Group items tagged

Along the lines of the discussions we've been having on the isites, mobile learning has major potential in the developing world. "Mobile phones are increasingly ubiquitous in poor countries, which now account for FOUR IN EVERY FIVE connections worldwide". This means that almost everyone owns or has access to a mobile phone. How can we leverage this reality? Well, we can't impose anything that requires a smart phone, since most of these mobile phones cannot access 3G or wifi networks. Perhaps we can start to send podcasts as voice notes? Audio wikis of information sent via sms? In-phone calculators for math homework completion? I think all we need is an educational system that supports this type of learning, and m-learning can possible change the face of education in the developing world. 

in response to Jen Lavalle's post about games having to go cross-platform to survive. Adobe, makes of the Flash platform, have announced they are stopping further development of the plugin for mobile devices. They are instead now going to focus on open standards (like HTML5), to allow content to be viewed on all modern devices (mobile and computers) with no plug in required. They will also focus on tools to allow developers to push content speciically to the app stores of today's most popular mobile devices. This is a good & bad sign for app developers who use Flash (lots of them, it's been an industry standard for years. Flash has suffered from terrible performance on mobile devices, so it's good to see Adobe acknowledging the need to do something different for their mobile strategy. But what this means for the tools developers will (need to learn to) use? TBD...

Interesting example from a few years ago of infrastructure development coming about in unexpected ways. Here, the 2010 World Cup (and more specifically the need to broadcast matches to Europe and the rest of the world) presented an opportunity to develop the infrastructure of a region in need of development.

This is an opinion article that talks about immersion and the first-person camera angle in video games. He argues that game developers should re-evaluate the assumption that the first-person viewpoint is inherently more immersive than other gaming experiences.

PoweredUp Boston: October 14 + 15, 2010 * Hear from leading Boston area developers and thought leaders on the latest local and global issues shaping our industry. * Network with local developers, investors, educational institutions and government officials. * Learn about the unique resources and opportunities available to Boston area businesses in the video game industry. Who Should Attend: * Boston area indie game developers (existing and aspiring) * Established Boston area game developers looking to connect with other developers * National and international companies looking to establish a presence in Boston * Investors * Infrastructure, middleware and other organizations interested in doing business with Boston area game companies * Students and faculty interested in the gaming industry

Tying into discussions this week about bringing access to mobile devices to all via non-prohibitive costs, while still reaching a set of bare-minmum technical specs for actual use: India's "$35 tablet" has been a pipedream in the tech blog-o-sphere for awhile now, but it's finally available (though for a price of roughly $60). Still though, as an actual Android color touch tablet, with WiFi and cellular data capability - I'm curious to see how it's received and if it's adopted in any sort of large scale

I had heard months ago that India was creating this, but was not going to offer it commercially - rather, just for its own country. Just like the Little Professor (Prof Dede) calculator, when tablets get this affordable, educational systems can afford classroom sets of them and then use them regularly. But to Prof Dede's point - can they do everything that more expensive tablets can do? Or better yet - do they HAVE to?

I think this is what they're aiming to do - all classrooms/students across the country having this particular tablet. They won't be able to do everything today's expensive tablets can do, but I think they'll still be able too to do plenty. This $35 tablet's specs are comparable to the mobile devices we had here in the US in 2008/2009. Even back then, we were able to web browse, check email, use social networking (sharing pics and video too), watching streaming online video, and play basic 2D games. But even beyond those basic features, I think this tablet will be able to do more than we expect from something at this price point and basic hardware, for 2 reasons: 1. Wide-spread adoption of a single hardware. If this thing truly does become THE tablet for India's students, it will have such a massive userbase that software developers and designers who create educational software will have to cater to it. They will have to study this tablet and learn the ins-and-outs of its hardware in order to deliver content for it. "Underpowered" hardware is able to deliver experiences well beyond what would normally be expected from it when developers are able to optimize heavily for that particular set of components. This is why software for Apple's iPhone and iPad, and games for video game consoles (xbox, PS3, wii) are so polished. For the consoles especially, all the users have the same exact hardware, with the same features and components. Developers are able to create software that is very specialized for that hardware- opposed to spending their resources and time making sure the software works on a wide variety of hardware (like in the PC world). With this development style in mind, and with a fixed hardware model remaining widely used in the market for many years- the resultant software is very polished and goes beyond what users expect from it. This is why today's game consoles, which have been around since 2005/6, produce visuals that are still really impressive and sta

Game Developers recognizing learning opportunities within their games and building a platform that allows students to create their own worlds and test them.

A couple of youth-oriented websites settled with the government recently because of COPPA (law that protects children's private information online, if they are under 13yo). Now legislatures want to expand COPPA, so it may significantly impact learning games developers, too.

This article discusses the future of gaming and how companies are approaching gaming as platforms develop and evolve. "You have different visions of the future. Some companies think it's primarily browser-based and mobile is kind of an afterthought. Then you have other companies that are more in the social/mobile space and they say mobile is the future. From my point of view, I think Funzio has placed the bet correctly in that they are focusing on a cross-platform approach."

