Hug your family extra tight tonight and say a pray for the troops:
In Michael Horn's presentation about discruptive technologies in the classroom, he explores the question of "Why do successful organizations fail?" His answer: Disruptive Innovation.
He further states that education is at a major turning point with technology. Future education will be online or at least in an hybrid (blended) format. Institutions should start capitalizing on that now.
I have to admit, I agree with him. When I tell people I work in online education I usually get, "Ugg.. I took an online class, I hated it. I like 'normal' classrooms." Horn's model accounts for this! He states that early methods are below what the learner (or customer) needs; however, future iterations will improve and far surpass learner needs. In fact, he estimates that 50% of high school courses will be online by 2019.
I'm happy that this is getting out there and I hope people stop and really look at online education. It is coming. It is affordable, assessable, and engaging when done right. It is only going to get bigger. I personally look forward to the day when I have a question, ask it online, and receive the answer or an engaging discussions. That day is almost here.
So I'm sure my hordes of followers have wondered why my blog has gone dry the past while. With moving across the globe, a new child, new jobs, and the like, it has been a bit stressful. I do need to give my heartfelt gratitude to all of those who helped me. Honestly, thank you.
However, my Maslow's Needs Hiearchy is letting me get back up to self-actualization! My brain is buzzing with what I've been learning and I'm finally able to share it! Look for more and more upcoming posts.
Today's thoughts come from this video about multimedia design. It focuses on PowerPoint :(, but the principles are accurate and can be applied anywhere:
Here is some interesting research about Clickers in the Classroom. (You know, those things that help you do real time quizzes to students in the classroom):
This is the first one I've seen, it is pretty good:
I know, I know. You hear it all the time, "Macs are horrible." Or "Windows is the worst platform ever." Sometimes I even get into the game. However, I thought I'd post my thoughts the subject.
I started college a real Windows guy, I really hammered Macs. In fact, I even made a podcast with a friend denigrating Macs. (I still harbor all those complaints by the way). However, as I went through college I found that I was forced to use a Mac for my classes. I remember the frustration this caused (Where is everything??? How to I get my CD out???) and I really resented Macs for this.
However, I found that there were some really nice perks to them too. My computer wasn't randomly crashing all the time. I wasn't spending most of my time troubleshooting. My devices worked almost instantly. In short, I was wasting my time dealing keeping my computer going. I hated this and so I decided to switch.
This was the main reason why I switched... until today. Today I say this commercial:
After watching it I suddenly realized why I switched from Window the Mac. I am sick of being lied to by Microsoft. I can take interruptions, outages, and changes, but I refuse to accept contempt. Mac is user friendly, but requires you do to everything within the Mac universe. Okay, I can live with that. Linux is completely customizable, but you better like tinkering with it to do so. I can also live with that. I have a choice of the two. I choose user friendly since I don't have time to deal with the rest. I could even put Windows on either of those systems if I choose to do so.
With Microsoft, on the other hand, you don't get a choice. They aren't as user friendly as Macs nor are they as customizable like Linux boxes. Instead, they feel like they can bully you to buy their product. The constant misdirection, false claims, price fixing, etc. is something I choose not to be part of. I may not choose Macs forever (I'm definitely not a Mac zombie), but it will be MY choice. I'm giving MY money and time and that is something I refuse to give to Windows anymore.
Anyone that has done any development will love this:
