Fasten your seatbelts!!!An accelerated ride through some

ed-tech landscapes

Daniel ChristianCalvin College Fall Conference | 8/25/11

Goals of this ride!

Not meant to overwhelm, rather to:

• Help you connect with others

• Take a pulse check of what’s going on both now and in the near future

• Present a variety of ideas, options, possibilities, and resources

• Focus on the ones you think might help you and/or your students – and discard the rest

The ride begins as we zoom down…

Connections Avenue

• Blogs powerful!• Campus Pack here at Calvin• Blogs, wikis, podcasts, journals

• Online-based communities

• Web collaboration tools • Such as Wimba Classroom, Skype,

WebEx…

• Twitter, Facebook, Google + types of tools

Some tools for connecting w/ others

Connecting with others: Yammer

• A blend of the term web log• Often individuals posting w/ invites for

comments• Key pt: You’re subscribing to streams of

content• If outside of Calvin, to create your own:

WordPress• To gather/read postings Google Reader• To get started:• See RSS in Plain English

and/or this resource• Then get Google Reader

or another “feed” aggregator

Connecting with others: Blogs

Connecting with others: Blogs

• Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies• Disrupting Class• Educause• eLearning Learning• Faculty Focus• George Siemens• InsideHigherEd.com• Joshua Kim• Mashable.com• Moodle.org

Connecting with others: Blogs

• New Media Consortium (NMC)• NITLE• November Learning• ReadWriteWeb.com• Smashing Magazine• Stephen Downes• The Masie Center• The World Future Society• The Xplanation

Connecting with others: Blogs

Tapping into streams of content: Example from corporate / L&D world

Jane Hart | C4LPT | August 2011

Tapping into streams of content

Connecting with others: Skype

Coming up to an intersection…

… we now need to take a right on Trends Blvd.

Trends: The pace of change has changed

Choose your metaphor…

Trends: The pace of change has changed

Trends: The pace of change has changed

Trends: The pace of change has changed

Trends: Changes in “Textbooks”

• Books e-Books Apps• Increasing levels of interactivity,

engagement, functionality• Multitouch• Multimedia-based (UDL)• Highly-accessible (UDL)• Digital learning that’s constantly

updated over the web• Helpful in illustrating abstract

concepts• 24 x 7 x 365

Trends: Some innovative startups/publishers

• Touch Press• Flat World Knowledge• Moonbot Studios• Walrus Books (France)• Inkling

Trends: Changes in “Textbooks”

http://morrislessmore.com -- Moonbot Studios

Trends: “Textbooks” of the future

Trends: “Books” morphing into apps

• “Books” morphing into apps• Video from Walrus Books• Game-like interface• Uses upcoming ePub3

standard, esp. HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript

• Digital collaboration project w/ French publisher MNEMOS

Trends: Cloud-based computing

Basically refers to things coming from or being stored out on the Internet, such as:

• Applications• Content• Data

Trends: Quick Response (QR) Codes

• Somewhat like a bar code, but has information embedded into it

• Connects the physical world w/ the virtual world

• QR readers can be downloaded to smart phones (RedLaser, Neoreader, etc.)

• QR generators (SparqCode, Maestro, etc.)

Trends: Near Field Communications (NFC)

• A short-range wireless standard that allows devices to communicate securely and perform transactions

• Some believe NFC will be much more prevalent and popular than QR codes

• Heavily transactions-based; retail, banking, etc.

Trends: Augmented Reality

Definition:

• Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real world and computer generated data.

• Often used in entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and other industries.

