This new paper describes how Australian teachers are using the iPhone and iPod Touch to A. assist them as Educators, and B. to enhance learning. As such, it presents a vital survey of apps and ideas to be shared with other teachers also beginning to use this platform. Thanks to the included Teachers for their keen responses.
6 Educators Talk About iPhone Use High Qual
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Kudos to my team.. Awarded the training top 125 again.
With wireless voice sales margins dwindling industry-wide, Alltel launched a big push in late 2007 to increase the company's data services revenue. "At the time, the wireless industry as a whole was no longer making much money on voice, so our sales efforts became heavily focused on data products and services, which were deemed the next big purchasing area for consumers," says Mindy Lane, Alltel's VP of training.
As part of this push, Alltel began selling data cards, which provide wireless connectivity to laptops from any area with Alltel Network coverage. Almost immediately, however, Alltel began fielding complaints about the cards, and found that many cards were being returned by consumers.
Concerned about the lack of data card sales and the number of subscribers leaving or switching to other carriers, the Alltel product marketing department assembled a task force to tackle the problem. The task force's needs analysis, says Lane, determined that most of the churn the company was experiencing was attributable to customer dissatisfaction or confusion.
"Among customers, we identified a number of misconceptions regarding what data cards were and what they could do. We also found that our sales reps and managers had misconceptions of their own. Many reps, for example, were selling data cards as ‘DSL replacements.' While that's true in most instances, a data card's ability to function as a DSL replacement depends on where the consumer is located and whether there are gaps or holes in wireless coverage in that area. Because a consumer's location also affects speed, we also received complaints from those who told us their DSL connection was faster than their data card."
To stem the tide of disaffected subscribers, Alltel reps were encouraged to do a "deeper dive" with each customer and ask more relevant questions during the buying process. "They needed to do a more in-depth job of finding out where the data card would be used, explaining the speed capabilities of data cards, and walking customers through the set-up and troubleshooting process," says Lane.
To arm reps with this knowledge, the Alltel training department developed a comprehensive training program to assist front-line reps in selling and supporting data cards. The program included computer-based training (CBT), as well as supervisor-led training on how to qualify and sell data cards to customers, questions to ask, what to listen for, and how to ask for the sale.
As a result of the training, Alltel channels experienced a 63 percent lift in data card sales and a 39 percent decrease in subscriber falloff from November 2007 to May 2008.
Interested in developing a training program to support a mission-critical product launch? Here are Alltel's tips for success:
• Tailor to your audience. Using Flash, Alltel's in-house training team developed a full-scale CBT simulation that taught sales reps and their managers how to work with data card customers more effectively. "Going through traditional training on a complex product such as wireless Internet cards would have been far too technical and boring for our sales force," says Lane. By creating an engaging, interactive simulation, she says, Alltel was able to draw learners in and grab their attention. "Sims are expensive and time-consuming to develop, and they are not the right solution for every need," says Lane, "but they are often a perfect choice when teaching workers about complex products, particularly when your audience consists of younger workers who are tech-savvy and appreciate interactivity in their learning."
• Reinforce. After going through the simulation, Alltel sales reps attended comprehensive face-to-face training that was conducted by their supervisors. In addition to reinforcing material covered during the simulation, the supervisor-led training provided a "perfect platform," says Lane, for supervisors to reinforce the data card product line's importance to Alltel's balance sheet. "We honed in on clarifying the basic value proposition of data cards, and on explaining what our churn rates were and how they were impacting us."
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I've always been a proponent of Blackberries in the mLearning world because I feel it is the choice device of 'road warriors' who would need an mLearning tool. Now, online schools are targeting the Blackberry for courses.
What if someone told you that you can earn a degree from your Blackberry? What if they said that you can study anywhere and anytime to fit it in with your schedule?
