While starting our prep for assignment #1, Week #2 opened up a reflection upon Mobile Technologies Review.
First activity was Resource viewing. We were expected to explore resources available in the Knowledge Mill. These resources were related to the theories and practices of:
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Mobile technology trends
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Mobile networks
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Mobile devices
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Mobile services
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Mobile design
- Mobility platforms
- Mobility applications
Following this exercise, we were going to the Resource Mining where we needed to explore the full Mobile Internet to find more resources to expand our Knowledge Mill. Here are the results:
Going from Universal Translator to Mobile Medical Wearables, to Cloud-Based Apps and to Voice Recognition Software, many options were available. I decided to review a few of them:
My post on Big Data:
“As presented, I believe there is a lot of potential in this kind of informatino for a learning continuum. The assesser come to better understand it’s pupil and can provide stronger assessment and better feedback. The evaluation becomes customized for the learner and brings a lot more opportunities for success.”
My post on BYOD:
1st: I wanted to readjust the link here. It is dead now. Here is the link to the paper: https://archive.education.alberta.ca/media/6749210/byod%20guide%20revised%202012-09-05.pdf As this teacher said, in the first pages” “ Learning is complex work and like other forms of skilled and technical work it requires that the person performing the job understand and be comfortable with his or her tool set.” – Alberta Teacher, 2011
2nd: I think it represents well our students’ situation, where they have personal devices and school devices. Well, for most of them, they used to have them both. Nowadays, they bring their own devices wherever they go. Meaning, they have them in schools. Why not keep their interest level high using their own tools and bringing learning back home to delve deeper…BYOD opened doors for learning to run out of the school walls. Today, it is inevitable, I think. As Absalom (2015) argued, it is best to “be aware of the benefits and understand the risks”, than standing in the way of progress. Companies are embracing it, schools as well. Reference Absalom, R. (October 7th, 2015). What is BYOD and why is it important? TechRadar. Retrieved from http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/what-is-byod-and-why-is-it-important–1175088
My post on Mobile Phones from 1995 – 2005
It is interesting to go back in time and have a look at what was cool in those days. I wonder what a teacher would have done with those bigger, bulky phones earlier? Here is an inforgraphics I found: http://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/cell-phone/ It does put in perspective the way we live today, compared to what used to…
And finally, with this interesting interaction, I delve a little bit deeper in the Internet of Things for my Resource Mining activity:
“While IoT is still in its infancy, expect it to cross mass-market penetration in 2016. As these services are typically accessed by customers on-the-go, mobile devices will remain the central monitoring and control hub for much of the IoT.” (Fung, 2016) We see it already present in houses with smart applications managing room temperature, lights, security systems from your smartphone. In 2014, Gartner’s group presented a study showing that by 2022, a typical family home could contain more than 500 Smart Devices. (http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2839717) How will we react to this? How can we apply this to education today? IoT has been very present to the CES 2016 conference, in Shangaï, with 116 leading IoT innovators. It is not going away. How will we embrace it? What can it do in schools for learning?
Here is a YouTube video to add to this: https://youtu.be/_AlcRoqS65E
Reference
Fung, T. (January 5th, 2016). Hot Mobile Topics for 2016: Esports, Personalization, and Internet of Things.
Retrieved from http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/05/hot-mobile-topics-for-2016-esports-
personalization-and-internet-of-things/
Here are a few comments I posted on great ideas.
On a Real-Time Translation app:
I can just imagine the opportunities that would bring to our learners to be able to understand instantly anyone, from any country or languages. Some companies are giving it a try and Skype is demoing this: http://www.skype.com/en/translator-preview/ It is pretty amazing. Traveling the world in your own language and even in your own school or house! As well, for us, to open the doors to metworking with other great teachers/learners and share ideas freely. Wow! It is not that far!
On The Jetson’s futuristic gadgets:
“The Jetson’s presented great ideas. We just needed time to think them through… Lots of great ideas appeared in movies. “Back to the Future” brought a flying car and time traveling. Flying cars are not so far anymore (https://youtu.be/wHJTZ7k0BXU). Time traveling,.. well… we never know! On another note, “The Matrix” brought something challenging. Here is a quote from “The Playlist” (Ten Futuristic Sci-Fi Movie Concepts that Could Actually Happen): “Chances Of Actually Happening: Depending on who you talk to, it’s already here. Immersive videogames are a thing of the present, with entire worlds and personalities formed online. And we’re not just talking about things like the increasingly sophisticated worlds of “World of Warcraft” or the equally addictive (but far cuddlier) “Animal Crossing” games that take up whole days of your life and force you to ignore basic tenets of personal hygiene. Isn’t the entire social media sphere also something of a virtual reality existence? (“TRON” showed prescience but its conceit is more outwardly “magical” than “The Matrix.”) In the original “Matrix,” there’s a reference that the black leather dusters and sunglasses are “the mental projection of your digital self,” which is more or less what we do every time we select an avatar, Facebook photo or Instagram pic that we want to represent us to the world, which is quickly blurring into The Matrix, but by our own bidding, not the machines’. We just need the sunglasses to go with it.” Now, who thought this would so far ahead of us?”
To complete the acitivities of this week, i contributed to the discussions with my idea of a technology I’d like to see someday:
I believe that something I’d love to see is teleportation. Having an app on my phone where I could setup where I want to be for dinner or where I’d like to spend my week end with my family, would be very impressive and useful. Surely, I could travel the world and hopefully I would get signal everywhere, without long distance! Star Trek, X-Men, John Carter or Jumper… we want to be able to do it. How can we accomplish it? Now, in 1993, physicist Charles Bennett and a team of IBM researchers confirmed that quantum teleportation was possible. To what cost? Well, time will say. But specialists are working on it and we should see it in the 21st Century…
From this video, some developments demonstrated possibilities already.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/f5vOfr1dl4o[/youtube]
Reference
Bonsor, K. & Lamb, R. How Teleportation Will Work. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/teleportation.htm