Apple’s textbook disruption a bit of a dud? Where’s the pedagogy?

Posted on January 20, 2012 by admin

Apple promised a major announcement yesterday having to do with textbooks. Turns out that what they were so excited about was their new version of the iBooks application for the iPad and a new Mac application for creating “interactive textbooks”. No surprise there; this was what the rumor mills had figured out long ago. The intention of all this is to make the iPad a viable, and even preferred, platform for a whole new type of textbook – the textbook that is a tool and engages the student in a range of activities etc. etc. And it all sounds so very exciting! I’ve had a chance now to play around with Apple’s new iBooks app and the iBook Author application and am sadly underwhelmed. I’m not the only one. The education blogs, op-eds, etc., are ablaze today with reactions to Apple’s “bold” move. Most of the complaints that I’ve seen focus on the iPad requirement and general economic implications; i.e. the kids who really need iPads can’t afford them, ties with big textbook publishing firms, etc. – all hurdles that are easily overcome where there’s a real will to do something. I’ll leave that discussion to others. The bigger problem that I see here is that what Apple has served up (I’m mostly talking about the iBook Author app) is didactically and pedagogically uninteresting and ill-suited to learners’ educational needs in contemporary and future society.

The exciting thing about using highly mobile information and communication (ICT) devices, like smartphones, tablets, etc., for education is that it obviates the concept of the “classroom”. Mobile devices suggest an experiential approach to learning because there’s nothing to stop learners from taking their resources (i.e. their device) and situating themselves in contexts that relate to what they are learning. A truly interactive textbook that relies on a mobile device would seize on that opportunity, right? So, does the iPad, as a platform for interactive textbooks, achieve that? To tell the truth, it could (creative minds can always make technology do what they want it to do); but, as is, it doesn’t nearly as well as it could or should.

One of the immediate things that I noticed when exploring the iBook Author app is that the interactive features that it allows are very limited. You can put links in the text, use various sorts of media, and questions that users respond to. But, here are some serious limitations:

  • You can’t put a link into a question that users are intended to respond to. One of my first thoughts was that I could, for example, put a link to Google Maps coordinates and ask users to go to that spot and answer the question based on what they find there. Cool! But, no; can’t do that.
  • As far as I can tell, questions are multiple choice only! How about enabling some reflective response? Nope; can’t do that.
  • Wouldn’t it be cool to embed some social interaction in my interactive textbook? Nope; can’t do that.

All I see in Apple’s new offering is, basically, the ability to create textbooks with buttons to push. So I’ll say again, I am seriously underwhelmed. What I would’ve liked to see is the ability to generate experiential activities that integrate with the textbook, the ability to embed and center social interaction in and around the textbook, the ability for learners to create a personalized resource that documents and maps their learning through interaction with the textbook. These are critical aspects of contemporary informal learning environments that formal education can benefit from greatly. I don’t think that it would’ve been overly problematic to enable such features in the iBook Author application. With those kinds of features the announcement could’ve heralded a seriously disruptive technology. Perhaps we’ll see them in future versions but will it be too late for Apple by then?

Posted in Education, ICTs, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | 4 Comments

Qualcomm and X Prize Foundation offer $10 million for functioning medical “tricorder”

Posted on January 13, 2012 by admin

Qualcomm and Peter Diamandis’ X Prize Foundation have announced a new X Prize for a functioning device akin to the medical Tricorder featured on the science fiction television series Star Trek. At stake is a $10 million prize for the first device that meets the requirements as described by the coordinators. X Prize initiatives are long-term initiatives meant to spur creative thinking around a somewhat specific set of issues. As such, the X Prizes provide an interesting opportunity to explore future possibilities with students, researchers, etc. This particular X Prize, with its links to science fiction is an especially good opportunity to also consider the impact of the imaginative arts on constructions of the future; a topic that I discussed in this previous post (also see Cory Doctorow’s article on the same topic).

One of the interesting things with this prize is that, on Star Trek, the “tricorder” has always been a somewhat mystical device capable of many things. Essentially, it is a device with many sensors that is able to gather and process vast amounts of data to inform the users about “stuff”. The “tri-” in its name refers to the three basic functions of a tricorder; geological functions, meteorological functions, and biological functions. That’s a pretty awesome range of capabilities for one device (albeit that some of the functions required an add-on device).

The X Prize version of the tricorder is expected to be considerably more specific in terms of its capabilities than the Star Trek tricorder ever has been. The X Prize is specifically looking for a medical tricorder (i.e. the Star Trek tricorder’s biological functions), that is described as:

… a tool capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases. Metrics for health could include such elements as blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature. Ultimately, this tool will collect large volumes of data from ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements.

This is certainly not the first time that we look to Star Trek for visions of preferred futures. The original cell phone was inspired by the Star Trek “communicator”, as has been fairly well documented. A range of other Star Trek technologies have influenced scientists and researchers, such as the “transporter”, capable of moving matter over vast distances almost instantaneously.