With this July’s updates, it will be much easier to take online classes on the go. Google plans to release software to make its email and calendar services work for the Blackberry. Google Apps Connector will allow users to access Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Contacts using built-in applications. It also connects to the Google Apps servers and synchronizes email, calendar and contacts.
Why is this helpful for online learners?
Read the rest here..
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E-Learning for me, does not just mean developing applications and websites, no it also means creating a system or dare I use that cliched word solutions to allow teachers to get more out of a session than what they put in.
Over the last year or so I together with Impact have been developing a system that will enable our catering staff to record teaching & training sessions.
First a little information, we've got two kitchens on site Ora & Skills; Ora is a kitchen where students cook lunch and dinner for staff and members of the public, Skills is a demonstration kitchen where students learn new techniques. Each kitchen has two PTZ (pan tilt zoom) cameras, three ip56 rated televisions, a touch panel and a control lanyard each. The system is quick to boot up, easy to log in and simple to use to ensure that there is minimum disruption to any session. Once the Chef has logged on he can use the lanyard to command the entire system from anywhere in the kitchens, without having to interact with the touch panel. As soon as the videos are recorded they are transferred to our servers and (pending approval) are viewable by all staff and students. So we've created a system that records chefs, this in itself is nothing new, we've had the ability to use video cameras in class for years; where's the benefit to the learners and most of all the teachers?
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/05/01/05012009_classroom_compare.html
Eunice Morton walked around her desk, grabbing an electronic writing tablet and quickly jabbing it with a stylus.
As the Pine Tree High School science teacher moved her hand, a presentation projected onto her classroom wall came to life. Text appeared, changed color, became underlined and then vanished. Yellow smiley faces appeared next to bullet points, and slides slid across the screen.
"I don't know how to teach without my InterWrite Pad," Morton joked, leaning against a student's desk.
The pad allows her to control the computer presentation as she walks around her classroom. Morton said the technology frees her from standing behind a desk at the front of the classroom, allowing her to interact more with her students. The students also can use the pad to answer online quiz questions and do other activities.
The electronic tablet is one example of how classroom technology has grown by leaps and bounds from even just a few years ago — and many teachers and technology directors believe the changes have improved the teaching field.
Morton said the projected presentations force her to develop focused and concise lessons. The technology helps keep students interested and alert in a course that is heavy on content and traditionally includes a lot of lecturing, she said.
"There's no wasted time in my classroom," Morton said.
Staying relevant
Mike Stanfield, Hallsville Independent School District's director of technology, said the use of technology provides a connection with students who have become accustomed to the everyday use of computers. He said many schools and classrooms continue to follow the 18th-century model of teaching — lining students in rows and lecturing them — even though a more interactive model can be effective with modern students.
"The classroom needs to stay relevant," Stanfield said. "The classroom today needs to at least reflect the state-of-the-art."
He said the district's studies of the effectiveness of some technology in education — specifically iPods and the iPod touch — indicated the multimedia approach improved students' knowledge retention.
Funding obstacles
Despite the apparent benefits, not all school districts can incorporate the same tools for their teachers. While larger districts have the resources to fund technology purchases, smaller schools can face challenges to equip their teachers and students with the latest tools.
Big Sandy Independent School District residents will vote in May on a $6.75 million bond election.
Superintendent Scott Beene said a significant portion of the bond will pay for the construction of computer labs at the district's elementary and secondary schools. Although the district has at least one computer in every room, not all of its students have access to the Internet. He said the district's different campuses share a computer lab.
"That's one of the areas that we are weaker in," Beene said.
Beene said the district is not hurting for technology. He said he believes the district is comparable with other districts of the same size.
The Pine Tree Independent School District has more equipment available in general, but not all campuses have the same access to it. Most classrooms have video projectors, which project an image of whatever is underneath their lens onto a screen, but not every campus has laptop carts and wireless internet, said Jeff Hahne, the district's director of technology.
