The iMac I’m still waiting for

Nearly four years ago I read about an Apple iMac design concept that basically turned it into a docking station for the iPad. I’ve said it before, this would be the perfect system for so many people, especially in education. Imagine a college student being able to carry their iPad that has a fully functioning set of productivity tools, stores their textbooks, and hasWi-fi  access to the Internet. Coming back to their room to study, they simply slide the tablet into the iMac Docking station. How long until Apple acts on this design?

Mockup of Apple Tablet and Docking Station (Courtesy appletell)

Apple’s magazine subscription market place tips scale for initial mobile app development

For one publisher, Apple’s magazine subscription market place development tipped the scale when deciding on the mobile operating system to initially develop for.  Geographical published by the Royal Geographical Society recently released an app for iOS. An interesting exchange occured over their choice of operating systems to release the app for first. In a quick conversation posted to Twitter, they made clear that the Apple magazine subscription “subs market” was a “bit more developed.

I don’t care about Apple’s so-called eTextbook “walled garden”

The announcement of Apple’s new foray into the educational textbook market has garnered the usual cries of despair over their so-called walled garden. Oh my, what are schools to do? Gosh, how are we to deal with a proprietary ebook format? Guess what, I don’t care about Apple’s so called walled garden when it comes to the new textbook initiative. Some have decried the fact that adopting an an iBook textbook will lock a K-12 school into a particular format. When schools buy a textbook K-12 schools they often buy sets of textbooks from a particlar publisher so they are in a sense locked into a walled publisher garden. They will use them until the are worn and in some case terribly out of date. The fact is, the new iBook textbooks could reduce book costs, possibly keep them more up to date than print,  and in the process give students a much richer educational experience by having an iPad.

I agree with  Buster Heine from Cult of the Mac observations that Apple’s move will enable people like me to share our expertise with a potentially large audience and maybe make a few bucks at the same time. Am I concerned that it is limited to the iPad? No. Heck, my university is a Microsoft colony that basically pays lip service to us Mac users. I’m willing to create educational products that may only work on particular hardware (at this point) and might not even be used by my students. For me it’s about the creative process and desire to explore new ways to help students learn.

The propriety file format argument is a red herring  that doesn’t hold water in the publishing industry. If they deem it important, textbook publishers have ported their textbooks to multiple formats. Just examine the various platforms that Pearson, McGraw Hill, etc. publish their textbooks in. Unless they’ve been barred from doing so, textbooks from these publishers won’t be exclusive to Apple iBook format.

Tech pundits should really move beyond this old and tired “walled garden” arguement. It really is matter of choice. If you want open, go for it. If you want an Apple experience, adopt it. Pundits, quit trying to demonize one paradigm over the other.

A Portable Office

Because my teaching, research and much service work is done online, I split my time between my university and home offices. Doing so means having my work accessible no matter where I am, and whether I’m online or offline. I have been a big proponent and user of cloud services. But lacking ubiquitous and free wireless throughout my hometown, constraints are placed on my use of cloud stored documents. This is why I like the approach Apple is taking with iCloud, storage and “syncing” across all of my devices. The only issue with iCloud at this point is that it does not replicate Dropbox-like synching. Docs created on my MacBook Air do not automatically sync to my iMac. Until Apple comes up with true device-to-device synching, I’ll rely on a local, but portable storage system.

To get my work done, I use a 350 GB external drive that is slightly bigger than a deck of cards. This is backed-up automatically once a week to my home office iMac and another external drive. Yes, three backups. I keep all my university work on the external drive and back up the documents to my university office iMac. This may not be solution for all, but it works for me.

My 11″ MacBook Air is a joy to use, full-size keyboard, solid-state storage wrapped in an ultra-thin case. Though some might think it overkill, my portable office includes an iPad. Kicking back with the iPad makes long form reading much more enjoable. Add a Bamboo stylus and its free app and you’re set for serious notetaking. Fire up the $4.99 “GoodReader“  to highlight and annotate that “stack” of journal articles needed for  projects I’m working on. My iPhone 4s is a fantastic device with versions of my productivity apps, location aware reminders, and of course Siri, my digital assistant.

Apps are certainly important, and that’s where Apple’s controlled ecosystem works for me. Apple’s iWork suite is available across all my devices. Evernote is used to capture, what else, notes, and especially items from the web. Ominifocus is my project management software and ToDo integrates with iCal to handle my to do lists. These  apps sync across all my mobile devices and home office desktop.

