Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 11 Wearables, Printables, and Internet of Things

Unit 11 Wearables, Printables, and Internet of Things

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Answer ONE or more of my questions and respond to ONE or more of your colleagues: 

Q1. What impact do you think wearable and printable technologies will have on education? 

Q2. What impact do you think wearable and printable technologies will have on instructional design? 

Q3. Select one example from the materials provided for this unit, brainstorm how it would be used for instruction, then describe your vision.

Q4. Write one question you wondered about while exploring this week's materials, then write your own answer to the question. 

Q1. What impact do you think wearable and printable technologies will have on education? 

I love this question because I was asking it to my Saudi students back in 2013 when I bought my first Sony smart watch - and recommended that all students get one, as well.  

This quote from Wired sums up one way in which it will effect education:  "The heart of the Glass experience is Google Now, the company’s attempt to divine and deliver needed information based on context." (my italics).  Information based on context.  

So, if you were wearing an augmented reality diviner (whether it's a headset or earphones or sub-dermal implant), you'd be fed information based on your environment - your classroom, the books, resources, etc. - around you.  Early adopters will jump ahead of their fellow students - as I suggested to my gents.  They will have access to far more learning domain-based information, say, than even someone who's a quick Googler.  The information will be served on-demand/need.  

For example, say you are wearing (unbeknownst to your professor or fellow students) a Babel Fish (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. in French class.  You don't need to the think of the French-to-English translation and then think of the French response that would correspond when orally quizzed in French.  You hear English.  So, you skip the first step, and only have to think of the French response - which makes you at least 50% more "fluent" than your fellow linguists.

Check it out!

Can You Hear Me in French? - Waverly Technologies (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

I think that, at early adoption, users will be labeled as cheaters - they have advanced access to information that education says they are not allowed to have.  But, if you have a device that puts Google at your eye-tips, why wouldn't you use the information.  Seems silly.

I recommended, within the Saudi context, that the students all get smart watches, because regardless of how many proctors we had in a room, students could miraculously share information.  It was amazing.  There was nothing we could do about it accept put one teacher to every student - for which, of course, we didn't have the resources.  So, I just thought that with smartwatches , the sharing process could be a bit stream-lined for these "sharers".

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 10 Assessment

Unit 10 Assessment

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Stiggins (2004) explains that assessment falls into four basic categories or methods (see page 90-93). Select one of the learning activities below, then describe which assessment method you would recommend and why. 

1. Ability to write clearly and coherently
2. Group discussion proficiency
3. Reading comprehension
4. Proficiency using specified mathematical procedures
5. Proficiency conducting investigations in science

Group discussion proficiency

As a disclaimer to my response, given latitude and therefore complete responsibility for my learners - as I have been for many of my teaching experiences abroad over the last decade - I have fallen prey to one of Stiggins' "Misconceptions About Assessment Methods" (p. 94).  I believe that we learn best by doing - and was very excited to find that Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. rather confirms this.  Specifically, I always ask my administrators, "Shouldn't we only be using 'authentic' assessments - performance assessments - to judge student progress?"

Now, I am definitely biased - in formal classroom environments, I have only taught language acquisition and the use of technology, both vocational and information.  To assess whether one of my learners has progressed, I feel I must ask them to perform a procedure or speak a language; ergo, performance assessment.

Back to the task.  To assess a learner's ability to discuss in a group, I would devise a rubric based on "several dimensions, such as ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency[,]" et cetera (Stiggins, p. 92).  Actually, I've done this many times and found it to be a very accurate assessment of how a learner will transfer their knowledge into a real world setting.  

I find the first two methods, selected and extended written response, a little irrelevant in an era where knowledge is at your finger tips and the ability to memorize for regurgitation - and give points based on what has been regurgitated.  I love the personal communication method, though, as it involves - when done correctly - much self-assessment for the learner.  

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 9 Transmedia

Unit 9 Transmedia

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Q1. There are several transmedia games listed on the website for this unit. Play one of the games, then write about your experience in the discussion for this week. What did you play? What surprised you? What do you think about this type of learning? What did you learn?

5:21pm

Manage Discussion Entry

One of the biggest things that surprised is the computer skills & search knowledge (apparently) that someone must have to play these games.  Specifically, I played America's Army: Proving Grounds (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. on the Steam platform.  It took me an hour to really get the game started.  

First, I discovered that I couldn't play it on my Chromebook - no worries or surprises.  The Chrome operating system is really only a window to the Internet & web apps, albeit the fastest one out there.  

So, I shifted to my MacBook.  Likewise, "Proving Grounds" was not available for macOS.  That just seemed a just a bit snobby, but I was aware of the fact that PCs led the Eighties' gaming revolution.  Fair enough.  

Finally, I logged onto the monster gaming PC that I just had built for my HTC Vive VR headset (I know - I shoulda started there!).  Once onto the gaming platform, I was a little surprised that the game would not install from the flashy, dynamic Steam user interface (call me impatient). So, I Googled the problem.  I found in my search that many gamers were having the same problem.   This gentle gamer (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. provided the solution which required three Microsoft updates (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., one of which took thirty minutes.