Online learning
Much of what the Pine Tree district does technologically is actually online. Hahne said the district has created its own version of YouTube, called "ptTube," for teachers and students to use in class or to share videos with the community. Each teacher also has a Web site, and some teachers have begun using district-provided blogs. Teachers also have access to thousands of educational videos through an online subscription service.
"So much of what we do now is Web-based," Hahne said.
Hahne said a few years ago it was a big deal for every classroom to have Internet access, but most teachers now expect Internet access as standard for most school districts. The technology expectations of students also have changed.
"Kids used to be excited about computer classes," Hahne said. "That was their computer fix. Now, kids actually lose some aspects (of technology) at school."
Stanfield said reaching students' expectations in classrooms is the next step for many districts. He predicted incorporating text messages in classrooms could have a great impact on students.
"If we can mimic their culture, we won't have that as a barrier to teaching," Stanfield said.
* * *
Some technology used in local classrooms
Document camera: Overhead projector displays images of objects placed beneath camera lens
Personal response systems: Wireless remotes used to involve students in computer-generated and projected lessons
Laptop carts: Provide wireless laptops to students in classrooms
iPods/iPod touch: Used to display educational content and to create multimedia content
Interactive white boards: Display boards allow teachers and students to interact with projected objects
Source: Area school districts
Monday evening was eventful to say the least; there I was happily watching a movie when the lights start to flicker, ‘oh’ I thought to myself ‘a small power surge’.
The latter was true, the former distinctly not.
I’ve got an energy monitor that displays your current (badum tish) energy consumption, my normal evening power draw is circa 200-300 watts, when the surge hit it spiked to well over 1.4kw, it continued to spike in this manner for over 20 minutes. Even though all my electronic equipment is on surge protectors, I still ran to the circuit breaker to kill the power and then proceeded outside to see how it was affecting the rest of the street. The power surge eventually changed to an all out power cut and with that Honiton road was cast back to the literal dark ages. So grabbing some candles, I wondered round the house checking things out to make sure nothing was on fire, I then I smelled oh so familiar smell of burnt electrical wires and equipment. However with no power I couldn’t check to see if anything was broken, so I went to bed.
On waking the next morning I hustled downstairs and flipped the circuit breaker back on and nothing happened, no lights, nothing.
There was no power, I was cut off.
Now alongside the usual inconveniences of no kettle, hot water or being unable to cook food, I had no internet.
Big deal right? Wrong
Humans are creatures of habit as am I, before walking to work my routine is this Shower, get dressed and then Whilst making and eating breakfast (via laptop or iPod touch):
* Review twitter feeds and respond
* Read/write personal and work email s
* Check news, games and other websites
* Download podcasts & other content for the day
* View e-learning blogs for new content
* Check up on current Chess games
So by the time I walk to work I’m:
* Fully informed of current happenings in the world (useful for generating student polls),
* Have a reasonable idea of what awaits me at my desk (ensures I can hit the ground running)
* Have responded to any mission critical emails (Quality of service is important)
* Already musing about blog posts based on websites I visited that morning
In short I am a more effective employee with the internet at my disposal; I can respond to things quickly, ensuring that if something has gone wrong, by the time I arrive at work, I already know about it and can get on with sorting out.
But not on Tuesday morning (I don’t have an iPhone as of yet, so I had no external internet connection).
I then realised that my entire online life is based in the Cloud: Google apps, Gmail, Flkr, Twitter, Facebook etc. Nothing resides on my local machine, all the data and content is stored on some data centre and processed on a web server. My machine, be it laptop, pc or iPod only presents that data to me, nothing more. Of course I have some applications installed on my netbook but it is no where near the amount it used to be. If you think about it, you can pretty much do everything you would traditionally use a locally installed application online.
Word processing, Calendars, Spreadsheets are well served by Google apps, photo editing by Flkr, you don’t even have to have a printer in your house as you can use an online printing service that delivers direct to your door.
The only application you need to facilitate this is a web browser, nothing more.
