Liveblog @mathvermeulen #JustDoIt #vovpitstop @vovnetwerk

Liveblog Mathias Vermeulen Ode aan Angus

(Great keynote, capturing the audience first, coming to business with strong ideas)

Lang leve technologie!

Technologie is (ahem)

• ·       Ons LMS
• ·       Ons eLearningmodules
• ·       Onze course vending machine

MacGyver is biggest inspiration of @mathiasVermeulen

Fabulous learning is developed by thinking ‘What would MacGyver do?”

·       Find what is out there, and use it to your own advantage and needs!

·       L&D is a party for everyone: becoming best friends with IT. HR, L&D

·       “Ik ben een bricoleur”

Zwitsers zakmes

• ·       xAPI – LRS
• ·       VR/AR
• ·       Games (bury me my love – try it, text but serious game on Syria)
• ·       Mobile
• ·       AI and chatbots

Don’t worry be crappy (Guy Kawasaki)

Try out tools, set aside time (e.g. Friday afternoon) to test, think, come up with ideas on learning solutions.

Think ahead

• ·       New people (we are good in this)
• ·       More (what can we do to train our people)
• ·       Apply (e.g. performance support when they need it: just-in-time learning)
• ·       Solve (again, take time to learn what is out there)
• ·       Change (produce a lean learning approach)

Using Somebody app at #eMOOCs2015 conference? Art & communication

Would you be willing to use the Somebody app at an academic learning conference? Being able to connect with people you know, through strangers? Getting more conversations going? I would, so I wonder whether the Somebody app could be used regularly during the eMOOCs2015 conference in Mons, Belgium (18 - 20 May 2015).

Like everyone, I have my own chosen key artists. They inspire me, something in me aligns with the art they produce, and I turn to their work/ideas when I feel in need for energy or difference. One of these artists is Miranda July. To me she is a core artist, a living artist enabled to turn everyday life into art in a natural, flowing way.

This morning I got an e-mail update from Miranda's mailing list, telling me the Somebody app was back to be tested (iPhone and Android enabled). The somebody app brings people together in an unexpected way. By using the app, you can share ideas or bring messages across from you to another person, but via a third person - the Somebody. This turns any conversation into open data, open communication, open resources... I find that a wonderful idea.

In many conferences I attend I have a mixed feeling of closeness and emptiness. Sometimes I know a lot of people, and that makes me feel welcomed, at other times I feel the odd one out, and I can have trouble mixing in with the other academics and practitioners. It depends on my day, the jet lag, my self-esteem at that moment, the conference atmosphere... context is always multi-layered.

The reason I like this Somebody app is because it stimulates conversation = exchanging ideas, it brings people together = networking, and it uses technology in a human way. It has a lot of parallel with online learning in this contemporary world. So... would you want to use it?
The app has another similarity to online learning, and particularly MOOC: the numbers threshold. In order for it to work with bewildering wonder, enough people must be using it in the same community, and gps enabled smartphones must be available and used.

Nevertheless, I want to try it. Here is a video on how the Somebody app works, wrapped in a short movie directed and written by Miranda July... I love it.

  

Spaced learning through #mobile apps work wonderfully

Mobile learning is an integral part of any contemporary training strategy ... or should be by now. The toughest challenge however is to build a toolkit of mLearning options that cater to the variety of learning that needs to be done in an institution/corporation.

In the last couple of weeks I have been looking at ways to offer solutions for spaced learning. An options that allows your learners to stay up-to-date with specific content that must be delivered multiple times for immediate memorization.

For those not sure about the spaced learning effect, I embedded a graph provided by Retenda who rock in spaced learning http://www.retenda.com/ and how their spaced reminders effected retention.

A classroom option, before giving the mobile option
Before sharing the mobile option, it makes sense to understand the complete dynamic of the principle of spaced learning. In classrooms you can create a perfect setting to get spaced learning going. A wonderful synthesis with lots of information is shared here by the Innovation Unit of the Monkseaton High School. They have put together a publication outlining all the steps to integrate spaced learning with inquiry based learning for optimal memory results.

The spaced learning mobile apps
Now this becomes more difficult with learners in a corporate setting, as you do not have that many face-to-face moments... but this is where the mLearning options come in. With these mobile options you can deliver the content that needs to be memorized through mobile apps, with algorithms that enable those questions that were not answered correctly (yet) to be repeated for that particular user.

It is a great way to provide any content that is cross institutional/corporate like for instance first aid, or security guidelines, or new guidelines overall.

