Partners and iNovia Capital, with participation from SoftTech VC, Version One Ventures, and Golden Venture Partners. The Toronto- and San Francisco-based company, which raised $1.5 million in seed funding in November 2011, launched their product in 2010 and has been used by 65,000 students at over 150 global universities.
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Gamified courses from Course Hero and Bunchball boost student engagement — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner
Excerpt:
In some circles, the phrase “gamification” may have gone out of fashion, but Course Hero and Bunchball are intent on showing that it can still pack a punch in education.
In April, Course Hero, which uses free online resources to offer students digital study guides and other tools, launched a series of full-length online courses infused with game mechanics from Bunchball’s gamification platform. The companies Tuesday revealed some of the initial results from the partnership.
On average, users spend three times more time on the gamified courses than on all of CourseHero.com and total time on the platform has increased five percent since the Bunchball integration, Course Hero reported. The company also said that social sharing of achievements, which are awarded as students progress through the courses, has climbed nearly 400 percent since the Bunchball partnership.
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From DSC:
- There is enormous power when resources are reallocated to teams of specialists that come together in order to create engaging, multimedia-based, interactive learning materials! The products of these endeavors should prove to be highly beneficial — especially when they can be integrated into more hybrid/blended teaching and learning situations. That way, we can utilize the best of both the face-to-face and virtual worlds.
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Addendum on 7/19/12:
- Leveling up in your gamification — from GettingSmart.com by Adam Renfro
On 03/08/2012,
in educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), K-12 related, Microsoft,
by Daniel Christian
“Capturing students’ interest and making concepts come alive is an educator’s greatest challenge. Engagement is the key to unlocking the magic that lies within each student. With Kinect™ for Xbox 360® from Microsoft, educators are enhancing traditional lesson plans, physical education, school communications and after-school programs with extraordinary immersive, body-moving experiences that help students get engaged and stay on task.”
See also: