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Claire Keane
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@kentbrooks
More Moodle Association Membership Thoughts: Mountain Moot 2015
Here is some additional info about the Moodle Association Membership… All members will pay a tiered membership fee which will be collected and managed by an elected committee. Rates will be AU $100 – AU $10,000 per year. All (Moodle Association) members can then propose development projects, and then the Association will regularly go through a systematic voting process to determine the top…
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Mountain Moot 2015: The Little Moot that Could
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think can – The Little Engine NOTE: Wow I am slow getting this out. Too many projects. Hope it is still useful. Here it goes… As best as I can tell, a Mootineer is one who helps run the Mountain Moodle Moot. Our good friend Dan Case, the organizer and Lead Mootineer, has done an amazingly creative job of turning $650 in seed money into a…
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So you forgot how to do Algebra…& someone stuck you in #Chemistry I? Worried? Don’t be. Check out these 4 videos to get you ready for class http://bit.ly/1CSyYB9 #stem #stemeducation
Mountain Moodle Moot 2015 Twitter Game Rules of Engagement
Once again this year #mtmoot 2015 “Twitterpalooza” will give conference attendees the chance to win gift cards and Moot Bucks through social media challenges. In addition, participants can gain entries into a grand prize drawing. The goal of Twitterpalooza is to provide conference attendees additional opportunities to collect/archive/share notes, make meaningful social collisions, and have a…
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The Magic of the Conference Hashtag: an #INNMA Primer
The Magic of the Conference Hashtag: an #INNMA Primer
For me Twitter is another way for this “wee acorn” to mingle with the “giant oaks” of my profession.
What is a Hashtag?
In general a hashtag is a word or phrase used in social media conversations which begin with a pound (#) sign and which are written without spaces in between. i.e. #kentbrooks. The main use of a hashtag is to bring conversations on the same topic into a single thread…
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I always feel like somebody’s watching me
-Rockwell
Keeping up with all of the new technology coming at us is a difficult if not impossible task. If you watch this blog you know that I have been privileged to attend some amazing events and participate in some amazing activities which has helped me keep up with some of what is happening in the technology field. Once again, after attending the Hewlett Packard Higher Academic Summit, I can tell a similar story. I had a tremendously eye opening week and all I can say is that some of the things I have seen as hypothetical, fiction and futuristic are here. I cannot tell you about most of the event because of a non-disclosure agreement but will share some observations about some products I had the chance to touch which are already on the marketplace. I will also add a few thoughts about the technology Disney now uses in their Florida resort and my opportunity to present with Berj Akin, CEO of Classlink, on our rollout of the LaunchPad personal cloud desktop at Casper College.
Immersive Technology
Immersive reality is getting very real even at the desktop. I have told some before my idea of good technology will be when I can watch on demand without an expensive monthly TV plan a holograph of football game of my choice without a screen cluttering my living room and it only costs me 99 cents. I finally think we are almost there.
During this trip I took an amazing virtual field trip through a human heart this week using HP’s Zvr Virtual Reality Display The display is sold with or without hardware and lets you view stereoscopic 3D content using included glasses. Using a laser pointing stylus I was able to reach into the screen and pull the heart toward me. It was like I could hold it on the end of a stick and observe the parts. With a click here and a click there I was able to touch a part of the heart and have a display window to the right show me the part I was pointing to on a 23.6 in display which puts out a 1080p image into each eye from the 1920×1080 screen. A few more clicks and I was able to take a trip inside and through the heart. Unbelievable.
The other product I was able to experience was the Hewlett Packard sprout which now brings us a machine that uses a touch mat and in-built 3D camera as its main controls. The keyboard and mouse are optional extras. The HP’s Sprout looks like an all-in-one PC with a couple of exceptions. Sitting on your workspace at the base of Sprout is a giant touch pad called a Touch Mat. It is a dual-purpose digital canvas on which images can be scanned and also manipulated. On top of the monitor is A 3D depth-sensing camera/scanner which records objects placed on the Touch Mat. The top cameras are able to scan physical objects placed below it, creating 3D models of them which can then be moved, rotated, resized, edited with the computer.
I placed my hand on the mat snapped a picture and immediately I was able to drag a digital bracelet which had already been scanned on top of the newly scanned hand and wrist. I was also able to change the color and texture of the bracelet. I can see a lot of uses for design in visual arts programs for example. I can also see some great applications for interactive video conferencing situations. According to the sprout website the unites are currently $1899.
The Personal Cloud Desktop
The final part of my trip was assisting Classlink CEO Berj Akin with a presentation/ discussion of the Casper College’s rollout of their personal cloud desktop product, LaunchPad.
We didn’t have a portal when I arrived at Casper College in 2011. We also had some serious budget constraints and other priorities when I arrived so the the portal and single sign on (SSO) options we explored…were not an option. We rolled out an instance of Moodle, our campus LMS, as a temporary portal which we called our Gateway. However, we knew our search was just beginning.
A one stop self serve environment has also been a desire. Our temporary Gateway (aka portal) mentioned above quickly headed where every portal seems to go. A cluttered collection of junk worse than that mess of a storage shed in your back yard. (My apologies to those highly organized people without this cluttered shed problem). Our search continued in 2013 and after doing a proof of concept with LaunchPad we moved students faculty and staff in August 2014 to “a personal cloud desktop” from ClassLink . See how it looks below:
LaunchPad has provided a single place to access core resources without having to use multiple logins. Currently those core resources are defined as:
WebAdvisor
Moodle
Gmail & related tools
Digium Switchvox (Phone)
Other resources for which Classlink has connectors already built numbers in the hundreds of applications and can be added at the users discretion to the default core services discussed above.
We recently worked with Classlink to add functionality which we are calling the Casper College Resource Library. This is an area that would provided access to resources tools etc specific to Casper College. I tell users to think of this as your Casper College “App Store” for the Casper College resources that you use everyday. The best part is:
If you want to add a link to the Library but your co worker doesn’t, you can add it and they don’t have to.
If you want quick and easy access to the campus forms but someone else doesn’t, it is easy to add it as a resource to your LaunchPad Desktop and they don’t have to.
You can create a virtual work space that allows you to work the way you want to work.
We started with 21 resources in the Casper College resource library and we can work with our Classlink to create more when you find a resource you would like added. If there is a login required to access a resource we can also work with our vendor to create a connector for single sign on (SSO) so that you do not have to remember “one more login” for that resource. Below is a link to a short video we created which introduces our users to steps they can take to begin customizing their work space.
http://youtu.be/xsLBJJcUlP4
In general we have found LaunchPad provides the following benefits:
Same “portal” for students and employees
Single Sign On (SSO) capabilities
New modern interface
Same entry point (portal) for for students and employees
Replaced our faculty staff Moodle Gateway (https://gateway.caspercollege.edu)
Replaced our student MyCC Gateway (http://my.caspercollege.edu)
Users are now able to manage their individual Google Apps password
Google mobile apps started working for users
Cool Tech On the Edge of Creepy
Now for a piece of my visit which is on the border of magically creepy. Upon checking at the Grand Floridian I was given something Disney calls a MagicBand. Forbes stated in a 2013 article that the MagicBand,
will make tickets, hotel keys, cash and credit cards as unnecessary for its visitors as pants are for Donald Duck
Indeed I discovered that the MagicBand was my passport to my room, purchasing food, and all else that is in the Disney proclaimed happiest place on earth. For purchases I did have the option to attach a credit card number to the account and band. I thought the wristband they gave me (shown below) interesting and so I began a quick search about the Disney rollout of the Magicbands.
As I learned more I kept thinking- creepy is now becoming normal. The one piece they don’t really tell you about at check-in is that the band also is used to track everything people do in the parks and personalize the experience for visitors. The two most common phrases in articles I read about the billion dollar MagicBands which were:
Orwellian
Mark of the Beast
The Orwellian adjective was popularized when the book “1984” was published in 1949 and discusses the official deception, secret surveillance and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. Other common terms coming from “1984” include Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5 and memory hole.