Cloud computing is the future (although one could argue that it’s actually a return to the Mainframe and Dumb terminal relationship from the 1980’s), the device is becoming almost an irrelevance, merely a point of access that enables you to connect to your application and services held on the internet.
The cloud is the future; it’s the next logical step in the evolution of both the PC and the internet, but my experience on Tuesday morning leads me to think it can never replace traditional application access methods until internet access is universal.
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(From Thomas)
Hello, I'm Thomas Curtis and this is a little about me and a mini blog post combined.
I'm an e-learning developer at South East Essex College a FE/HE institution located in Essex, United Kingdom
I've worked at a range of Colleges and Academies, all of which pursue e-learning & ICT as a medium to enhance and support the learner experience. My education was interesting to say the least, I barely graduated from School as I had become disaffected with the learning experience, the traditional teaching methods used at that time and struggled with both the learning difficulties of Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.
It was not until I went to College (ironically it is the same institution that I work for now) that reignited both my passion for learning and computing in general. Through hard work & the support of lecturers I managed to secure both a recognised computing qualification, acceptance on a university degree and without sounding too melodramatic forge a new path for myself. I also feel having studied at the same College where I initially studied gives me a unique perspective, enabling me to see both sides of the coin so to speak.
As e-learning & the Internet itself was just getting started as a learning medium when I studied at the College (99-01), teachers and students were just getting used to the Internet as a resource let alone a method to evolve learning. It was as a result of my personal experiences as a student that I decided that once I had completed my Degree that I would try and return to the education sector to 'give something back' for lack of a better cliche, as I had personally benefited from the range of e-learning tools which enabled me to attain a level of education I had initially dismissed as an irrelevance, if not an impossibility.
From the abacus to the mobile phone, technology has always been used with varying degrees of success, at College & University I was introduced to the benefits of word processing, mind mapping, spell check, font and colour manipulation to improve readability and a whole host of other resources and techniques. The tools on offer to today's learner far, far exceed anything I could have dreamed of, case in point; teachers can communicate with Students in an instant, show multiple videos on a interactive whiteboard without having to wheel in a 28 inch CRT, via mobile technology we are providing students with the ability to send/receive course content from anywhere that can connect to the Internet, be that the gym, on holiday or even in bed (now that's personalised learning)!
Enough about history, I should talk about the present, what I do and where I hope to go from here.
In my role as an e-learning professional I develop applications & solutions to support teaching and learning (based primarily on Microsoft ASP.net and related technologies), this can range from simple web forms, event management systems to project managing multimedia recording solutions and full upgrade to lecture theaters. I also Blog about ICT and Twitter with other e-learning colleagues, both inside and out of College about e-learning, what it is and how it can benefit students and teachers.
The future..
I hope to continue blogging and establishing contacts with e-learning providers across the world, one thing that hinders e-learning is standardisation. From playschool, to Junior, to high school to university we all have differing systems, schemas, teaching methods and datasources. We do not teach in English Junior school and then switch to French from College onwards, so why do we do the same when it comes to e-learning? Moodle, BlackBoard, Bespoke software, some training, no training.
E-learning is supposed to make things easier for the learner, so why do we change the game at each step? It is this that I hope to change, perhaps open source is the key, perhaps not either way I'm looking forward to finding out.
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OK, I took the plunge, I am finally on Twitter @MobileLearn.
I need your help. What are the best ways to use Twitter? Are there good ways to link posts and threads from blogs or Facebook there and vice versa? Any best practices, hints or ideas for how to use it?
Your feedback would be great.
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Friday, April 24, 2009
KILGORE — Some high school students might have more than textbooks to lug to class next year.
School officials in the district of 3,700 students are launching iLearn, a new program aimed at incorporating iPods with daily educational instruction.
