From DSC:
I understand that Mr. George Lucas is going to express his generosity in donating the $4.05 billion from the sale of Lucasfilm to education.

Here’s a question/idea that I’d like to put forth to Mr. Lucas (or to the United States Department of Education, or to another interested/committed party):

Would you consider using the $4+ billion gift to build an “Online Learning Dream Team?”

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Daniel Christian -- The Online Learning Dream Team - as of November 2012

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 Original image credit (before purchased/edited by DSC)
yobro10 / 123RF Stock Photo

 

 

From DSC:
What do you think? What other “players” — technologies, vendors, skillsets, etc. — should be on this team?

  • Perhaps videography?
  • Online tutoring?
  • Student academic services?
  • Animation?
  • Digital photography?

 

Machine 2 Machine World of Connected Services -- from Beecham Research

 

 

Addendum on 11/12/12:

 

 

Apple TV and the transformation of web apps into tablet and TV dual screen apps — from brightcove.com by Jeremy Allaire

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Excerpts:

Importantly, designers and developers need to shed the concept that “TVs” are for rendering video, and instead think about “TVs” as large monitors on which they can render applications, content and interactivity that is supported by a touch-based tablet application.

The key concept here is that this pervasive adoption of TV monitors is the tip of the spear in creating a social computing surface in the real world.

Specifically, Apple has provided the backbone for dual screen apps, enabling:

  • Any iOS device (and OSX Mountain Lion-enabled PCs) to broadcast its screen onto a TV. Think of this as essentially a wireless HDMI output to a TV. If you haven’t played with AirPlay mirroring features in iOS and Apple TV, give it a spin, it’s a really exciting development.
  • A set of APIs and an event model for enabling applications to become “dual screen aware” (e.g. to know when a device has a TV screen it can connect to, and to handle rendering information, data and content onto both the touch screen and the TV screen).


[Jeremy listed several applications for these concepts:  Buying a house, buying a car, doctor’s office, kids edutainment, the classroom, retail electronics store, consuming news, consuming video, sales reporting, board games.]

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Also see:

 
From DSC:
Graphically speaking — and approaching this from an educational/learning ecosystems standpoint — I call this, “Learning from the Living [Class] Room.

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

 

 

 

Learning from the living room -- a component of our future learning ecosystems -- by Daniel S. Christian, June 2012

 

 

Related item:

Connected devices to outnumber humans six to one by 2020 — from news.techworld.com by Sophie Curtis
Adoption in developing countries and M2M communications will push the number of connected devices up to 25 billion

Excerpt:

By 2020, connected devices will outnumber connected people by six to one, and mobile broadband will be driving internet usage as fixed connections dwindle, according to a new report.

Worldwide, the number of mobile broadband users already outnumbers fixed broadband users by a ratio of two to one, and that imbalance will only grow over time as more developing country users upgrade their mobile phones to smartphones and tablets.

New concepts such as embedded intelligence, automated machine-to-machine (M2M) traffic, and the ‘Internet of Things’ are also contributing to the growth in networked devices, and the demand for seamless wireless connectivity has never been greater.

Embedded ubiquitous learning — from the Upside Learning blog by Abhijit Kadle

Excerpt:

What would ubiquitous learning look like? Well, there isn’t an easy answer to that. It is hard to foresee what will come about personal computing technologies in the next decade. In my eyes, from a learning perspective, there are a few key themes (emphasis DSC):

  1. Discovery and delivery – the ability to use agents that comprehend context, are able to make ‘coherent’ sense of varied data streams to search for information, discover, and provide content – just in time, in the correct context and in the appropriate format.
  2. Machine to Machine communication – While there is no doubt that this will happen, and that the ‘internet of things’ isn’t very far away in the future. One thing I found fascinating is the idea that you could create a ‘learning profile’, an identity that is essentially a digital package of your learning preferences and the contents of your past learning, that can be accessed by machines. This would let the ‘machine’ actually tailor its user interfaces, learning content and the experience itself, and present information in a way that suits the preferences of the human.
  3. Embedded learning – networked learning that is built into every device, every tool, every physical resource humans use; there is no need for specific training; the latest information is available just in time, from authentic sources, judged valuable by network analysis, provided with the right context and assists humans to complete tasks