The Mark of the Beast is in reference the Bible’s Chapter of Revelation where the mark acts as a seal for the followers of Antichrist and the false prophet (the spokesperson for the Antichrist). The false prophet (the second beast) is the one who causes people to take this mark. The mark is literally placed in the hand or forehead and is not simply a card someone carries. The primary passage in the Bible that mentions the “mark of the beast” is Revelation 13:15-18. Other references can be found in Revelation 14:9, 11, 15:2, 16:2, 19:20, and 20:4.
The recent breakthroughs in medical implant chip and RFID technologies have increased interest in both Orwells 1984 and the Mark of the Beast spoken of in Revelation chapter 13. After my most recent experience in “the happiest place on earth” my thoughts really were going back to training earlier in my life on both 1984 and the Bible.
Many good teachers of Revelation disagree as to the exact form of the mark of the beast. However, it certainly seems that implanted chips, an ID card, a microchip, a barcode that is tattooed into the skin, or simply a mark that identifies someone as being part of an Orwellian society or faithful to the Antichrist’s kingdom is certainly possible with technologies we are seeing today.
Everyday is a learning experience. I am thankful for the opportunity to get to see new and innovative products and how it will impact what I doing as we continue to look for new and improved solutions for higher education.
More Background Reading
http://www.stuff.tv/news/hp-sprout-pc-3d-scanner-and-huge-tactile-touchpad
http://www.stuff.tv/news/ces-2015-hps-virtual-reality-display-lets-you-interact-3d-content-using-pulsing-laser-pointing#RTwX2ifZADmbTQhY.99
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31435752
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2860098/6-technologies-that-will-change-pcs-in-2015.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/12/news/la-trb-disney-mymagic-magicband-01201312
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/billion-dollar-bracelet-is-key-to-magical-kingdom.html
The Mouse is Watching You: Cool Tech On the Edge of Creepy I always feel like somebody’s watching me -Rockwell Keeping up with all of the new technology coming at us is a difficult if not impossible task.
Chromebooks and Server Chunking at 30 Below
Chromebooks and Server Chunking at 30 Below
You have to expose kids to interesting things to get them interested in interesting things
-Temple Grandin
I believe that philosophy goes beyond kids. All of us need to see interesting things if we are going to be interested in interesting things. I was just thinking that it was a very interesting two days for several of us from Casper College. Ten of us from CC attended a CDW Executive…
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You have to expose kids to interesting things to get them interested in interesting things.
-Temple Grandin
I was just thinking that philosophy goes beyond kids. All of us need to see interesting things if we are going to be interested in interesting things. It was a very interesting two days for several of us from Casper College(CC). Ten of us from CC attended a CDW Executive Briefing in Vernon Hills Illinois. To offset the bone chilling “30 degrees below zero” cold which actually closed Chicago schools our last day in town the CDW folks welcomed us warmly with open arms with an agenda that focused on:
CDW’s Lenovo Chromebook Offerings
Google’s Efforts in Higher Education
A Tour of the CDW Warehouse
An Overview of various CDW services for Higher Education
This all began about a month ago with a conversation we had with Dino Madsen, from our Medical Lab Sciences program. This conversation revolved around getting Chromebooks in the hands of his students to make sure they have consistent access to technology needed to successfully complete his program and to reduce the amount of money students must spend for textbooks. A 2013 GAO report tells us that more must be done to curb the rising cost of textbooks. Findings in that report include:
Efforts by publishers to disclose cost information to faculty have not impacted prices.
New textbook prices rose 82% between 2002 and 2012
Textbook costs are rising an average of 6% per year and approximately three times the rate of inflation.
The College Board says the average four year college student spends $1,200 a on books and supplies and that introductory texts often costs
One conversation led to another and soon we had formulated the idea of going to Chicago. We also determined it would be good to take a few of our faculty members interested in Chromebook initiatives along to meet with both CDW staff on the hardware side of the Chromebook discussion and with Lauren Harrison Google’s Higher Education Business Development Manager. We had faculty representation from Medical Lab Sciences, English and Theatre. We were supposed to have a math instructor, Matt Nickodemus go but he was involved in an automobile accident and was unable to attend. We are thankful he is recovering. I know he will do great things with this project.
On the IT side of things I learned about the CDW Technology Experience Labs. These labs allow you to test solutions before buying according to the CDW Demo Labs web site:
You can remotely access the lab on any device, any time, any place, to show how an application you are considering works, what a proposed back-end infrastructure looks like or how different components interact. With continual testing and evaluation needed I can see how this could be a useful service for many of us.
We also got a tour of the CDW warehouse. It was fascinating and I am glad that after ordering hardware from CDW over 20 years with 3 different institutions I got to see how they get product to us. One tidbit I learned during the warehouse tour that I didn’t know is that if your institution/ organization needs custom packaging such as providing special packing or adding a bag with a logo that you can ship the required materials and/or packing and they can accommodate your needs. Very customer oriented.
The overall experience in the warehouse was great and I particular noted signage all over the place about treating your customer right. It was good they provide such reminders to their employees throughout the facility. Since we were not allowed to take pictures inside the warehouse I am only going to mention one more thing from our tour of the organized mayhem that is the warehouse. I actively petitioned for one job during the tour (Remember me Dave Doucette)! They had to do some testing for a very remote deployment of some servers which were going in via parachute. To test they were chunking servers off the CDW warehouse. I knew when hearing this I had seen my calling flash before my eyes…imagine my business cards…
We also got our hands on a couple of Lenovo Chromebooks. We have 130ish non-Lenovo Chromebooks already deployed on campus and having the chance to compare and evaluate those devices will serve us well in the future.
A key part of the day was the conversation with Lauren Harrison of Google’s Higher Education Business Manager. Lauren provided an overview of Google philosophy, the Google Education Trust Resources and introduced Google Apps Partner Tempus Nova who provided our faculty a demo Google Google Apps. We also shared some examples of how some areas such as our Agriculture program is currently using Google Apps and how voice to text functionality in Google apps is already being used by some Casper College students to create draft content.
A few interesting items I tweeted during the session were as follows:
60% of students will work in jobs that do not exist yet @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege
40 Million students teachers and staff use Google Apps for Ed @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege #highered #education
Google for Education Trust webpage google.com/edu/trust @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege
70 of top 100 Universities have gone Google @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege
Going Google means adopting a culture that extends beyond the classroom walls: Its aboug openness, curiosity and working together -Jim Sill @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege
Chromebooks fit students on the go @CDWCorp @google @laurenaharrison @caspercollege
Talking about Google Apps & @caspercollege Agriculture program http://blog.kentbrooks.com/?p=881 @CDWCorp @laurenaharrison @google
A picture is worth a thousand words…
Applying what we learned…
With all the great discussion I began refining my thoughts about the reasons for doing what is often called a 1:1 Chromebook initiative. I have created my initial list…
Teacher to student and student to student collaboration should be seamless.
Teaching and learning shouldn’t be restricted to only those students who have access to technology.
Textbook cost should not be a factor limiting higher education class participation.
We can facilitate more timely and specific teacher feedback with the right tools.
This is a chance for students to create content for their personal digital footprint.
Reducing a students overall cost and/or student debt load is a moral responsibility for all in or related to higher education.
Along with that here is my list of challenges…
Managing logistics of getting devices in students hands at the lowest cost possible.
Upgrading bandwidth to handle the additional devices
Printing as some people are still tied to paper (I think this will change but it is our current reality
Parting Words
Thanks to the entire CDW crew, Lauren Harrison from Google and Tempus Nova for hosting us and teaching us. Having been a customer for 20 years I was more impressed by the company after this visit. I am not sure at this point what services or products we may use in the future, but we certainly learned alot about CDW services, Google and how we can better deploy technology services at Casper College. Dave Doucette, CDWG Director for Higher Education told us,
…it is extremely rare to have members of IT as well as faculty visit us in one group.
