office of elearning & innovation

Want to augment your reality? A new app lets you see the world in a new way! (And create your own reality.)

sashatberr — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:01:38 +0000

In a way, we all create our reality. Some are more fact-based than others, (I’m sure you know what I mean.)

Now, however, you can reveal a whole new world using your smartphone with a camera.

Aurasma is a radical new technology that allows you to reveal hidden messages, and create your own for others to reveal.

Click on the logo, or HERE, to check out their website for yourself. This quote – from their “What is it” page – encapsulates the potential of the technology.

Using the smartphone’s camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer and internet connection, the technology combines image recognition and a conceptual understanding of the 3D world to recognize objects and images and seamlessly merge augmented reality actions into the scene. Without the need for barcodes or tags, the app is able to see its surrounding environment and make it fully interactive.

While the reviews seem to indicate that there’s still some work to be done to make it seamless, it is revolutionary. Check out the demo:

SOPA halted in the U.S. House, and the Senate delays the Protect Intellectual Property Act

sashatberr — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:10:53 +0000

Just released! SOPA’s main sponsor in the U.S. House of Representatives has pulled SOPA from moving forward. There are many recap articles, and this one from CBS news reports the same basic facts as the others.

The article says that:

Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for “recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the Internet.”

The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google, Yahoo! and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress “to address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free expression.”

What are your thoughts? Have you seen the coverage? Where is the balance between protecting intellectual property and still allowing the internet to be free?

*Special shout out to the keen eyes of Adrian Tam for letting me know the moment it happened.

Apple doesn’t disappoint!

sashatberr — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:42:15 +0000

Those who were following the rumors of a huge announcement by Apple diving into the etextbook market were not disappointed today. Apple announcement partnerships with three major US textbook publishers – Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to offer etextbooks in iBooks format. It was accompanied by the announcement of iBooks 2, which is enhanced by development tools by:

“Apple has also launched a free desktop app called iBooks Author, which allows publishers to add visuals, interactive elements and HTML5 widgets to their books.”

Read the rest of a recap article on The Daily What HERE.

MacRumors blow-by-blow of the event is much more detailed, including some other interesting details like:

iBooks 2 available for free in app store TODAY
you can write code, build your own gadgets, and embed them right into books
high school textbooks priced $14.99 or less
integrated with iTunes U

Some verrrry cool stuff, so be sure to check it out. Remember a world without iPods? Maybe this is the next jump.

*Special shout out to our very own James Gayhart for the cool links!

Why is half of the web blacked out today?

sashatberr — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:02:45 +0000

Many major websites and providers of content are protesting a bill going through congress. This MSNBC tech article sums it up nicely, and you can click HERE for the full article. A brief snippet reads the major controversy:

The two bills, supported supported mainly by the entertainment industry, are aimed at stopping illegal downloading and streaming of movies and TV shows. But many in the tech world — including giants Google and Facebook — say the legislation would let federal authorities shut down portions of the Internet without due process, and fundamentally alter the Internet’s ability to provide a platform for free speech.

Read up on it for yourself. How might this impact education? Resources to use in your courses?

Have you had any meeting? I had my first any meeting today!

sashatberr — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:13:50 +0000

Yes, I know. Any meeting is one meeting too many! I could go on, but I get a limit on the amount of puns I can use in one day, and – sadly – I have reached the max already (making jokes about apps.)

Long story short, anymeeting is a free virtual meeting software that I am quite liking. It was easy to use, easy to set up, and it was free. It had an intuitive, simple interface, and it was free. It combined video and screensharing easily, and it was free. You can record your meeting – they’ll even host the recording for you – you can have up to 200 participants in one meeting, and did I mention that it’s also free?

Check out their full website at: www.anymeeting.com

It does have a small vertical strip of ads on the right-hand side, but they were less distracting than I thought they would be, and you can always pay a monthly fee for the upgrade. Plus, the ads actually pay for the “free”, so it doesn’t really bother me, as long as there’s nothing wildly inappropriate, and there never is.

Where’s a good pun when you need one?

Mind/Shift is reading my mind… Are they reading yours?

sashatberr — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:52:14 +0000

I was so excited to read Mind/Shift’s 12 Education Trends to Watch in 2012. Particularly as I agreed with nearly all of them. Some highlights from the article:

Mobile learning (where have you heard about that before?)
Gaming
Open Educational Resources!!!!
Bandwidth issues (verrrry interesting – read that part in particular)

It’s definitely worth the time to check out this article.

ALSO, in related news, consider watching this interesting commentary by Sir Ken Robinson (from TED x in London) about how technology is going to transform education.

Tagged: bandwidth, mobile, OER, trends

Did you get an iPad for the holidays? Did you want one? What if every student and faculty member used them?

sashatberr — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:10:14 +0000

How would you teach, learn, or interact differently? When we talk about technology in education, are we even asking the right questions? Can I ask one more right now?

But seriously, tablet computing may be changing the landscape of American education before anyone is ready for it. And it’s not just about the digital natives, those younger folk that are used to touchscreens and to whom the “floppy disk” icon just means “save.” It’s about doing things “better, faster, stronger.” And not just because I’m a Daft Punk fan*. Because doing things better – dramatically better – is the whole point.

Check out the below video that illustrates some of the educational opportunities that come alive with tablet computer. Yes – it’s a commercial for the iPad 2 – BUT regardless of what your favorite hardware shop is (get it – hardware!) tablet computing is portable, engaging, interactive media.

*Please note that Daft Punk is not affiliated with the Office of eLearning and Innovation.

A collaborative online tutoring site – just what you wanted to think about right before the holidays!

sashatberr — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:51:33 +0000

Consider checking out “OpenStudy” a new, collaborative study site. It’s got great potential to impact student learning. Click on this link to go to their full website.

Their website explains the site as:

OpenStudy is a social learning network where students ask questions, give help, and connect with other students studying the same things. Our mission is to make the world one large study group, regardless of school, location, or background.

They have widget that can be embedded in sites and course sites that allow “streaming” of live help, like this example:

QR codes are the new pink

sashatberr — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:32:39 +0000

So, you’ve probably seen these black and white things that look like the test page that your barely functioning printer from 1999 prints out every single time you turn it on. (Or is that just me?)

These are called QR codes and they are becoming more and more common. Do you use them?

This is the QR code for eLi’s blog. If someone uses a QR reader on their mobile device, it brings up this site. You don’t have to enter a website URL.

This blog post from Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom does a great job of providing a synopsis of what QR codes are, and why you would want to use them. The brief selection below is from that post (incidentally from almost a year ago, these little guys are all over the place now.)

Simply, put it is a 3D barcode. It’s a much more sophisticated version of the barcode on your bag of Lays Potato Chips. QR Codes are popping up everywhere and are gaining in popularity in education.

Because QR Codes can contain up to 4000 characters of information you can put a ton of information in just one code. For example, it could be something as simple as a web address.

This great YouTube video illustrates how one college used QR codes to promote their mobile app. Take a view to check out what students and faculty think about it!

When is the last time you played to learn?

sashatberr — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:48:59 +0000

This video is a remarkable presentation by Sebastian Deterding at Google, you can see the basis for Gamification, and how it can benefit non-entertainment to make it more engaging to the learners.

It’s a compelling presentation, so take a look!