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  • jameschen 10:58 pm on September 30, 2012
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    This is Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Foundation. OLPC is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts which provides low-cost, internet-capable laptop computers  to children across the world. Its XO laptops have been designed specifically to meet the needs of children and their usage under extreme weather conditions, […]

    Continue reading Nicholas Negroponte, Founder and Chairman of the OLPC Foundation Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
     

  • Patrick Pichette 7:22 pm on October 1, 2012
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    Tags: Codecademy   

    Zach Sims is the co-founder and CEO of the Codecademy website.  As a 22 year old CEO, much of Zach’s biography involves some of the short term projects he’s worked on to date such as Drop.io (acquired by Facebook), AOL’s venture group, and GroupMe (acquired by Skype).   Codecademy Codecademy is a website designed to […]

    Continue reading Zach Sims is the co-founder and CEO of t… Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
     

    • teacherben 4:43 am on October 2, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I signed up for codeacademy when it was in beta and managed to get through the first set of beginning tutorials on javascript. I think it’s great that it has become popular and that so many people have used it to learn coding. I set 2011/12 as my year to learn programming, but I personally found codeacademy to be really dry and ended up turned to other resources. There is no shortage of competing products out there there days. The new Khan Academy computer science section certainly takes better advantage of possibilities for interactivity than these guys, but Khan Academy started off a bit boring too. With the right backers and momentum, I imagine that they will be able to tweak the product to match the wants/needs of their target audience, whoever that turns out to be.

    • Patrick Pichette 6:04 am on October 2, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      The thing I enjoyed about Codecademy was its ability to encourage younger students to learn to code. Many of my high school students loved the badges and reward system and constantly strived to get more badges and compete amongst themselves. The immediate response and guided approach seemed to work well to help students progress through the content at their own pace. I haven’t looked at Khan Academy’s new computer science course so I’ll need to have another look but I did find Codecademy’s approach to be quite promising. If anything, their core concept could be leveraged to produce content for other courses as well (math, languages, etc..).

  • jenbarker 11:11 pm on October 1, 2012
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      Tonight I felt a great deal of frustration when creating an app on TheAppBuilder… see my comments on the App Adventure Discussion and my pitiful app.   Anyway, I just checked my email and they sent me this (see picture).   I think this information will be helpful and I am going to attempt to […]

    Continue reading Follow up to my app adventure post… Posted in: Week 05:
     

    • kstackhouse 4:56 am on October 2, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Sorry to hear that you were so frustrated. Let us know how it goes with the additional information you were sent. I think this is a good example of how some sites are designed compared to others. Having a chance to try out different app makers is a good experience here where there is no risk or cost. This allows you to make the mistakes and try things out now before selecting one you may use in the future. Also comments like this will help others. Thank you for the information.

    • jhodi 8:27 pm on October 2, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi,

      I also experienced a lot of difficulties with this. I originally tried appmakr.com, but did not find it very user-friendly. I would try to make changes, but nothing would happen, or I could not figure out how to make changes. I did not try TheAppBuilder, but I did try AppShed, and it was significantly more user-friendly. After getting consumed by this for a few hours, I have come to the conclucion that developing an app is a skill that must be worked on and acquired over time. It is something that interests me, but I feel like I would need to research this process much more before another attempt would be worth while and less frustrating.

      Jhodi

    • Jonathan 8:58 pm on October 2, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Jen/Jhodi —

      Sorry to hear about the “not so friendly experience”. We debated about this step as a group but decided it would be neat to experience building an app. Now it’s good to note that this isn’t a “True” app building experience but a simulated one. Similar to how many of us “build” web pages these days. We use “builders” that allow us to drag and drop features more or less like a what you see is what you get “WYSISYG” functionality.

      I too built an app through both of those services and found them to be sluggish but it was doable. I guess the question is .. is there a market for these “app builders” out there. And I’m not quite sure. Developers are out there and it is a skill that people can pick up (takes time). But dedicated youngsters (Grade 4-5) are able to put some apps together using coding as well.

      All in all this was a simulated experience but if we can walk away with one idea.. “it isn’t easy”. Even in a simulated environment. Please let us know if we can support you in the app development process though.

  • teacherben 9:03 pm on October 10, 2012
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    I just finished my A1 presentation and could use a little feedback.  I did it as a Prezi.  As it turns out, Prezi can be incredibly time-consuming–jeez!  (I probably could have written the essay in half the time.) If anyone has the time to have a look and share their thoughts, I would appreciate it: […]

    Continue reading feedback on A1 Posted in: Questions & Answers
     

    • jenniferschubertubc 3:57 am on October 11, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben!

      I am getting an error message when I try to access your Prezi. (Something went wrong – We could not load a media file in your Prezi). I would love to take a look at it! Hopefully you can get the media issue resolved. Good luck!

      ~Jen

      • jenniferschubertubc 6:06 am on October 12, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        It must have been a glitch on Prezi’s end as everything appears fine now. I quite enjoyed your Prezi! Sometimes it can be a difficult medium to work with as it is time consuming, but the results are often very impressive (as they are in your case). I found your presentation focused and informative without being oversaturated with unnecessary info. Your presentation moved along smoothly and was easy to navigate, unlike some of my first experiences, both making and viewing, Prezi works. There is very little to critique here!

        Thank you for creating an attention grabbing, informative presentation. (I want to try out gamesalad now!) Well done.

    • teacherben 7:49 am on October 11, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Jen. Thanks. I’m not sure what the problem is. I just opened it with 3 different browsers just by clicking on the link and it worked for me. Are your plugins all up-to-date?

      If you still can’t view it, I put a downloadable, offline version in my GDrive that you should be able to get from here:

      https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzIRuObfFp0EcXJkUFZmeWhkTm8

      It’s about 45MB, I think.

      Any feedback would be appreciated.

      Thanks,
      Ben

    • visramn 8:30 am on October 11, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben,

      I have to agree with you. I chose to use Prezi also and it is a lot of work. I looked at your presentation and I thought it was very good. You did a good job of explaining what the ventrue is, where it stands in the market, etc. Looks like you covered all the bases. Well done.

      Nureen

    • frank 11:58 am on October 11, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben,

      I don’t have a critical assessment to offer you right now.
      I just wanted to say, I enjoyed going through your presentation, which I found simple to navigate through and informative. Prezi adds a feel of interactivity to presentations that I think is missing from MS Office tools. It was worth your time to learn the progam, and i think your presentation has benefited from it. Keep up the good work.

    • tomwhyte1 7:52 pm on October 11, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I did not get an error message, therefore I am wondering if it was something internal at Prezi which has since been resolved.

      As for the presentation, I like the comprehensiveness of your thoughts, and the area’s you explored. I am wrestling with a potential market analysis paper, and found some of the topics you touched on to be very similar.

    • lullings 9:11 am on October 12, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Nice work Ben,

      At the end I was hoping that the last action would come out and it was going to spell Ben or salad or something cool like that.

      You did well segmenting the delivery without loosing the content.
      Really liked the founders bit with the pictures – nice reminder that there are real people behind these things.

      Stuart

    • Peggy Lawson 10:09 pm on October 12, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I really liked it Ben – well done.

      Like any other media, really, Prezi does take a lot of work to do it well. You have a lot there, and it has a good flow and a consistent presentation, the latter which is often lacking in Prezis. You have a lot of information, too often lacking in Prezis, but I still found it easy to follow along. A nice mix of links to follow for further exploration. I loved the vertical flow within your major topics – a very nice way to connect the major sections.

      I will look forward to going back to explore the details, Nicely done!

      Peggy

    • jenbarker 10:40 am on October 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben,
      Thanks for sharing. I really liked how you organized your information, headed by six questions. I am doing something similar using the cube as my guide. I found your Prezi answered all of the dimensions of the cube. I liked the mix of text and pictures. Thanks for sharing.
      Jen

    • C. Ranson 4:58 am on October 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben,

      Your Prezi presentation is very effective, was helpful in helping me sort out some of my thoughts that were all over the place. Prezi is an interesting application, I find it frustrating but I am sure with repeated use it gets easier. It appears you have included all the content that is required according to the rubric, including the reflection piece and the time requirement. Really enjoyed your presentation, thanks for sharing.
      Catherine

  • Kent Jamieson 3:47 pm on October 18, 2012
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    In my class – 4J – we’re experimenting a little with AR and an app I found that links to a great book.  If you have 5 minutes, and instead of me explaining everything, just have a look.  The kids loved it!  (.99 cent app) http://youtu.be/uYGweNHdnOM

    Continue reading AR in 4J Posted in: General, Week 07:
     

    • Jenny Brown 4:39 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing Kent, it was a good example to show how engaged the students became. With carrying out this exploration with AR, I have been left wondering if all of the cool hidden videos/features etc discourage student imagination or augment it?

    • stammik 4:45 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      The kids love it is right. I’m guessing most teachers and administrators would be rather impressed by the level of engagement offered by this implementation of AR – thanks for sharing it Kent, I’m going to ask my daughter if the book is available in her library!

    • tomwhyte1 7:24 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Interesting video, and yes a great book. My kids have the app version on my iPad right now.

      However, I only see one student engaged – the one holding the iPad. The students around her are watching, but they are nothing more than spectators, and the poor child holding the book is not receiving any educational value.

      Yes I agree, that AR can increase engagement. But increased engagement of new technology has a very limited shelf life, and does not replace good instruction, and engagement does not ensure that actual learning takes place. But, when we see students, sitting, behaved, with smiles, we assume they are learning… when in most cases they are having fun. Do not get me wrong, I think learning should be fun, but I try not to mistake all smiling kids as learners, and those not smiling as not learning…

      I think AR has potential to enhance the learning environment, and right now we are seeing flash and bang, with little substance. Therefore, I ask, what would pedagogically sound AR learning look like…

      I myself will give this one application a bonus over the others, in that it allowed the girl holding the iPad to interact with some of the virtual objects presented.

      Thoughts?

    • tomwhyte1 7:26 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      In addition, I applaud you as a classroom teacher for exploring how technology might enhance the learning environment, therefore, please do not take my opinions on AR as a reflection of the efforts you are putting forth, and the obvious dedication you have to your students and school.

      • Kent Jamieson 7:33 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        No worries Tom, I too am quite sceptical of the overall value of this type of technology. I just wanted to try it out. I’m sure if all my students bought the app the experience would bemore individualised, but still…is the learning any better? To tell you the truth, I found the experience distracting from what the book’s actual message was. In some parts I could tell the kids weren’t even listening to the narration, but waiting for the next virtual action to take place.
        The kids were definitely interested and engaged, but substance-wise, it seemed pretty skin deep.

        • tomwhyte1 7:43 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Did the book app you used, have the characters be able to exchange hats like in the strictly app version… that section is my children’s favorite.

    • Peggy Lawson 8:12 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I’ll have to try that one. Just finished with Aura. Made my own Aura – not really impressed, but I’ll spend more time with it, and try your suggestion Kent. I’m pretty much in tune with Tom I think. Currently a neat little novely item – I could see kids becoming engaged, but not for a long spell in it’s current state (speaking only for those I’ve tried so far). And as Tom said, engagement does not guarentee learning. Neat new things pop up so frequently these days that any one thing is not likely to hold a student’s attention for too long. It’s got to have more than just a “WOW!” factor to have any real impact.

      Peggy

      • Jonathan 9:28 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Peggy —

        You’ve got some good points with it needing to have more than just a “WOW!” factor. Then I think about embracing the “WOW!” and running with it. If you think about how we can use technology to capture the attention of our students — using WOW doesn’t seem so bad.

        For example, say we are teaching some math concepts and we use AR to make some of the numbers jump out of the page to teach a concept (let’s say for the sake of argument how to add numbers), this could be really engaging. Sure it’d like watching a movie (by the way, I’m against the edutainment stuff) but if the student is engaged even for that split second the concept could be transferred in that moment. Perhaps even watching more of these AR demos could possibly help? Embracing the ‘WOW” would’ve achieved the purpose.

        Again, it doesn’t seem pedagogically sound in the long run — but for a temporary burst? Do you think that it could/would possibly work?

        Just some thoughts 🙂

        — Jonathan

        • tomwhyte1 7:00 am on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          My concern with what you are proposing is the simple fact that in a short period of time, we become desensitized to the event. When I grew up it was the Rodney King beatings, the students I have taught recently was 9/11. Research has shown that repeated exposure to an event, lessens the impact of the event… Something in the drug community known as Chasing the Dragon – trying to get that initial excitement back (had a presentation recently).