Now, the game was a blast.  Very immersive with near photo-realistic scenery and action.  Lot's of blood and violence.  Cool!  I can definitely see how this might give a young soldier preparing for small tactical movements and an idea of how to maneuver in a kill zone.  Also, very cool. 

What sort of awed me is that, normally, I won't ever put this kind of effort into playing a game - creating a game, yes.  So, it surprises me that so many would put so much effort into gaming - and the little effort some of my gamer students put into class - the gaining of useful knowledge.

Guess I'm just being a Digital Immigrant.  It's quite possible that a younger or more gamer-minded individual might have skated through the process.

That is what the initial link from the class' webpage gave me the impression for the game I played, America's Army: Proving Ground (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - the button even said "Play Now."  Right on!  It got me really excited.  

What I learned from my drawn out experience of downloading the Steam platform, the game, and then the updates for Windows to be able to render the game properly, was how not to build an interface.  

I'm happy there are smooth interfaces out there.

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 8 Open Learning

Unit 8 Open Learning

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Q1. After exploring all of the open resources from this unit, what is your overall opinion? 

Q2. If you were a college administrator and wanted to make sure your institution was viable for the long term, what changes would you be making now, if any?

Q3. If you were a legislator getting ready to fund public education (both K-12 and college/university level) in your state, what would you do based on this new information? 

Q4. What will learning look like in the next 5 years? 10 years?

Q4. What will learning look like in the next 5 years? 10 years?

Learning in 5 to 10 years will be a very different thing from what is happening now.  At a recent TED talk, Nicholas Negroponte (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., founder of the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC), suggested that knowledge may in fact be ingest - in the form of a pill.  Larry Page (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., founder of Google, said that Google will be in your head by 2020.  

I like the early videos this summer that projected a more seamless world of knowledge transfer for the future.  One thing that puzzles me is why the education system still looks basically the same as it did when I was in college 25 years ago - still have classroom, still have centralized, authoritarian teachers, still have the "pitcher to vessel," "sage on a stage" pedagogy.  

After having studied Sugata Mitra (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (School in the Cloud (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) & Jane McGonigal (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.(How Games Can Make Us Better (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), as well as plenty of my own experimentation around the planet for the last decade, I've come to strongly agree with the concepts of Self Organized Learning Environments (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and gamification.  But, I don't see teachers adopting or implementing - quite the opposite - I resistance at the chagrin of the students (our customers).  

And, of course, I believe that much of what goes on will be in virtual reality environments.   

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 7 - Apps and Big Data

Unit 7 - Apps and Big Data

LAURA HUNTER

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Q1. Watch this three minute video. How does it apply to an education setting? 

I'm very concerned about big data, as I am building my educational VR company.  What people around the nation - students, teachers, administrators - think about how VR will affect the educational system is ultra-important.  It's very important for my company to be aware of both the unstructured data - emails conversations, blogs, tweets, etc - as well as international buying statistics.  Modern companies who do not rely on big data to direct their approach to the market will suffer.  And I believe the exact same thing is true for educational systems and their students (customers) - as we are held more and more to the task by services like Facebook and Twitter.

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 6 - New Bloom's

Unit 6 - New Bloom's

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Q1. Take a look the two images below. What do they mean?

What do you think about this? Write your response in the discussion. 

These two images are synthesizing the Bloom's Taxonomy & it's different levels with the Digital World's resources to deal with those levels.  Really, it's an ingenious evolution of an originally brilliant observation of human epistemology - how we come to know something & implement that knowledge once it is ours.  The applications infused in the pyramid & surrounding the concentric circles represent how the technology industry has dealt with the different levels - either intuitively or purposively.  And, I think that while this is definitely an extraordinary articulation of the human epistemological condition it is fairly intuitive & that is evidenced by the fact that tech startup companies & their prosumers have unconsciously - most probably - synthesized these principles and apps into their builds. 

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 5 Video

Unit 5 Video

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Q1. Write a counter-response to this statement: "All this media is bad for society. People are getting obese and don't know how to socialize. People should be outdoors instead."

Q2. Write a counter-response to this statement: "All this media is great for society. Media is engaging our brains in new ways that present new opportunities for learning."

Q1. Write a counter-response to this statement: "All this media is bad for society. People are getting obese and don't know how to socialize. People should be outdoors instead."

I love this comment, 'cause guys like Pranav Mistry (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. with SixthSense (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Meron Gribetz (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to at Meta (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. &, of course not to mention, me at my little start up (or should I say "upstart?") are doing things to synchronize and coordinate digital reality and real reality.  It's not that people are bad or that media is bad.  It's the way that it is being consumed is poor.  If we can consume our information - say in the form of Augmented, Virtual or Mixed Reality - at the same time as walking around and interacting with our natural environment, well, then the problem of people sitting at computer screens all day goes away.  Which hasn't mobile gone to great efforts to fix that anyway.  If our interface with information changes dramatically, like become sunglasses or even contacts, I believe people will be outside more.  

Oh, and by the way, media is not the reason Americans are fat.  It's a very different reason - the Chinese consume as much or more digitality as Americans but are not fat . . . but that's really a subject for another time and context.