My portable office is neatly stowed in a STM Bags Xtrasmall Scout bag. The Xtra-small is plenty big to handle the MacBook Air and an iPad. Two front pockets hold keys, iPhone, external drive, power brick for the Air, and stylus. A zipped pocket is provided, with a quick-open full size pocket on the back to slip a few papers in. I also own the vertical style bag when just wanting to travel with my iPad. Though this approach won’t work for all, it has been a near-perfect solution for me.

High-Impact Activities: If you value it, they will come

In the movie “Field of Dreams” the lead character kept hearing the refrain, “Build it and they will come”. Delivering a new course or designing new programs is only the first step in making them successful. Faculty have to be actively involved in showing why, in this case, high-impact activities, are important. Deep learning is a feature of a high-impact activity and is accomplished by

• Working on a paper or project integrating ideas or information from various sources
• Including diverse perspectives in class discussions/writing
• Putting together ideas from different courses
• Discussing ideas with faculty members outside of class
• Discussing ideas with others outside of class
• Analyzing the basic elements of an idea, experience, or theory
• Synthesizing and organizing ideas, information, or experience
• Making judgement about the value of information
• Applying theories to practical problems or in new situations
• Examining the strengths and weaknesses of you own views on a topic or issue
• Trying to better understand some else’s views by imagining their perspective
• Learning something that changed how you understand an issue or a concept

Source: Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Rick Shoup, George D. Kuh, and M. J. Schwarz,(2008) “The Effects of Discipline on Deep Approaches to Student Learning and College Outcomes,” Research in Higher Education 49, no. 6: 469–494.

I spent several minutes examining the graph below graph relating senior participation in high-impact activities to average importance faculty place on the experience from the the Association of Colleges and Universities. If you value them, they will come …

Source: http://www.neasc.org/downloads/aacu_high_impact_2008_final.pdf

What faculty think and value matters when it comes to student participation in high-impact activities. Data from the 2007 National Student Survey of Engagement and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement plotted in the figure above shows a positive relationship between faculty the importance faculty place on high-impact activities and strident participation. If we as educators want to make a positive difference in student’s lives, we need to express the importance of the experience. Simply offering an opportunity does not necessarily mean students will choose to engage in an activity unless they know it brings positive, personal benefits. Educators need to demonstrate the relvancy of the experience and net benefits gained  to encourage student participation. The importance of these activities can be accomplished through the advising process, course-level discussion, programmatic requirements, or  personal demonstration and modelling.

Another interesting feature of this graph is the slight change in the activity students participated in and faculty importance. Study abroad experience has the highest participation among faculty who on average who believe it to be very important. Having been involved in all three high-impact activities as a faculty, I personally attest to the importance of students engaging people from other cultures while living in their country. Spending a semester immmersed in another culture can be life changing for both students and faculty. It is an activity of highest impact and should be actively promoted.

References:

Kuh, G.D. (2008) High-Impact Educational Practices. Association of American Colleges and Universities. Washington. 35 p. (Source)

How Twitter is impacting my productivity

I generally have my Twitter feed running, even while I’m writing. At times it can be distracting, but with a 27″ monitor, it can sit in my peripheral vision, barely intruding. Today I noticed a tweet from Geographical Magazine (@GeographicalMag) alerting followers to their new iPhone and iPad app. Without hesitation I clicked on the link to the iTunes preview page. I rarely turn down free apps related to geoscience and so it was with this one. I retweeted @GeographicalMag‘s original tweet while installing and making an in-app purchase. Everything went so smoothly that I began writing a review of the app. Geographical Magazine thanked me for the retweet. I tweeted them of getting the app, the desire to write a review, and need for permission to use  screen caps. Approval came a few minutes later.

The app review will hopefully be up in the next day or so. My experience today shows how social media, and especially Twitter, is impacting the way some of us do our work.  I’m thankful for tools like Twitter that can initiate a conversation between publishers and end users so easily (especially between London, England and Stevens Point, WI) to get their work done.

Technology Use on Campus

Via: Online Colleges Guide

Learning Styles Don’t Exist

LIke many educators, I was exposed to and became a proponent of the theory of learning styles. However as I’ve dug into the pyschology behind it, the less I’m believing. This video by Professor Daniel Willingham sheds light on why learning styles is a myth.

Looking Back at the Virtual University

Like in many other states, higher education in Wisconsin is enduring budget cuts in order to address state budget deficits. Campuses throughout the state system are struggling to adapt to a reality that has been slowing evolving over decades, the transition from state supported to state assisted higher education. For example, only 17 percent of my home institution budget is from state support.