Developers will need to be even more cross-platform after the news today: Adobe has announced they are ending development of the mobile versions of their Flash browser-plugin. They will instead be focusing their resources on tools for developing content for HTML5 (cross-browser compatibility for both computers and mobile devices, no plugins required), or for deploying content as apps designed to be deployed for all the major devices' app stores. http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/09/8717108-adobe-gives-up-on-mobile-flash-focuses-on-open-web-standards

Research projects provide an insight into the changing landscape of learning in the 21st Century, which then shapes the learning environment and methods at NBCS. We incorporate the ideas and thinking that comes from research and development into programs and initiatives, including online distance education for HSC students across NSW (www.hsconline.nsw.edu.au), Professional Development courses and training for teachers, and international learning collaboration network established to bring learning communities together (www.beyondborders.edu.au).

teacher developer available for free web 2.0 style on iTunes.

A child as young as 9 months can set goals when playing the apps in iphone. More and more parents let children play with their iphones. I-phones, which consist of many interesting apps and colorful designs, are easy to catch children's attention. Easy apps which can help children develop their basic skills (such as counting skills), do have great market and should be developed and improved.

With all of the unfounded claims being made by developers of early childhood learning toys regarding the educational efficacy of their products (read BABY EINSTEIN), I think that groups such as this one that review apps for safety and quality issues will become increasingly important. It's crazy that Android requires nothing of their Android Market developers than to pay a fee and submit a description and a few screenshots. App quality control will become a big deal, I'm predicting...

Stephen, Looks like a great business opportunity - an Apps Rating Agency like Moodys or S&P?

Newest Disney attraction called - Sum of All Thrills where kids get to design their own virtual roller coaster. It uses virtual-reality technology. "Disney hopes the interactive nature of the ride would also help kids learn that math and science can be fun."

While I would not consider this incredibly expensive ride a 'distruptive innovation' or even an emerging ed technology, what Epcot has done by bringing this DIY-VR concept to the masses (if you are one of the masses that can A- afford Disney and B-have the patience to wait in line for `5-6 hours) is very important to future ed tech innovation strategies. The progression/invention of such cost prohibitive entertainment tools will fall squarely on the high-end theme parks and consumer venues. The challenge has been set by Epcot and now others must either compete directly or develop a better or more accessible solution. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cost saving innovations that might be developed in this 'race'- Artificial G-Force Engline: variable air pressure, smart-chairs, fans

As Mary Jo said in class today, the lack of collaboration between teachers and developers is a hugely frustrating. The Shared Learning Collaborative is an organization that tries to bring the groups together for "camps" that tap the skills of both around big problems in education. This weekend, there's a Codeathon/Tagathon in Cambridge aimed at increasing the volume of properly meta-tagged content in the Learning Registry. Could be interesting to check out.

This conference addresses a very real gap - I really hope that more opportunities like this one bring people together that share the common goal, but are coming at it from such different perspectives. Thanks, Hannah!

Thoughtful post about technology integration for tablets

Yes, very interesting indeed. We've discussed a lot about the lack of professional development for implementation of iPads in the classroom, but not too much about the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition), developed by Ruben R. Puentendura. He is spot on in saying "For technology to be truly innovative and impactful on students, we must get to the stage of Redefinition, in which we use technology to create and perform tasks that - prior to the existence of the technology - were inconceivable" I think this is going to be tough to overcome with the iPad. Schools are so caught up in their fad. It seems as though it's hard for anyone, even smart creative people, to use their ipads in truly creative, richer, deeper, redefining ways.

Thank you for sharing this post Prof Chris. I agree that we cannot 'throw the iPad in, mix and stir' to develop a new program. However, where I disagree with the approach is that it does not start with the learner. The author began with pedagogy and then technology, but I feel that there should be learning theory first and then pedagogy and technology to support both.

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing emphasis on girls and information and communication technology in the development sector. Large government donors, NGOs and the private sector believe girls could play a big role in resolving poverty and making development gains through ICT.

A school principal blogs about the powerful role that Twitter has played in his professional development. Great quote about Twitter and other social media: "The smartest person in the room, is the room."

Thanks for posting! This is very similar to what I am focused on for my project- using twitter to send out "joyful learning" tips of the day. It is at least one proof point that twitter can be a powerful tool for professional development.

This site is a professional development portal in which teachers can upload videos of lessons and get feedback on them.

Thank you for posting - this is fascinating. This is not only a threat to Blackboard, but also the MOOC companies (Coursera, Udacity, etc.). If the tool continues to be developed in terms of functionality and ease of use, AND third party developers build out applications that plug into this platform, then colleges and universities will start to build their own online courses, and not farm out their content to the Coursera's of the world... This reminds of the dot com era (circa 2000) when companies large and small hired "web development" firms to create websites for them. Now companies largely do this themselves...

Thanks for sharing Mohit. It's great that it's open source and allows teachers all over the world to build their own courses. I wonder what this would do to the larger online course companies...