These are my comments on the horizon report, http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2011/
To say emerging technologies are changing our world is an understatement. A printer (of books) from 1512 could be transported to 1912 and assuming he was literate, read that era’s books. He could even get a job in a print shop as the technology changed so little in the 400yrs. Move her forward to 1982 and she’d still find work in a print shop. But the move to 2012 would put her at quite a loss to figure out a computer, let alone a Wii or an ipad.
E-BOOKS AND MOBILE DEVISES-- Good and bad. First good, those machines are getting smaller, no more carrying backbreaking book bags around. That’s bad too, in that smaller screens are not as interesting or versatile as desktop computers with 24” monitors or old-fashioned 20 lbs. art books full of hi-res pictures.
Second and much more significant, it is real good that they are connected, to the web and hence the world. Now the text can be updated on the fly and footnotes can hookup to reference instantly. Nothing would ever be out of print,and no topic would be too obscure to be widely published. Back to bad, all the good is assuming: A) The economic models can or will catch up with the tech. ones. Greed and academic inertia are forces to contend with. B) They will get some format consistency to allow any devise to display any “text” and C) The machines and the software won’t get outmoded ever 18 months.
But to limit these now almost ubiquitous machines to mimicking dead-tree products is absurd; videos and pop-up graphics are already here on web pages. Next steps are to make downloadable ‘textbooks’ as interactive for education purposes as videos and games are for entertainment ones. Angry birds as a physics project any one?
GAME-BASED LEARNING, GESTURE-BASED COMPUTING, AUGMENTED REALITY-- Here’s a problem for tiny mobile devices: This stuff is going to work better on big screens so until we get the heads-up projection tech mastered we’re going have to use old-school desk-bound monitors for a full experience.
Already we have gesture-based computing. I use Wacom tablets with Photoshop and other programs that mimic the gestures of tradition media in my classes now.
Pushing this tech another step, I could, in the history part of my classes, begin with a visit to a museum, either a real one or a constructed-by-me one specific to the topic at hand. We could float 50-60 feet in the air to get a close look at the Sistine Chapels ceiling more interactively; with a controller in hand, we could fly around --learn about-- the, unseen by mere mortals, upper reaches of Chartres Cathedral.
In a less historical and more gesture based creative mode we could pop over to a Paleolithic cave and try our hand at painting a bison by oil lamp. Or be wholly creative and build projects from scratch; an assignment could be a line drawing shown, as a guide, over an image --a reality augmented-- then the lines would disappear allowing/requiring the student to draw their own lines or something more complex, perhaps titled ‘the haunted mansion of bad design, can you get out alive?’
Total immersion --albeit for only an hour or two-- projects seem the way to go in the “classroom.” The competition in the entertainment business sets the standards the education business must measure up to or lose out in out in our ADHD world.
LEARNING ANALYTICS-- Math is a weak point for me. Calculus I barely passed undergrad in ’66 and statistics was my worst grade so far as a grad. Then there is grading art classes...very confusing. I’d like to think that there are, or will be, programs that will hook up with --mine data from-- the game based assignments and to somehow quantify the quality-based art projects I use in class.
The phrase “Photoshop but for data” is intriguing --likewise “free”--as it refers to the data analysis program “Gelphi” I teach Photoshop and I’m now curious enough to give it a look.
To have projects essentially grade themselves seems almost too good to be true. Two ways, no less; grade the students and grade --upgrade-- the projects themselves.
SOME LINKS-- The gesture-based tablets: http://www.wacom.com/en/Products.aspx and two “games” I use in the typography class: http://typeisart.com/ http://type.method.ac/
To say emerging technologies are changing our world is an understatement. A printer (of books) from 1512 could be transported to 1912 and assuming he was literate, read that era’s books. He could even get a job in a print shop as the technology changed so little in the 400yrs. Move her forward to 1982 and she’d still find work in a print shop. But the move to 2012 would put her at quite a loss to figure out a computer, let alone a Wii or an ipad.
E-BOOKS AND MOBILE DEVISES-- Good and bad. First good, those machines are getting smaller, no more carrying backbreaking book bags around. That’s bad too, in that smaller screens are not as interesting or versatile as desktop computers with 24” monitors or old-fashioned 20 lbs. art books full of hi-res pictures.
Second and much more significant, it is real good that they are connected, to the web and hence the world. Now the text can be updated on the fly and footnotes can hookup to reference instantly. Nothing would ever be out of print,and no topic would be too obscure to be widely published. Back to bad, all the good is assuming: A) The economic models can or will catch up with the tech. ones. Greed and academic inertia are forces to contend with. B) They will get some format consistency to allow any devise to display any “text” and C) The machines and the software won’t get outmoded ever 18 months.
But to limit these now almost ubiquitous machines to mimicking dead-tree products is absurd; videos and pop-up graphics are already here on web pages. Next steps are to make downloadable ‘textbooks’ as interactive for education purposes as videos and games are for entertainment ones. Angry birds as a physics project any one?
GAME-BASED LEARNING, GESTURE-BASED COMPUTING, AUGMENTED REALITY-- Here’s a problem for tiny mobile devices: This stuff is going to work better on big screens so until we get the heads-up projection tech mastered we’re going have to use old-school desk-bound monitors for a full experience.
Already we have gesture-based computing. I use Wacom tablets with Photoshop and other programs that mimic the gestures of tradition media in my classes now.
Pushing this tech another step, I could, in the history part of my classes, begin with a visit to a museum, either a real one or a constructed-by-me one specific to the topic at hand. We could float 50-60 feet in the air to get a close look at the Sistine Chapels ceiling more interactively; with a controller in hand, we could fly around --learn about-- the, unseen by mere mortals, upper reaches of Chartres Cathedral.
In a less historical and more gesture based creative mode we could pop over to a Paleolithic cave and try our hand at painting a bison by oil lamp. Or be wholly creative and build projects from scratch; an assignment could be a line drawing shown, as a guide, over an image --a reality augmented-- then the lines would disappear allowing/requiring the student to draw their own lines or something more complex, perhaps titled ‘the haunted mansion of bad design, can you get out alive?’
Total immersion --albeit for only an hour or two-- projects seem the way to go in the “classroom.” The competition in the entertainment business sets the standards the education business must measure up to or lose out in out in our ADHD world.
LEARNING ANALYTICS-- Math is a weak point for me. Calculus I barely passed undergrad in ’66 and statistics was my worst grade so far as a grad. Then there is grading art classes...very confusing. I’d like to think that there are, or will be, programs that will hook up with --mine data from-- the game based assignments and to somehow quantify the quality-based art projects I use in class.
The phrase “Photoshop but for data” is intriguing --likewise “free”--as it refers to the data analysis program “Gelphi” I teach Photoshop and I’m now curious enough to give it a look.
To have projects essentially grade themselves seems almost too good to be true. Two ways, no less; grade the students and grade --upgrade-- the projects themselves.
SOME LINKS-- The gesture-based tablets: http://www.wacom.com/en/Products.aspx and two “games” I use in the typography class: http://typeisart.com/ http://type.method.ac/
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