Director of Technology Mark Lane said Thursday that teachers will upload curriculum, lectures, study plans and homework assignments to computers at the high school. Students will then download the lessons onto an iPod Touch, where it can be completed at home or on the go. "We plan to start out with 60 iPods and introduce the program to our math and science classes at the high school. Later in the year, we will introduce it to our English and social studies classes," Lane said. "By the start of the 2010-11 school year, we hope to have the program started at the middle school and phase it into our other campuses each new school year. The goal is to provide every single student in Kilgore ISD with an iPod." he said. Lane said the school district estimates it will cost $135,000 to operate the program. He said about $95,000 will come from the school district, while the newly chartered education foundation has pledged funds for the remainder of the project to upgrade and integrate software at the high school, to purchase iPods and to send teachers to training for the project. Lane said the goal of the program is to give students another resource to grasp educational concepts that some find difficult learning during traditional school instruction. He said school officials hope the new program will raise test scores and overall student achievement. Kilgore won't be the first East Texas district to use the handheld electronic devices in school. Hallsville High School students participate in a similar program using iPod Nanos and iPod Touches. Toni Erickson, assistant technology director for Hallsville schools, said the program has been successful. "We have added 450 new iPod Touches this year at the high school for math and science classes to continue the program," Erickson said. "So far, so good for us." Lane is hoping Kilgore schools will experience the same success. "The community has been so supportive of this project," Lane said. "I think our residents and businesses realize that our economy is changing, and we must prepare our students for it."
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(Guest post by Jonathan Nalder)
I’m not a fan of Amazon’s Kindle eBook Reader. Not only is it not available in my country, but I feel the days of paying over US$350 for a device that only does one thing are long gone. Having said that, as en educator and former libary worker, I can see several direct eduational applications, especially with the just announced Kindle 2 having the ability to read out its content. Read a detailed overview via Appleinsider.
Why I’m writing about it however is more because of what the Kindle 2’s other features don’t do - they don’t sync with a PC or laptop. Just as Google’s Android mobile operating system gets all its contact and calendar data directly from the cloud, so too does the Kindle 2 interface via 3G connection only with a home eBook site, or with other Kindle eReaders. This is the future of mobile, wireless devices and why they are leading towards a true ubiquitous, everware future. Even small mobile devices now have the ability to connect wirelessly to all the information etc they need to be fully functioning.
Are education departments setting up such networks to unleash the power of having this kind of computing available 24/7 from any location?
You can read more posts on emerging mLearning devices ad ubiquitous learning at Jonathan Nalder's 'uLearning' blog.
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One of the easiest ways to push content to your mobile users is through an RSS feed. With an RSS reader, a mobile device can be set up to read feeds. Feeds themselves can be customized display differently on a mobile device. You can see this with the mobile version of this site, 2mlearn.mobi. There are several RSS readers available for mobile devices, the most popular is the one I use on my Blackberry, the Google Reader. For your users, however, a customized solution may be necessary. With Flash Lite, you can create a customized RSS reader that will work with many mobile devices.
Important Note: As you may know, Flash Lite does not parse XML directly. This may seem like a road block to creating an RSS reader, but it really is an easy obstacle to leap.
The first thing we’ll need to do is parse the XML feed and change it as to be loaded by Flash Lite. This is written in PHP, however, this could also be easily reproduced in Pearl, JSP, or with many other scripts.
First, define the link to the RSS feed:
$link_to_rss_feed ="http://mlearningworld.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default";
The link above will be the input of the simplexml_load_file PHP 5 function call as described below:
$xml = simplexml_load_file($link_to_rss_feed);
The $xml variable will now contain the entire XML feed from the above link. Notice that the above function can access XML content directly from the Internet, but it is subject to security restriction of your PHP server engine (visit www.php.net for more details).
At this point you are interested in parsing each <item> node and selecting the content of <title> and <description> to be returned to the Flash Lite 1.1 application. For this reason you use the foreach function to loop each node and extract the content.
First you need to strip out HTML tags from the text contained in the <title> and <description> tags. Do this by using the strip_tags function. Flash Lite 1.1 dynamic text does not support HTML tags.
Also—and this is very important—you must strip out any & symbol contained in the text enclosed in the <title> and <description> tags. You do this using the str_replace function. Flash Lite 1.1 recognizes variable data loaded by having a & symbol as the prefix, so any & contained in the text will break this data structure.
The following two lines will create the & name/value pair data structure for the title and description, which will be the variables used in the Flash Lite 1.1 RSS reader:
echo "&title$i=".$title;
echo "&description$i=".$description;
The above echo will return the following output for the first <item> block:
&title1=Tips for Developing a Flash Lite player&description1=New article on developing a Flash Lite player.
Because an RSS feed contains more item nodes, you will end up having several &title and &description data, such as &item1, &description1, &item2, &description2, and so on. Append the loop index $i to each item and description variable to create a different set of each node.
The &totalitems is the total number of items parsed and the &end variable is the flag that we will use to indicate to Flash Lite 1.1 that the data is over.
Flash Lite 1.1 does not have the capability to check for the end of data. So the solution to this problem is to return a flag at the end of the data.
Note: You can use other methods to achieve the same results. Also keep in mind that you will probably need more error checking.
At this point, you have built the main structure of the server RSS parser. Place the file on your server that is accessible from the Internet. To test the parser, just enter the link to the script into a browser.
Next week, we’ll explore building the player in Flash Lite for your mobile device. After that, we’ll discuss a strategy to choose what content to push out and when. Keep watching.
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mLearnopedia.com partners with TechEmpower to provide information source for mobile learning
Greenville, WI February 16, 2009: With an increasingly mobile society and the need for instant information for employees and students everywhere all the time, mobile learning and mobile performance support are growing at a rapid pace. Ambient Insight recently reported that the US market for Mobile Learning products and services is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.7%.
To provide access to the latest news and best practices a new content community has been created at http://cc.mlearnopedia.com. Content is aggregated from sites such as Cell Phones in Learning, Golden Swamp, mLearning is Good, mLearning World, mLearnopedia, moblearn, Mobile Commons, and MobileDot.
“The mlearnopedia project is a terrific idea at the right time! I look forward to being part of it,” states Judy Breck from Golden Swamp. Ben Bonnet from mLearning is Good commented “The cc.mlearnopedia.com community has already benefited me by providing exposure to content I normally would have missed.” The aggregation technology, called BrowseMyStuff, comes from Tony Karrer of TechEmpower with the support of Judy Brown from mLearnopedia.com.
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We've been thinking a lot about the millennial generation, but I've come to realize that within a few years, the next generation will start hitting middle school and the computing world. The post-millennials, born in the mid 90s, have not had a transition period into technology. Their parents, GenX or GenY, from before the post-millennials where born, have been bombarding them with technology.
We've all seen movies where women put headphones on their belly to give their unborn children a head start with Motzart music. These children will never know dial-up. Cracking a book in college will something in the history books. Video games will never be solo, but always an interactive experience.
We have all had the concern that keeping up with the millennials technological demands would be a challenge, but what of their younger siblings or children? Possibly, they may revert and become educational Luddites, but I truly doubt this.
My question is triggered from the thought that as education professionals, we are always behind the curve, trying to react to each generation's needs. Now, maybe if we start thinking about the need early, we may be ahead of the curve. What can we put in place to nurture them early, where there transition is smooth, and education doesn't follow technology, it is integrated with it.
Just a thought for open discussion.
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Very impressive by Hot Lava, teaching science through mLearning at sports stadiums. Brilliant. Great job guys.
Twitter, a social networking platform used for microblogging, is a free service that lets you send the briefest of messages (with a maximum of 140 characters) to everyone in your network. It marries the mass appeal of blogging with the speed and ease of text messaging.
