Jan. Apple Announcements: The "Digitization of Education"

Between 8 and 9 am yesterday, a colleague wrote to me w/ the link to the live announcements Apple was making in NYC about their new interactive book and authoring products, asking if I was tuned in to the event. The channels have been on fire with remarks, including my email response to her:

I spent some time looking at the IBookstore and IBookAuthor and the Twitter counter from the creator (earlier Apple Engineer) of Push Pop Press, http://pushpoppress.com/ourchoice/, which Facebook bought earlier

this year, saying Apple's product looks likes his re-branded.

I loved the products and still can't help but think about the competition between good inventions and intentions with market share (vendor bondage). This continues to raise the question of technology and privilege.

On the positive side, I've been watching custom publishing since the around nineteen ninety and also think about how we tried to get publishers working with CCCOnline to consider books as only one of their digital assets. And now the devices have added a twist once again. 

Last, I intend to carefully read Apple rights to the books created with IAuthor. I'm not clear on that yet.

Great Post: "Learning a New Language 140 Characters at a Time"

What a fabulous way to engage language learners in a language class. The students were asked to find and follow a person on Twitter who writes in the language being studied.
The student is not only stretched to learn more language to understand the tweets, but has a personal, real-life context.


http://hastac.org/blogs/coryduclos/2011/11/10/learning-new-language-140-characters-time

The Inaugaral Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture

There have been two occasions for viewing media in the middle of the night. The first was during Desert Storm, when I hoped to catch a glimpse of my brother during the war coverage, and the other was early this am, to witness the meeting of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Reverend Archbishop Tutu, two Nobel Peace Prize awardees (Tutu in 1984, the Dalai in 1898).

What an opportunity to see how the digital world overcomes distance and circumstance to unite people. While the Dalai Lama was denied a visa to visit South Africa on the event of his friend Desmond Tutu's birtday, the two were able to dialogue across the world in Google Plus. My Tweet posts on this event are at the right side of this blog.



Like many, I felt so fortunate to "attend". LOL. Even though it meant getting up at 2 am.

Wonderful Video on Multimedia and Brain Rules

Tricia Rand presented at Colorado Mountain College's Faculty Day on Sat. both as the keynote and a workshop provider.

Look at this wonderful video she made to illustrate use of media for effective learning:

Pamela Call Recorder, Powergamo Choices for Skype Interviews

Had an interview scheduled today using Skype to phone. We hoped to save the files to .wav for editing in Audacity. I looked at ProGamo, though I had used a free version of Pamela before.

I downloaded the basic version of Powergamo and soon learned that it would not allow an export of Skype to phone on the free version. So I downloaded the Professional version to find out I now needed to register (purchase) it. I wasn't keen on paying $34 for a license I might use once, so I went over to Pamela.

Pamela cost about $20 for a version that allows exports that does not limit the recording time. (The free version does allow 15 minute recordings).

The screen information did say it was not available for Mac though (I was on my PC.) Skype automatically records to MP3, though you can set options to other file types, which we did (.wav). I did have to pay a few cents per minute to call from Skype to the phone.

So we proceeded. I called her phone to phone to review the script at no cost. We then went to Skype to phone and recorded.

Glad to know we have that part of the work in the bag--now it's in the editor's hands. What was so great about this interview was the expertise shared by the guest which will definitely add a practioner's viewpoint to the theory.

While you may be asking why we both weren't on Skype, this is just to say we were not, and I appreciated the guests time, however we might connect and benefit from this exchange.

Cathy Davidson's video on "attention deficit" has been making the rounds. She states that in cases where people are asked to pay attention to certain things, they may miss other items in the same evironment. The extension to the digital age? Even with focus, we may miss things. Having the ability to focus is a needed skill. Additionally, having archived media lets us review events for what we may have missed.

Education as a Workforce Sector and Its Competitive Idea

This slideshare showed up in Twitter today, shared by Jane's colleague Jay Cross (http://internettime.com). It's Jane Hart's presentation to an education conference in South Africa.

I am a big Jane Hart and Internet Time Alliance fan. Their work makes so much sense, and I'm using two of their books in a grad course I currently teach. I've also joined Jane's list of professionals in the field--which brings me to a point. When you sign up at her site, she asks that educators sign onto one list, and Learning and Development Professionals (non-educational practioners, the dark side, for profit, business...). I have puzzled over this some as I work on both sides, but the real reason for the puzzlement is that education (pre-service, higher-ed, P - 20) are all members of a broad workforce sector, one who also sends future employees into the world.

If our current time is the "Conceptual Age" (See Dan Pink's Work: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/brain.html),  and our competitive edge is the use of ideas to provide the best that can be had, then education's preparation of learners who go forth in the 21st Century is the Competitive Idea. For this reason,  I am glad to see that she presented to this venue.

SchoolNetSA Opening Keynote

View more presentations from Jane Hart