          For myself, what educational value does AR bring to the classroom? If it is being simply used to briefly engage students, tell them a story, make the information relevant to their real world experiences. But do I feel it is a tool we should ignore? No, I think it has a time and a place, but not all the time, and not in all the places.

          Thoughts?

          • Kent Jamieson 7:47 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            I think your comment, “it has a time and a place” is true, but i’m sure that could be said for many many things. My experience with AR in the class was a once off thing, to engage the students, but to also share with them that this sort of thing is possible nowadays.
            I always look at my Grade 4’s as the future leaders – or at least ‘the future’ – and by sharing these tools with them it might inspire them to think about new ways of doing things. They seemed excited about the AR demo, but some of them weren’t impressed and could tell most of the images “looked fake”. Maybe one day they’ll be the ones programming educational technology apps…watch out for that day.

        • Peggy Lawson 8:02 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Sorry Jonathan, but I think that brief WOW that gets kids briefly engaged isn’t enough. As Kent said, WOW often gets students to be engaged with the wrong thing – the technology – and miss the real point of thes lesson. I think it’s very easy for us, as teachers, to also get distracted. We do run a real risk I think when we feel we have to always find a new WOW factor, when really it’s the excitement of the content that should engage students, and an effective teacher can do this without whiz-bang effects.

          I think the real benefits to AR are to be able to show things (as others have said in other threads) that cannot otherwise be easily visualize – an atom is a great example someone else had mentioned. Or the structure of a bridge in full 3-D.

          Simply having books flying around in a storybook don’t seem to add much in the way of real knowledge formation and can be more distracting than useful.

          Peggy

        • Colin 1:48 pm on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Hi Jonathan, I have to agree with most what is said. I don’t think that any technology, which are just tools, cause engagement on their own. It is a teacher that causes engagement whether they use technology or not it all depends on how they use the various tools they have access to. I have had very engaging teachers who just talked at the front of the class and never used any technology. However I do think that educating students to the various technologies that exist in the world is useful and for that reason I would use AR.

          Colin

    • Jonathan 9:29 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Kent —

      I have this book in my classroom and I just bought the app. Amazing. Thanks for making the video, i’m using it tomorrow (oh no! Pro-D tomorrow) — Monday it is! 🙂

      Thanks,

      Jonathan

    • Ranvir 9:42 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This app is awesome Kent! I would love to use it with my kids at home to make home reading more engaging for them, its quite a challenge for me. BTW – would you mind sharing the name of this app, could not find it on iTunes…

      • Kent Jamieson 7:38 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Imag.N.O.Tron My son loved it as well. Hope you like it and helps out at home.

    • visramn 9:15 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Great example. Thank you so much for sharing. It is amazing how many tools there are out there that we can tap into as educators.
      Nureen

    • sophiabb 3:46 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing. Love the possibilities that the app presents. I agree that there is a ‘time and a place for everything”. The challenge for us educators is to use learning technologies in a constructivist way. Sometimes, engaging/hooking our learners’ interest is a start that we can build on.
      ~Sophia

    • jenniferschubertubc 5:09 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This kind of reminds me of what I first thought Pottermore would be after anxiously awaiting and watching J.K. Rowling’s announcement video on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5DOKOt7ZF4). My niece and I earned highly coveted spots as beta users, gaining access to the site months before it was open to the general public. We did have to wait a while though… longer than we had originally expected. When we finally received our owls with welcome letters, we logged on right away. We couldn’t wait to officially get sorted into our house by the Sorting Hat and experience all of the enriched content. There was only one problem. Even in beta testing, the user count was so high that the site was forever crashing, leaving us high and dry. We’d try to mix a potion, only to be kicked off and asked to try again at a less busy time.

      As a result of these initial hangups and unforeseen technical failures, I think Pottermore quickly became somewhat of a joke. Whereas millions of readers were initially fighting for thousands of beta testing slots, shortly into the experience, most of them gave up. When friends finally got their welcome owls, it was more of a “have fun with that” attitude than a “I can’t wait for you to get sorted to see if we’re in the same house” feeling. As with anything new, especially if it is an “add-on” to something that has a rather large existing fanbase or original following, there are bound to be some growing pains. Pottermore held a lot of promise, but the failure to deliver in a timely and reliable manner marred it a bit in the end.

      • Peggy Lawson 8:13 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Jennifer – something like this suggests/reminds me that I’m sure there are a lot of companies that rush to put out a product or service too quickly. We are now all use to beta products that cause much frustration. I’d guess there are benefits to selling a product/service if you can be one of the 1st out of the starting blocks – but does that do more harm than good by causing ill-will with users? Maybe it’s better to wait just a little longer until a more refined product is ready to be released, and be ahead of the competition in quality rather than just being the 1st out.

        Peggy

    • pcollins 6:39 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thank you so much for sharing the video Kent. It really goes along ways to showing how the AR incorporates into the classroom….. here’s the thing. Are we limiting our children by so heavily directing the outcome of their play/activities/reading? Is this type of technology minimizing whatever normal contributions their little minds might have come up with? A good friend of mine, an early childhood consultant, has made me aware of this recently. She makes dolls that are felted and they do not have faces. At first I thought it was strange, and then we were laughing because as kids we made dolls out of wooden spools and chicken feathers- and they never had faces. It’s so that the children can superimpose any relevant thoughts and feelings without the doll directing the play.

      I remember my imagination creating the world for Lords of the Ring as I read the book. Now young people are foregoing the challenge of these books for the movies/lego/cartoon/etc. What is the true outcome of such heavily augmented experiences? Do they limit our youth?

      PC

    • melissaayers 11:04 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Love it – that’s really cool, thanks for sharing that Kent. It really does add extra dimensions to a book.

      I see it as great for entertainment and perhaps encouraging kid’s imagination and exploration however I am not sure how effective it is for helping students learn to read. As it seems the story gets read to them by the app, more like a movie, than them reading it themselves.

      One way I think the app could be improved (educationally speaking) is if voice recognition software was added (and advanced enough) the book could then be viewed in reading or listening mode. For reading the voice recognition software could help the student along, correcting them when they went wrong or providing hints or help when they were stuck.

      Still aside from this I think a couple of my nieces will be getting a copy of this!

    • manny 5:32 pm on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing that short video Kent, i don’t think anyone can argue the interactive properties and increase in engagement that augmented reality affords. What was neat about your specific example was that you could also touch different images on the iPad itself. It also let you transition away from the picture while the augmented reality experience continued. These are two neat features that Aurasma cannot do at the moment. Thanks for sharing…
      Manny

  • teacherben 12:31 am on October 11, 2012
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    Tags: entrepreneur, founder   

    Worth a read: http://mashable.com/2012/10/05/90-entrepreneurship-lessons-fab/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 Written by Jason Goldberg.  Here’s his profile on Crunchbase: Jason Goldberg edit Jason Goldberg is the founder and CEO of Fab.com. Prior to founding Fab, Jason was Chief Product Officer at XING AG and before then he was founder and CEO at socialmedian (sold to XING AG) and Jobster. In a prior […]

    Continue reading “90 Things I Learned from Founding 4 Tech Companies” Posted in: Blog Café
     

    • frank 6:01 pm on October 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Ah, just 90 things to remember about running your own successful ed tech venture, of course.

      I like how persons such as Goldberg are changing the face of how businesses are run in the 21st century, vis-a-vis many traditional hierarchical and overtly conservative institutional/organizational models of the past.

      Thanks for sharing 🙂

  • teacherben 11:59 pm on October 13, 2012
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    Tags: , , webmail   

    The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently ruled that webmail cannot be classified as online storage and are therefore not covered by the  Stored Communications Act of 1986.  The case involved a woman who hacked into her husband’s online email accounts to see if he was being unfaithful.  This may have some interesting repercussions regarding the cloud […]

    Continue reading interesting case regarding ‘Stored Communications Act’ Posted in: Week 06:
     

  • Suhayl Patel 7:57 am on October 14, 2012
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    Hi all, I was woindering if anyone knows where we are supposed to post assignment 1.

    Continue reading Assignment 1 Posted in: Questions & Answers
     

  • Paula Poodwan 11:47 am on October 14, 2012
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    Tags: Week 06   

    Before looking at this week’s presentation, I was thinking that Cloud computing will widen the gap of the digital divide. After educating myself I came to realize that actually, it doesn’t. It will help remove the digital divide. Instead of investing heavily in infrastructure and purchasing physical servers, software, data center storages, or network equipments, […]

    Continue reading Week 6 Activity #9 Future Potential Posted in: Week 06:
     

  • visramn 1:49 pm on October 14, 2012
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    Tags:   

    Augmented Reality Marker Activity Discussion Forum This is a space to showcase your experience with augmented reality markers. Please feel free to post a screenshot/video of your experience; thoughts about the potential use and/or limitations of markers in a K-12 classroom and links to other similar tools.

    Continue reading Augmented Reality Marker Activity Discus… Posted in: General, Week 07:
     

    • jenbarker 5:36 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This is a link to my screencast showing my experience. http://screencast.com/t/L93Kt1kMnDn

      My son and I had so much fun with this program. From the way he reacted I can tell you there is definitely a market here for kids. I can’t wait to try out the rest of your activities. I am so thrilled I took this course as this is exactly the type of of technology I hoped to be exposed to. Thanks for providing such interactive activities.
      Kudos, Jen

      • jkotler 2:15 am on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Jen,
        Unfortunately I wasn’t able to try using this since I didn’t have all the required resources, but even just from reading about it I automatically felt that it has the potential to be a great tool and so am happy (but not surprised) to see that your son really enjoyed it.

        I have always believed that whenever a student has the opportunity to learn in a more interactive, dynamic and hands-on manner, they are much more likely to be engaged because it increases their excitement and curiosity among other things. As such, I think having the concepts being learned come to life like with the solar/wind and organs augmented reality markers, not only plays into that perspective perfectly but offers great learning potential.

        • tomwhyte1 9:12 am on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I agree that this has the potential to be a game changer, however what I have seen so far has limited applications for both students and teachers.

          For students, they have that initial novelty effect and subsequent excitement. My question is, when this wears off… what learning is happening? So far, AR has limited to no interactivity, and the development of these items require significant time. Yes there are pre-developed resources, but unless they directly fit with your curriculum, they are simply being used because they are cool.

          For myself, while I see potential benefit, if objects can be manipulated either physically, hand gestures, or on the computer. Such as, adding variable to show eating, or disease in the organ AR would be beneficial. However, the technology is still very young, and I will wait until it matures a little further.

          Thoughts?

      • jhodi 1:36 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi,

        When we were researching AR for this week’s presentation, I noticed that there were a lot of applications that I thought would be useful and engaging for young students. I think that AR adds a potentially interactive nature to something that is typically thought of as ‘simple’ (ie. Augmented books).

        Jhodi

    • tomwhyte1 8:00 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This is my link to my screencast showing what I guess are my organs…

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns32ToI8SXs

      For myself, I found the organ one more useful. For I have taught Bio 20/30, and this might provide students a slightly better understanding of our insides than what we currently utilize.

      As for the solar/wind AR, it was cool… but other than that – I found it simply to be a proof-of-concept, with some novelty which will wear off shortly.

      Other than that, I at this time find little educational value, and yes I realize that this is relatively new technology, however adding an interactive component would make the experience more meaningful and engaging.

      However, I did notice the type of book series called popar, which may change my mind, after I explore it better.

      Thoughts?

    • jenbarker 8:26 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Tom,
      I know the Grades 5 and 6 class at my school always do a science study of the body. I think they would love this. Which link was it that you tried? I want to share this with the teacher. Thanks, Jen

    • jenbarker 8:35 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Tom,
      Ignore my last question. I found the link right below the solar/wind AR. Which screencast program did you use to video yourself. I used Jing and it took forever to upload.

      • tomwhyte1 9:13 am on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I think I used screencast-o-matic… directly uploaded into youtube as well… with free version, get one screencast at a time… relatively quick as well.

        Hope this helps.

    • avninder 1:54 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I used the General Electric marker to view an example of augmented reality. It was a great experience and very user friendly.