The app below offers a strong desktop and simplified mobile option:

http://fullrecall.com/

The next one's is an open source spaced learning option which is cross platform:

http://ankisrs.net/

http://mnemosyne-proj.org/

It takes some time to get things organized, but it is well worth integrating it in your overall mLearning.

Tracking your #mobile data journey with #Singly

Keeping track of all the good content I come across while I am surfing the internet has never been my forté. Although I bookmark, make annotations ... after a short time the only thing I remember is that I did see something about something somewhere. So any solution that can provide me with some automated logbook is just the thing I am looking for.
While I am following Tin Can which is unraveling the personal learning path chaos as mentioned in a previous blogpost, I recently came across the Locker Project, which was the runner up for the commercial data idea of Singly.

The starting point of the locker project, and as such Singly is simple: a locker is a container for personal data, which gives the owner the ability to control how it's protected and shared. It retrieves and consolidates data from multiple sources, to create a single collection of the things you see and do online: the photos you take, the places you visit, the links you share, contact details for the people you communicate with, and much more. From this idea Singly became a reality. Singly takes all the applications and tools that are based in the cloud and offers an API to get meaningful interactions, data, connections from it.

If you are a mobile developer, you can take the Singly app and transform it into a data driven, socially connected, cloud, mobile app that fits your content or interaction needs. Sounds cool!

And if you embed this type of app in a MOOC learning environment, you would be able to filter out the MOOC related data easily (and automated) via hashtags or tags in general, allowing all your MOOC content to be open to the public, yet filtered for the MOOC audience at the same time. That sounds great!

What this brings to mind is more semantic learning. Because if the data I collect is collected, and meaningfully classified for further processing (e.g. keywords in relation to my personal keywords, appreciations of people I am connected with, discussions of peers ....) ... it will enable me to get more tailored, personally relevant information my way. For let's face it, I am never going to be able to keep up with all the content which is created on the web, nor will I be able to critically analyse everything myself. So in some way an automated critical screener needs to be put into place for me to be able to keep on top of what I am interested in, while also enabling me to feel comfortable data wise (nothing simple about that).
The privacy is something I am not sure about. Because what Singly does is take care of all your profiles (which also means it knows all my profiles if I let it... not sure how this makes me feel yet). Currently they enable data gathering and filtering from a number of online tools you can see the list here.

If you are a mobile developer, have a look at the iOS SDK, Android SDK, and open source. And if you built a learning app using singly, let me know!

To get an idea of all the challenges behind Singly, a presentation by Simon Murtha-Smith (one of the co-founders of Singly) below, looking at how Singly works (some coding, some references to OAuth...):

#Mobile #Moodle plugins available for download

Great news for all of us Moodle users. Carlos Kiyan and many other contributors have released their plugins for mobile Moodle to the plugins repository.  

These two plugins started as one of the earliest Mobile Moodle projects (back in 2010: Moodle4iPhone). The two new themes can be downloaded and applied to your Moodle site (they support Moodle 2.4 and tablet or smartphones compatible with iPad and Android tablets or iPhone/iPodtouch/Android 4.x devices.

• Moodle2Mobile: https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_moodle2mobile
• Moodle2Tablet: https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_moodle2tablet

This release follows a beta testing round that was announced in November 2012. 

The future of #HigherEd and #apps & #web two free report by Pew

The American Pew research center publishes a wide variety of human research topics. On many occasions these reports are linked to educational technology or trends, which is great when you are interested in training/education with innovative technologies.
Two reports that caught my attention were
The future of higher education : "tech experts believe market factors will push universities to expand online courses, create hybrid learning spaces, move toward ‘lifelong learning’ models and different credentialing structures by the year 2020. But they disagree about how these whirlwind forces will influence education, for the better or the worse".
While everyone knows by now that the future of higher ed is in a fast evolving state, and giving rise to a lot of new initiatives, the results of this report are of interest. Mentioning MOOCs, more particular the xMOOC kind: "as of mid-2012, Coursera’s massively open online courses (MOOCs) were provided free to its students—enabling unfettered, global access for millions to engage with some of the country’s most prestigious universities. Other start-ups such as MITx, 2tor, and Udacity are attracting similarly staggering, six-figure student enrollments". 
And yes, I feel that as a university we all need to build a masterplan which incorporates strategic higher ed goals and practices to refocus and gather an educational, qualitative space within this global higher education global evolution.
This report is of interest as it shows that all of us have no clue, and at the same time we are all pointing towards different global ed future movements. Ranging from full online learning as the key factor to high prized face-to-face, old school appreciated learning. Overall the authors of the report conclude that experts expect more-efficient collaborative environments and new grading schemes; they worry about massive online courses and the shift away from on-campus life. Overall a nice read and food for thought.

