21st century learning | It's About Learning

Optimal Learning Environments

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 19, 2010 — Leave a comment

Dr. John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, is a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders. In Brain Rules Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work.

In the following Youtube video at about 4:15 minutes in Medina explains that:

the brain has appears to be have been designed to solve problems related to surviving in an unstable outdoor environment and to do so in near constant motion…If you wanted to design a learning environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was really good at doing you would design something like a modern classroom.

Medina also asserts that if we really want to re-engineer learning environments we are going to have to tear down a few things and start over.

[youtube]IK1nMQq67VI[/youtube]

Medina has an excellent site called “brain rules“that provides and overview of his book. The video clips and related resources are much more polished that the above youtube clip but you have to see Medina in a lecture to appreciate his passion and character.

In 21st century learning, Innovation brain, brain rules, cognition, Learning

The future of learning is DIY

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 26, 2010 — Leave a comment

In the blog post The future of learning is DIY Harold Jarche states:

With Google you can find most information that you need. YouTube is a quick and easy way to get “learning objects” to the world. Apple gives the essential tools for knowledge workers, and in a nice package. Wikipedia has shown that the wisdom of crowds is just as good as the wisdom of elites. Starbucks gives free-agents and road warriors a place to meet and work. These top brands provide the equivalent of the interstate highway system for the creative age. Jarche argues that the instead of trying to

He concludes with:

If you’re in the learning business, don’t try to build another LMS or portal. Instead, figure out ways that enable DIY. Believe it or not, learners can, and will, do the rest. They already are.

DIY learning is more commonly referred to as informal learning and there are some theorists who argue that over 80% of learning happens informally. Is this something that we as educators should concern ourselves about?

Consider the impact of the following:

There are billions of searches performed on Google each month (and this number is growing)—to whom were these questions addressed B.G. (Before Google)?

[youtube]6ILQrUrEWe8[/youtube]

In 21st century learning, Uncategorized future, Learning

What is Web 2.0?

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 25, 2010 — Leave a comment

The video Machine is Us captures the essense of what Web 2.0 is or is becomeing. Given the lack of standards as to what “Web 2.0” actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean very different things to different people.

According wikipedia:

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004,refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.

The following summary is derived from O’Reilly’s article: What is Web 2.0. Some may ask what summary? This is just a list of points and of links. To capture the true essence of what Web 2.0 is one need go to the web and explore.

Web as a platform
1. Netscape vs. Google
2. Doubleclick vs. AdSense
3. Akamai vs. BitTorrent (business with the tail not the head)
Harnessing Collective Intelligence – Global Brain – Social Networking
1. Wikipedia
2. YouTube
3. Del.icio.us
4. Flickr
5. Open Source (LAMP) – sourceforge
6. Blogging
7. Myspace (Dwayne’s Myspace)
8. Facebook
Data is the Next Intel Inside
End of Software Release Cycle
1. Operations as core competency – Google
2. Users as co-developers – Google vs Microsoft
Lightweight Programming Models
1. Mashups – Hackability & remixability
2. RSS
3. Ruby
Software above the level of a single device
1. iTunes
Rich User Experiences
1. Ajax – Google – Gmail

Core Competencies of Web 2.0 Organizations:

Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
Trusting users as co-developers Harnessing collective intelligence
Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
Software above the level of a single device Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

The five best business products at the Web 2.0 Expo

1. Vidoop – The Vidoop authentication engine replaces passwords with a visual image recognition system. It is the biggest innovation in authentication technology in a long time.

2. Egnyte – Sharing Microsoft Office documents usually happens in e-mail and results in tons of inefficiency and wasted disk space. Egnyte provides an effective portal for sharing doc files and spreadsheets. You can view them in a version tree, which allows you to access any of the iterations of the doc or spreadsheet. It’s a great innovation for file sharing and archiving, and there’s a free version for up to 1 GB of data.

3. Nokia Widgets — Nokia launched a standards-based widget system for its S60 smartphone platform (based on Symbian). This includes the usual widgets you’d expect (news and weather), but the main business benefit is that it could provide an excellent platform for business applications. What really makes it work is the S60 Web browser, which is the most sophisticated and useful browser that I’ve seen in any phone.

4. G.ho.st — As a Flash-based OS-in-a-browser, G.ho.st can provide businesses with a way to allow users to access their personal mail and data in a sandbox that is separated from their work computer.

5. AppLogic – If you are running an Internet company or a business that demands a farm of public Web servers, then you probably have a colo or a managed services environment. 3Tera’s AppLogic provides a virtual data center that is easier to manage than a colo and less expensive than managed services. My favorite aspects of AppLogic are 1.) it lets you build out your data center with a Web-based Visio-like tool, and 2.) you can build redundancy and fault tolerance without wasting hardware.

mLearning

According to Wikipedia — M-learning, or “mobile learning”, now commonly abreviated to “mLearning”, has different meanings for different communities. The term covers:

learning with portable technologies, where the focus is on the technology (which could be in a fixed location, such as a classroom);
learning across contexts, where the focus is on the mobility of the learner, interacting with portable or fixed technology;
learning in a mobile society, with a focus on how society and its institutions can accommodate and support the learning of an increasingly mobile population.

Technical challenges include:

Connectivity
Battery life
Interacting with small devices
Displaying useful content in small-screen devices

Social and educational challenges include:

The intrusion of formal education into daily life:
Protecting the privacy of young learners, from being continually monitored and assessed through their mobile devices.
How to assess learning outside the classroom
How to support learning across many contexts
Developing an appropriate theory of learning for the mobile age
Design of technology to support a lifetime of learning

Is Web 2.0 upside capped?

Web 2.0 Crowd a Small Minority

In 21st century learning web 2.0

Laptop vs. Paper Pencil Competition

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 25, 2010 — Leave a comment

This was posted on the Abilene, Kansas High School Dialogue Buzz website (and was reposted by Rae Niles on her blog). It was an anonymous post, but VERY powerful. Feel free to share this with educators, parents and stakeholders about 1:1 and the power of the seamless use of technology. It seems to sum it all up!!

Let’s have a little competition at school and get ready for the future. I will use a laptop and you will use paper and pencil. Are you ready…?

I will access up-to-date information – you have a textbook that is 5 years old.
I will immediately know when I misspell a word – you have to wait until it’s graded.
I will learn how to care for technology by using it – you will read about it.
I will see math problems in 3D – you will do the odd problems.
I will create artwork and poetry and share it with the world – you will share yours with the class.
I will have 24/7 access – you have the entire class period.
I will access the most dynamic information – yours will be printed and photocopied.
I will communicate with leaders and experts using email – you will wait for Friday’s speaker.
I will select my learning style – you will use the teacher’s favorite learning style.
I will collaborate with my peers from around the world – you will collaborate with peers in your classroom.
I will take my learning as far as I want – you must wait for the rest of the class.

The cost of a laptop per year? – $250
The cost of teacher and student training? – Expensive
The cost of well educated US [Canadian] citizens and workforce? – Priceless

In 21st century learning laptop, paper, pencil