      Tom – I would also be concerned about the novelty wearing off. Also, as with the application of all technology it is important that the use of AR is pedagogically sound. I think the organ marker you used may have a lot of potential for use in the classroom.

      • tomwhyte1 9:28 am on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        For myself, the novelty was about 10 seconds… then I said… what I am learning from this? If I was in a class, and this was the objective to build an AR object, it would be an excellent example of what could be done – proof of concept – but as a learning object for Solar or Wind power… felt very underwhelmed…

        Thoughts?

    • Peggy Lawson 6:58 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I’m with Tom on this one. I tried the LearnAR Biology one with the organs, and after spending some time hunting found another by PBS Kids (Lunch Rush! http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/hollywood/lunchrush.html).

      I will keep looking as I am very intrigued about the possibilies and, importantly believer there are significant possibilities, but what I’ve found so far is very cool…..but mostly for the novelty. The biology organs – my first experience – was neat!! But I didn’t find it any more useful than existing quality resources.

      The PBS Kids Lunch Rush!! (I downloaded & tried the iPhone version – http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/hollywood/lunchrush.html) was very weird in content (addition problems to 10 – markers were used to identify the correct number of sushi (sushii????) ordered by members of a movie crew. How many grade 1 students can relate to that scenario??). And the AR experience were virtualized suschi skewers. Clearly a disconnect I think between the person they hired to develop the math game and educational consultants who might actually have some sense of actual real-life interests of 6 year old students.

      I was underwhelmed by the virtual reality and from my brief samples felt it was very gimicky but of little added educational value to existing technology. However I do believe their is great potential, and my experiences were just very early, and low-level, not-quite-ready-for-prime-time examples.

      I strongly suspect, however, that within a few years the technology will mature and there will be great uses in many academic areas. Being able to visualize a concentration camp in 3-D, for example, may have much greater effect than a 2-D photo.

      Peggy

      Peggy

      • tomwhyte1 9:26 am on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I was going to mention this specific app, and I forgot, thank you very much.

        I agree that there is big disconnect between the activity and the work, and probably a misunderstanding for the students. However, I have had my 6 year old and 4 year old run around the house for the last couple of weeks (because I move the markers all around the house for extra physical activity), and even thought they may not get the reason for the sushi, they are understanding the math.

        The only issue that arises, is when they get to basic algebra – 6 + X = 8… this is where I need to provide a little more assistance.

        As well, I also believe that advanced hardware will further propel the ability of this platform, developing more pedagogically sound applications.

        Thoughts?

        • Peggy Lawson 8:19 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I would seriously doubt that the Lunch Rush activity is actually helping your kids learn math, or even reinforcing it much. From my admitedly brief exposure to it, this game is like many educational “games” that might provide some entertainment value, which isn’t bad, but I really didn’t see how it would actually improve student learning. And for a supposedly educational product, I’d say that’s a critical feature.

          Peggy

          • tomwhyte1 2:27 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            From my experience, with my two children (ages 6 and 4), this program provides a quick and fun assessment to help them gauge their understanding of the concepts they have worked with, through more traditional means. They do this activity with limited supervision, which in my opinion tells me that they have understood the basic math concepts I have provided them, however I could be wrong.

            Thoughts?

      • jhodi 1:42 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi,

        I also wonder about the novelty of AR. As I was exploring AR this week, I found several examples of what AR does, but so many times, I found myself thinking ‘how can I use this in a class?’. Several times my response was for ‘nothing more than a supplementary resource’ such as objects. As I further explored, I found some applications that were very intricate and applicable, although the minority of examples. I hope that this technology is further pursued and more resources are created that are directly applicable to learning and teaching.

        Jhodi

    • Doug Connery 7:34 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Like jkotler, I don’t seem to have the resources to play with the AR resources.

      I must admit I was taken in by the wow factor by the videos, especially the Magician/story teller. And like many others, I question the value to education once one gets around the wow factor. I am sure there will be a place in the future for AR applications in education when this new technology matures. We can help it mature by playing around with it, and perhaps find some gaps in education that it can fill rather than using it to duplicate some existing simpler resource.

      Doug.

    • Paula Poodwan 8:19 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      AR is fun when you first try it out. It gives you a new experience of what technology can do.
      Here is what I made with GE Wind Turbine

      http://screencast.com/t/jwZn0AUQG

      Using AR in the classroom will definitely promote collaborative learning when students as a group view three-dimensional models and have their discussion about the object, which will make learning fun and an interactive process.

    • melissaayers 9:04 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      While I see AR as really cool technology and something both kids and adults alike would enjoy, personally I also think what they are implementing with the AR technologies from this interactivity might be easier if they had a 3D image on the screen to manipulate. This way it would be easier to zoom in & out and rotate around the object using the mouse or touch screen. My opinion on this might be partly as I have a laptop with and inbuilt camera, if I had a camera I could move around it would have been easier to use I believe.

      When I was printing out the Markers it reminded me of QR codes which seem somewhat similar to how AR is implemented by GE and LearnAR Biology. While QR codes do not augment reality they link images, or web links to a type of barcode/marker that can be read by a smart phone or tablet with camera.

  • visramn 1:51 pm on October 14, 2012
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    Aura Activity Discussion Forum This is a space to showcase your experience creating an Aura. Please feel free to share your experience here; thoughts about the potential use and/or limitations of Auras in a K-12 classroom and links to other similar tools. Due to the limitation of sharing your Aura with a large group, feel […]

    Continue reading Aura Activity Discussion Forum This is a… Posted in: General, Week 07:
     

    • jkotler 4:15 am on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I really liked this application and had a lot of fun creating my own aura. I wanted to share it here or on the Facebook page but had trouble figuring out how to attach or upload it.

    • Jenny Brown 1:25 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Julie,
      I agree that right now it is a bit difficult to attach an Aura unless you email or text it to someone directly and that person has access to that picture/paper/ etc. Sharing through the Facebook page at least gives us a glimpse of each others auras, another option is to take a picture and post it. So what you can do is:
      1. Join the ETEC 522 Augmented Reality Group (you should now be added Julie)
      2. Receive confirmation that you are part of the group
      4. Share your Aura to your own facebook page.
      5. Then click on Share on your facebook page and then on the dropdown choose share in a group (and pick the ETEC 522 Augemented Reality Group)

      Not the most straight forward unfortunately. Something definitely that I learned using Aurasma is that it work best for people in the same location or those with access to the same print materials/books/papers etc.

      I will update the instructions so that hopefully it is a little more straightforward. Thanks for the great Ted talks video too!

    • tomwhyte1 9:17 am on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I have successfully added a post to the facebook group (great idea).

      I will summarize my thoughts here though, great app potential. Add items, like help video’s to assignment sheets, to help students understand the concepts easily. Only concern, is the app working across multiple platforms.

      Thoughts?

    • visramn 9:34 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing your experience with this program Tom. I think the multiple platforms issue is definitely a valid one because a lot of times what a person creates on on platform can not be accessed from another and then the whole process becomes frustrating. Thus, defeating the purpose of using such tools.
      Nureen

    • jenniferschubertubc 4:31 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I created an aura but could not share it with the facebook group. (Now that I’m reading further, I see that I have to be confirmed. I will wait!) It is a bit of a silly one, but it was nice to have a new “toy” to play with. I can see where kids would get a kick out of making simple things in their everyday environments come to life with fun animations.

      I am a bit intrigued with the concept of location sharing. It would be neat if Aurasma could become a sort of virtual geocaching of a local area!

    • melissaayers 9:09 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This activity was really fun and the aura software/technology was easy to use. I can imagine this would be a great tool to use for student projects. I am sure they would come up with some really creative applications we would not think of.

      Outside of education I can also see how this product has great marketing potential for advertising companies.

    • jenbarker 4:23 pm on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This was a fun activity. I created a Coke can aura that made music. I wish there were a way to share your aura on computers and not just smart devices. I could see children loving this activity. You could set up scavenger hunts and such. It reminds me of when we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. Kids can purchase wands at the gift shop and then they wander throughout the hotel in search of things they can bring to life with their wands on various levels of quests.

  • visramn 1:52 pm on October 14, 2012
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    Tags:   

    Layar Creator Activity Discussion Forum This is a space to showcase your experience creating an augmented reality print campaign using Layar Creator. Please feel free to post a screenshot/video of your experience; thoughts about the potential use and/or limitations of augmented reality print campaigns in a K-12 classroom and links to other similar tools.

    Continue reading Layar Creator Activity Discussion Forum … Posted in: General, Week 07:
     

    • jkotler 4:19 am on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This is a great application tool that I think can easily be integrated into many classrooms and through many subjects. For example, students can create posters or magazine covers in a social studies course about travel and learning about other countries, in relation to the environment or even about science experiments. The limitations I would see in this is that it is not a free tool and that the user must have the required device to even see it.

    • visramn 9:32 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I have come across the same problem with other technological learning tools. They have so much to offer but due to conditions outside my control as a teacher, I am not able to use them. Unfortunately, it always comes down to money and lack of resources in a lot of teaching environments.
      Nureen

    • melissaayers 11:29 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      While my initial thoughts on this tool were that its a great marketing platform and eCommerce tool I can also see how it can be used creatively in many other domains such as education, medicine and entertainment.

  • visramn 1:53 pm on October 14, 2012
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    Zooburst Activity Discussion Forum This is a space to showcase your experience creating a 3D pop up book using Zooburst. Please feel free to post a link to your book; thoughts about the potential use and/or limitation of these tool in a K-12 classroom and links to other similar tools.

    Continue reading Zooburst Activity Discussion Forum This … Posted in: General, Week 07:
     

    • teacherben 6:41 am on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Here’s a Zooburst book that I started so I could show some teachers what it’s all about. I did it couple of years ago so it’s sort of cheating, but I thought I would share it since it highlights how you can use .gif files with transparent backgrounds so that your pop-ups are not all boring rectangls but can instead be shaped like whatever you want.

      http://www.zooburst.com/book/4cb283dbdee1c

      • jenbarker 9:07 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Ben,
        Thanks for sharing your book. I was able to get your voice over on the second page but couldn’t get the dog on page 2 to bark. Does the dog bark? Sound is something that definitely would enhance this program.
        Best, Jen

      • jkotler 2:00 am on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Ben,

        Thank you for posting the link to your book. I tried to play around with the program and like Jen didn’t find it to be so straightforward in guiding a new user. However, seeing some of the different elements and features that can be used from your book reinforced by interest in using it with students either to create a book to share with them or attempting to have them create your own.

        On that note, since you said that you had made that book a few years ago, I am curious if you or the teachers you introduced it to tried using it in the classroom? If so in what capacity and what was the response from the students?

        Julie

        • teacherben 6:15 am on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I made that book a few years ago, while Zooburst was still a closed beta product (can’t remember how I got in on that.) The support I got was great by the way–immediate responses from the developers, and thorough. When I later registered for a paid version of the product, the school was dragging their heels in getting around to writing the cheque, but the zooburst people gave me the paid version as soon as I asked for it and didn’t give me any grief when it took them 3 months to get their money.

          I used it pretty extensively when I worked in elementary. I was able to do a 5-minute intro to a grade 4 class and they ran with it and figured everything else out on their own–including a few features that I hadn’t discovered! There is a pretty extensive library of images and sounds that you can download from, for example.

          In the high school, I have recently found it to be a great tool to support foreign-language classes. I have introduced it to the Spanish, French and Chinese teachers and they are pretty enthusiastic about it. I haven’t really shown it to any other secondary classes yet.

    • manny 10:05 am on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Ben, thanks for sharing that tidbit on .gif files. Neat little trick to know when embedding single objects without a border.
      Manny

    • jenbarker 9:04 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I went to Zooburst. I tried creating a book but was frustrated with the program. I didn’t find it very intuitive. I am sure if I had of read the manual which they do offer, it would have been much easier. So I also cheated and went and viewed a few of the pre-made books. I like this idea but don’t find it as engaging as an app called Toontastic. Yes, the images are 3-D but they don’t move… or at least I didn’t see any that move. As a teacher of Language Arts I also would prefer a bit more structure or graphic organizers for primary students. Toontastic provides the “StoryArc” which walks students through the creation of the various elements of a story. That said, I could see how some students would prefer the very open nature of this program.

