Mobile augmented communication for remote collaboration in a physical work context
Jana Pejoska- Laajola, Sanna Reponen, Marjo Virnes, Teemu Leinonen, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2017/12/15
This report documents "field studies in actual work contexts to map how participants solve physical tasks with remote help powered by augmented video calls, and examined how the drawing feature was used in these contexts... augmented video calls enhance remote collaboration by allowing workers to point at task objects and locations, thus potentially improving informal workplace learning." It's interesting to see how far back work in this field goes - some of the early references date from the 1990s. More...
New post
New post
Moodle News, 2017/12/15
Short article in Moodle News pointing to some interesting resources about a forthcoming MoodleNet: "Users and enthusiasts can follow the developments on a dedicated blog at blog.moodle.net, maintained by Doug Belshaw. There is also a (very preliminary) white paper available here." More...
Twitter EDU
Twitter EDU
David Truss, 2018/01/19
David Truss has published an eBook on using Twitter in education. According to the blurb, "If you follow along and tweet as you learn, this book will make your entry into Twitter much easier, and enjoyable! It has best practice tips, tricks and explanations that will assist you in building a great network much faster than you could do on your own." The book can be downloaded for free. More...
Why I Left Silicon Valley, EdTech, and “Personalized” Learning Paul Emerich, Inspired, 2018/01/18
Why I Left Silicon Valley, EdTech, and “Personalized” Learning
Paul Emerich, Inspired, 2018/01/18
This is a post describing a teacher's experiences "opening a brand new micro-school and to work on technology tools that were intended to personalize my students’ learning." It was AltSchool, the Silicon Valley startup where Emerich worked for three years, leaving last June. The company changed course last year from running schools to selling software. More...
No Way, JOSE! Javascript Object Signing and Encryption is a Bad Standard That Everyone Should Avoid
No Way, JOSE! Javascript Object Signing and Encryption is a Bad Standard That Everyone Should Avoid
Scott Arciszewski, Paragon Initiative Enterprises Blog, 2018/01/17
I have no position on the issue described in this post because it's all new to me. But because it's all new to me it's inherently interesting, and the discussion perhaps points the way to the future of signing and encrypting Javascript objects (such as data or executable code). The argument here against Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) is that it is often abused, and that it makes forgery trivial. More...
What Will You Do When They Come for Your Proxy Server?
What Will You Do When They Come for Your Proxy Server?
Lisa Janicke Hinchcliffe, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2018/01/16
This article begins on a negative note about the RA21 authentication project, but reconciles itself by the end. The premise is that IP-based access to paywalled scholarly publications is coming to an end and will be replaced by (something like) RA21, which is an identity federation. More...
How we scaled professional recognition for staff working with Learning Technology at the University of Edinburgh
How we scaled professional recognition for staff working with Learning Technology at the University of Edinburgh
Santanu Vasant, ALT, 2018/01/16
This is a quick case study combining professional development with the University of Edinburgh's strategic digital plans describinbg “a digital culture that will culminate in a university where: every core service is fully digital; every educator is a digital educator; and every student is a digital student.” I'm actuallyu hoping the students will be real students. More...
Meltdown
Meltdown
Adrian Colyer, The Morning Paper, 2018/01/15
Good technical description of the recent security flaws in compter chips explaining why we haven't seen the end of them. Out-of-order instructions (such as a speculative calculation) "introduce an exploitable side channel if their operation depends on a secret value." The impact is permanent. More...
Scientists Put a Worm Brain in a Lego Robot Body - And It Worked
Scientists Put a Worm Brain in a Lego Robot Body - And It Worked
Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert, 2018/01/15
It's not an actual worm brain, of course. It's simulated, based on the OpenWorm project that "mapped all the connections between the worm's 302 neurons and managed to simulate them in software." It also uses digital sensors in places of the worm's senses. I find the demonstration (there's a video) interesting conceptually. More...
Making Virtual Reality a Reality in Today's Classrooms
Making Virtual Reality a Reality in Today's Classrooms
Meredith Thompson, THE Journal, 2018/01/12
This afrticle shares "three vignettes of three different approaches: a social studies class in a suburban school district, a district-wide perspective from an urban school district and a class designed entirely around understanding and implementing VR for other classrooms." More...