CollabrATEC

Professor Chip Wood October 25th 2008

“Collaboration is the source of knowledge”

“Emergence Knowledge occurs where everyone knows something about everthing” An example of this can be the environment of the Wikipedia.

Chip mapped several buzz words such as: Anonymous Participation, Situation Personae, Avatar, Evolutionary You, Tribal Connectivity, Public Bios, “Learn by Doing”, Connected 24/7″.

All groups should update their narratives on Collabratec before November 1st.

Here is the link to the Business Week article written in 2000-

http://www.businessweek.com/archives/2000/b3711099.arc.htm#B3711100

Quoted highlights applicable for this class are (in my opinion)-

…producing armies of graduates who are comfortable with the latest gear and trained to use it on the job. Wired universities beget a wired nation

 Among CMU’s digerati, public enemy No. 1 is the old-fashioned lecture, where a scholar stands before hundreds of snoozing students and drones on for an hour or two. For them, the chief role of technology is to help end boredom. “In the future, learning … Continue Reading

Howard Rheingold’s idea is an interesting one. However, I am torn on how collaborative it really is and how it is more of a gateway for multiple social media applications. For students, a central location for staying in touch, information and assignments is easier, but is it more applicable for all classes that what is already available? Unless it is a social media or journalism class, I am not sure students would use all the applications. If they will only use one or two for class would this application be unwieldy and unused by students.

I do not know if this is also due today at noon, but I will be interviewing freshman in a class at 2:30 today (Friday, 10/24/08), so will not be able to post until I have that information.

I believe this is a foundational platform that can be used to build upon, which is the stated intention from Rheingold. All of the tools incorporated in this platform (integrated forums, wikis, blogs, chat, comment, social bookmarking, microblogging, social video, video commenting, RSS, widgets, - his “first set of tools”-along with the included areas for curricular material: syllabi, lesson plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos, which is what he calls “just the web service part of it”) I feel would be useful to integrate into our project platform.

I didn’t see anything new or exciting about this social media classroom. All it did was dumping all the existing social/ networking functions into one website. It probably will not work very well if the users are not teenagers or people who work with computers all the time. Once you put too many good things in one space, it gets confusing. A simple concept will seem too complex. And its users will be too frustrated to see the useful side of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrslljcnD8k&feature=related This technology would pretty much void any plans we could come up with concerning digital space requirements. Maybe we should concentrate on a building and it’s criteria, further.

I don’t see this website doing much more than what our CollabrATEC website. Social Media has a blog, a Wiki and a message board. I did like the idea of color coding the tabs to match the page. This affords easy navigation and knowledge of where you are. The one statement that I appreciated from Rheingold is…”Don’t try to keep up with the technology but rather keep up with the literacy that technologies make possible.” I prefer to stick with CollabrATEC.com myself.

Discussion:  Physical and Virtual are tied together

What are the different types of students in ATEC?  We need a human center of approach to design the new ATEC Building.  A needs analysis must be done. 

What are the user types?

1) What type students are there?

2) Describe the instructor…

3) What can we offer to graduates to keep up their skills?

4) Corporations/Military collaboration

Define the extremes… Everything else will fall into place.

What can a student get here that they cannot get anywhere else?

Assignment this week:  Find a freshman or high school student and interview them.  What is the future student?  What would they change in … Continue Reading

By Heather Green for BusinessWeek Oct. 27, 2008
It’s a given that young people live in a high-tech world. For details, take a gander at some of the data compiled by Peter Schilling, who heads the IT department at Amherst College in Massachusetts. His IT Index, as he dubs it, shows, for example, that just 5 of 1,680 students—0.3% of the school’s enrollment—have landline phones, compared with 82% of Americans. The data also capture emerging tech preferences. Freshmen (average family income: $76,183) make … Continue Reading

From our notes- a list the technology group started earlier in the semester on today’s topic- thought it might be something to build on- just an FYI of something we had already started to put together-

I cannot get the spacing right on this when I publish from copying and pasting my notes- it looks fine in this edit window, yet the spacing is off when I publish- sorry- can’t make it work correctly

Those who use the building

• students
• teacher/faculty
• administrators
• clients/guests

… Continue Reading

Developers Toolkit- Conducting a Needs analysis-

I pulled this during class-skimmed and it does talk about the learning environment- hope it is applicable and helpful if needed

http://saulcarliner.home.att.net/id/overviewneedsanalysis.htm

Here is a wikipedia article on needs analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needs_analysis

A University of Tokyo initiative has built a device to create haptic sound holograms, otherwise known as “Lickable Holograms”. These holograms can’t be seen or heard, but can be felt, creating an entirely new way to provide feedback to interface users. the International Society for Haptics features more of Takayuki Iwamoto’s work on this new method for for producing tactile sensations with acoustic radiation pressure.

NextUp is Thinking About Collaboration

The blog site NextUp has an intesting take on why IT and the marketplace will be forced to use social networking tools and how the only real player in virtual space is Disney. You guessed it, they are both about kids and what they expect/know of the virtual space.

infoq.com

An Agile Team Room Wishlist is a features list for collaborative spaces.

Obscura Digital, the bright minds behind Google’s 360 degree video domes, have debuted a multi-touch hologram system that can be used by multiple people at the same time.

You can learn more about what Obscura Digital is doing right now on their out-of-the-lab blog.

Rewritable Holograms

University of Arizona optical scientist, Savas Tay, created a three-dimensional holographic display that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes. The device is said to have uses in the industrial and medical fields, however, the Air Force is very interested in using the technology for military applications and seems willing to pay for it.

Children in the UK using an interactive learning tool.

The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research group at Durham University has created SynergyNet. The researchers from the departments of Computer Science, Education and Psychology have focused on motivational techniques involved in teaching and learning to create a network that will allow schools in the UK to use multi-touch interactive desks in the next ten years according to The Register. These desks use a multitude of technologies including the … Continue Reading

Stratosphere Video Dome at Universal Studios

The StratoSphere Video Dome Projection may look like the futurisitc city from Logan’s Run but could be the very thing a group of Comet Students need in their common area! The inflatable dome is produced by Absolute Hollywood and could be used as an event arena or classroom.

Seattle Pacific University is using Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro to relaize real-time communication and collaboration in their engineering program.