Another report that is of interest for a paper I am writing is the one on the future of Apps and the Web: 
My interest in apps versus web resides in the fact that many apps or applications can be integrated into curricula or training as learning tools. The same can of course be said about the mobile web. But this dichotomy (which in my mind will become obsolete once technology allows us all to get full access no matter where or when via personal devices; which by that time will not even be called mobile, just learning devices at most). But for now as a teacher and trainer we still need to choose between mobile apps or mobile web to add specific learning options.
The report is also a nice read and I just take out the following excerpt as it links apps to controlled content versus content openness... which I feel is relevant for all learning future (no critical thinking without openness!): "Many responders challenged the structure of the apps-Web question. Among their arguments: The world ahead is not either apps or the Web. A more hybrid world is likely. Moreover, the tussle between controlled content and user experiences on the one hand and openness on the other hand will play out in other ways. As one anonymous writer put it: “Apps will continue, as will app stores, but they’ll continue to be mass-market outlets for lightweight products on the one hand, and very narrow vertical outlets for very specific platform-dependent professional tools on the other, while the entire middle-ground will continue to belong to the Web.”

WeFi: a nice way to stay connected globally, without cost

While traveling, many of us don't know where to find the nearest wifi spot, hence paying through the nose to get on the internet with our mobile devices (well, some of us, like me). Sometimes I know where the nearest hotspot is, but in many cases and especially in a foreign country, I need to really search intensely to get WiFi hotspot location information.

For all of us wanting to get to the nearest WiFi hotspot, there is a really nifty mobile software: WeFi. This easy to download application is available for Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android devices. It does not only show you where the nearest hot-spot is (a real easy to read map), it also puts newly found hotspots immediately on the worldwide map, hence updating the latest hot-spots as well. Look at the movie to find out more on the community based mapping of hotspots.

WeFi also automatically connects with hot-spots near you (but you can also not to go that route, by not putting your wifi on).

How to install it on your wifi-enabled phone and start? Simply go to www.wefi.com via your mobile internet and WeFi will recognize your operating system and send you to the download site.

Make your Joomla or Drupal learning environment mobile for any mobile device and for free... YES

While my focus was on the learning system of Moodle the last couple of days, there are also free and open source projects for other CMS's (Content Management System). Like the Osmobi initiative developed by Siruna (University of Ghent, Belgium spin-off).

Now let's say you are a learning manager in your organization or institute, and you have a Joomla and Drupal CMS. Your learners/students ask you (after buying an amazing array of different mobile devices) if they can access the learning content through their mobile phones (yes, that is how these things happen, we all know it - that is how it happened in my institute as well).
Than what do you do? Do you say 'no, to difficult', or do you take a chance with some easy to adapt (only tech stuff is choosing 'themes' and some minimal settings), fully ready package that enables access for a mind-blowing set of mobile devices? Well, of course you go for the second option!

If you are using a CMS or LMS for your educational organization or your company, it will definitely save you time and money to incorporate the Osmobi into your system and try it out. The developers have included a step-by-step tutorial, that makes it really simple to alter the application for your own needs.

Today I got a message from Frank Gielen, he is the CEO of Siruna (which developed Osmobi) a mobile application that turns your Drupal or Joomla CMS into a mobile platform. And it is for free! (thanks to the Belgian Government and some commercial partners).

The added advantage of this mobile application, is that it incorporates an intelligent layer that recognizes your mobile device and as such redesigns the layout to fit its mobile needs (size of screen, operating system...). So ANY mobile will be recognized! AND what is even more wonderful: in case your mobile device is recognized, but not yet supported by the system, the system itself will go and look for the necessary data on the web to enable optimized access for that mobile device. Afterward this new information is added to the central information of the application.

Here is the link to the tutorial, and for those who want to see an overview of the application, look below.

iPhone/iPod/Moode: one click to Moodle button

Some of our volunteer testers of the iPhone/iPod/Moodle web-application have indicated that they struggled a bit with having to login again each time they went out of the application. The team has enabled easy access by offering a 'home button' that can be put on your iPhone/iPod screen and with which you can simply login with one click.

Hope this helps!

visualizations galore for Academic, Personal and Business Intelligence

In this increasingly data related world, visualizing your research is important. There are lots of old school ways (Excel, SPSS...) which give straight forward data in correct (rather square) graphics, but now you can add some extra 'Umph' to your complete data overview.