    • Paula Poodwan 8:25 pm on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool and as an EFL teacher I can see myself using this tool in the classroom to promote writing and dialogue skills. I think this is a great tool for a group of small children up to middle school ages. From the examples provided in the ZooBurst webpage, I can probably use this tool with adult EFL when they want to show their pictures and share their experience in a fun way.

      I have tested how to use it and have to agree with Jen that it is not that user friendly because after I created my mini book. I was unable to find the button to publish or preview the book and I had to go to YouTube to watch the tutorial.

      http://www.zooburst.com/zb_books-viewer.php?book=zb03_508080d005cf5

    • Jenny Brown 1:47 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for trying it our Paula! Can you try to set your book’s settings to public so that we can have a look?

    • jameschen 6:47 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I tried creating a couple of pages. Here’s the sample: http://www.zooburst.com/zb_books-viewer.php?book=zb04_5081fae0e2d2c

      I found Zooburst to be a interesting AR software which would allow students to learn about some of the basics in creating 3D objects (rotating, angle, etc.). Even though I did not try the AR feature which allows the storybook to pop out in a projected environment, I think the students would have a chance to experience AR and become immersed in the story on a different level. Neat!

      I could see how Zooburst can be applied in language arts lessons, which would provide students a good opportunity to learn both literacy and 21st century skills at the same time.

      James

    • visramn 9:29 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for trying out the program and sharing your experience James. This a is a great way to bring literacy alive.

      Nureen

    • jenniferschubertubc 4:10 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I enjoyed using Zooburst to create a personalised story about a toddler becoming a big brother. (http://www.zooburst.com/book/zb03_50832a12b3b8e) I think the simple clip art, though limited, provides familiar visual images for even the youngest of readers. Being able to assign dialogue to characters/specific graphics really brings the story more “to life” (as adding audio would surely work to go one step further). I like the idea of using it with more of a personalised slant (provided that clip art is available that allow children to see a bit of themselves in the story) to explain feelings or milestone moments such as using the potty, cleaning up, rewards systems, going to school for the first time, etc. This would not only be helpful and appropriate for the youngest of students, but also for students who are learning life skills in the classroom. (I used to teach general special education (K-5) and profound mentally handicapped students (ages 14-22).) I could see myself using this software to not only make applicable books for students but to help them create their own tales as well.

      I think the program is easy enough, with enough coaching/tutorial time in the beginning, for younger students to use, though admittedly, I did go through a bit of my own trial and error. I think kids are learning to use technology tools, such as Zooburst, at an earlier and earlier age, and often can show us a thing or two!

    • melissaayers 10:13 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I think this is another great creative tool for students to use to create stories or projects themselves as well as being a great tool for teachers to present stories, lessons, content to students in a fun & interactive way.

  • melissaayers 5:30 am on October 23, 2012
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    This morning I can across the an article on how the OLPC  initiative is going 6 years after it was launched. Unfortunately does not seem to be bringing the benefits and advancements they hoped it would initially. DeathWatch: One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) I was lucky enough to briefly meet one of the founders of the […]

    Continue reading One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Posted in: General
     

    • ETEC522grp8 9:55 pm on October 24, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing the link. The report provides an interesting perspective on whether or not OLPC has been able to deliver the proposed results. I had thought that providing a child with a laptop would open doors to learning on a whole new level. But what you’ve said made me realize that in order for programs such as the OLPC to be successful a child would still need to be able to do well on tests. The sad reality seems to be the fact that success ultimately depends on test results…

    • melissaayers 5:26 am on October 25, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Yes, I have to agree its not great that its test based for the assessment as I am sure the students gain many valuable skills from having the devices that they would not have gained previously.

    • Patrick Pichette 7:08 pm on October 26, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I remember participating in a local program that encouraged students to create applications that would be used by the OLPC group. Unfortunately, not much was known on their education system and the program had many issues that prevented our students from truly creating the experience that should have been achieved. Additionally, I recall reading issues about the lack of infrastructure to provide students with the connectivity that would be required to make the OLPC initiative successful. All this leads to an investment that seemed doomed to fail from the onset. I almost wonder if there was someone who cashed in on this by securing certain distribution rights while the whole thing was on wobbly legs to begin with.

    • teacherben 5:15 pm on October 27, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Patrick, I would be interested to know more about the group that was making applications for the OLPC–what languages/tools were they working with? While I was at first really excited to see the OLPC loaded with with a Linux distribution, what they came up with was so vastly different from anything used in the real world that it may not have been all that helpful. While Windows machines with Excel on them may not quite be the ‘machines to think with’ that they imagined at MIT, they might give kids a chance to get into school or get a job.

    • Patrick Pichette 8:32 am on October 28, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      We were using machines called the XO. You can see a model that is likely the same or a derivative of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1

      As for the languages and tools, most were using either Java or Scratch to create the games. This was for an introductory level programming course for grade 10 students. Most had no idea how to program while a few had been doing it on their own for the past 2 or 3 years. As the machines had limited functionality, these were the recommended tools for the students to create their mini-games.

    • Patrick Pichette 6:56 pm on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Odd timing.. I just heard a radio announcement this morning about the OLPC initiative. They were discussing how much of a success it had been in a small African community with no schools, teachers, or Internet. I’m a little unsure about electricity but I’ll assume there was some otherwise it will be difficult to get these recharged. 🙂 Anyhow, apparently they dropped off some boxes of these little machines loaded with a bunch of apps pre-installed and were researching how the children would adapt to them. According to the radio announcement, within just a few minutes, some of the children had opened the boxes and within the hour they had begun turning on the machines and seeing what they could do. Over the course of a few weeks and months, they gradually learned to use the computers and started teaching themselves things by looking through the applications. Needless to say that I’m in total shock now.. I’m unsure as to whether the OLPC initiative has turned into a success or if this is an isolated case. I’ll have to see if I can find out more as it looks like it may have turned out for the better in the long run if this isn’t an isolated case.

  • Kent Jamieson 5:41 pm on October 14, 2012
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    Thank you to everyone who participated and added to our weekly cloud activities and discussions.  We hope we helped facilitate a deeper understanding about the exciting opportunities and services – as well as the controversial issues – surrounding cloud learning in K-12. The cloud has already been instrumental in cutting costs for businesses and creating […]

    Continue reading Wrapping up the Cloud Posted in: General, Week 06:
     

    • visramn 9:27 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thank you for a great week of learning. You all did an awesome job.

      Nureen

  • jkotler 4:46 am on October 16, 2012
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    I have always been a big fan of Ted Talks, so while I was going through some of the activities for this weeks topic I happened to find these two Ted Talk videos on augmented reality and thought I would share them. The first one is with Marco Tempest, a magician and illusionist who uses […]

    Continue reading Ted talks & Augmented Reality Posted in: Week 07:
     

    • avninder 2:17 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Awesome presentations – thanks for sharing Julie! AR can really be used in amazing ways. We are all used to seeing AR mostly in sci-fi movies. Seeing it being used in the first video was great – it made the presentation very engaging.

    • Ranvir 9:21 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Magic + Augmented Reality = Fantasy! An amazing TED talk by Marco Tempest and I really enjoyed how he was able to the audience mesmerized. The show basically redefined my understanding of Augmented Reality and I am still wondering what it is and what it is not?

    • Eva Ziemsen 7:57 am on October 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      These were so great, I re-posted on my facebook. The magician really took it to the next level. It exemplified form=content, which is what I think is the equation of art (good art). Thanks for this!

    • visramn 9:27 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thank you so much for sharing. TED talks are always great.

      Nureen

    • Lisa Nevoral 7:02 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Julie, thanks for the videos. I tried out Aurasma, but the TED Talk helped me see the potential of how it could be used.

    • Peggy Lawson 8:25 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks Julie. This video shows a much better example of how AR can be used for better effect. It’s fun to play around with the simple things many of us have been trying, but it takes an expert to give a hint how really effective AR might be.

  • joeltremblay 10:51 am on October 16, 2012
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    I went to use Zooburst as the first activity of the AR unit but in infuriated me by demanding a nickname and not allowing me to use  just my email address. As such I did the mature and very intelligent thing and put a profane one instead of a normal and am now stuck with […]

    Continue reading Zooburst Posted in: General
     

    • Peggy Lawson 7:42 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I’m afraid I have to break the course rules and give a reply that isn’t meant to forward our group conversation – but thanks Joel! This has to win the vote for one of the best comments of the course! (in a non-academic way of course)

      Peggy

    • jenbarker 8:59 pm on October 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I am laughing out loud. Thanks for the humour.

    • visramn 9:26 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I am sorry that you had that experience Joel. I hope the other activities worked out better for you.
      Nureen

  • Scott 7:26 pm on October 28, 2012
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    Tags: byod, week 9   

    Welcome to week nine and this weeks topic of BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) prepared by Lisa Nevoral, Suhayl Patel, Shaun Pepper, Scott Tammik and Tom Whyte. To view our BYOD website, please visit: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etecbyot2012/ We encourage you to participate in many of the activities and discussions questions as possible.  We believe our topic is very relevant to many K-12 schools and districts and we would like everyone to learn about BYOD through meaningful conversation and posts. To help launch this weeks topic and provide a real world context to our discussions, please take a few minutes to watch the following video, which highlights the issues one secondary school is dealing with, as it considers the possibility of implementing a BYOD program: Enjoy your week!

    Continue reading Welcome to Week 9 – BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) Posted in: Week 09:
     

    • lullings 3:55 am on October 29, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Excellent video. Great production values and flows well with the music and relevance.
      Scott you are gifted. Well done all, very impressed.

      On a different, and possibly more personal, note,
      I would have loved if you opened the topic to outside the classroom as well. There is a BYOD movement in professional circles now which could have been relevant to the a classroom setting and offer a different perspective.

      Stuart

    • ETEC BYOD 9:34 am on October 29, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thank you for your positive feedback Stuart.

      Indeed, while the video intro provides a focused, case study style, intro to BYOD in a secondary school setting, as the full introduction to our topic notes, ‘BYOD is not only an educational phenomenon, but can also be seen in the world of business and government’.

      While our course in general maintains an educational lens in its perspective, you are quite right, that BYOD is a growing movement in general – likely for cost reasons in many cases I imagine.

    • Peggy Lawson 5:40 pm on October 29, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Great introduction Week 9! I’m looking forward to your topic – it’s very relevant today and you’ve already got me hooked with your very polished opening video.

      Peggy

      • ETEC BYOD 7:39 pm on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks Peggy for the compliment on our opening video. I hope that you gain some valuable knowledge about BYOD this week.

    • sophiabb 7:25 pm on October 29, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Excellent video. Great introduction to BOYD. You’ve got me thinking about the possibilities and the challenges, such as: How do you monitor? What about students whose families cannot afford to provide technology for them? Looking forward to learning more about BOYD.
      Sophia

      • ETEC BYOD 7:40 pm on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Sophia,
        The questions you posed are all relevant in the discussion around BYOD. I hope that by the end of this week some of them will be answered.

        Lisa

    • Jonathan 12:04 am on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Very polished video. Looks great — got that great Apple feel to it!

      BYOD is a very important topic and I’m so glad your team has decided to tackle it. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve always been about bringing my own devices into the classroom just because it works better and it isn’t a “victim” to tech support. I say this in a positive manner. While I know that the techs have a lot of computers to look after there are many updates that are needed on a regular basis to keep programs/websites happy and safe. A simple Java update is a great example of how websites no longer work on school computers. Or incompatible versions of software like Garageband can make tech difficult to manipulate on computers.

      This is still a problem on one’s own device, however, if I’m solely using my laptop, I understand the limitations and can work within them. I’ve also just received an iPad to be used in my classroom. It is assigned by the district and locked out by them as well. No password is given and all Apps on the iPad need to be pre approved before they can be uploaded. This exasperated the problem as the apps often update several times within a week and to wait for them to approve can be a frustrating process. It can take weeks, it’s like waiting for Apple to approve apps on the App Store!

      BYOD — is a solution but it does come without support. Looking forward to the week

      • Kent Jamieson 8:15 am on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        That sounds so backwards Jonathan, that you are given the tool, but no freedom to use it. I guess i’m spoiled at my school, as we are given the right to download, stream, and basically experiment with any and all resources. Our Grade 7’s recently went full BYOD as a test grade and our entire Grade 3-12’s will be bringing their devices next year. I have not breached the subject with our IT guys – as I have an idea of what they must be going through to prepare – but this week will afford me that chance. I’ll try to pick their brains and learn all I can about how the Grade 7 test has gone. I look forward to learning more about this subject. Great Video Week 9!

