Microsoft expands cloud services for mobile scenarios — from Microsoft.com
Office for iPad and Enterprise Mobility Suite showcase Microsoft’s mobile-first, cloud-first approach.

Excerpt:

SAN FRANCISCO — March 27, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced several new and updated applications and services including Microsoft Office for iPad and free Office Mobile apps for iPhone and Android phones. Microsoft also announced the Enterprise Mobility Suite, a comprehensive set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on the devices people use at work and at home. In addition, the company announced the upcoming availability of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium and enhancements to Windows Intune.

“Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centers on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer for Microsoft.

 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discusses the intersection of cloud and mobile at an event in San Francisco.

March 27, 2014
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discusses the intersection of cloud and mobile at an event in San Francisco.

 

Microsoft CEO Nadella pulls the trigger on long-gestating Office apps for iPad — from businessweek.com by Joshua Brustein

Excerpt:

Read-only versions of the iPad apps are available for free. To create and edit documents, customers will need a subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 software, which costs individual users $99 a year. By making the iPad app part of its wider software package, Microsoft avoids splitting revenue with Apple (AAPL), which takes a cut of the money that developers make through its App Store. Because the full versions are only offered as part of a wider package, it also means all those bosses who want their employees tapping out spreadsheets on their iPads while they wait in the airport will have to start ponying up for Office 365.

 

Microsoft and Office in a multi-platform world — from techcrunch.com by Alex Wilhelm

 

Microsoft finally brings Office to the iPad — from forbes.com by Parmy Olson

Excerpt:

Microsoft Office is at last coming to the iPad, marking an important step for the software giant as it races to catch up with the move to mobile. Microsoft general manager Julia White said that as of 11am Pacific Time on Thursday, key Office programs Word, Excel and PowerPoint would be available on the App Store for the iPad.

Microsoft’s popular email application, Outlook, was notably absent from the list of available programs. The apps are free but users will require a subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 service to use them.

Office for iPad review: Surprisingly worth the wait — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington (@drizzled)

 

iBeacons aren’t just for retail: Placed lets you use them as iPhone quick launchers at home — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt (emphasis and addition by DSC):

There has been a lot of talk about iBeacons since they launched with iOS 7 last fall, but much of the focus has been on how they benefit retailers and add to the in-store shopping experience. They have a much broader range of potential use, however, and part of that is consumer-focused (and education-focused), too. Placed is a new app that shows you how iBeacons might benefit anyone at home, by tying iBeacons to specific apps and offering quick-launch capabilities.

 

Also see:

 

Placed-March2014

 

From DSC:
Thinking out loud…again, we can see applications for this type of technology in the classroom.  Say, for example, the topic you are teaching this week is photosynthesis. You set up your room with some iBeacons and props. One corner has a large plant in it with an iBeacon attached to it; when a student approaches that plant/iBeacon with their iPad or iPhone in hand, a video demonstration of photosynthesis is automatically launched.  The student views the demo then moves over to another corner of the room where another webpage is automatically brought up on their device — perhaps to take a quiz on what they just reviewed.  Another corner has another iBeacon that launches a certain app that provides information for further exploration.  

 

 

 

From DSC:
I see the following items in the classrooms/learning spaces/”learning hubs” of the future:

  • iBeacon-like technology, quickly connecting the physical world with the online world (i.e. keep an eye on the Internet of Things/Everything  in the classroom); this may take place via wearable technology or via some other means of triggering events
  • Remote presence
  • Access to Artifical Intelligence (AI)-based resources
  • Greatly enhanced Human Computer Interactions (HCI) such as gesture-based interactions as well as voice and facial recognition
  • Interactive walls
  • BYOD baked into almost everything (requiring a robust networking infrastructure)
  • More makerspaces (see below for examples)
  • Tables and chairs (all furniture really) are on wheels to facilitate room configuration changes
  • Setups that facilitate collaborative/group work

 

 


Below are some other recent items on this topic:


 

To Inspire Learning, Architects Reimagine Learning Spaces — from MindShift by Allison Arieff

 

MakerLab_web

Excerpt:

As K–12 schools refocus on team-based, interdisciplinary learning, they are moving away from standardized, teach-to-test programs that assume a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Instead, there is a growing awareness that students learn in a variety of ways, and the differences should be supported. The students often learn better by doing it themselves, so teachers are there to facilitate, not just to instruct. Technology is there as a tool and resource, not as a visual aid or talking head.