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 4 - Presentation Tools

Unit 4 - Presentation Tools

Q1. Which of these videos resonates with you most, and why?

Video #1 - How to Give An Awesome Presentation

http://youtu.be/i68a6M5FFBc (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Video #2 - Present Like Steve Jobs

http://youtu.be/2-ntLGOyHw4 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Video #3 - Life After Death by Powerpoint

http://youtu.be/KbSPPFYxx3o (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 3 - Technology Integration

Unit 3 - Technology Integration

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Q1. Is the Decision-Making Matrix valuable? Under what circumstances would it be useful or not useful? 

Q2. Matching tools to pedagogy is a central premise of the Manning chapter. Describe one example of this matching and the skills or knowledge needed to achieve it.

Q3  What do Instructional Design and the Decision-Making Matrix have in common? How do they differ?

Q1. Is the Decision-Making Matrix valuable? Under what circumstances would it be useful or not useful? 

It sounds wonderfully practical & intuitive to me.  Also, it's very nicely articulated the way Manning and Johnson put it down here.  And I think it's brilliant that that they use Google Docs as their tool of analysis.  

I've seen it used by fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at a Montessori school this Spring.  They were writing papers that would be submitted to a school competition for Utah Historical research.  The learners were having a wonderful and effective time collaborating on the Docs they were creating.  There was the addition bonus that as the were watching each others compositions and edits, they would look back to each other (ping-pong style - as I was doing as well, probably with my mouth hanging slack) and begin new discussions.  Really, really cool!

And, of course, they were in a Chromebook lab.  This is not always available.   I've had the heartbreaking experience to assign this type of work to discover, after assignments were handed in, that some of my young Saudi men did not have Internet access at home (as the assignment was not in a lab, but homework).  One came to my office after school, quiet and embarrassed, and admitted as much . . . his eyes watering with shame.

Using the Decision-Making Matrix would've helped me to understand the need for a mutual "Platform" and "Accessibility Concerns".  So, I believe it should be used by teachers until it becomes intuitive - on auto-pilot.

Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 2 - Goals of Ed Tech

Unit 2 - Goals of Ed Tech

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Q1. Warschauer (2011) identifies academic achievement as one of the primary goals of educational technology, but he also describes a paradox between state tests and research findings. What is the paradox? In his view, how should students principally be using computers? Do you agree?

Q2. What is the relationship between knowledge and skill development? Which do you believe will better prepare students for work and careers? Why?

Q3. What is the relationship between students' socio-economic status and their access to technology? What do you think about that? 

Q4. What surprised you while reading this chapter? Explain.

Q4. What surprised you while reading this chapter? Explain.

I was surprised by the point made by Gee & Jenkins.  That "geeking out" requires something "beyond a simple computer and Internet account," really shocked me (red exclamation points in the margin). 

HUH?  I do like the point that they make & Gee is one of my favorite in this domain . . . but what about the hackers of the 70s & 80s?!  What about the little Raspberry Pi (a computer that cost around 38 bucks) programmers?!   Perhaps it's easier to geek out when you have high end tech.  And, of course, many of the original tech geeks did live in homes that had computers. 

I can understand their argument.  It was just counter-intuitive to me, having grown up poor in a family with five brothers and an Army sergeant for a dad.  Of those six boys, four are now decently well off tech geeks.  And it began with fiddling around with an Atari 2600 that was used & broken VCRs.

I think I'm making this concept to personal. 

Integration of Educational Technology - Week 1 - Overview

Week 1 - Overview

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Watch the following videos then answer ONE of the discussion questions with a brief paragraph. After you post your answer then you will see others from the class. You should also respond to a colleague. 

https://youtu.be/uZ73ZsBkcus (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

and

https://youtu.be/w-tFdreZB94 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Q1. List and describe the instructional strategies you noticed in the videos.

Q2.  Why include this in our first class session? What purpose does it serve? 

Q3. What's realistic about these videos? What's not? Why?

Q3. What's realistic about these videos? What's not? Why?

Though it appears magical, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (Arthur C. Clarke).  And, of course, much of the way we live & work right now would appear magical to someone back in 1999.  It's very realistic as technological advances over the next several years will be converging, recombinant & disruptive, not to mention exponentially accelerating.  Holographic augmentations are already becoming possibilities using the correct augmented (AR) & mixed reality (MR) head-mounted displays (HMDs), for example Meta (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. & HoloLens (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..  So, perhape, that might be on thing that is unrealistic: we see now viewing devices.  Then again, I know that folks at MIT are working on contact lenses (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. that will make many other interfaces fairly obsolete.

I really don't believe there will need for a physical space in which the classroom or the office exists.  As the other technologies we see demonstrated in these videos converge with virtual reality (VR), the need to actually physically be anywhere specific will be superfluous & considered old-fashioned.  Education & work spaces will exist in a the Cloud, relieving the planets resources & enhancing our ability to interact more effectively & efficiently.

Yeah Microsoft!  Speaking of the devil - check out this new MR developer kit (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. from MS!

Thanks for sharing!  I got some serious goose-bumps!  Love it!