        • jenbarker 8:21 pm on October 31, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          And in my district we are given iPads that come loaded with many apps but are also given iTunes cards should we wish to purchase more apps.

        • Jonathan 10:31 pm on October 31, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Kent – It was nice to have a forum to vent in 🙂 It is backwards. It was a struggle to implement things that year. It was interesting speaking with admin about it as they couldn’t be more supportive but were handcuffed by tech support restrictions.

          I should note that I see value in what the tech group is trying to do. Protect their computers from viruses and malware from getting into their systems. On the other hand — the only way that we can innovate and bring 21st century learning teaching skills is for teachers to bring these tools into our classrooms. I’m willing to explore but I was turned away when I tried to approach it in the “right way”.

          With many of the programs I chose to not “install” them, but run them off of a CD for example. Worked well.

          • kstackhouse 9:13 pm on November 3, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            We have outdated laptops and very little admin rights on the computers. I am technically not supposed to use Firefox or Safari on the laptop. There are very few iPads…or Apple products in general. There is one voice in the IT dept. that does not like Apple products and has said so. This has made it difficult to move ahead and try some of the great resources out there. We do not have a BYOD policy for students nor would I be able to bring my home laptop and connect to the internet. This has been very frustrating. While I am happy to hear about so many other teachers that are experiencing more freedoms and access to other technologies I am also worried where that will place my students when competing against others for work and school opportunities in the future.

            • ETEC BYOD 8:22 am on November 4, 2012

              You have raised some interesting concerns here Ken, pertaining to the equitable access of technology – concerns which are amplified by the use of BYOD. We generally consider the haves and have nots, within a single school considering BYOD, but what are the larger implications to students long term, when their school refuses to embrace technology? Our school of 2000 is also serviced by one IT staff member (shared between several schools), however luckily he is not biased to one technology or another. It’s frustrating when the needs of everyone are impeded by the preferences of one individual. Keep up the good fight Ken!

    • jkotler 1:51 am on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Great introduction video. I like and appreciate that it was both informative and has got me thinking before I delve further, but the presentation of it is really professional.

      • ETEC BYOD 7:44 pm on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for the compliment on our opening video. I hope that you gain some valuable knowledge about BYOD this week.

    • adi 8:11 am on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Very professional introduction. You raised some interesting points. The one I worry about the most is affordability for students. In Mexico it is definitely an issue.
      I’m looking forward to this week.

      • ETEC BYOD 7:43 pm on October 30, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        You bring up a very valid point. Not everywhere in the world may be ready or able to adopt BYOD any time soon.

        I hope you gain some valuable information this week.

    • Mike Rae 2:11 am on October 31, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Great video – very professional. I think that BYOD in K-12 schools is inevitable just has it has made its way into universities and work place environments. I am interested in the way these programs are being implemented. There are obvious challenges, as your video, pointed out, and I look forward to finding out strategies around inequities, IT nightmares and re-training teachers specifically.

      At my school (in China), a teacher recently had his hand slapped for breaking school policy by having students use their cell phones in a photo scavenger hunt. It seemed so absurd to me, because the project was such a cool idea, but technically they were breaking the rules. Perhaps this week can give me some more ammo to argue my own schools way out of the dinosaur age.

    • Ranvir 2:58 pm on October 31, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      First off – an excellent video production. You raise very important points around the pros and cons, especially the challenge of not being able to provide a fair ground for all students. Also, monitoring student activity could be significant challenge for the school administration and could have negative implications due to lack of maturity at an adolescent age.

      In universities, there is a slightly different challenge. Although students may be able to afford a device and also could probably self-monitor their on-line activities, the IT staff would limit the types of devices they would like to support as it is difficult to provide consistent user experience especially when certain software are not supported on certain devices. For instance, Flash animation or video is not supported on iOS devices.

    • jenbarker 8:34 pm on October 31, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Outstanding intro Group #9. Scott, I loved the video you created. You are in the wrong profession – you could work in the media industry! This topic is very interesting to me. We have discussed BYOD at my school are in the beginning stages of setting up the framework/policies need to support such a change. We are working on creating a student oath and getting our PAC to purchase some mobile technologies for student’s who may not be able to bring a device from home. I am excited to see if you group has any suggestions for storage of devices so that they are not stolen and what about inappropriate material that may be on the device prior to it arriving at school.

      • ETEC BYOD 8:14 am on November 1, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Jen. Thanks for your encouraging feedback – I wish you were in the guidance department at my high school all those years ago!

        A agree, storage and theft is likely going to be a challenge moving forward for schools with BYOD. Fortunately some computer technology, such as all Apple iOS devices and laptops, have a free cloud based service to help you “find your _____”, which may help to locate lost or stolen technology. Its a small start, but a life saver when you most need it.

        Power is also going to be concern I think. Most classrooms in our 60 year old school have only a handful of power outlets for example.

    • C. Ranson 8:34 am on November 3, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Group 9 wonderful video and discussion around BYOD. I teach adult education, so BYOD is the norm and there is a colloborative learning approach between faculty and student when there are technical issues or with the introduction of new apps that will make learning and communication more efficient. Some faculty still struggle with the concept of a student using their mobile device, ipads and laptops during lecture but really this is the norm, a student leaves grade 12 in June and enters college or university 2 months later and the learning evnivornment changes from devices not permitted in the classroom to being the norm of a classroom environment.

      My son’s grade twelve experience last year at a private school was the institution welcomed laptops for taking lecture notes and presentations, the network was locked but students would use their iphone hotspot or other devices to access the internet and most of the teachers were not aware of this. Mobile devices were not permitted but students were using them regularly in a disclosed manner. Hopefully all schools will embrace BYOD to better engage today’s student.

      • ETEC BYOD 7:03 pm on November 4, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thank you for shifting my perspective of this topic, by sharing your view of the contrasting use of devices, when students transition from secondary to post-secondary classrooms.

    • jameschen 4:08 pm on November 4, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Group 9, thank you for your excellent presentation. I learned a lot about BYOD and enjoyed the process thoroughly. Your content is very focused, and the videos you made are of professional quality. The activities on the blog represent a wide variety of tools that are used to make a BYOD approach in the classroom engaging, and the discussion questions yielded deep thinking into the subject. Great job you guys!
      – James

  • Paula Poodwan 5:52 pm on November 9, 2012
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    Hi David,   I just want to make sure I understand your instructions correctly for Assignment 4. Do we grade ourselves based on the A4 Rubric or do you grade us based on our participation description? Thanks in advance for your clarification. Paula

    Continue reading Question Concerning Assignment 4 Posted in: Questions & Answers
     

    • David Vogt 11:20 am on November 12, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Paula –

      Sorry for missing your question until my weekly round-up. The answer is, “yes”.

      Ultimately I’d love to institute a reliable ‘social’ process for grading participation in the course, meaning that your own sincere evaluation of your contributions to the cohort, calibrated in some way by the crowd, and relative to it, would serve as your A4 grade. However, I don’t believe this is practical yet, and it may not be for some time (anybody have any brilliant suggestions for making this work now?).

      So your A4 submission is your own assessment of your contribution, relative to the cohort, and I’ll refer to this as I review my record of your actual contributions. I will then assign an A4 grade.

      Thanks,

      David

    • Patrick Pichette 2:29 pm on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      One of the biggest hurdles in the participation grade is in the tool that was used to encourage participation. I have never participated in a 20+ person blog before and have to admit that given the choice, I would prefer not having the experience again. 🙂 Personally, I found it rather dizzying trying to navigate and relocate posts I had contributed to or conversations I wanted to follow.

      It’s been an interesting approach to creating an online presence but I’ve felt completely lost for most of the semester as I struggled to find the topics I wanted to follow. If anything, I would highly recommend moving the majority of the discussions to a discussion forum as opposed to a blog. Where discussion forums have an advantage are in its use of a hub model that provides a very organized structure to allow students to easily locate and follow topics of interest. Often, there are also subscription options that students can use to receive notifications of contributions to topics of interest.

      As for how to evaluate participation, I think that depends on what you desire to evaluate. My recommendation would be to include a main topic each week for which a contribution is expected from your students. As your current structure involves students contributing to a great deal of the content through the weekly technology topics, you could also have each group create a post for which all students would have to provide an insightful response. I really liked this student-centred approach as it felt as though we had a great deal of impact on the direction discussions could be taken and I imagine it makes for a very unique footprint left by each cohort. I’ve also seen a few courses for which students are asked to contribute a response to a two classmates’ assignments contribution as part of their participation grade. I found this really valuable as it allowed me to obtain a few different perspectives on my contribution to further direct me in the knowledge construction process.

  • joeltremblay 11:20 am on October 16, 2012
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    I played around with the Layar creator a bit and attempted to make a couple of comprehensive pages about Augmented reality. It’s quite user friendly if you’re looking to create very quick tools for use in the classroom.

    Continue reading Layar Posted in: Week 07:
     

    • tomwhyte1 1:10 pm on October 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I found Layar a very interesting program, with huge potential. I uploaded a worksheet focusing on the Addition of Integers, and then added layers for students to email me any questions they may have, a layar allowing them to access the answer key to check their work, and another layar showing a Khan Academy video providing an explanation of adding integers.

      Unfortunately, at this time, I have not quite figured out how to print off this sheet. I fear based upon the pricing information, it would be expensive.

      But of all, the AR activities and resources we have explored so far, this I have found the most user friendly, and applicable to my learning environment.

      Thoughts? (how might you use Layar in your class?)

    • kstackhouse 12:27 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I also played around with Layar. I haven’t created anything worth sharing at this time, but just adding things here and there. I was surprised by how easy it was to use. I figured something like this might be too hard to create. Tom, I think a sheet like the one you created would be very useful. To me this seems like providing an hypertext printout. Really interesting use of technology. This would conflict though at my school. We still have a no-devices policy. Hopefully this will be lifted soon, but I don’t see any signs of that this year anyway. I think this would be an interesting application to use in the corporate world. During business meetings the presenter could put as much information in the hands of their audience as possible and not rely so much on an over-head projection presentation. Have other companies started using this on business cards yet? Would this be considered the same as have a QR code on a card. I have been seeing that more and more lately.

      • tomwhyte1 7:41 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I do not think that a QR code is the same thing as AR, however, would the QR code get me to the same video – yes. For myself, this is like math – many roads get to the same result/answer…

        Thoughts?

    • visramn 9:23 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Its always helpful when a tool is user friendly. The more complex a tool is the more likely it is that the educators will get frustrated and give up on it. It is encouraging to know that user friendly tools such as Layar exist.
      Nureen

  • Pat A Son 5:49 pm on October 16, 2012
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    Technology such as AR can certainly go a long way in enhancing the learning experience in any science class such as my integrated science class. Here it can be used to visualise abstract concepts, reinforce tangible ones, visualize real activities that are impossible to observe, go on virtual field trip and generate interest. I can […]

    Continue reading Augmented reality in my classroom Posted in: Week 07:
     

    • Ranvir 6:54 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I am of the firm opinion that educators and learners ought to be involved in the design and development of any educational technology application. Period.

      I agree that the there would be limited uptake in schools if a technology is expensive or too complicated for an average faculty member to implement.

      • Pat A Son 6:42 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Since we all agree on this position then it may be that we needed to find out what is preventing us from getting involved at the creative phase of these technologies. The fact that these technologies are created by our students a is even more damming.

    • visramn 9:21 pm on October 19, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      This is definitely a very relevant concern and it is a pre-existing problem that has resulted in other tools not succeeding in the past. Involvement of educators is very important because their opinions are grounded and based on evidence of what they have seen and experienced. Hence, I agree that their input is crucial.
      Nureen

      • Pat A Son 6:45 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for the input Nureen.
        Please see my response to Ranvir above since you both have the same concern

        Patason

    • C. Ranson 9:10 am on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I can certainly see the advantages of implementing augmented reality into the learning environment for many reasons, the additional layers of information will improve engagement of today’s learner, address the needs of the visual learner and improve the explanation of more challenging concepts by introducing varying methodologies related to the content. The 3D application will improve the students understanding of a concept. Augmented reality used in dental health science courses like the Learn AR demo could be very effective and interactive for the learner and would be appropriate for head and neck, tooth morphology, oral assessment and diagnosis. As I navigated through the information this week there seems to be quite a bit of information about AR related to dental education.

      http://www.oralhealth.ro/volumes/2011/volume-1/Paper234.pdf
      http://youtu.be/fR7eafF_W9g

      Catherine

    • jhodi 6:27 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi,

      I thought that the use of AR to take classes on virtual field trips was one of the most interesting and applicable to a classroom environment. This application has the potential to solve a legitimate problem- the inability of classes to visit museums and other places frequently. Much less organization such as parent volunteers, funding, and permission slips are necessary to go on a virtual field trip. With the addition of AR to virtual field trips, these field trips can be much like the real experience.

      I also wonder about the future of AR in education. I wonder if it will be a technology (such as gaming) that is viewed more as an engagement factor as opposed to a technology of high educational potential. Several of the current AR applications seem very engaging, but seem to lack a solid educational factor on their own. I would love to see further development of AR technologies that have a solid education base and that could be self-sufficient.

      Jhodi

      • Pat A Son 7:53 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I think that educational potential most new technology is untapped and as a result they are written off as serious educational tool. Gaming as you mentioned is an example of this. As I am typing this a possible reason for this is appearing to me. It has to do with the the nature technology, the business model of gaming and the business model of education in the traditional sense.
        First off the technologies are time consuming to work with so an active teacher would not have the time to develop this.
        The old school game development model usually involves a company such as EA with deep pockets that can pay a to work for years on a humongous multilevel game that will eventually earn millions of dollars. This is certainly is not what we need in academia today.
        At the other extreme in gaming is the independent game developer who works without support or sponsor to produce a smaller but still appealing game experience. This too is too consuming for an educator to pull off while being actively involved in teaching.
        I believe an unoccupied educational technology niche exist where institutionscan hire experts to create subject specific content for their faculty. This must be done with input from the teachers. Content here need not be complicated it can be an explorable model of the pyramid or an interactive illustration (small game) of the immune response that may take half an hour to complete.
        This is getting too long but you should get the picture.

        Pat

    • Lisa Nevoral 7:00 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Jhodi, I never thought to use AR for field trips. Good idea. This would be a way for schools and school districts to reduce costs (potentially). But I also think that the culture of museums and actually being at such places may spark or ignite students’ interest in certain areas.

      Patason, I agree that educators need to be part of the process to create and design technological applications. There needs to be a pedagogical reason to using AR in the classroom.

      Lisa

    • cunnian 7:58 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Patason,
      As a fellow science teacher, I share your enthusiasm about AR! Making the unseen visible is often the most difficult job and your examples could go a long way towards solidifying abstract concepts for all learners. I can see using layar or something similar for an ecosystem lab, to show the myriad of connections that exist between abiotic and biotic factors. I was also wondering if AR could be used for more quantitative than qualitative labs as well. I found this article about visualizing CO (http://www.sensaris.com/wp-content/uploads/old/2011/09/Columbia-CO-augmented-reality.pdf) using AR, a smartphone and very-MacGyvered CO sensor. There may be a way to use Probeware to incorporate data collection and visualization in a very powerful way. I’ll have to start playing with this one. You could definitely leverage the built-in accelerometer of smartphones for physics applications. Regardless, I think that there are many possibilities here.

      One question about your concern regarding content generation… do you think that students could create the content? It could be onerous to do, or much more meaningful for students to create their own learning. Something to think about anyway. Thanks for the post… it generated some great discussion!

      John

      • Pat A Son 6:34 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Cunnian,

        I think that anything that enables students to take control of their learning is great for education. Content creation as a part of our lessons should be encouraged as much as possible in any area not just for AR alone.

        Pat

  • Eva Ziemsen 1:05 pm on November 18, 2012
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    Week 12: INTERACTIVITY 2A: POSTING YOUR AVATAR PICTURE Please POST your avatar image using the following instructions: How to upload avatar photo from Adriana del Paso

    Continue reading Week 12: INTERACTIVITY 2A: POSTING YOUR … Posted in: General, Week 12:
     

    • kstackhouse 8:06 am on November 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I have created my initial Avatar and have changed the look but I am unable to load my pics here. Any ideas on how to do that? Is there a way to link them from SL so people can go look there? If you want to look for me I am Stack 33. My original avatar was the Male Student. Now I have chosen a Vehitar (the black car). If you want I can create a new post on the main page, but it will cause a lot of traffic there if everyone does that. Let me know what you would like.

    • sophiabb 11:04 am on November 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

    • adi 11:41 am on November 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Testing

    • adi 11:49 am on November 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Everyone,

      To post your avatar, you have to go to the Dashboard, choose ad a post, and embed the picture of your avatar. Please Tag it to Week 12.

      Sorry about the inconvenience, we did not realize you could not upload pictures to replies.

      Good luck,
      Eva, Sophia, Julie & Adriana

    • teacherben 7:34 pm on November 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      When I did my application for the ADE (Apple Distinguished Educator) program, we had to make a video about ourselves that showcased what we could do (and said lots of nice things about Apple, of course) and so I did mine as a machinima, using a 3D avatar in a virtual world. At the time, you could use a product from evolver.com where you just uploaded a picture of yourself, picked the clothes and stuff and it made an avatar for you. Then, autodesk bought the company and shut down the free site. Here’s the video, if anyone wants to see it. The whole thing takes place in a Teletubbie’s tummy. It was a lot of fun to make:

      http://teacherben.com/?p=160

    • Eva Ziemsen 11:42 pm on November 22, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Great image! ? I was unable to find a video on the main page. Not sure if it is on my end, but it was blank. Would definitely like to see it.

    • avninder 5:16 pm on November 23, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I haven’t been able to create an avatar because I receive a message saying that my “video card drivers did not install properly, are out of date, or are for unsupported hardware”.

  • joeltremblay 9:40 am on November 11, 2012
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    Most of us are aware that some form of voice recognition software exists. However, not a lot of us have actually tried it, so this section is designed to get you to interact with some form of voice recognition software during a regular daily activity, and then record your experiences, (both positive and negative), with […]

    Continue reading Week 11: Voice Posted in: General, Week 11:
     

    • manny 12:21 pm on November 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi all,
      I decided to briefly discuss some of the pros and cons to using the Dragon Dictation app. The Vocaroo software asks for access to the camera too but I don’t believe it makes a recording, just wondering if anyone else experienced that. Anyways, enjoy……

      http://vocaroo.com/i/s06Hl7yqHMow

      • joeltremblay 8:36 am on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Manny,
        I actually use the PC software to do essays and film reviews. It definitely works better than the app because it has the chance to learn from your voice and the accents therein. I’m curious if you think it changes accuracy due to accents etc. because I’ve found the Iphone app to be less accurate when I drop into Canadian drawl.

        • rebeccaharrison 11:09 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I believe my hyperspeed drawl is also unappreciated. Here’s my take on it. I could see it being really fun to do with friends. For instance: who can come up with the most wildly inaccurate dictation. I’m really interested in what it does for education in the future though….

          http://vocaroo.com/i/s1oVYqB9M5Uo

          • Mike Rae 3:58 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            I had a similar experience Rebecca. Not perfect, and I found myself trying to do a recording that was perfect. My school is all ESL, so I doubt too that I would be able to use it in my teaching right now.

          • joeltremblay 9:06 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            Interesting that it came up with curse words Rebecca and Mike, especially since it pulls from your phones current dictionary (The one that you constantly update when you send texts etc.) 😀 Sorry it wasn’t more useful for you. Do you think the tone of voice rather than the speed had anything to do with it?

    • visramn 4:47 pm on November 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi,

      I used the app Vling. Click on the link to hear my views on this app. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1qXtWcNco2p.
      .
      Thanks,
      Nureen

      • joeltremblay 8:40 am on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Nureen,
        I’ve found that Vlingo is definitely accurate and is quite useful for hands free control of your phone. What were you using it for specifically? (feel free to reply via vocaroo if that’s easier for you).

        • visramn 8:06 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I used it for emails, texts, to navigate on the internet, etc. I found that it could not understand names and kept pulling up different names. But that could be because many of the names in my address book might not be in the word bank they use.

          Nureen

    • Jenny Brown 6:00 pm on November 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I uploaded Vlingo to my iPhone and found it easy to use but not accurate. For more of my thoughts click on the link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Cj45Ri7g8C

      • joeltremblay 8:42 am on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Jenny,
        I use Dragon on my Iphone over Vlingo usually although I have both. I’ve found that the accuracy is a little bit better as far as sentence structure goes but it doesn’t have the hands free functionality that Vlingo does unfortunately. Thanks for trying it!

    • teacherben 7:19 pm on November 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I recently had a pretty good experience using gesture and voice with my android phone. There is a keyboard called Swype that everyone should try. It is fantastic. Instead of typing on individual keys, you put your finger down on the first key of the word, then slide to the next letter and the next without lifting your finger. After just a few minutes of playing with it, I was typing about 20 words a minute on my cell phone. I have now been using it for a couple of years, but it was recently acquired by Nuance, the same company that makes Dragon, Naturally Speaking software. Between the two options, I was able to take an idea that I had in my head for a picture book, and get the whole thing written, page by page, with just a cell phone.

      One thing I did find however is that different writing mediums seem to promote a very different flow of ideas. The research seems to bear this out. For example, here’s an article that discusses how handwriting seems to stimulate the brain much more than typing:

      http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/01January/Pages/writing-versus-typing-for-learning.aspx

      As someone who once aspired to be a writer, I definitely found that stuff I typed and stuff I hand wrote was very different in style. Now, with this sort of sliding, gesture-based keyboard and voice dictation on the table, it will be interesting to see what new research reveals.

      • joeltremblay 8:35 am on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Ben,
        Isn’t that similar to what Samsung has done recently with their smartphones? Interesting that they have tried to apply to keyboards as well.

        • teacherben 4:37 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          They just included the Swype keyboard by default instead of the stock Android one. Same keyboard.

    • Jonathan 9:53 pm on November 13, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Quick review on Siri (Iphone), Siri (Mac) and Google (iPhone). I don’t usually use voice commands through my phone so it was nice to have an opportunity to play around with it again. I’ve created a Vocaroo (thanks for introducing us to it — super neat) about my thoughts:

      http://vocaroo.com/i/s01JsQakIitT

      The surprise find for me was the Google one in the end. I found it was able to predict my speech fairly accurately and quickly. I did a bit more research and found that indeed it was fast. Take a look at this one video where the person races Siri against Google!

      http://gizmodo.com/5956433/google-voice-search-vs-siri-whos-the-best-iphone-assistant

      • joeltremblay 8:44 am on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Jonathan,
        One of the benefits of any google software tends to be the accessibility of it and how much more the developers listen to the community so I’m really not that surprised by the gizmodo article although I wasn’t aware of that in the first place. Thanks for thinking outside of the box and using Google voice as I completely forgot to include it 🙂

      • Scott 6:51 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I concur with Jonathan on this one, internet searches on my iPhone 4 are a pleasure with the most recent voice enable search app from Google. The speed in particular is simply remarkable.

        While I have found Dragon Dictation and Search convenient at times in the past, the lack of full integration with iOS, limits its overall usefulness I think. Which highlights an annoying problem many people have recognized, with technology of all sorts today, namely that because tech giants, such as Google and Apple, have ‘issues’ with each other on a bushiness or IP level, we the customers often suffer as as result.

        Google’s voice technology appears to be superior to Apple’s at present, or at least for internet searching, yet Apple’s on going patent disputes with Google and other manufactures, mean that in some cases Apple customers are being forced to use an inferior product. This very situation recently played out with the whole map fiasco in iOS 6, which has left Apple customers with a poorly implemented map app compared to Google. Similarly, I believe my iPhone 4 has the hardware capability to use Siri, however software licensing constraints with Nuance, prevent the phone from being able to use this innovative new feature.

        As a form of NUI, voice control is very exciting and still in its infancy really. I only hope that there can be more ‘democratic’ implementations of the technology in future.

        BTW, I wrote this entire comment quite efficiently using Apple’s built-in voice dictation function, one of the stand out features in its latest desktop operating system, Mountain Lion.

        Happy dictating all.