The online analytics blog: Juice Analytics (which features a lot of free tools and open source apps) just released a wonderful post on analytics applications that will pull your data into the new visualization era.

Two data applications that are mentioned in the Juice analytics blog caught my eye: the IBM's many eyes one and the mobile data application RoamBI. The latter is only available for the iPhone mobile device (a pity).

Many eyes: is a really easy to use visualization application that enables you to quickly put your data in a visualization AND interact with people in the familiar 2.0-way. If you are into the whole social media feel, this application feels familiar.

The RoamBI app allows you to show statistics on the go or roam through them as you yourself are on the road. The visuals are compact, but you can slide through them in a nice way. But to be comprehensive and keep an overview the desktop applications will be advisable, but to keep in touch with data while on the go, this mobile app gives a nice extra.

For both applications you need to register to get going.

In the meanwhile I am procrastinating as I should be tackling spss again...

Layar the first mobile augmented reality browser

Augmented reality is the natural next step off technological mobile applications. Augmented reality gives you just that bit more information when and where you need it.

Layar is a Dutch app, build by Claire Boonstra, Raimo van der Klein and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald from the sprxmobile company. Layar builds on the Android platform. It gives the mobile user immediate feedback on what the camera of his mobile is 'looking' at. The extra information is displayed in layers. You can switch between layers as well.

The examples mentioned are mainly commercial (estate prices, restaurants, hotels...). But this application might be very interesting for educational purposes, to get learners out in the street and amongst the topics they need to learn. Now that is ubiquitous learning if you ask me. And, if you would link augmented reality to the semantic web, we would probably have something like the fourth dimension. Cool idea.

At this moment Layar is available for the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in Android Market for the Netherlands. Other countries will be added later.

Want to hear more about Layar and see it in action? Well lookie here:



It does feel as though the world is becoming less and less surprising though. If everything can be viewed and found... there is not much left for exploration. Unless you are looking for a rundown, very dangerous ghetto to track down a homeless person... those people and areas will probably be the last to be added. I hope humanity will build star-travel-ships soon... need to have some surprises in my life.

Hashtags in Twitter and walls, fountains, ways to keep everyone's remarks in the picture

It is Friday, my head is already moving into weekend-drive and so I was looking for something small and nice to share. Twitter is used by a lot of people at this point. Some of its use is focusing on real-time feedback from participants, learners, students... So I bundled a few of the nice twitter applications that let you stay on top of everything that is happening in and during your event (when hastagged). If you are emerged in Twitter, you will have been using all of these and more, but otherwise, these apps can bring an 'aaaaahhhaaaa'-feeling to any event you are hosting or participating in.

First of all, no matter what type of course, event... you are moderating or presenting Twitter can add to your overall communication. But as such all of the students, participants and stakeholders need to be in synch with the event. So you need to set up a hashtag that people can use in order for other twitters to find relevant information that is posted for the event. If you want to get a feel of what is going on, put in a hashtag at this #hashtags search site to see what comes up (e.g. #eLearning or let's say you are presenting at Brussels Internet Convention in 2070; then a possible hashtag would be: #BIC2070 or #BIC70) and who is using those hashtags.

Some of these applications to ask your twitter account, so if you did not set it up yet, you might want to.

Let's say you are going to present something at a conference, meeting... or just during a course that you want to liven-up with some extra interactivity; you will want to make a hashtag for your event AND you will want to keep track of everything that is being posted on this (your) subject. Keeping on top of all the hashtags will be easier if you use any of these tools because they centralize everything in one and the same page or area:

Tweetchat
If you want to stay on top and interact with the people that send you comments through hashtags, you might want to use tweetchat as it enables you to interact just like twitter (comments, favorite). I like this one for if I have more time to interact behind the computer or mobile. All you need to do is open tweetchat and put in the hashtag and off you go.

twitterfountain
Another option is Twitterfountain (Dutch based): this is a nice app if you want to add a widget to a central page and still be able to stay in touch with the relevant hashtagged remarks that are published. You just adjust the widget to what you want to see, copy it and paste it into any page or area you want. It can also add Flickr photos, so if you are having a multimedia presentation, you can ask people to send their pictures immediately to a dedicated flickr-account and .... those pictures will show as the background of the tweets (a bit busy though).

Twitterwall
Another nice application you can use for this purpose and which is less stressful for the eyes (in case you have a lively presentation) is twitterwall, it is easy and straight forward: you just go to twitterwall, put in your tag, if prefered you add a URL that will be shown as a background and ... you get the latest tweets on the topic. For example this link based on the 'eLearning africa' tag.