The infrastructure of our computer technology can be overwhelming. My computer's infrastructure gets more complex each year, and all this complexity requires attention. Upgrades and security modifications. The need to change passwords for many accounts, and the need to keep my list of passwords up to date, synchronized across all my computers. The need to reboot, defragment, do continual scans for viruses and malcontent software, the need to renew batteries and accounts. Backup files. It seems that every day I spend considerable time on the infrastructure.
Because the ability to maintain infrastructure is seldom designed with care, each simple activity can become daunting. Each new device purchased requires installation, complete with registration, agreeing to unread but undoubtedly onerous legal conditions, and finding space and sockets for all the communication and power cable. Did I mention that these invariably require stopping all work, saving everything, and rebooting, after typing in a long, complex registration number? I should have.
Infrastructure is taken for granted. It is time it is given as much attention as the primary applications, else maintaining the infrastructure will itself become our primary activity.
It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands.
When I think about "infrastructure", I normally think about roads, wires, sewerage and so on. But how about educational technology and instructional design?
From reading Don Norman's musings about infrastructure, I realized that if we want our technological implementations to be successfully adopted, very often it's essential to also consider the infrastructure needed to support our tech designs and implementations.
Personally, I think infrastructure for education and instructional design need not always be physical things. They could be intangibles such as having to update a database, notify the relevant people in charge, call this person or that to come unlock the computer lab, etc.
My mum's been a teacher for 40+ years. She's great. But she really hates the computer. Not because of the learning needed to use Microsoft Word. She's quite fine with it. But it's all the non-Microsoft Word things that she has to do - reboot, turn the computer on, manage the files, etc... - that makes her scream.
"It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands." - Don Norman
Food for thought: What are some underlying "infrastructure" (tangible and intangible) that I may encounter in an educational technology project? Are there existing infrastructure that I can take advantage of to minimize time and $? How can we minimize the amount of infrastructure maintenance needed?
My class is organized like a syllabus. I need a button for Unit 1, a button for Unit 2. Every time we do a workshop where one of our faculty demonstrates how we’ve adjusted an LMS to make it look like a syllabus, we see light bulbs go on all over the room. We have, over the years, called these workshops things like “Making Blackboard Work for You”, “Redesigning Blackboard”, and “The Interactive Syllabus”. Yesterday our presenters Andrea Petri and Laura Paciorek gave a workshop called “A New Wardrobe for Blackboard: Technical Basics of Instructional Design”. Andrea showed us his class, organized into units, with each unit a page full of links, all in one place for that unit.
We’ve got tutorials, like this one on creating an interactive syllabus in Blackboard by Pilar Hernández . We have a handout showing a logical chapter-based LMS menu. Laura Paciorek made a screencast on how to change the Blackboard menu .
Interesting article! I think one reason why many teachers keep on sticking to the defaults is because _precisely_ BB can be so flexible and do so many things, and there's a lot of templates available. This panoply of choices leads to decision fatigue on the teachers' part: "Which features should I use for presenting to my students? how can I package and so on... arrrrh I'll just stick with the defaults and customize another day."
(Can read more about decision fatigue at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html)
So, I think our training strategies would have to recognize and take into account this human tendency to choose the easy defaults, especially when mentally tired.
Defaults are bad? hmmm... My son started using the kiddy skate scooter about 4 mths ago and he does it like a pro now. When I bought the scooter, it came with 'default settings', i.e. all fixed up and ready to use. He had a go at it and we adjusted the height and widen the handles along the way. He grew more confident and I removed the trainer wheels. I cannot imagine when the scooter came without any 'default settings', i.e. 4 wheels, 2 bars, rubber tubes, etc, I will be quite frustrated setting it up from scratch and my son will be climbing all over me.
Defaults cannot be seen as something bad in my opinion. It gives new users or busy people something to start with, I personally appreciate that. When we design instructions, we provide foundations to get our learners started, building blocks or scaffolding their learning as they progress. A range of basic, intermediate or advanced instructional plans can also be presented later on.
Essentially, what are the characteristics of our learners or the users of BB? What do you think they need?
Demographics of our acad staffs for example are quite 'senior adult learners' (correct me if I am wrong). Do we think we want to present a blank BB page and tell them, 'hey, guess what? its all about customisation now, whatever you want, put it in.' No prize for guessing what their reactions will be.
On the other hand, there maybe a group of people who do not want to conform to defaults but to change things or customise their experiences. Nothing wrong with that too.
My point is, let's provide a range of options for users, we inform that there are default settings to get them started but there are also room for customisation for the adventurous. We want to be learner centric, hence customisation of experiences but we also do not want to leave anyone behind.
That said, I am going to change all my default passwords and user ids of my mobile.... no wonder banks have been calling me to ask if I needed loans.
While edX shares the common theme of scaling the online experience to very large groups, it adds an important component lacking from the various Stanford spin-offs, namely research.
EdX partners will be doing more than putting content online, they will be studying how people learn in these environments in an effort to improve both classroom and online learning.
According to this article, the most significant factor is not the scaling of online instruction (which isn't a new thing already) _but_ the ability for educators to study how people learn in various environments. Timely and accurate feedback is an essential component, not only for students, but also for educators, in improving the quality and relevancy of education for smaller groups.
Personally, I think that the rise of massively open online courses (MOOCs) will ironically lead to a huge increase in the number of customized and localized courses tailored for niche sub-groups. Instead of seeing a huge dissemination of one-size-fits-all education, we will see an increasing diversity of different educational strategies, similiar to how the diversity of an ecosystem increases when its geographic size increases.
It's a very exciting time for educators out there indeed...
Why Develop for Android?Android is an open-source platform based on the Linux kernel, and is installed on thousands of devices from a wide range of manufacturers. Android exposes your application to all sorts of hardware that you’ll find in modern mobile devices — digital compasses, video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, and more.
Android is an open-source platform based on the Linux kernel, and is installed on thousands of devices from a wide range of manufacturers.
Android’s free development tools make it possible for you to start writing software at little or no cost.
Publishing to Android Market incurs a one-off registration fee (US $25 at the time of writing) and, unlike Apple’s App Store which famously reviews each submission, makes your application available for customers to download and buy after a quick review process
Here are a few other advantages Android offers you as a developer:The Android SDK is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, so you don’t need to pay for new hardware to start writing applications.An SDK built on Java. If you’re familiar with the Java programming language, you’re already halfway there.By distributing your application on Android Market, it’s available to hundreds of thousands of users instantly. You’re not just limited to one store, because there are alternatives, too. For instance, you can release your application on your own blog. Amazon have recently been rumoured to be preparing their own Android app store also.As well as the technical SDK documentation, new resources are being published for Android developers as the platform gains popularity among both users and developers.
This article also includes a step by step walkthrough development for android app using Android SDK. With so little offering courses on Android development currently, it could prove to be a good read. ;)
designing for a mobile device can lead to a solution that is worlds different than its desktop equivalent.
Context of Use
Users have a very specific need and desire to accomplish their goal in the easiest and fastest way possible. This fact alone helps explain why mobile interfaces are designed the way they are
Feature sets are optimized to streamline common use cases
Use typography to show hierarchy and importance
Features are progressively displayed
Large buttons are used to make interactions actionable
Designing with awareness to context will yield a more atomic design that instead of introducing users to a proverbial blank canvas, will guide them toward accomplishing important tasks. Having to deal with slow data speeds, high network latency, smaller screens, and an unpredictable mode of use only reinforce the need to isolate an application’s essential features and offer access to them when contextually appropriate.
Next time you design an interface for a mobile device, remember to consider context of use and context of the medium as part of your design strategy.
Dealing with phone numbers and other mobile friendly data
Displaying information on a smaller screen
Not using a cursor
Device speed and network latency
Context of the medium
To design an experience that can gracefully coexist with others tools, one needs to understand what kind of media can be processed by specific mobile internet browsers, and when onboard applications are launched.
need to find out hows web app can interact with other apps... especially how we can integret that into harmonia and dropbox feature...
Using traditional web development techniques of creating fluid designs that scale horizontally is the fastest way to deploy a single design to many different mobile devices.
While reading for ideas on doing mock up mobile interface, i stumbled this.
very interesting read on designing for usability for mobile devices and why it is not just a scale down version of your actual desktop website.
Today we look at five different geotagging apps for the iPhone, but before we begin, there are a few concepts and facts that are worth pointing out for those who might be unfamiliar with the concept of geotagging. Geotagging is a computerized process for adding GPS-based location data to an image for later reference. Since most cameras don't include GPS hardware, but the iPhone 3G and 3GS do, you can run an iPhone application to record your location while shooting the photos. The best apps of the bunch are PhotoTrip and PlaceTagger; read on for all the details.
Take a look at the list of alphabets for Nursery Schools. I think we should have a list of eTools that we can create and share. For instance, A for Audacity, B for BuddrPress, C for CMap, D for Diigo etc.. :)
1. Call the IRS at +1 267 941 1099
This is a direct line to the dedicated unit in Philadelphia that deals with foreign entities (that's you) who need an EIN. Press 2 on the computerized menu to get through to an operator. While I've heard it's possible to get your EIN through some embassies and consuls, that certainly doesn't apply to all of them and this number will work for everyone. Note: they won't take a call from anyone using a "speakerphone". If you are using Skype on your laptop, have a set of headphones plugged in before you call, to avoid an undignified scramble around your apartment. Finally, while there is an online facility for doing this, foreign entities can't use that.
2. Tell them you're applying for an EIN for a foreign entity.
They may ask if you are a legal officer of the company or some such, I said that I was a sole proprietor, and the owner of the business, which satisfied them.
3. There's a 50% chance that they will tell you that you need Form SS-4
You do not want to go down this path, which requires form-filling, fees, delays, and somehow locating a fax machine. If this is what they tell you, politely end the call, and call them back. I only had to do this once, and then got someone a little more helpful.
4. Give your details
They will ask for your name, mailing address, phone number, the name of your company, and the country it was incorporated. This will involve a lot of spelling and repetition, but make sure all the details are correct.
5. They will ask if this is for compliance with withholding
Say "yes".
6. They will ask if this is for e-books
Say "yes".
7. They will give you your EIN!!!
Document Icon
This is a new icon type in iOS 4. It’s used if your app creates a custom document type. The iPad uses the document icon in two different sizes.
320x320 (iPad)
64x64 (iPad)
44x58 (iPhone 4)
22x29 (older iPhones)
“Do I really have to make two versions of my images? If I make a single high-resolution set, won’t iOS 4 scale them down on older devices?” Sorry, no, not automatically. While iOS 4 goes seamlessly in the other direction (scaling up low-res images for iPhone 4), it doesn’t work the other way. By default, it scales all images so that one pixel equals one point. That’s a great solution for making sure that old apps work correctly on the new phone, but it doesn’t help you go the other way ‘round.
Everything they say about it is true: at 320 ppi, the pixels are just plain invisible.
In the industry right now – as we see
in the Social Media for Learning report
research data – there is considerable use of social media tools in instruction
delivery efforts. But there’s less evidence that people are using the tools to
support social learning. Often, people use social media tools as another means
of delivering content. For example:
Publishing the training department
newsletter on a blog
uto-scheduling tweets about class
assignments from a Twitter account that does not otherwise engage with the
learners or ask them to engage with each other
Hosting a software application development
course, in tutorial format, on a wiki
By contrast, using social media to
support and extend social learning invites learners to contribute, engage, and
participate with one another online. For instance, when:
Setting up a wiki for those in a new-hire
induction program to work together to edit a FAQs page for use by the next
group coming to the program
Having managers-in-training use a
microblogging tool for a leadership book-club discussion
Helping to support and participating in a
community of the organization’s customer service reps, to give them a place to
share war stories and strategies for dealing with challenges
So just using the online tools to
deliver content doesn’t support “social learning;” that happens when you use
the tools to invite interaction from and between the learners. It’s about
social, not media, and it’s about shared learning, not just pushing content.
New social media tools now enable social learning to happen on a much larger scale. But this doesn't mean that social learning is something we suddenly need to "do," as if it hadn't existed before or that we need to attempt to "implement." Rather, those involved in eLearning should work to ensure our designs home in on and support areas where social learning is already naturally occurring in the learner's workflow and leverage new tools where that makes sense. (Workflow questions: Where and when are workers asking for help from one another? Where do they need performance support?)
This article was written 5 years ago. Now, we have the benefit of ubiqutious mobile chat platforms e.g. Whatsapp, which can create small focus groups to talk about a particular topic. Not only so, besides the usual text, Whatsapp also allows participants to share mobile videos taken on the spot, share their geolocations with one another, share audio recordings and of course, images.
A personal example of how I use Whatsapp for personal learning: I use Whatsapp regularly to practice reading and writing my Japanese with a few other friends, and when I make mistakes, they can quickly give me feedback in real-time. We also exchange photos of Japanese culture, food items and even on-the-spot videos from those who are in Japan. Some of us go for Japanese classes, some don't. But those who go for the classes share what they have learnt with those who haven't.
I'm not sure if this can be classified as a type of "flipped learning", but I realized that mobile chat makes an excellent real-time, yet highly personalized tool for e-learning in small group discussions. Perhaps this is one area we can consider next time as a way to do mobile learning that harnesses the social nature of us learners.
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
According to a FAQ on Picasa's support site, the photo-sharing service provides up to 1 GB of free storage for photos and videos to its users. But since Google+ actively encourages storing and sharing photos - its Android app even offers an "instant upload" option - there may have been some concern about storage limits among Picasa users.
As it turns out, there's nothing to worry about. If you're signed up for Google+, photos up to 2048x2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes long won't count towards this free storage limit. And Google will automatically resize photos for you when you upload them to Google+, so they stay under the free size limit.
That means only photos uploaded directly to Picasa Web Albums over the 2048x2048 size will count towards the 1 GB of free storage, explains Google. And when that limit is reached, photos will be automatically resized.
Meanwhile, for non-Google+ users, there are slightly stricter rules: photos up to 800x800 and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards free storage. Again, when the 1 GB limit is reached, larger photos will be resized down.
Simply put, this means that whether you're on Google+ or not, Picasa offers unlimited free storage for photos and videos (under 15 minutes). The difference is that Google+ users can upload higher resolution photos to Plus/Picasa without being penalized.
Just heard this from a friend and verified with the above article: "Signing up for Google+ has its perks, all your Picasa Web Album photos smaller than 2048 x 2048 pixels will not count towards the 1GB limit placed on your account, up from the 800 x 800 pixels if you do not have G+. My storage usage just went from 1 GB down to 0 MB LOL
Hurray for Google+!"
App considerations
- What store?
- we have chosen to live within the spirit of agreements rather than line item agreements
- on issue is: “The iTunes Service is available to you only in the United States, its territories, and possessions. You agree not to use or attempt to use the iTunes Service from outside these locations. Apple may use technologies to verify your compliance.”
We have made peace with using the U.S. store and dealing with it, the Chinese store has far fewer apps and isn’t nearly as good a fit for our student population
We created iTunes accounts with gift cards, purchased in the USA
- no one used a credit card for apps
Volume Purchasing Plan (VPP) is the answer to many of these questions
- lets a site administrator have control over iPads and iOS devices in the school ecosystem
- this is only available as of today in the United States (not in China)
- is coming to other countries, the legal issues are being worked out
Suggested management solution from 1 of the vendors present at this session:
- create a separate iTunes account for each iPad you have
- then have 1 account to hold the money: that account then “gifts” money to individual iTunes account (gift certificates)
So now as things exist, we buy large ($100) cards for our main, master iTunes account
- we also purchase smaller cards ($10) for innovator teachers to try different apps
The classroom response system, whether it is Clickers or iRespond or iResponded, is just a tool. How it is used will make a significant difference or not. This video is excellent in showing the power of a CRS through peer discussion and how the instructors manage the wrap-up session.
P/S Sally, thank you for the names of academic staff who have signed up to share: A/P Cheung (LST) Daniel (NSSE) Myra Garces (ECSE) - for the production of pedagogical tips for Bb, I was looking for testimonies so that we can create our own short video ....
Not only is the creative services software shop closing down the Creative Suite version numbers and branding; it’s getting rid of the entire paradigm of old-school, cereal-box* software.
No more waiting for your design software’s features to catch up with what the web guys have been doing for six months
new purchasing paradigm for the entire creative industry. Every ad agency, every magazine, every indie design firm and print shop — they will all be transitioning from bought-and-owned software at $200 or $700 or $2,000 a pop to the Creative Cloud subscription model, which can cost as little as $20 per mont
For MDs, Video Team and users of adobe products.
We may face another licensing issues with their monthly subscriptions plan, so be prepared to hop onto the cloud, which means new workflow for us as well.
Adobe announced that they will not release any more box sets and will not be supporting new features for existing versions. Seems like everyone on board Adobe platforms will be forced to get Adobe CC subscriptions next round. Be prepared to hope on the Cloud. you can get a trial version on their website to play around.. http://www.adobe.com/sea/products/creativecloud.html
If you’re a Windows user looking for free online storage, three services stand out from the rest. Although Dropbox, SkyDrive, and Google Drive are superficially similar, there are some big differences. Here’s what to look for.
When I think about "infrastructure", I normally think about roads, wires, sewerage and so on. But how about educational technology and instructional design? From reading Don Norman's musings about infrastructure, I realized that if we want our technological implementations to be successfully adopted, very often it's essential to also consider the infrastructure needed to support our tech designs and implementations. Personally, I think infrastructure for education and instructional design need not always be physical things. They could be intangibles such as having to update a database, notify the relevant people in charge, call this person or that to come unlock the computer lab, etc. My mum's been a teacher for 40+ years. She's great. But she really hates the computer. Not because of the learning needed to use Microsoft Word. She's quite fine with it. But it's all the non-Microsoft Word things that she has to do - reboot, turn the computer on, manage the files, etc... - that makes her scream. "It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands." - Don Norman Food for thought: What are some underlying "infrastructure" (tangible and intangible) that I may encounter in an educational technology project? Are there existing infrastructure that I can take advantage of to minimize time and $? How can we minimize the amount of infrastructure maintenance needed?