        • joeltremblay 9:07 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Interesting the complexity of the speech above. Especially abbreviations I’ve found that voice recognition software has big issues with. I’m curious if you were doing a lot of editing or was it just really accurate?

        • kstackhouse 10:42 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Great points Scott. I have not upgraded to Mountain Lion yet. When I was researching the Lion speech commands info it seemed pretty basic. It reminded me of those functions available to my iPhone 4. I think for many of these features time and resources will only make this technology better. As you mentioned they are still young.

    • avninder 3:54 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      • joeltremblay 9:13 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        How was Vlingo as far as commands etc.? What worked for you and what didn’t?

    • avninder 4:15 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      A humorous clip showing how voice activation is far from glitch free:
      http://www.complex.com/tech/2011/10/video-jack-donaghy-predicts-the-future-of-television-sets

      • Mike Rae 3:47 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        love it…Jack is great, and I agree with him, not a big fan of the remote getting lost. I always thought that a page button like on a cordless phone would be nice if it was built in.

    • sophiabb 11:25 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      My Vocaroo review

      http://vocaroo.com/i/s0WuSHJyHCu1

      I tested this voice software for podcast possibilities. I found it to be very clear. I liked that I was able to download as an MP3 and was able to open in Media Player as well as Quick Time. I was also able to edit it.
      Sophia

      • joeltremblay 9:10 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… I was trying to figure out exactly what the hell this was!!! Too funny 😀 I’m guessing vocaroo was useful for you if you’re using for something other than this course 🙂

    • sophiabb 11:39 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Here is the correct link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s11GVVOnlOM6

      Sophia

      • joeltremblay 9:12 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        I’ve actually started using vocaroo for a lot of activities in the class including film reviews etc. Something else you can do is when you go to the link you right click on the player and save as an MP3 as well if you accidentally click the wrong thing.

      • sophiabb 12:40 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for the tip.

    • Pat A Son 11:55 pm on November 14, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      My Voice talk review

      http://vocaroo.com/i/s1hT1k5xVdlt

      • joeltremblay 9:14 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        It’s a little strange talking to the computer sometimes. My students always look at me funny when i’m doing it.

        • Pat A Son 11:51 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          That’s because the technology is new to us and we haven’t gotten used to it yet. Most people I am sure would prefer to control the computer by talking to it that typing or using a mouse because for us talking comes more naturally. Furthermore with the push by some software maker to have the user personalize their software at the interface level in a way makes the user experience a personal one. This fits in with the idea of personal learning that we looked at here before and all the option that we looked at this week voice has the potential to make computer usage almost like communicating with another person. Maybe this can make the difference for learners who are technologically challenged in one way or another.
          As I said on vocaroo the current offerings are all dead and robotic when the day comes that CG generated voice sounds more natural and is more customizable it serve as the pathway by which a learner may be able to grasp a difficult concept.

    • Mike Rae 3:39 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      dragon dictation review:

      http://vocaroo.com/i/s1BhC2TP7PjD

      • joeltremblay 9:16 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for the participation Mike,
        Interesting that you had some problems with the exclamation and the curse word censorship. My wife and I tend to use it for shopping lists etc. and have ceased using pen and paper and instead just speaking at Dragon and texting the list to each other.

      • jhodi 7:46 pm on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Mike,

        I quite enjoyed listening to your experience. I also tried to get punctuation and I found that some things worked such as saying ‘period’ or ‘exclamation mark’, but that does make me wonder what if I meant period in the sense of a hockey game or something and not the punctuation? I found some issues with the app’s accuracy. I was frustrated with the app in that I would have to read over what I said and make corrections to the words because it would have totally different words than what I said. I do wonder how this app would work with different accents?

        Jhodi

    • kstackhouse 10:38 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Here is my recorded reflection on using Siri. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0WQybGWkDuy

      Thanks for providing this activity. It gave me an excuse to spend some time trying to use Siri, which I have not done before.

      • joeltremblay 9:00 am on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        The issue about quick responses seems to be wide standing which is really interesting considering that apple always pushes the response time during their commercials. False advertising maybe?

        • kstackhouse 10:48 pm on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          I’m not sure if it is false advertising or optimistic that one will have a good signal all the time. When it comes to simple things, like playing a song or dialing a number the response time was fine. It was when I asked for more detailed things like the movie listings or directions that there seemed to be more pauses. I think we have gotten spoiled with the immediacy of Google, Bing, and Yahoo searches that if something takes 4 seconds we start to think it is broken.

          This reminds me of comedian Louis C.K.’s talk when on the Conan O’Brien Show on technology and how it is wasted on us. The bit was called “Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy”. It seems as though the original has been removed from youtube, but you can watch his stand-up version but it is not censored.

          He also does a great bit on Twitter, social networking, and smart phones. He talks about how we are living our lives through the little screen on the camera. This is similar to the point I was making about the AR goggles in another thread.

    • jenbarker 11:14 am on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      After reading Scott’s post I was really excited to try dictation on my iMac but unfortunately although I have upgraded to Mountain Lion, it doesn’t appear that I have the dictation feature. In my system preferences I only have “Speech” as an option. Scott, I am surprised that your text was written with correct punctuation. Did you have to edit it?

      I am going to try Siri on my husband’s iphone tonight and will post my Vocaroo later. In the meantime, what is the name of the Google app everyone seemed to like? Do you download it from the app store and does it cost anything?

      • teacherben 6:41 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        You enable voice commands in your Mac in the Accessibility section in the system preferences. It’s the last item on the list–“Speakable Items”. (I am on Mountain Lion too–btw, have you noticed a loss of battery life since you upgraded? My Mac was only a year old and my batter went from 6 or 7 hours down to about 3 after the upgrade, and it’s sluggish and awful. i wish I stuck with Snow Leopard.)

        • jenbarker 7:46 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Yes Ben I have noticed the same thing. I don’t go anywhere without my charger. BTW I don’t have an Accessibility section. I went to system preferences, and under the section system, I have a microphone labelled Speech. I clicked this and was able to turn speakable items on and off but it won’t allow me to convert voice to text. It only answers a couple of questions.

          • teacherben 7:50 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

            In my system preferences, in the system section, I have an icon for Accessibility and I also have an icon for Dictation and Speech. Once enabled, I just have to click on fn twice to turn it on.

    • adi 6:42 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi,
      As a language teacher I have always been interested to see what voice recognition machines do when you speak with an accent. I downloaded Assistant Personal Secretary for my phone and said: “Hello mate, got a light? Oh, and could I have a glass of water, please?”, but it clearly did not understand my ‘cockney accent’ (http://vocaroo.com/i/s0rCj0CL38QM). This voice recognition programs that transcribe what they hear still have a long way to go, particularly if you take into consideration that there are more speakers of English as a Second Language than native speakers. Still, it was a lot of fun. Vocaroo, on the otehr hand, I have used in my classes and think it’s a great tool.

      • teacherben 6:48 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        As the technology gets cheaper and more accessible, I think we will see this change. While it is possible to ‘train’ these programs to better recognize your voice, we are likely to start seeing add-on packs and so on for more regional accents in the same way that we already do for different languages. Many of these programs are already modular and allow users to add additional functionality by downloading extra bits.

      • teacherben 7:39 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Here is an interesting overview of accents research and voice recognition software. It was an interesting read and outlines some of the challenges in terms of getting it to work:

        http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/mark/accent/

        As he explains, an accent mismatch between the speakers used to ‘train’ the software as it was developed and the user can lead to up to a 30% error rate. And it would appear that the solution is not going to be a one-size-fits-all program but rather by leveraging the modular nature of the software and including ‘language packs’ that may be based on specific accents rather than different languages.

        I am willing to bet that once some open source players get in on the game, then individual groups will be able to create their own language packs based on a very specific regional accent. For example, as this technology is integrated into the browser, as happens with most technologies sooner or later, a company like Mozilla or Google may use an open architecture that will allow these sorts of plugins.

      • joeltremblay 9:55 am on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hahaha… I like the translation that it provided for you. I wonder if the accuracy is representative of the entire population or if it is just localized to the Cockney accent? Also, Dragon for your home computer actually learns your accent and builds up a dictionary the more you use it so as you use it, it trains itself to your voice.

    • Lisa Nevoral 8:08 pm on November 15, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hey All,

      Here is my Vocaroo: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Tc6DOwnwOj. Note-I have a cold and did not use a microphone, so quality not so good.

      I have recently purchased a Galaxy S3 and of course there is voice recognition program with the phone. I have two options – one that is like Siri in Apple (S Voice or Galaxy) or a Google Option. The S Voice gives me options to use voice recognition to do things with the phone, while the Google Option allows me to search things on the Internet. The S Voice is pretty finicky. It doesn’t always do what I want, but maybe I need to pronounce my words better. I can see where voice recognition could come in handy (such as using it for a “To-Do list, texting a message to someone, etc.). I think I just need to play around with it a bit more.

      Lisa

      • joeltremblay 9:58 am on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Interesting the difficulties you had with it. I wonder if that’s only on the G3 model since most people have reported google phones being superior as far as voice recog goes with reference to the comparitive apple products?

        • Lisa Nevoral 7:44 pm on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

          Hey Joel,

          S Voice is a personal assistant and knowledge navigator for Samsung Galaxy SIII and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Apparently, it can help with opening apps, setting my alarm, updating Facebook, telling me the temperature, help send texts or place calls. I just find that it doesn’t always recognize the words I say very well. The Google option on my Android seems to understand what I’m saying much better and is quite fast finding me information.

          Lisa

    • teacherben 5:20 am on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      A company called Maluuba, that makes a voice recognition app for Android that is apparently better than Siri, just released their API so that other apps can tap into its functionality. So if you were working on an app, say an ebook, you could make it so that if the user has maluuba installed and running, they could interact with the book, turn the pages, whatever, using voice. Nice.

      http://mobilesyrup.com/2012/11/14/maluuba-launches-natural-language-api-to-bring-siri-type-assistance-to-any-app/

    • C. Ranson 3:31 pm on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I downloaded both Vliingo and Dragon Dictation to my iphone through the itune store, took seconds. I had difficulty accessing my contacts through Vlingo, the voice recorded messaging worked well. I then downloaded Dragon Dictation and this application works fabulous. The voice recording of message is very accurate, with each pause a comma was added and you had to indicate a period. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0ZD6FuHKvrI

      Catherine

      • joeltremblay 2:09 pm on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi there Catherine,
        Good to hear that you spent the time to actually compare the two services and that you were able to ascertain which was more compatible with your understanding and abilities.

    • jhodi 7:40 pm on November 16, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I downloaded the Dragon Dictation app on my iPhone and found some positives and negatives to the app. I also noticed afterwards that this same program is on my work computer (I had seen the logo before, but had never tried opening it), and tried it on there as well. Here is the link to my Vocaroo recording:
      http://vocaroo.com/i/s1w5koO8gXIP

      Jhodi

      • joeltremblay 2:08 pm on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for the reply Jhodi. Good to hear that you attempted a couple different options and didn’t get frustrated and walk away from it the way I might have done in your situation.

    • jenbarker 11:48 am on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      I tried to use Vocaroo this morning but after ten times I gave up. I am not sure if it was due to a setting I had on my computers (I tried both my laptop and iMac) but my voice sounded mottled and was almost inaudible. So instead I used a screencast program called Jing that I love. It records a portion of your screen and allows you to talk to it. I use it when responding to student’s papers and/or lesson plans as you can scroll through the document on the screen and use your cursor/arrow to point things out and talk to them simultaneously.

      On my Jing I gave a review of Siri. Here is the link to my Jing. http://screencast.com/t/Alj9CGtd

    • joeltremblay 2:05 pm on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi there Jen,
      I was having problems with it yesterday and the day before at the school but I believe that was due to the internet connection and more importantly, the uploading ability of your line. It could also be due to Vocaroo itself having issues but who knows. Thanks for adapting and posting the alternative Jing though as I’m sure other people have had this issue.

    • jameschen 11:29 pm on November 17, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      My Vocaroo recording on my voice recognition software experience is at http://vocaroo.com/i/s0zSG8gFEUqy.

      I think voice recognition technology would benefit students with a disability who are unable to write/type using their hands. Another educational benefit could be to help English Language Learners improve their spoken English by trying to train the software to recognize their voice. Other than this I wouldn’t recommend educators to make use of the technology – unless they have extraordinary patience.

