Music is Math — from Fubiz
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On 12/13/2010,
in adjunct faculty, business side of he, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, economics, elearning, faculty/staff, mathematics, new business models, online learning, online media, religion, science, training / L&D, writing,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I’m interested in trying to take pulse checks on a variety of constantly moving bulls-eyes out there — one of which is new business models within the world of teaching and learning (in higher education, K-12, and the corporate world). I have no idea whether the courses that this site/service offers are truly great or not. To me, it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is whether this model — or this type of business model — takes off. The costs of obtaining an education could be positively impacted here, as competition continues to heat up and the landscapes continue to morph.
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On 12/06/2010,
in 3D, computer science, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, immersion, mathematics, research, science, simulations, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, visualizing information,
by Daniel Christian
UMC packs 3-D visuals into cutting-edge research lab — from grandforksherald.com by Ryan Johnson
$145,000 virtual immersion lab creates realistic 3-D simulations
Think virtual reality, only more realistic. Add to that cutting edge-technology and the ability to interact with and walk around 3-D holograms and you get the newest addition to the University of Minnesota-Crookston, complete with special effects impressive enough to put the 2009 blockbuster film “Avatar” to shame
— Dr. Adel Ali from grandforksherald.com
On 11/08/2010,
in mathematics, online learning, online media, online tutoring, physics, tools, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Solving the problem of online problem solving – – from FacultyFocus.com by Ellen Smyth
When first visualizing an online mathematics course, I saw a barren, text-only environment where students learned primarily from the textbook and where instructors provided text-based direction, clarification, and assistance. But typing is not teaching and reading is not learning. Students deserve more from online courses than regurgitated textbooks and opportunities to teach themselves. With today’s technology, we can create a rich learning environment.
So if we don’t teach with pure text, what do we teach with? Traditionally, we write, draw, and talk students through the problem-solving process while we encourage students to actively work along with us. Online, we should aspire to sparking the same level of comprehension, achievable using exactly the same techniques – writing, drawing, and talking students through problems.
But how do we write, draw, and talk to students online? Fortunately, we have a wide variety of tools available to help us available to help us do it digitally.
From DSC:
One of the types of tools mentioned were the tablets from Wacom.
Stanford and UC Berkeley Create Massively Collaborative Math – 8-8-10 — [via GetIdea.org blog]
Scholars at U.S. universities UC Berkeley and Stanford have created a free website, MathOverflow, that is transforming math research. By linking questions and answers from hands-on users, each small solution builds toward a larger understanding, accelerating research and proving mass collaboration can greatly expand human problem-solving abilities.
Less than a year old, Math-Overflow is growing quickly. On a typical day, it receives about 30 new questions and more than 30,000 page views from 2,500 different users worldwide. Questions and answers get votes, based on popularity. Contributors include leading researchers, and half its traffic is international. Some questions have already led to research papers naming both the asker and “answerer” as co-authors.
Source: Mercury News [San Jose, California]
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Also see:
On 08/06/2010,
in collaboration, mathematics, open courseware and systems, physics, social learning / networks, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
— original resource from Teachers as Technology Trailblazers by Kristen Nicole Swanson
On 07/13/2010,
in digital video, engagement / engaging students, mathematics, pedagogy, science, sociology, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Teaching with Digital Video — from ISTE by Lynn Bell and Dr. Glen L. Bull
With digital video, your students can:
Watch a demonstration of the speed of sound
Analyze classmates’ poetry performances
Create videos that document cultural differences
And the best part is that it’s engaging. Your students are most likely already watching, creating, uploading, and sharing digital video in their spare time, so why not incorporate this tool they already enjoy in the classroom?
Bull and Bell bring together lesson plans, ideas, and resources aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and content-area standards so that you can use digital video in the classroom effectively. The book also includes information on acquiring, creating, and communicating with digital video.
Learn more about this book and topic: listen to an interview with the editors Glen L. Bull and Lynn Bell on ISTE Casts.
Also relevant here:
- Pennsylvania establishes first statewide Digital Learning Library — from eSchoolNew.com by Meris Stansbury
Pa. partners with PBS, Penn State University to give educators free access to standards-aligned digital media content
On 07/01/2010,
in mathematics, open courseware and systems,
by Daniel Christian
Last May, the talk of the search world was Wolfram Alpha, the online engine that provides graphically presented answers to computationally oriented questions tapping myriad math, science, and other data sets. But by April 2010, Wolfram Alpha’s traffic hovered below the numbers achieved in the launch month of May 2009. Though this does not capture use by third-party applications–including Microsoft’s Bing search engine–Wolfram Alpha hasn’t emerged as a notable search destination.
But the emergence of e-books provides Alpha with a new outlet–as a ready-made supplier of interactive graphics, plots, charts, and real-time data. These features can be incorporated within publications developed for Apple’s iPad and other devices. “Deeper information becomes available by way of tapping,” (emphasis DSC) says Theodore Gray, cofounder of Wolfram Research.
The first example is now out: a Wolfram/Alpha app for The Elements, a book Gray wrote on the periodic table. The paper version of the book is dominated by glossy photos of elements and products made from them (Pepto-Bismol, for example, uses bismuth). The version developed for the iPad, however, is chock-full of on-screen buttons that lead to Wolfram’s online computational engine and data sets.
Clearly, the concept will make sense for some kinds of books more than others, says Jared Spool, CEO of User Interface Engineering, a North Andover, MA-based consulting firm. “It makes a lot of sense for a lot of college textbooks to go in this direction, (emphasis DSC) but I’m not sure that a detective novel has a lot to offer there,” he says. Delivering such interactivity is a likely new direction for Wikipedia and search engines and many other sources beyond Wolfram Alpha, he points out.