Author Archives: Susan

About Susan

Associate Professor and Director of the Innovative Learning Centre

Room 20 @ Virginia Technology Centre

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“Room 20″ is our affectionate nickname for Torgersen 3080, the home of the VT Center for Innovation in Learning. The nickname pays tribute to MIT’s famous “Building 20,” the “magical incubator” of many of the 20th century’s greatest technological innovations.

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https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/cil/room-3080/

Centre for Innovation in Learning  http://www.lt.vt.edu/CIL/

Virginia Tech’s Center for Innovation in Learning (CIL) seeks to stimulate, support, and assess innovative approaches to augmenting the human intellect by means of information and communication technologies. CIL programs focus on what John Seely Brown and others have called the “edge” of traditional practices and approaches. Such “edge” endeavors, and those who pursue them, share some important characteristics:

  1. Their work is nimble and has the potential to scale.
  2. Their work is differentiated from core practices.
  3. Their work is intensely aspirational, motivated by an unusually strong sense of mission and purpose. Those who work at the edge “are truly out to ‘change the world’ and will settle for nothing less” (Brown et al., “Three Ways to Distinguish an Edge from a Fringe,” Harvard Business Review, March 10, 2010. Online: http://blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/2010/03/three-ways-to-distinguish-an-e.html).

This third characteristic is the most important of all. Only this kind of intensity, born of a desire to lead within a “symbolic” frame (Bolman & Deal, 1997), can bring about cultural transformation and the “leapfrog” innovations that are truly breathtaking.

Gesture table

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Our gesture table required a touch of design work.  Similar interactive tables from commercial vendors run anywhere from $7000 to $9000.  Our interest in the gesture table was curiosity into other options for interactive whiteboards.

We designed our own table to accommodate the launch of Kick Start’s – Leap Motion controller (https://www.leapmotion.com/), recognizing we needed something functional and affordable.  We were also eager to explore what appeared to be the next, best human / computer interface – gesture.  Input has evolved from typed in DOS commands, to the mouse / GUI interface, to now a motion controller (http://www.sensomatic.com/chz/gui/history.html)

We designed and built the table before we actually saw / had the Leap Motion controller – so, it was a leap of faith, so to speak.

Working with our industry friend, Total Office Solutions, Ian, Roy and I were designed a table to support a 52″ LED TV and mount a Mac Mini.

The mounting bracket was order through Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Maccuff-Mini-Vesa-Mounting-Models/dp/B0043IA6J0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1366730624&sr=8-3&keywords=mac+mini+mounting+bracket).

 

 

Once designed and delivered to EME 1123, our IT Services techs assisted up while putting the pieces together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer inputs are controlled conventionally by a keyboard and mouse or more interestingly by the Leap Motion Controller (https://www.leapmotion.com/).

Gesture table now resides in EME 1123 — the classroom / learning lab of the ILC.

Over the past term, we have explored the basics of the Leap Motion Controller (LMC) and gesture table using some basic apps – a combination of free and commercial apps. Through blogs and colleagues’ suggestions, we have increased our personal library, and we have discussed the possibility working with computer science students to create apps using the development tools.
In addition to our observation of users within the learning lab, participants in our ongoing research of the EME 1123 of learning environment design have provided us with valuable feedback as to how they have used the gesture table during their time in the classroom / learning lab.

Based on their feedback and our commitment to ongoing development of the gesture table, we have added a sound bar to boost both the audio volume and sound quality.

Another suggestion was that we move the table to the middle of the learning lab rather than keeping it against a wall where we had originally placed it.  Participants suggested moving it away from the wall would  encourage group interaction and foster larger group collaboration by using the Air Play option to project gesture table content.

Further, one participant has this to say:

The gesture table gave our student with special needs the chance to participate in a game using the leap motion controller. With headphones and apps designed for the Leap Motion Controller, this student would be able to work independently at the gesture table or with a group of students while others in the class worked on tablets or laptops. ~ Participant ILC_D473638_1

We look forward to further adaptations and discussions as we explore the how, what and why of our gesture table.

