Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-02
- New podcast is up! http://www.edtechpodcast.com/2010/04/26/podcast-episode-10-docs-coming-to-a-wall-near-you/ http://bit.ly/duCis8 #
- Interesting article on the future of digital textbooks http://oreil.ly/cssnOk #
- Interesting article on the future of higher ed from a marketer's perspective. http://bit.ly/a8tAJq #
Horizon 2010 K12 Edition is out
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 28th, 2010
The 2010 K12 Horizon report is out today and there an some very interesting insights inside. The report is the product of the work of the New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). You can take a look at the full report as well as add you own comments on the reports website.
Looking at the key trends identified in the executive summary one really stood out to me, “The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education.” The main point that I draw from this is that the factory model of education no longer cuts it. We have moved from being an industrial nation to a nation of innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. It is no longer acceptable to provide a cookie cutter education that produces cookie cutter workers for our factories. As educators we must start to examine the structures that we have set up and determine if they are still valuable in our rapidly changing world. As the report identified,”A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.”
One point where I think the Horizon report may have missed the mark is in its predictions on flexible displays. Horizon sees flexible displays being integrated into textbooks in 4-5 years. I would like to suggest that instead we will see the death of the traditional textbook in the next 5-7 years. Textbooks are simply becoming too inflexible and non-dynamic to be relevant in 21st century education, and the technology to move to dynamic texts is here right now. Ipads, iPods, netbooks, kindles, sony readers, nooks, etc are all solutions right now. What we need is for textbook writers to change the way that they think about textbooks. Otherwise, students and educators will find other resources that provided an integrated rich multimedia experience.
There is plenty more to look at in this report, so feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
Podcast Episode 10 – Docs… coming to a wall near you.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:38 — 15.5MB)
Show Notes:
- New features in Google docs
- Facebook Teams Up with Microsoft on Docs.com
- More Than Half of Mobile Internet Time Is Spent on Social Networks [STATS]
- MIT Media Lab’s Surround Vision brings virtual reality to a tablet (video)
TedX Presentation on patient problem solving
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 21st, 2010
Math educator, Dan Meyer, recently gave a presentation on teaching algebra at TEDxNYED. His presentation is incredibly insightful and frames a problem that I have seen for a long time. Our kids are not learning to solve real world problems. Dan provides some very simple ideas that can revolutionize the way that we teach math. By framing problems differently and by using multimedia Dan has devised a strategy to enable kids to learn how to create equations and use math to solve problems. Take a look at the video below.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-18
- Looking at the new google docs. It has some pretty cool collaboration features. http://bit.ly/beHX6T #
- Canon 5D used to film the final episode of House this season. http://bit.ly/bnfMuj #
- Wow. Ning is no longer free. What alternatives are out there? http://tcrn.ch/drjpzo #
Ning shuts down its free network service: What are the alternatives?
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 16th, 2010
Ning announced today that it will, “…phase out our free service. Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning.” This obviously has some very important ramifications for the thousands of educators that use Ning to network with each other and with their students. In the short term, alternatives will almost definitely pop up. Already, there are several competing products on the the market such as http://www.socialgo.com/.
The bigger question however is, will users continue to trust free services online. Some free services have definitely carved out a space and have a defined business model, such as gmail. However, other services have attempted to get buy in through offering their service for free before they begin to monetize. Ning’s strategy, obviously not inspire confidence in the company as a whole and will likely leave many users with a sour taste in their mouth. The argument can be made, that it would be better and perhaps even more reliable to self host community spaces. There are several benefits, you have complete control over your site, you can choose which product you want to use and when you want to migrate between them and if you already own or rent hosting space or a server you have everything that’s needed to set up an online community.
One popular tool in higher ed is http://elgg.org/. This is a powerful application that let you set up your own online community. It does, however, take a bit of technical expertise to install. An even simpler option is buddypress.org. Buddypress is actually a set of plugins and themes for Wordpress that turns your Wordpress blog into an online community similar to Ning. With wordpress’s super simple install process and simple online plugin install this option has come within the reach of technical novices. The payback is huge. With either of these open source projects, you have a site that is completely under your control and cannot be canceled. In addition, you can choose how and if you want to monetize your site.
I know I have only mention a few options. If you have other ideas, please include them in the comments section.
Podcast Episode 9 – iPad!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:44 — 39.0MB)
Answer our poll about the iPad here
Show Notes:
- Gartner: Most Kids Will Use PCs With Touchscreens by 2015
- 2-Year-Old Finds iPad Easy to Use [VIDEO]
- Ipad for all students at college
- HP Slate
Pick’s of the week:
- Chris Raasch – Mockingbird Wireframing tool - http://gomockingbird.com/ and Wolfram Alpha Search Tool, native into ebooks – http://www.wolfram.com/news/elements.html
- Matt Stenson – Adobe Ideas
- Chris Johnson – Grockit
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-11
- Blackboard announces "Mobile Learn" the ipad demo looks pretty impressive. http://bit.ly/an8hj1 #
- University provides ipads to all incoming students. We'll be talking about this tomorrow on edtechpodcast.com http://bit.ly/b5s8SN #
- Got thoughts on the ipad for education? We'll be talking about it tomorrow on edtechpodcast.com. Let us know what you think #ipad #
- Poll: What do you think of the iPad for education? http://www.edtechpodcast.com/#pd_a_3020253 #
- What do you think of the iPad for education? http://poll.fm/f/1sqfx http://bit.ly/9TGa4l #
- I've been noticing a lot of posts and buzz around decentralized learning this week. Is there something spawning this? http://bit.ly/bSVQKj #
Podcast Episode 08 – Level Up in class
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:36 — 28.0MB)
Show Notes:
- Moodle Mobile vs. Blackboard Mobile Learn: Web App vs. Native
- Fisher Price Launches iPhone Apps For 2-Year-Olds
- Games as model for grading
Picks:
Ning Update: (Ning Mini Free for K-12)
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on May 4th, 2010
I applaud Ning on at least trying to make good with the education market. However the fact that this free service is sponsored by an outside donor is somewhat disconcerting. What happens if that donor pulls their funds? I would advise educators to proceed with caution with any Ning adoption for integral learning activities.
ning, social networking
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