      James

      • joeltremblay 1:09 pm on November 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi James,
        Because of the quality of the vocaroo recording, you have a somewhat Siri esque quality to your Vocaroo recording. It’s interesting as it sounds like you typed it and a software speak it for you. Sorry it didn’t work out well for you, but we appreciate the perseverance.

    • joeltremblay 1:11 pm on November 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Alright everyone,
      As your guide through the mystical lands of futuristic and sometimes prehistoric voice command software, I bid you adeau and thank you for participating in our activities. Thanks you for your insight, ideas and professionalism. Cheers!

    • melissaayers 2:31 pm on November 18, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks to the group for introducing this activity, as well as introducing us to the Vocaroo tool.

      I have been interested in voice recognition for many years (since I started my computer science degree in fact) but have been disappointed by how slowly it had evolved over the years. However it look likes significant improvements have been made thanks to the introduction of competing mobile devices I think.

      I tried Siri a while ago but like many others have reported here the experience was not too fantastic and I gave up not long after I started. I found it made too many errors.

      In contrast I have recently been playing around with the Google Voice and find it amazing, the advancements in this technology are clear and I am sure the improvements will keep coming for both this product as well as in Siri and Samsung’s version. It’s something I will definitely consider using in both in a classroom and daily life.

      Just for fun I tried Dragon Diction with the language set as French (Canadian) and it was a complete disaster, I know my accent in French is not that great but it was really nothing like what I said – not even a word. Once I switched it back to English it was a lot better but still made quite a few mistakes. I think I would need to get used to it a bit before I find it completely useful.

      Overall I found that google voice was the best product for my dictating (and searching) needs.

    • joeltremblay 11:42 am on December 7, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      The best part about the desktop version of Dragon Dictation is that it keeps track of the different nuances and tendencies that you have within your diction. The mobile app is somewhat limited in that capacity unfortunately and because of that you get the mistakes you talk about. Just last night I was using it for something, but was quite tired because of a particularly gruelling schedule of late and it was making all kinds of mistakes.

  • Eva Ziemsen 1:07 pm on November 18, 2012
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    Advantages, Disadvantages and Future Potential   Post your thoughts on the questions from the ‘Reflections’ section of the OLE site here.  

    Continue reading Week 12: INTERACTIVITY 3: CLOSING THE CIRCLE Posted in: General, Week 12:
     

    • jhodi 6:06 pm on November 23, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      My school board uses Desire2Learn as its main LMS. Most teachers that I have seen use D2L as a mode of delivering classroom notes and lectures to students that may miss a class or want to review a lesson. Very few teachers take advantage of all of the tools that could contribute to an OLE- calendar, dropbox, online quizzes, Elluminate, etc. The advantages that I see of OLE’s are its ability to encourage an independent learner and a collaborative, engaging online learning environment. Students seem to enjoy taking control of their own learning and a constructivist learning environment is designed to foster true understanding rather than rote memorization. Some disadvantages that I see are the potentially time-consuming nature of these projects for teachers to initially set up, which may be a negative factor. Creating an OLE could require minimum technology specifications that may not be available to all students.

      • kstackhouse 5:14 pm on November 24, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for pointing out how many people are not fully using the tools available to them. I often feel this way myself when trying to incorporate new technology. I think the problem often comes down to training and time to learn. I see the many advantages of OLE and as you pointed out collaboration and learner control seem to be the biggest strengths. I thin kthe disadvantages come from teacher/student/parent adoption of these resources. Many perceptions will need to be changed to take advantage of the newer strategies. Some decision makers and parents may have a hard time with these approaches as they might be too far from the traditional approaches that they have become accustomed to. Time and training will be needed if educators really want to maximize the benefits of an OLE.

    • lullings 2:34 pm on November 25, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      For me an I am finding that I am agreeing with Hannafin et al (1999, p. 139) as stated in question 2. There are too many technologies out there and the development of new technologies is definitely not slowing down. But then again I think that we as educators are looking for one system delivery to do everything for us. There should not be a catch all system for this because if there was then the complexity would have to be massive to incorporate all of the educational elements required. This then as a result would make it more complicated and more difficult to use.

      I am starting to think that smaller bespoke technologies can provide excellent services to niche markets, still have a viable business model and be less time consuming for educators to develop.
      These then could be able to integrate into a larger system if necessary.

      This modular approach to learning technologies and delivery is the way education is delivered now, for example we dont see teachers being able to teach Maths, science, autocad and non linear editing. It just would not be practical. Why are we expecting a technology to be easy to set up and to do everything?

      • adi 10:33 am on November 26, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Great point regarding us wanting technology to do it all. Part of the problem is that that’s how it is often marketed; but yes, it is not easy to set up. One thing is the tool itself, that may be user friendly, but creating the appropriate learning content is another matter. As we say in Mexico ” Feed something peanuts, you get monkeys.” If we don’t want monkeys, we need to start ‘feeding’ these tools more than just peanuts! 🙂

    • visramn 10:59 pm on November 25, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      1. As a teacher or student, have you come across situations where an OLE has or has not been used to its full potential?
      I used Desire to Learn with my students for a few years but I did not have much success because I found students did not use the tool to its full capability. I would set up multiple functions in my shell for students but they either did not use them at all or used them on a very surface level. As a teacher, I found his to be very disappointing because there was so much potential to extend learning but I did not get a lot of buy-in from the students. I felt like I was putting in so much effort to customize this tool but not all the students were using what I was putting time and effort into. I did have some students who benefited a lot from this tool and in the end I think that is the main factor to focus on. Not all children will respond to tools in the same way but as long as it is impacting some students, it has worth. I know of many other situations in which D2L shells have been very successful. Hence, I do not think it is the tool. Sometimes it just depends on who you are working with. I want to try using this tool again because I feel like I may have very different results now that I am working with a different population of learners.

      2. Hannafin et al (1999, p. 139) argue that there are too many resources out there, and given the growth in both technology and information, this trend will continue. They ask, “How can we not only make existing resources more available to support learning, but accommodate future developments in each? It seems unlikely that we will be able to maintain pace using resource-embedded designs.”
      I disagree with the notion that there are too many tools out there. I think the more tools there are the better. Different tools appeal to different learners and help with differentiation. As the world changes, elements in our environment need to constantly change and adapt. Hence, educational tools also need to change and adapt in order to meet the needs of individuals in the changing society. It is definitely difficult keeping up with changing technology but the only way to do so is to make sure teachers are offered PD and resources to stay current and trained. Another crucial element would be BYOD. A lot of times the reason there is a lag with technology in educational institutions is because of a lack of funding. Many children already have the latest gadgets at home so it makes sense to allow them to bring these tools to school for educational purposes.

      3. In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of OLEs and what is their future potential?
      Some advantages of OLE’s:
      Differentiation of content
      – Improved access
      Versatility
      Student accommodation
      Engagement of learners (students can relate to digital tools)
      -Increased avenues for interaction
      -Empowerment for all learners (Learners feel comfortable to share their thoughts)
      -Efficient tracking and feedback capability
      -Flexibility
      OLE’s have some disadvantages such as:
      – Teachers need to put in a lot of time and effort
      -Students lack face-to face interaction
      -Students may engage in off task or inappropriate activities
      -Teachers need to be vigilant and mindful of interactions
      -Parents may be concerned about their children using too much technology
      I believe that OLE’s have a lot of potential in the future because they can cater to the needs of all types of learners and can make learning interactive. Education is moving more and more towards forms of distant learning. For example, they are talking about structuring High school in a different manner in Calgary. They want to allow student sot take courses in the time frame that suits them, to go and write computerized exams when they have completed their course and to complete a lot of this self-directed learning online. The vision is to make High school more of an independent leaning environment where students can choose to take course at their pace and through the means that suits them best. Students will still be able to go and receive instruction from a physical classroom but the majority of their learning will not be based in a formatted school setting. This example shows that the way learning is delivered is changing. Tools such as OLE’s are essential for learning to take place in this manner.

      Nureen

      • Lisa Nevoral 12:46 am on November 26, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Nureen,

        As I sat down to write my reflections on OLE, I saw your post. You hit many of the points I wanted to make about the advantages and disadvantages of OLE.

        I am interested to see how the high schools in Calgary fair with their new structuring system. I wonder if parents know and are on board with this change. As well, how will the computerized exams look like? All multiple choice? I know from putting exams on Moodle that it takes a lot of time and effort to now insert open or short answer questions onto an exam. Will this be their only assessment? What about students that are not motivated to work on their own? What role do teachers now play? If a student finishes a grade early, so they get to move onto the next one?

        I’m not expecting you to know the answers, but if this was coming to my school district, I would have many questions that needed to be answered first.

        Lisa

      • adi 10:27 am on November 26, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Thank you for your very detailed and thorough reply. I agree PD is the way to go, which is why my venture is geared towards that; granted, my one is for English Language Teachers, but local school boards need to start working in that direction. Teachers are often willing to continue their PD, but at the same time want to make the best of what little time they have, so some guidance I am sure would be welcome.
        Your post promoted some interesting doubts that Lisa point out. I’m glad the topic of OLEs and what we’ve learned in this course has raised so many very valid questions. Often the people making decisions to implement technology are not necessarily the best equipped to do so properly. An online OLE is not simply about transporting what we would normally do f2f online. Designing a balanced and well structured OLE is a lot of work; keeping it working properly more so.
        Thanks again for both your posts.

  • Pat A Son 8:58 am on October 20, 2012
    0 votes
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    Hi everyone, Please hop over to http://www.zooburst.com/zb_books-viewer.php?book=zb02_50827c6951e9d and play with my AR book (1 page) on ecology. Building the page was simple enough but I did not like the fact the height of  an image above the book is pegged to the size of the image. A little image editing skills would go a long […]

    Continue reading My AR book Posted in: Week 07:
     

    • Peggy Lawson 7:34 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Thanks for sharing Patason – the 1st had experiences are good to see. While it looks very neat, I don’t know whether I’ve moved yet beyond my original impression that – currently, at least – the academica AR experiences I’ve seen are simply novelties and I don’t see them adding much to real advantages for student learning. They are cool, and it’s easy to see how student’s get excited about them, but either I don’t see them as staying engaged once they’ve experienced it a few times and at best I don’t see as how it adds to their gaining more knowledge.

      I’ll continue to say that it while I believe AR could have real potential, and probably already does in some areas, as a teacher I dont know if I’d invest a lot of time yet in finding AR applications for my students. However, as an investor I would probably get involved now, on the ground floor – IF I found the right company!

      Peggy

      • Pat A Son 3:07 am on October 21, 2012 | Log in to Reply

        Hi Peggy,

        I understand ‘where you are coming from’ but in terms of these tools I see them as additional tools in our toolkit that we use to help our charges construct knowledge. We must remember that knowledge is constructed from our experience in an environment and AR can be used to enrich these experience. We must also be mindful that learning is more about the student than the teacher and not every aspect of the learning experience is measurable in a tangible way. These ‘unmeasurables’ may be just as or even more important to the student than the ‘measurables’. On this note it can be safe to say that in many cases students(i k-12 at least) are more interested in enjoying the experience while teachers are more interested in getting results. So it is not surprising that in this age that we live educators are producing researches that shows technology does not affect learning outcome which is a position that is loaded with a ‘measurable bias’. If on the other hand the focus is shifted to learner’s experience then we will see a different story.
        In the case of my one page book on food chains one can argue that the same information can be gotten in a traditional or web page. To this I will ask is the experience the same with all three forms media. With theories of multiple intelligences and learning styles we have to say no because what may be a novelty to a teacher maybe that which serves as a vehicle that transports the student from ‘sitting the arena of the lesson’ to taking part to actually ‘taking part in the games’ at the cognitive level.

        Patason

    • cunnian 8:24 pm on October 20, 2012 | Log in to Reply

      Hi Peggy,
      You raise some good points. There is definitely a novelty and gimmick factors to AR at the moment, but nonetheless I think that there is great potential for increasing the learning of a concept. In particular, I think that Zooburst-like media might make content more accessible to the ever-growing number of struggling readers in our schools and those who are simply very visual learners. Furthermore, this may be the kind of media that could be a real breakthrough for students with more serious learning difficulties. Anyways, I agree that this may not cause some sort of revolution in learning (though, like you, I wouldn’t discount it entirely) it may ultimately find a smaller niche in the school ecosystem.

      John

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