"The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education", by Curtis J. Bonk

I couldn't resist posting all of the book-study resources for Curtis J. Bonk's book, "The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education.".

The book is the center of a required book-study for the principals in my school district.  Even if you are not an educator, you'll find the links related to each chapter intriguing.

Here is the link to my post:

"The World Is Open" Book Study Resources (Megalist)- Required reading for principals in my school district!

The book's website has more information.

Bill Buxton's Presentation Video: "A Little Tale about Touch" (Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010)

I am always inspired by Bill Buxton's words of wisdom.  If you haven't heard of him, know that he's been around for a very long time, coming to the world of computer science and IT through his passion for music. According to his on-line biography, "Bill Buxton is a relentless advocate for innovation, design, and - especially - the appropriate consideration of human values, capacity, and culture in the conception, implementation, and use of new products and technologies. This is reflected in his research, teaching, talks, and writing - including his column on design and innovation for BusinessWeek.com, and his 2007 book, Sketching User Experiences."

A Little Tale about Touch "It's about the physical and the social context where it is happening" (Bill Buxton)


RELATED
“The only true voyage of discovery is not to go to new places, but to see the world through different eyes”.  - Bill Buxton, quoting Proust (1913, Remembrance of Things Past)

Bill Buxton: After the Show (Interviewed by Caroline Goles, Worldwide Partner Group Business Manager)


Bill Buxton's Website
Buxton, William. (1994) The three mirrors of interaction: a holistic approach to user interfaces. In L.W. MacDonald & J. Vince (Eds.) Interacting with virtual environments. New York: Wiley.

Here is a quote from the above reference:

"The thesis of this chapter is that we should consider technology in terms of the fidelity with which it reflects human capabilities on three levels:


* physical: how we are built and what motor/sensory skills we possess;

* cognitive: how we think, learn, solve problems and what cognitive skills we possess;

* social: how we relate to our social milieu, including group structure and dynamics, power, politics, and what social skills we possess.

Our metaphor is one of three separate mirrors, each reflecting one of these levels. In order to be judged acceptable, designs must provide an acceptable degree of fidelity in how they reflect each of these three aspects of human makeup and activity. The benefit is in how the model can provide a simple but valuable test that can be used during the design process. We now look at each of these mirrors in turn."

Wendy Keay-Bright's ReacTickles revised for use on the multi-touch SMARTTable!

Wendy Keay-Bright works at the Cardiff School of Art and Design in the UK, and is part of the Sensory Design Research Group.   She has focused much of her research on interactive technologies and participatory design, working children with autism, educators, and others to create applications such as ReacTickles and ReactColors, originally designed for use on interactive whiteboards.  These applications have been found to be especially effective with young people who have autism spectrum disorders. ReacTickles has been updated for use on the SMARTTable, a multi-touch, multi-user interactive table that supports collaboration, depicted in the video clips below:




(Posted on agent4changenet's YouTube channel.)

RELATED
Tabletop ReacTickles looks like a SMART move
MerlinJohnOnline 4/25/10


Note: Wendy Keay-Bright is involved with the ESRC Technology Enhanced Learning ECHOES project, which stands for "Improving Children's Social Interaction through Exploratory Learning in a Multimodal Environment."

Quick links to videos of new SMARTTable activities

Here are some links to videos of new SMARTTable activities:

• SMART Table Activity -- Types of Sentences
• SMART Table Activity -- Three forms solid, liquid, and gas
• SMART Table Activity -- Putting things in Order
• SMART Table Activity -- Piles of Polygons
• SMART Table Activity -- Hot or Cold
• SMART Table Activity -- Division
• SMART Table Activity -- Contractions
• SMART Table Activity -- A Little more
• SMART Table Application -- Fächerübergreifend

I'll post more about these later.  We have a SMARTTable at my main school, so I'm curious to see how these work out.  If you are working with interactive tabletop applications for students, especially those with disabilities such as autism, please let me know!

Will the iPad rejuvenate journalism and sustain the growth of "slow media"? -Video via ZDNet

The Summit at Stanford 2010 wrapped up at the end of July. Those who had the $1995.00 to attend were treated to two and 1/2 days of highlights of "significant economic, political and commercial trends affecting the global technology industries".

The videoclip below, taken during the Stanford Summit, is an excerpt of a discussion of a panel about journalism in the era of the iPad - Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, Tony Perkins, moderator of the panel and founder of AlwaysOn, Quentin Hardy of Forbes, and Robert Scoble of Scobelizer theorize that longer-forms of journalism might have a new life on the iPad, based on its beautiful, touchable design.



Goodbye, "McDonald News"?

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Here are 5 examples of the 100 movers and shakers who presented at the Stanford Summit, as posted on the conference website:

Matt Grob
Sr. VP, Engineering and Head of Corporate Research and Development, Qualcomm

Jaron Lanier
Author, You Are Not a Gadget, 2010 Time Magazine top 100 most influential people list,

Phil McKinney
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard Company

Barry Silbert
Founder & CEO, SecondMarket

Dwight Badger
CEO, Advanced Equities

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Qualcomm's Matt Grob on Augmented Reality
Andrew Bellay, AlwaysOn, 7/28/10

Settlers of Catan Game by Vectorform Game Studio, on a Microsoft Surface

Vectorform worked with Catan to develop the digital version of the Settlers of Catan for Microsoft's Surface:

The game supports a range of gestures and interactions that are similar to the real game, but without the need to keep up with all of the parts and pieces!



RELATED
A New Frontier for the Settlers of Catan
Vectorform to Launch "The Settlers of Catan" for Microsoft Surface"
Lindsay Ruthven, Vectorform Blog 8/2/10
"Features:
• Full multi-touch from the Microsoft Surface allows all players to interact with their elements of the board at once.
• A digital playing surface breathes new life into the Catan experience through graphics and animations.
• “State-free-trade” allow players to swap cards without entering modes or pressing buttons, keeping the experience as pure as possible.
• Customized art unifies the multi-touch interface with Mayfair’s 4th Edition release of The Settlers of Catan to create a seamless play experience.
• Integration with real-world objects to maintain the original Catan board game feel."

Settlers of Catan