 

 

3D printers and laser cutters?… it’s the classroom of the future — from standard.co.uk by Miranda Bryant

 

 

Rethinking our learning spaces — from rtschuetz.blogspot.com by Robert Schuetz

 

ClassroomMoveableFurnitureITESMCCM 02
CC Wikimedia – Thelmadatter

Excerpt:

Heutagogy, unlike pedagogy, focuses on self-directed learning. As learning and education become more heutaogical, shouldn’t our learning spaces accommodate this shift? What are the features and characteristics that define a modern learning space? Notice, that I have not used the word classroom. Several days of researching this topic has challenged my thinking on the concept of classroom. This verbiage has been replaced with terms like; ideation lab, innovation space, maker pods, gamer zone, and learning sector. The concept of specific learning zones is not new.

 
 

IDC predicts 2014 will be a year of escalation, consolidation, and innovation as the transition to IT’s “3rd platform” accelerates — from idc.com

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

  • The 3rd Platform will deliver the next generation of competitive advantage apps and services that will significantly disrupt market leaders in virtually every industry.
  • Worldwide IT spending will grow 5% year over year to $2.1 trillion in 2014.
  • Emerging markets will return to double-digit growth of 10%, driving nearly $740 billion or 35% of worldwide IT revenues
  • Within the 3rd Platform, value will start to migrate “up the stack”, from infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to platform as a service (PaaS) and from generic PaaS to data-optimized PaaS.
  • Cloud spending, including cloud services and the technology to enable these services, will surge by 25% in 2014, reaching over $100 billion.

 

Also see:

What is the 3rd platform and how will it affect business? — by Mark Neistat US Signal Company

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Simply stated, the 3rd Platform is the next phase of the IT revolution. The first platform was the mainframe computer. The second was Personal Computers (PC) which dominated the IT landscape from 1985 to 2005. The 3rd Platform is being built on mobile computing, social networking, cloud services, and Big Data analytics technologies.

 

TheMorpholioProject-AppsForACreativeWorld-Dec2013

 

Transit 2013 — from thebigidea.co.nz by Anna Jackson and Fiona Milburn

Excerpt:

For their last Transit post of the year, Transmedia NZ’s Anna Jackson and Fiona Milburn asked six influential and inspiring people to look ahead to 2014 and share their thoughts on the future of transmedia storytelling in New Zealand.

 

I think that 2014 is going to be a banner year for transmedia storytelling, and that New Zealand is going to be a key participant in creating it and proliferating it.  We know that Weta Workshop and Weta Digital are hosting the production of the new Avatar films in NZ.  Weta has a distinctly transmedia approach, which they have been refining in recent years.  Weta is proving that, when carefully planned, the production of transmedia content can be integrated into the filmmaking process, which in turn saves time and money.

On the education front, we understand that various colleges and universities in New Zealand are more closely investigating transmedia practice.  Starlight Runner is exploring how we can directly help the Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland to integrate practical transmedia studies into its curriculum, which is very exciting.

— Jeff Gomez, President and CEO
Starlight Runner Entertainment

 

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

Learning from the Living [Class] Room  — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room.  I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition.  This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a teambased approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.) 


To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:


  1. What do you mean by “the living [class] room”?
  2. Why consider this now?
  3. What are some examples of apps and tech for “the living [class] room”?
  4. What skill sets will be needed to make “the living [class] room” a reality?

 

 


Alternatively, these videos can be found at:


 

DanielSChristianLearningFromTheLivingClassRoom-CampusTechnologyNovember2013

.

 

 

A practical guide for teachers who just got iPads — from edudemic.com by Holly Clark

.

teachers new to ipads

The above image was wonderfully put together by Richard Wells over at ipad4schools.org
after seeing the article (below) originally posted here on Edudemic. Thanks Holly!

 

 

Tidebreak Next Generation Mobile App Powers Full-Participation Learning  — from digitaljournal.com

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Mountain View and Anaheim, CA (PRWEB) October 15, 2013

New web app increases collaboration between students and faculty in classroom in BYOD learning environments.

“Using technology in the classroom can help spur creativity, increase participation, and foster a collaborative environment,” said Andrew J. Milne, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Tidebreak. “The latest version of Tidebreak’s mobile web app allows students to use any tablet or handheld device to share information with the entire class in real-time. By incorporating mobile web apps into devices that students already own, faculty can improve the learning process by creating a more collaborative environment that encourages active participation.”

The mobile web app from Tidebreak has many new features that will help increase student participation in the classroom. New features that have been incorporated into ClassSpot, ClassSpot PBL and TeamSpot include:

  • Work “at the board” without getting up – Full keyboard and track pad control from a tablet or phone allows students to collaborate on the large classroom screen in real-time.
  • Bridge the physical and digital world – Capture and share photos of whiteboard content, physical objects, or images and then share it on-screen or archive it instantly.
  • Surf and share – Search the web for relevant content and then share it to the main screen, the session archive, or to everyone in the group simultaneously.
  • Navigate an enhanced design – A great deal of improvement has gone into the user interface which helps generate new ideas among students.
 

Lessons Learned from Apple EdTech Deployments: Part 1 — from avnetwork.com by Tim Kridel

Excerpt:

School districts have purchased more than 10 million iPads so far, and colleges such as Abilene Christian University have been using iOS devices for five years or more. All of those deployments add up to plenty of opportunities for schools that haven’t deployed Apple gear to learn what to expect.

This multi-part series looks at some of the lessons learned in terms of security, support, costs and bandwidth. It’s based on interviews with education technology managers who have spent years not only implementing and supporting Apple products, but also often mentoring their peers at other schools.

The first set of questions: What advice would you give to a peer at a school that’s about to add iOS devices? For example, what should they expect in terms of additional burden on the wireless LAN and the IT staff?

 

 

From DSC:
There’s something here for classrooms/education — even for the living rooms of the future!

 

Little Mermaid Second Screen Live makes iPads part of the movie world — from gigaom.com by Liz Shannon Miller

Summary:

Disney advertises the Second Screen Live experience as a rebellion: “Break the rules — bring your iPad to the movies!” But it’s less a trip to the movies and more a fully interactive experience.

As the film began, so did the games. Most second-screen experiences I’ve tried have been largely passive, but Little Mermaid demanded the audience’s attention right from the beginning with games, trivia questions and other forms of interactivity for all ages.

 

lmssl trivia 1

The action on the big screen even froze from time to time for more complex games, and there were moments of seemingly new animation inserted at key plot points, as well.

 

Hacking the classroom: Purdue U’s approach to augmented learning — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Kyle Bowen

Excerpt:

A term more familiar in the competitive world of the television industry, “second screen” offers a simple way for viewers to access additional information relevant to a TV program. At Purdue University, researchers aim to put the concept to work in the classroom — making an enriched and interactive learning experience with classroom apps easier. Here, Kyle Bowen, Purdue’s director of informatics explores his latest research on “hacking the classroom”: how to leverage the second screen concept to help instructors and students negotiate the realm of multiple and varied classroom apps.

 

From DSC:
Reminds me of the underlying vision that I was trying to get at here:

 

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

 

ChemDraw ~ Favorite Things Series — from collegiatecareercoach.com by Mignon Brooks

Excerpt:

Imagine the capability of sitting in a chemistry classroom where a professor flicks information to the students, and the students flick their answers right back to the professor.

Also see:

 

From DSC:
I couldn’t locate the relevant information for Flick-to-Share (or did they mean Flick and Share?); however, the idea of swiping to easily and efficiently share files most assuredly is part of the future Smart Classroom. see:

Swyp-March2012

 

 

TheAmazon-MarcosAntoniodeLimaFilho

 

The Amazon
By Marcos Antonio de Lima Filho | Master in Design | Federal University of Pernambuco – Brazil

This is a free book which is available in iBooks 3.0+ on the iPad and/or using iTunes on your computer.  Marcos designed this book to take advantage of all the interaction enabled by iPads.

156 images, 14 infographics, 18 galleries, 11 maps and 8 videos join with the text, which here is not the primary. Why? Because the nature is much too rich to be described only by words.  The Amazon seeks to take advantage of all the technology advancements enabled by the tablet.

Great work Marcos! Nice interactivity, use of digital audio and video, graphics, and more. Check it out!

 

 

 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian