If we set up a comprehensive site like this for tech support, then the service desk could help us with most of our queries. The ET's can then focus on initiating and sustaining and not just supporting.
Useful resource on leveraging on FB!
Here is what I learnt from these companies use of FB:
From Amazon: Converse with your audience
From Dell: Provide useful how-tos
From Samsung: Show specific uses of edtech
From MS XBox: Provide teasers, trailers, previews, updates
From YouTube: Share viral videos
Although Second Life's finances seem to be in the black (it is a
We're already on the cusp of a fully-immersive 3D experience that could go mainstream. Microsoft's Kinect peripheral for its gaming console, for example, allows gamers to control their onscreen characters with body movements captured by 3D cameras. Sony's PlayStation Home offers a sharp, high-definition virtual world. Maybe these companies could teach Linden Labs a thing or two about advancing the technology and vision behind Second Life.
The learning curve for Second Life is also steep, no thanks to its cumbersome user interface. Even a mildly proficient Internet user might be put off.
When students were given their own iPad, they were given full autonomy of their device and had to set it up from scratch. They set up all of their own accounts and installed their own apps, from a combination of required apps to those which they chose themselves. Each student was given a $40 iTunes gift card to use for their purchases. Experience showed that true success relied on moving away from the school being the "boss" of the machine to one where it was student driven and student managed.
It was found that the Ipads are very different from laptops in that students can really relate to them and, when used, they do not become the focus of the learning. Instead they become one device which can be used with all learning tools that students have access to. The iPad became the "red pen" where much of the work got done in other ways and the iPad was used when needed. Laptop computers control thinking and control the desk. When used, they become the focus of the learning. iPads are a technology which has really changed the way students work with computers in the classroom. The real challenge for staff is to embrace this and to understand that you can't expect to have iPads in the classroom and teach the same way that you did when you didn't have them. It changes the way students work and they way teachers teach.
Like your comment about how the iPads don't become the focus of the learning. That's a thought that's been on my mind recently - the importance of the perception of "seamlessness" in tech usage.
That's probably one of the most important reasons a technology gets adapted - no matter how cumbersome it seems at first (e.g. learning how to drive a car) - because the normal usage of the technology doesn't hinder the intended task at hand. (That's why once you learn to ride a bike, you don't think so much about the bicycle itself as you think about moving faster.)
Think Donald Norman in "The Design of Everyday Things" has a term for this: affordability.
So I guess, my thought on the usage of the iPad (and any new tech at hand): The learning of the new tech need not be intuitive. But the everyday usage has to seamlessly flow with the given task at hand - so that the tool and the user become "one" with the task. (Just like how a user fumbles with a pair of chopsticks at first, but once he masters it, his chopsticks "become" part of his fingers.)
Then such seamless technologies get seamlessly adopted as "cognitive-multipliers".
"CK-12 basically looked at STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] and broke it down into the 5,000 fundamental concepts, and they mapped them all together," Chakrapani says. "It's not about creating a textbook and every three years putting out a new edition so you can capture more revenue. It's about thinking how a student learns."
"And then you go back at the end of year with teachers, see what students struggle on, and revise and improve the book. Each year, the text gets better."
Free educational resources -- like a university course on Coursera, for example -- may be available for students to use at no cost, but students cannot reuse, remix, or repurpose that course content however they'd like. By contrast open-source materials like CK-12's materials are not only free, but can also be freely repurposed in any way a student or teacher sees fit.
A research paper on how low-tech SMS can be highly effective for certain learning tasks such as teaching social English. And now, there's Whatsapp and other social-messaging platforms that can be an intermediate level between simple text messages that work on any basic phone, to sophisticated native apps that must be programmed for a specific operating system.
"As SMS is technologically and functionally very simple, it can be considered to be a relatively primitive
technology. However, viewing it from another angle, we see that SMS ranks very highly in terms of user
convenience.
Successful uptake of mobile learning strategy is more likely in the situation when "learning activities can integrate into our lives in an unobtrusive fashion". SMS can deliver information in this unobtrusive fashion more readily than other strategies.
SMS, thus, can be regarded as a practical and realistic mLearning technology for use in natural settings at present."
This section of Navigator is the entryway to the extensive listings of vetted projects exploring uses of emerging technologies contained in the Horizon Project data set — easily the largest database of its kind in the world.
A very interesting journal essay that points out how info overload is not a new problem, but one that has existed ever since the first books. The writer examines how people in the previous centuries used the then-new technology of printing to help them handle the "plague of books" that was overwhelming their libraries.
He then reminds us, that at the core of it all, it is not the technology itself that enables and empowers learning, but an ecology of human-tech interaction that helps us learn more effectively in today's Toffler-esque world.
A fascinating read indeed.
A more readable PDF version: http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/archives/Spring2012/Wellmon_lo.pdf
Specifically for programmers to take note, but for any and all in CeL who want a small insight into what the more tech-savvy inservice teacher or head of department prefers to use.
Appcelerator Titanium Mobile Platforms: iPhone and Android What you need to get started: Software installed from the site Feature set: 4/5 | Difficulty: 5/5 | Reach: 5/5 To use Appcelerator Titanium Mobile, you need to be familiar with Web languages like Python, HTML and Javascript. That said, you will not need to know specific programming languages typically required to develop apps for the iPhone and Android. All you do is build the app using Web languages, and Titanium does the rest. You will need to download the iPhone SDK (which is Mac-only) if you plan to make iPhone apps. This development platform doesn't come with any tutorials - you will have to rely on the goodwill of the community and learn how to use the tools through knowledge posted on forums. There are also paid services that provide support and automation during the app-making process. If you know how to wield the tools correctly, Titanium can offer more features than App Inventor for Android. But there are limitations to being a third-party development platform - the latest features in iOS and Android OS are not guaranteed to work here. Verdict: If you are open to teaching yourself app development as a hobby, the versatile Appcelerator Titanium Mobile is a great way to start. The faint of heart need not apply.
App Inventor lets you create apps by dragging and dropping "building blocks" embedded with code that work when you drag them onto a blank canvas. These blocks let you access virtually every function of an Android handset - from timestamps and touchscreen virtual buttons to the motion sensor and GPS.
An article on TodayOnline regarding reviews on Mobile App Development tool.
- App Inventor for Android
- Ovi App Wizard for Nokia Devices
- Appcelerator Titanium Mobile for iphones
STOCKHOLM - Visitors to a Stockholm hotel will be able to use mobile phones instead of keys to unlock the doors to their rooms.
Repeat visitors during a four-month trial will be able to check in through their phones before arrival and have their phones activated as "keys." They will then be able to skip the registration desk and unlock the door by holding the phone next to it.The short-range radio technology, known as Near Field Communication, is expected to be built into smart phones in the coming years. It is also envisioned for ticketing and card payments. Assa Abloy says it wanted to test the system before expanding it to other hotels, commercial buildings and homes.
But once people have the technology in their own phones, he said, it will save them time at check-in and improve security because the access credentials in a lost phone can be revoked remotely.
If you have ever entertained that seemingly laughable thought of installing anti-virus software on your mobile phone, you are not alone.
A few months ago, Kaspersky Labs discovered two Trojan-SMS malware that masqueraded as media player apps for Android devices. Once installed, the malware can send premium SMSes costing US$6 ($7.70) each without the user's knowledge.
the money is still on computers, and cyber criminals follow the trail of money. The increasing number of people using smartphones is a factor, but not a big one yet. There are some banking services on mobile platforms, but the majority of consumers still use computers to access banking services
According to Kaspersky, closed platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry and the old Symbian) are more secure while open platforms (Android, Windows Mobile 6 Series and the new Symbian) are less so. This, Kaspersky explains, is because the level of security is inversely proportionate to the ease with which developers can build apps on it.
"The more secure a system is, the harder it is for development - both for the good guys and the bad guys," he said.
security and ease of app development are two sides of the same coin that have to be finely balanced in order for a mobile platform to succeed.
iPhone users face exactly the same problems, but unfortunately, Apple has a very strict regulation on the apps industry, and the SDK it gives to software companies doesn't let us develop what we need. (Thanks to Apple's efforts policing the platform) iPhone users face maybe fewer virus problems, but the threat with confidential data is still there - and it only takes one threat. Android may face more viruses, but at the same time, there will also be more solutions from us and our competitors
Open source and Closed source mobile platform faces security issue. An open source platform may be more prone to malwares and viruses.
Some factors we should consider in our context here in education to protecting confidential contents and issues while considering developing apps. for example we could risk all of our contacts information being stolen and end up being sold to some advertising spamming companies who spam you daily or watches your daily activities.
I used to think open source platform was very good for development but now you can have different view if you think like a hacker. It will take at least a year or more before mobile security catch up.