Trends: Augmented Reality

Trends: Augmented Reality

From t-immersion.com

Trends: Augmented Reality

From K12MobileLearning.com – by Johnny Kisko

Trends: Augmented Reality

Trends: Mobile

Trends: Mobile

Trends: Mobile

Trends: Mobile

Growth of digital video

Trends: Convergence

Growth of digital video

Trends: Convergence/Multiple Devices

Growth of digital video

Trends: Convergence/Multiple Devices

Trends: Transmedia Storytelling

• Telling stories across multiple platforms and formats

• Commercial& entertainment-oriented for now;but educational applications may soon follow

Growth of digital video

Trends: Convergence

• asdfsdaf

Trends: Convergence

Convergence

Growth of digital video

Trends: Growth of digital video

Growth of digital video

Trends: Growth of digital video

• Video traffic surpassed global peer-to-peer traffic in 2010

• Internet video is 40% of consumer Internet traffic; 62% by the end of 2015

• Internet video to TV tripled in 2010

• Video-on-demand traffic will triple by 2015

• 5+ years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks every second in 2015

Trends: Continued growth of online learning

Trends: Continued growth of online learning

Trends: Troubling U.S. debt (with global ramifications)

(No time to address this, but I need to mention it as an important trend…as this will have global ramifications and will most certainly be affecting those of us working within higher education.)

Trends: Robotics & artificial intelligence

• Consider 3 items in this month’s The Futurist:• The coming robot

evolution race• Thank you very

much, Mr. Roboto• The accelerating

techno-humanfuture

• IBM’s Watson

Merging…

… onto Resources Street

Resources: New Media Consortium (NMC)

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less

• Electronic Books• Mobiles

Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

• Augmented Reality• Game-Based Learning

Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

• Gesture-Based Computing• Learning Analytics

Resources: New Media Consortium (K-12)

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less

• Cloud Computing• Mobiles

Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

• Game-Based Learning • Open Content

Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

• Learning Analytics• Personal Learning

Environments

Resources: Khan Academy

• K-12 math, science (biology, chemistry, physics)

• K-12 humanities (finance, history)

• ~ 10 minutes long videos

• Best viewed on a computer

• Free of charge• 2400 video tutorials• 67+ million views

Resources: Make Khan Academy-style videos

• If using a PC:• A Wacom Bamboo Tablet with

Smooth Draw to create the doodles on the computer screen and Camtasia Studio (or similar) to record those doodles

• If using an iPad:• TechSmith’s ScreenChomp

application• Also see iPad Stylus roundup

From Digital Inspiration blog

Resources: Communities of Practice (COP)

… a self-governed learning partnership among people, who:

• share challenges, passion or interest

• interact regularly• learn from and with each

other• improve their ability to

do what they care about

-- Etienne Wenger | April 5, 2011

Resources: Communities of Practice (COP)

Also see:

• Etienne Wenger: Learning in and across landscapes of practice (April 2011)

• Jenny Mackness’ notes on Etienne’s presentation (above)

• Communities of Practice (from Informal Education)

Resources: Communities of Practice (COP)

• Dr. David Smith -- Calvin College

• Director, Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching & Learning

• Recently gave a workshop entitled Teaching as a Christian Practice that featured Wenger’s work

Resources: Extensive list of top learning tools

Potential roadblocks ahead…

Potential challenges:

Gaining and keeping students’ attentions

Potential challenges:

Student expectations

Potential solution…

Digital Storytelling: The power of story

• The Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, constantly used parables to teach

• Stories:• Gain our attention• Stay with us – esp. with repetition• Have power to illicit emotion• Can help us make meaning• Have universal appeal• Encourage imagination,

participation, interaction, and creativity

Digital Storytelling: Example of student creativity

Digital Storytelling: Many ways to contribute!

• Creating multimedia presents opportunities for cross-disciplinary assignments• Digital video /editing• Digital audio /editing• Art / illustration / graphic design• Music / singing • Writing /scripting • Acting / drama / set design• Programming / coding• …and more

Digital Storytelling: Resource

Example for cross-disciplinary assignment

We’ve reached the end of our journey

Periodic but constant pulse checks

Some of the items I’m keeping an eye on…

• Educational gaming / serious games• Learning agents• Personalized, customized learning• Robotics• The need to be lifelong learners• The increasing need to find/tap into

streams of content• Continued growth

of – and offeringsfrom – online learning

Thanks for your time!

Daniel Christiandanielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems

Daniel Christian

Thanks for your time!