Francis Kneebone
Francis is Co-Director of V2Training.
He is working on a PHD in awesome ,for sometime now.
A coffee with Jonathan from Slide2Learn
Jonathan Nalder
Over-enthusiastic Educator/Mobile-Ubiquitous Learning advocate + hubbie, father, mLearn & OLPC Project Officer DETQ, ADE, Slide2Learn member. @jnxyz
Interviewed by Francis Kneebone (V2Training)
If your like me in recent years you learnt a little bit of HTML, then stretched yourself by learning some CSS, just so you could take more control of your online content, or to hack an LMS module to make it look pretty. But not many educators go beyond learning HTML or CSS. More advanced coding languages like JavaScript, Ruby or C take more personal investment of time and 'mental' energy. Many of us can get away with never learning any languages beyond HTML/CSS, but what if we did? What could be possible?
Many educators begin to develop their own ICT skills by playing with free resources and tools on the web (Prezi, Youtube, Ning). At some point educators may learn to use an LMS and it's components for creating content and or designing assessment. Opportunities are opening up for educators to use code to make their dream learning tools, through Learning Tools Interoperability, essentially allowing developers to make LMS Plugins written in any programming language.
"IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) v1.0 provides a single framework or standard way of integrating rich learning applications -- in LTI called Tools -- with platforms like learning management systems, portals, or other systems from which applications can be launched"
There is one argument against learning code, that says we can save time and pain by outsourcing to overseas code factories at cheap rates. My fear is that the over use of outsourcing and 'rapid' design tools could lead to a brain drain amongst educators, leaving us only floating on the surface of things.
A good place to start going beyond HTML is at CodeAcademy each week for free with CodeYear
Images by dinoowww
I don't know about you, but I first saw the Kony12 Video on my smart-phone in the middle of the night while rocking my baby daughter to sleep. I found it somewhat by accident but couldn't stop watching the 30minute video until it finished. The charity behind the Kony12 viral video, Invisible Children, have said the content was written at a target literacy level for elementary School kids. Obviously the Kony12 video, now the fastest growing viral phenomenon in history has got the attention of children, youth and adults and has been very effective in getting it's message, as simplistic as it is, to it's audience.
Your average adult learner doing an online course is probably 'smarter than a fifth grader', but their ability to process information in a digital format may not be. We need to simplify our content 'to a point' that it can be consumed in the context of;
- Multi-Tasking
- Mobile Devices
- Competing Priorities
This is not to suggest we "dumb-down" learning experiences or content but rather 'thumb-down' content ie. offer readily consumable content for Digital Environments with gateways to deeper knowledge. Sure the Kony12 video doesn't tell the whole story or explain the complexities behind all the big issues, but having the big picture spelled out so elegantly I was motivated to find out more. So let's present our learners with the big picture and engage them with readily consumable content but also provide access to deeper learning and utilise the power of social/shared and open content.
Woke up, downloaded iBook Author from Apple Mac App Store, actually woke up, wow!
This tool makes it very easy for content developers to create eBooks for iPads (and only for iPads), with no coding or tricks required to make Front Covers, Contents Pages, Chapters, Interactive Diagrams, Embedded Audio/Video, and what is very useful in a TextBook scenario, Self-Check Quiz questions, to help readers check/reinforce their understanding.
Self-Check Activities
There are a variety of Self-Check objects that can be added to your book, called 'Review' in the selection of Widgets. A 'Review' can be added to any part of a book, made almost any shape and size and even be created as a full screen Widget.
iBook Author: Review Question Types;
- Multi Choice (text with optional side image block)
- Multi Choice (images as 'choices')
- Drag Label (drag to image, define dropzone)
- Drag Thumbnail (drag images to bigger images with dropzones)
Does it store user results? No.
Custom made HTML Widget plugins will no doubt be made for iBook Author-ware that could save and send results.
Exporting your eBook
Once you have something finished, which will take you longer than you might think, because as beautiful as this application is to use, it won't write your content for you. The exporting options will disapoint anybody who has already started the eBook authoring journey, as the emerging universal eBook format ePub is not supported. So in the limited context of making great books for iPads, iBook Author gets *5* stars.
iBook Author: Export Formats;
- iBooks (like an incompatible ePub)
- PDF (useful for class handouts)
- TXT file
The Horizon Report 2011, predicted four to five years for the adoption of Gesture Based Computing, so ‘wave’ hello to this prediction coming true earlier than expected.
Gesture Recognition
We’ve seen what Kinect can do with the xbox for games, especially all those well intended gamers ‘dancing’ awkwardly in shopping malls to demo displays. Well now ‘Gesture’ control may soon be used to control a variety of your devices at home, from TV to your operating system including many custom made applications. Steve Balmer (Microsoft CEO) announced this week that gesture-recognition technology Kinect will not just be for xbox but for Windows also, with an early 2012 release. Just as content developers get to grips with touch based devices, the next thing could be coding for ‘Gesture to Select’ eLearning activities. A plus of this emerging technology is the possible applications for those living with a disability, to control computers in new ways. May this journey never end.
Voice Activation
Remember fighting over the TV remote with your housemates (remember!?), well now you can all shout at the next generation of televisions for your favorite channel.
Q. What’s to stop Channel 10 placing adds on Channel 9, that say, “Change to 10”?
With Siri and friends, plus the rumoured voice activated iTV, we’ll have no shortage of devices that want us to speak up to get things done. One application for education will be the creation of more sophisticated virtual role-play activities that allow for conversation with an avatar that also responds to voice commands. One of the setbacks for content development that utilses Gesture &/Or Voice will be yet another layer of coding, standards and applications on an ever increasingly complex array of educational technologies. But it will be fun! no doubt.
V2Training has run workshops for hundreds of School, TAFE and private RTO teachers this year, and with our "ear to the ground" this is what we are hearing are the common physical Barriers to eLearning as we approach 2012. Now is the time to remove these basic but common hurdles to implementing your eLearning strategy.
Barrier 1. Locked-Down Laptops
Give your team computers that do the things they need to do. Laptops in the hands of teachers are meant to be a tool for productivity, development and innovation. Unfortunately security measures placed on many computers actually hinder the teacher from accessing modern web tools and using their computers in a productive and flexible way. Securities important but don't give your tradesman a useless tool and expect a good job to get done.