The authors of the Star Trek television series had the luxury of being able to come up with fantastic technology without being burdened with the task of having to figure out how to make it work. But, in the process, they continue to inspire scientists and researchers to push the limits of their fields to make these things real. It’s an excellent reminder that innovation is a collaborative process that requires a combination of imagination, creativity, and knowledge. There’s a place for everyone in this complex process and we never really know where the breakthrough, that will move an idea significantly closer to realization, will come from. So, gather all the minds; young and old, learned and learning, etc., and let’s get cracking on this thing. I, for one, can’t wait to be diagnosed by a tricorder.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Leapfrogging development, Technology foresight | 1 Comment

“Learning” is built into the technology!

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin

If I had a “quote of the day” feature, this would be on it somewhere (italics are mine):

“Our charge was to accept the challenge of an Information Age and acknowledge, at the conceptual as well as at the methodological level, the responsibilities of learning at an epistemic moment when learning itself is the most dramatic medium of that change. Technology, we insist, is not what constitutes the revolutionary nature of this exciting moment. It is, rather, the potential for shared and interactive learning that Tim Berners-Lee and other pioneers of the Internet built into its structure, its organization, its model of governance and sustainability.” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 1)

Learning is not an after-market feature of these technologies; it is built in from the start! I think the authors are correct about this. Therefore, calling these technologies “learning technologies” is redundant.

From: Davidson, C. N. & Goldberg, D. T. (2009). The future of learning institutions in a digital age. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Internet, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | Leave a comment

New York Times crowd-sources futuring on computer technology

Posted on January 2, 2012 by admin

The New York Times is crowd-sourcing the projection of futures for computing. The NYT has set up an interactive timeline that allows readers to take part in a futuring activity on the computer technologies. The feature was published early in December, 2011, and the ability to add new predictions and vote on predictions is now closed. Readers can, however, still project the times that they think the technologies and developments being projected will be realized. This could be an indication of the emergence of some interesting new methods for futuring.

Posted in ICTs, Information Society, Internet, Technology foresight | Leave a comment

African musicians’ hilarious response to Geldof – Yes, we do know it’s Christmas!

Posted on December 29, 2011 by admin

Wow – a very popular post, this one!

Just to be clear, the original story is a joke.
If you’re looking for the actual song, you’re not going to find it.

Almost 30 years ago, Bob Geldof and friends famously posed the provocative question, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Now, according to the joke news site Hayibo, they finally have a response. A group of African musicians, calling themselves Plaster Cast, have released their single, “Yes, We Do!” The proceeds will be donated to the UK to fund instruction in discipline, literacy and contraception at British schools.

In the past, I’ve written a fair amount about international development and, at times, been especially critical of the way celebrities, like Bono, Madonna, etc., have injected themselves into development matters, plowing ahead with nothing but their limited understanding of complex issues and overcharged emotion for navigation; for example, Bono’s calls for a “Marshall Plan” for African countries with nary a clue of what the Marshall Plan actually entailed and how it sucked innovation from Europe to the US. So, I think this article is not out of place here.

I cannot hope to top the hilarity of the original article, so let suffice a few choice quotes to entice readers to follow the link below:

“… was [Geldof] just saying that Africans were stupid? Of course we knew it was Christmas.”

“Just because we don’t have Boney M or Christmas advertising in September doesn’t mean we are oblivious to it.”

“… it had taken a while for [Africans] to realise that it wasn’t actually an elaborate joke. ‘We kept waiting for them to laugh,’ [singer Boomtown Gundane] said, ‘But the punch-line never arrived.'”

“Gundane said he hoped that his involvement with the song would turn him into an expert on British politics and economics in the same way ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ had turned Geldof and Bono into the world’s leading experts on Africa.”

See the full article here on hayibo.com

Posted in Development | 2 Comments

Seems that the Internet isn’t as bad a place as some would have us believe

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

Some interesting research results are coming out that suggest that perceived problems concerning youths’ use of information and communication technologies (ICT) may not be as dire as has been suggested.

An article published in the most recent issue of the journal Pediatrics, describes a study conducted on “sexting”, i.e. “the transmission via cell phone, the Internet, and other electronic media of sexual images”. The authors found that the practice amongst 10-17 year-olds is far less than previous studies have suggested. It turns out that only 1% of youth have appeared in “sexually explicit” images that have been transferred electronically. Previous research put that figure as high as 20%.

Reynol Junco has been studying the relationship between Facebook use and student engagement. He recently published an article detailing some of his findings in the journal Computers & Education. Interestingly, Junco found that Facebook use, in and of itself, does not necessarily lead to poor educational outcomes, but rather; that it is the type of use that is more significant. See this excellent infographic explaining Junco’s research.

It seems then that some of the knee-jerk-reaction policies working against ICT in education that use things like sexting and Facebook “addiction” as justification may not be entirely warranted.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Internet, Technology foresight | Leave a comment