There has been a growing interest in how to use these new forms of social media for learning & development. Driving this interest is the fact that Millennials, or those born after 1981, make up 22 percent of the workforce now and will grow to comprise 46 percent of the workforce by the year 2020...
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Many thanks to Tony for this excellent resource. The title says all that needs to be said about this.
100 eLearning Articles and White Papers : eLearning Technology
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Some iPod models allow you to play a slideshow with music and transitions, either on its own display or on a television. Models that can display to a television currently include:
If you're not sure what iPod model you have, see "Identifying different iPod models."
To access slideshow settings, select Photos > Slideshow Settings. Although iPod nano has a color display, it won't output a slideshow to a TV.
If you set TV Out to Ask, iPod will give you a choice of display every time you start a slideshow. The first time you use a TV, you'll probably need the Tips for TV viewing and Connecting to a TV sections below.
Method 1 (Composite video)
Using the AV cable connected directly to the top of the iPod or to the line out port on the Universal Dock.
Method 2 (S-video)
Using S-video when the iPod is in the Universal Dock.
Method 1 setup (Composite video)
This method can be used when the iPod is either in or out of the dock. Additionally, you would need a television or other video device that has RCA inputs.
Tip: The RCA input connectors on a television are usually color coded to match the colors on the AV cable.
Method 2 setup (S-video)
This method provides slightly better image quality and should be used if possible. This method requires a television or other video device with S video inputs. Additionally, S-video can only be used when the iPod is in the Universal Dock.
Some televisions may need to be set to channel 3 or 4 or "video" to receive input. Check with the documentation for your television if you're not sure.
Important: You should only use the included cable. Other RCA video cables won't work. Though other cables may look similar, only the Apple iPod AV Cable works with the iPod Headphones and AV port.
NTSC is the standard broadcast signal received by televisions in the United States. PAL is the standard broadcast signal received by televisions in many European countries.
The main difference between NTSC and PAL is that NTSC delivers 525 lines of resolution at 60 half-frames per second, whereas PAL delivers 625 lines at 50 half-frames per second.
iPod will attempt to guess the appropriate video format to use based on the geographical region that it was sold in. If the incorrect video format is used, the image displayed on the television will be poor or garbled. Additionally, if the incorrect video format is selected, it can be changed in the following menu location:
Photos > Slideshow Settings > TV Signal
You may then need to select the correct video input on your television. If you're not already familiar with the input features of your TV, you'll need to read the manual that came with your TV. If the TV is not set correctly, the slideshow will not appear.
Don't forget the soundThe video cable does not carry sound, so you'll need to use the regular audio connections regardless of which display you choose. Run an audio cable from the Line Out port on your Universal Dock to an input on your TV or receiver, for example.
(...next, loading a PowerPoint on your iPod...)
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If you know an up-and-coming training leader age 40 or under, someone who is an outstanding training professional with excellent leadership qualities, send in your nomination today. Criteria include:
• 40 years or younger by December 2008
• Has at least 3 direct reports OR has orchestrated a large-scale training/learning & development initiative requiring management/leadership of a group of people within the last year
• Demonstrates leadership qualities (i.e., motivates/inspires direct reports and co-workers; acts as mentor/coach, either formally or informally; thinks strategically)
• Successfully met a significant training challenge in the last year
• NO SELF-NOMINATIONS
The list of all winners will be published in the May 2009 issue of Training magazine; winners also will be recognized at a congratulatory event at The Leadership Summit in San Diego in May.
Deadline: December 12, 2008
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I've been doing some research with a friend on educational spending and performance in the key areas of math, science, technology, etc. We have stumbled upon an interesting anomaly, a correlation with the less a school spends on education and higher performance in these key areas. If you are not aware of the Laffer Curve, this is a economic theory that lower taxes generate more revenue (think of this as a farmer planting more corn versus eating it himself.) This trend can be seen comparing public schools in the US to other parts of the world, as well as comparing to private schools and home schools.