Indoor navigation takes signals and sensors from spectrum.ieee.org by Tekla Perry

 

Excerpt:

Indoor navigation. You’re going to be hearing a lot about it over the coming months. Apple, having recently dumped Google’s mapping technology from its mobile devices, will be trying to beat Google at the mapping game. Google will fight back with more and more features, many likely intended for use indoors. (I expect to see some mapping demos at the upcoming iPhone 5 introduction later this week.)

From DSC:

  • I have been pondering the best ways to deal with the BYOD situation and how to facilitate students contributing content — quickly, seamlessly, and efficiently — to the classroom without interrupting the flow of the classroom.  Also, the desired solution would need to prevent a hacker/digital vandal/prankster from sending an inappropriate image, movie, and/or message to a projector or display from 1/2 way across campus.  So I’ve been thinking about machine-to-machine communications and wondering if that’s how a projector or display will allow someone to use it if it detects that person/device is sending it the approved signal from within the same room…not sure…perhaps it will be like they do in banking…setting up new randomized passwords every few seconds and the machines communicate to each other what that password should be within the room at any given moment.  But once you leave the room, that password is no longer any good. Not sure…

 

A piece of the Next Generation Smart Classroom -- Daniel Christian -- June 2012

 

 

Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision [Eaton]

Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton

Excerpt (emphasis below from DSC; also see the above categories to see how I see this as a highly-relevant component to our future learning ecosystems):

Then imagine what a hybrid of Apple’s tech and efforts like GetGlue, Shazam, and other interactive systems will be like when they’re more integrated into your 2017 smart TV. The big screen in your living room won’t be a one-way window into another world you can’t touch anymore. It’ll be a discovery engine, a way to learn facts, interact with the world, talk to people, find new and surprising content to absorb. Advertisers will love it, and companies like Nielsen–which largely has to guess all those stats about who watches which show at primetime nowadays–will be able to get accurate data…which may mean more appealing shows.

 

 

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

 

 

Also see:

Research: Cellular M2M connections to grow 30% a year to 2020 — from telecompetitor.com by Andrew Burger

Excerpt:

Cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will exhibit explosive growth between 2012 and 2020, according to a new research report and forecast from Strategy Analytics. Cellular M2M connections will increase from 277 million this year to some 2.5 billion in 2020, a constant annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%, the Boston-based market research firm projects.

Ongoing progress in deployment of global connectivity platforms, standardization efforts, growth in cloud computing and regulatory initiatives will all contribute to growth in cellular M2M connections, according to Strategy Analytics’ analysts.

 

Apple's iTunes U may be leading a global revolution in higher education

 

From DSC:

Apple has been putting together a solid ecosystem of hardware and software that allows for the creation and distribution of content.  “Easy is hard” I like to say and Apple’s done a great job of creating easy-to-use devices and apps. They have a long way to go before iTunes U has all the built-in functionality needed to replace a Blackboard Learn or a Moodle type of CMS/LMS.  But given their solid history of creating highly-usable hardware and software, they could deal a smashing blow to what’s happening in the CMS/LMS world today. 

Plus, with Apple TV, Airplay mirroring, the growth of second screen-based apps, and machine-to-machine communications, Apple is poised to get into this game…big time. If my thoughts re: “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” come to fruition, Apple would be positioned for some serious worldwide impact on lifelong learning; especially when combined with the developments such as the use of MOOCs, AI and HCI-related innovations, learning agents, web-based learner profiles, and potential/upcoming changes to accreditation.

Too far fetched do you think? Hmmm….well considering that online learning has already been proven to be at least as affective as f2f learning — and in some studies has produced even greater learning outcomes/results — I wonder how things will look in mid-2015…? (That is, where is the innovation occurring?)