Next steps for us include

  • encouraging our Music instructor to try the range of conducting, instrument, sound apps with  Bachelor of Education students and
  • continuing to explore appropriate uses of the gesture table with English for Professional Purposes students.

Wolcott High School

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From Gianpaolo Versace @ Steelcase

Attached are some images of a recent project we did at a high school in the US. This high school dedicated to students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disorders. You can find more information by clicking HERE.

Another really interested school project we were involved with was The Academy at Opry Mills in Tennessee. They offer a degree completion program for students that are a few credits shy of a high school diploma. This school is inside a shopping mall. Click HERE for the video.

Educational Technology Debate

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https://edutechdebate.org/

The Educational Technology Debate (ETD) seeks to promote a substantive discussion of how low-cost information and communication technology (ICT) device initiatives for educational systems in developing countries are relevant to the very groups they purport to serve – the students, teachers, and their surrounding communities.

We advance the conversation in weekly posts on a monthly topic of discussion – like these previous topics. You are encouraged to augment each post with comments, related information, and relevant news items. You can also apply to be a moderator or discussant at any time, just contact us.

ETD Goals

Through this monthly debate process, ETD will achieve three overarching goals:

  1. Stimulate a public, holistic, and documented discussion on appropriate low-cost ICT solutions for educational systems in developing countries.
  2. Become a primary knowledge repository and knowledge transfer mechanism to support implementations of low-cost ICT devices in education.
  3. 3.Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of low-cost ICT device implementations in educational environments of the developing world.

These activities can be categorized into four mutually supportive and inter-related focus areas, each building on the other to create a true industry- and continent-spanning community of practice.

Sharing Information:
The main focus of the ETD will be to facilitate sharing of knowledge and perspectives, and to point people to additional knowledge resources. Sharing will happen between educational and technology practitioners, to increase the knowledge base of each practitioner, and the overall network of technology and education practitioners in six major groups. Information sharing can happen through almost any medium, but an importance will be placed on documenting the knowledge and its source.

Sharing Experience:
Each practitioner brings to the ETD different experiences with technology and educational settings, and through the community, each can share his or her experiences to enhance the network’s collective ICT in education expertise. The ETD will incorporate opportunities to share practitioners’ experiences at every turn, documenting and promoting experiences across the community.

Discussing New Innovations:
The community will serve as a platform to exchange ideas and opinions on appropriate technology and education solutions for the developing world – a conversation currently lacking a central point of communication between practitioners. This discussion will be open to external stakeholders from the beginning and also serve to promote thought leaders in appropriate technology for education.

Solving Problems:
The community will be a resource to quickly resolve outstanding ICT in education implementation issues through peer support – education and technology implementers will look to each other’s varying skills and knowledge to expedite solutions.

Sponsors

The Educational Technology Debate is brought to you by a partnership between infoDev and UNESCO to stimulate conversation around low-cost information and communication technology (ICT) device initiatives for educational systems in developing countries and how they are relevant to the very groups they purport to serve – the students, teachers, and their surrounding communities.

Both organizations welcome new partners to expand the discussion and dissemination of the knowledge we will share and discover through this open process. If your organization is interested in joining, please contact us.

And while both partners support the ETD goals, the views and opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of infoDev or UNESCO.

High Low Tech @ MIT

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http://hlt.media.mit.edu/

“High-Low Tech, a research group at the MIT Media Lab, integrates high and low technological materials, processes, and cultures. Our primary aim is to engage diverse audiences in designing and building their own technologies by situating computation in new cultural and material contexts, and by developing tools that democratize engineering. We believe that the future of technology will be largely determined by end-users who will design, build, and hack their own devices, and our goal is to inspire, shape, support, and study these communities. To this end, we explore the intersection of computation, physical materials, manufacturing processes, traditional crafts, and design.”