Of course, there is a limitation to this where a lack of funding can obviously not support education, but this does seem to counter the trend of constantly putting more money into the system.
Some of our theories as to why this happens include:
What are your thoughts? Why do home schools or private schools who spent a fraction per child continually outperform higher funded public schools?
Of course, these are all general statements and not to say that there are not creative, innovative, and overachieving teachers out there in public schools (I know, I'm married to one). I just feel this is something we should step back and look at. Is more funding the solution to failing schools? Is there another, unrelated issue? If you where to start from scratch with the US Public School system, what would you do differently?
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By Jonathan Nalder of www.mLearnxyz.net
As most geeks would know, the Google-developed mobile OS known as Android had its public unveiling last week. While only available on one handset in the US at the moment, its open-source nature and backing from Google mean that it is destined to become a major new mobile platform alongside the existing Palm OS, Windows Mobile, RIM Blackberry, and iPhone OSX.
We’re not interested in the competition between these OS’s here, but in what new features Android brings to the use of mobile devices for learning. In this case, what Android brings is an acceleration of the mobile access to cloud computing that iPhone OSX began 18 months ago. Because Google itself has no interest in desktop computers, Android devices currently link in directly with online services rather than syncing with a home computer as every other mobile OS has always done.
This means that files, music, video etc are all either accessed online, downloaded directly from the net, or streamed to the handset. What does this mean for education? Well, perhaps its another sign that our many labs stocked with desktop PCs are becoming less and less relevant. Perhaps forward thinking education departments need to start planning a cloud-computing based model for getting out content and services to its students. There’s a few interesting years ahead!
To read more on the Android launch (and a whole heap of interesting, though not-education focused comments) read the engadget article HERE.
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GPS-based spatial learning (geocaching) is a new form of mobile learning for me. I had the chance to experience it in person recently and came away with a new tool in my mLearning kit. Basically, it entails being out and about, using a GPS to find items placed around a physical site.
With our guide (Teacher Alan Morely, who has developed the program) dressed as a pirate, we ventured out all over a university campus, deciphering clues to find a treasure. Along the way, we learnt some of the basics of using a GPS such as its digital compass, latitude and longitude readout, and how it only works when moving and out in the open.
As far as getting students out of the classroom, the potential of using mobile GPS devices in this way almost limitless. From scenario-based projects like our treasure hunt, to mapping or distance, angles, degrees etc, it has the advantage of being highly practical, while providing a built-in movement/kinesthetic element that many learners need for their learning to go into long term memory.
Go HERE to read the full article by Jonathan Nalder at mLearnxyz.net.
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Almost a month since you've seen something from us? Apologies all around. Between two hurricanes (Gustav and Ike), work, and just craziness, I've been a little distracted. Keep your eye's open though- my eLearning book is coming along and I've had a couple of leads on publishers based on the concept alone. More to come soon...
mlearning m-learning mobile-learning mobile+learning podcasting iphone apple web+2.0 learing+2.0 eLearning
mlearning m-learning mobile-learning mobile+learning podcasting iphone apple web+2.0 learing+2.0 eLearning
mlearning m-learning mobile-learning mobile+learning podcasting iphone apple web+2.0 learing+2.0 eLearning
For those of us who are baseball fanatics, (not Crickett for my EU and Indian readers, although I love that game as well) HotLava Software is bringing mobile learning to the baseball diamond.
Fans attending the game have the opportunity to not only see a homerun hit, but learn how friction and drag affect the path of a baseball traveled. Although many learning institutions have attempted to teach science through the use of sports delivered by traditional methods, Kauffman and Hot Lava are taking mLearning inside the stadiums to deliver accessible and captivating on-demand Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education via mobile devices.
Baseball has always been a mathematical game. I remember from my undergraduate statistics class how much it was involved in the game, now, everyone can take part in expanding their knowledge.
Home run to HotLava!!!
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