 Addendum:

  • Connected TV penetration to top 50% by 2017 — from worldscreen.com by Mansha Daswani
    Excerpt:
    SCOTTSDALE: ABI Research forecasts that more than 50 percent of television homes in North America and Western Europe will have Internet-connected TV sets by 2017, up from just 10 percent last year, while Blu-ray player penetration is expected to rise to more than 76 percent from about 25 percent. The report notes that the popularity of connected TV is not limited to developed markets—there have been increasing shipments to China, ABI notes.
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  • Advertisers need to pay attention to connected TV [INFOGRAPHIC] — from Mashable.com
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  • The future of TV is two screens, one held firmly in your hands — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton
    Excerpt:

    The connected TV, sometimes called the smart TV (and even branded as such by Samsung) is a growing phenomenon: TV makers are adding limited apps, Net connectivity, and even streaming media powers to their newer TVs in the hope they’ll persuade you to upgrade your newish LCD for a flatter, smarter unit. They’re desperate to, given how flat this market is. But according to new research from Pew, the future of TV may actually be a little more closely aligned with the notion of a “connected TV viewer,” an important distinction. Pew spoke to over 2,200 U.S. adults a couple of months ago and discovered that 52% of all adult cell phone owners now “incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences.”

 

A piece of the Next Generation Smart Classroom -- Daniel Christian -- June 2012

 

From DSC:
I wonder:

  • If the video wall  pictured above could be a Smart/connected TV and if it can share files as well as play files?
  • If such a setup will involve machine-to-machine communications (NFC, other)?
  • If it will be like banking setups whereby the student’s device must obtain a constantly rotating password to access a resource that expires in ___ seconds — and they must be in that room to get it?
  • If it will be hardware or software based…or both?

 

Plasma First: Apple TV, SmartGlass and the New World of Multi-Screen Cloud Content – from forbes.com by Anthony Wing Kosner

Excerpt:

The future for web developers is big. 50 inch plasma screen big. After an intensive cycle of trying to figure out how to take desktop websites and make them look and work great on mobile devices (often by starting from scratch) the pendulum is swinging to the other end of the multi-screen spectrum—the family TV, the conference room monitor, the classroom SmartBoard.

Also see:

The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020– from The World Future Society by Brian David Johnson, a futurist at Intel Corporation, where he is developing an actionable vision for computing in 2020.

Excerpt:

Why will most people think that their data has a life of its own? Well, because it’s true. We will have algorithms talking to algorithms, machines talking to machines, machines talking to algorithms, sensors and cameras gathering data, and computational power crunching through that data, then handing it off to more algorithms and machines. It will be a rich and secret life separate from us and for me incredibly fascinating.

But as we begin to build the Secret Life of Data, we must always remember that data is meaningless all by itself. The 1s and 0s are useless and meaningless on their own. Data is only useful and indeed powerful when it comes into contact with people.

This brings up some interesting questions and fascinating problems to be solved from an engineering standpoint. When we are architecting these algorithms, when we are designing these systems, how do we make sure they have an understanding of what it means to be human? The people writing these algorithms must have an understanding of what people will do with that data. How will it fit into their lives? How will it affect their daily routine? How will it make their lives better?

Also see:

Preview of Future Inventions—Futurists: BetaLaunch 2012 — from The World Future Society by Kenneth J. Moore
The World Future Society’s second annual innovation competition will allow WorldFuture 2012 attendees to preview a few of the life-changing and society-altering artifacts of the future.

Beyond Siri - A report regarding the future of Virtual Assistants -- from VisionMobile -- June 2012

 

Contents

  • Virtual assistants: four generations in 20 years
  • The evolving VA technology landscape
  • The VA Competitive landscape
  • VA business models: Revenue share rather than paid app downloads
  • Leaders and challengers in the VA value chain
  • Beyond Siri: What’s in store in the VA market

Behind this report

  • Lead researcher: Marlène Sellebråten
  • Project lead: Michael Vakulenko
  • Marketing lead: Matos Kapetanakis
  • Editorial: Andreas Constantinou

 

Spatially-aware devices — by Ishac Bertran

Also see:

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