I was re-reading about the Virtual University in a report from a joint Educom/IBM roundtable that included the following about the future of higher education in 2007:

Financing in 2007

• The economics of supply and demand in the new competitive environment keep the costs of basic courses and programs low.
• Unique offerings garner higher incomes for their providers.
• In addition to faculty salaries, institutional resources are expended on course materials, instructional technologies, and academic support. Some or all of those may be purchased from other higher education institutions and from private providers. The proportion of the budget allocated to faculty salaries is declining.
• The move away from contact hours and fixed-term courses requires new approaches to tuition.
• The move away from site-based educational delivery has required different kinds of capital investments for infrastructure.
• Educational funding now follows the learner rather than the institution.
• Because employers have continued to reduce their numbers of core, benefited employees in favor of part-time workers or contracted/outsourced services, most students pay directly for the education they need.
• Because more students are in the workforce than in the initial college-going population, more students pay directly for the education they need.
• Public institutions no longer receive a substantial amount of state funding. Revenue sources include tuition, contracts with employers and other agencies of state government for training, sale of courses and courseware to other institutions, and low-interest state loans.

DISCUSSION: Financing Models for a New Higher Education

In the 50 years following World War II, public support for higher education has become inextricably linked with the financing of higher education degrees. If the virtual university realizes its projections, will public support expand to meet it? Some experts argue that because much of the projected demand for modularized work-, home-, or technology-based learning is expected to be greatest among adults, those adults’ education need not be subsidized by public funds. The argument asserts that if the benefit accrues to the individual, then the funding of that person’s education should be the obligation of the person or the employer. Carried to its conclusion, that financial strategy could lead to the privatization of graduate-level programs in fields like engineering, business, health, and, possibly, education.

Current financial investments in education do not view it as a lifelong enterprise encompassing all levels of employment. As Rick Heydinger has noted, today the largest amount of federal money earmarked for education and training is spent on those seeking employment–a small portion of the population. Corporations tend to spend their money on high-level executives, which again represents only a small portion of the working population. The least amount of money is spent on the largest segment of the population: those working in middle management, lower-management, or entry-level positions. These are key target groups to be served by the virtual university.

In considering other financial options that might emerge during the next decade, it is possible that public support will shift from public institutions to private and proprietary institutions. That shift would be stimulated by the current negative impressions of the responsiveness of public education, but also as a consequence of new funding mechanisms. At the state level, student-carried vouchers may substitute for today’s territorial franchises. In the virtual university environment, in which there are no geographic or time boundaries, today’s system of funding the institution rather than the individual will make less and less sense. Proprietary and corporate institutions–with their willingness to rethink the general education component, with their greater employment and pay-scale flexibility, and with their less diffuse governance model–may be more competitive. Even if public institutions respond in kind, simple mathematics suggests that the increasingly constrained state dollars will continue to be divided among more organizations.

Those most interested in serving the learner or consumer advocate abandoning the traditional subsidy of higher education’s institutions in favor of funding students directly through vouchers. Such an approach allows funding to be market driven rather than the result of politics. When the market is unwilling to pay for an activity, it is jettisoned and costs decrease; this is a possible outcome for unsponsored research and general education, which are not always supported by consumers. Overall, the result may be a more streamlined, cost-effective, responsive higher education system delivering just-in-time, outcomes-based education.

——-

When was it written? The Virtual University By Carol A. Twigg and Diana G. Oblinger A Report from a Joint Educom/IBM Roundtable, Washington, D.C. November 5-6, 1996 http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/html/nli0003.html

And where are we in 2011? The course we are on has been set for decades. Higher education in some states has been slow to adapt and is feeling a greater shock than needed to declining state resources. Rethinking the institution that is a university in a physical and intellectual sense is required of us.

Online Course Design Pitfall #3: Insist on being the “sage on the stage.”

The Faculty Focus site and newsletters are a favorite of mine, always something useful can be found to enrich teaching and your students learning. The following is excerpted from St. Germain, E. (2011) “Five Common Pitfalls of Online Course Design” Faculty Focus. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-common-pitfalls-of-online-course-design/ last visited 12/14/2011

“In the old model of education, the instructor stood on the podium and served as the students’ revered and primary access point to the desired knowledge. Today, your students may be Googling your lecture topic while you speak and finding three sources that update or improve upon your presentation. The Web provides instantaneous access to an enormous volume of opinions, commentary, and knowledge related to your topic. As a result, your role is now more of a content curator—the one who prunes and trains the branches that extend from your expertise out into the world. The Web enables interdisciplinary links, associations, relationships, and openness. Your course should be a place where students come to participate in the connections that can be made between your subject and the outside world. Build these bridges into your online course materials, and become a facilitator of these important connections.”