I would encourage every institution to take a field trip such as this …with faculty. It only makes sense to get them involved in building your vision for technology. We enjoyed eating Chicago deep dish pizza, Chicago style hot dogs and wood fired pizza, but it was during the wood fired pizza outing I became even more impressed by CDW as a company. Specifically during conversation while eating palatable pizza pie at Pizzaria Deville in Libertyville we were told,
“Oh you’re here to visit CDW….they are good corporate/ community citizens”
In this era of social media and negative corporate news, how can that not warm your soul a little…even at 30 below.
Chromebooks and Server Chunking at 30 Below You have to expose kids to interesting things to get them interested in interesting things. -Temple Grandin…
Signs on the Door at the College This sign reminded me that I have seen some very funny signs on doors at the institutions where I have worked.
Laptop is Still King for Work, but 28% of IT Pros Check Mobile Device before Using Bathroom in the Morning
We talk about the mobile revolution all the time, but a recent BYOD survey from TEKsystems begs to differ. It appears the old fashioned laptop is still tops for getting work done.
According to the survey the average IT professionals day is spent working from:
Laptops 67%
Smartphone 25%
Tablet 8%
Other interesting notes from the survey:
Sixty one percent (61%)would still choose a laptop if…
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Great Social Media Idea for Astricon 2014
Great Social Media Idea for Astricon 2014 #astricon2014 #astricon @astricon
Got an interesting email today from David Duffett, Director of Worldwide Asterisk Community, in an effort to create “Meaningful Social Collisions” at Astricon 2014 and what can I say I like it. They are proactively encouraging social conversations by attendees as shown in the text below. Creating a special graphic for social media users is very creative idea.
Before things get too crazy,…
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Speechification: A Career Life Lesson
Introduction
I was just thinking that I would tally the times I have had to “speechify” over the years,
OK…so I hope most of these have not been tedious or pompous per the definition above but I have had several opportunities to talk about various topics. The list below is mostly at conferences. There have been a boatload of additional Rotary, Kiwana’s Etc in addition to the ones listed…
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To Bee or Not to Bee...Interesting Things
You have to expose kids to interesting things to get them interested in Interesting things.
Temple Grandin
Never thought about this this way until hearing Temple Grandinspeak the other day, but I guess this project counts. Have we ever done bees beefore? Nope, but we have beekeeper friend helping us out as we are Wannbee beekeepers. Everyone is buzzing with excitement and beelieve me…we…
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Of Siri and Of Woodchucks
Of Siri and Of Woodchucks
My Dad, my brother and I had gone on a trip to Denver, staying there one night and continuing on to Springfield, my Dad’s home town, the next day. We spent several days in Springfield, but that’s a different story. On the way home is where this tale takes place.
We were almost to the halfway point of getting home and getting very bored. I pulled out the iPad and looked at the maps to see where…
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I had mentioned to some folks that all events for me since…..say 2001 had been a let down because of the lack of fire eaters and sword swallow ers. Can you imagine my excitement when at last nights event we had sword swallow ers, fire eaters and to top it off I got to help with the bed of nails at last nights Circus Under the Stars event. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words and I am still too excited to type…just go look at the gallery below.
Back to the topic…meaningful social collisions are still flying of the devices for Ellucian Live 2014. If you didn’t become engaged in the conversation here are some resources to help during your next conference or event:
Intro to Twitter for Attendees at the 94th Annual AACC 2014 Conference
10 Reasons to Tweet at a Conference
Could you Tweet that Please: Twitter Tips for Conference Presenters
8 Tips for Using Twitter to Create Engagement at a Conference
Here are the Top Twenty Tweeters (The Triple T Club) at Ellucian Live 2014 so far. If you haven’t followed some of these folks maybe now is the time. I would love to hear from you on your favorite, most useful or most insightful Tweet so far. Either Tweet me at @kentbrooks or post to the comments here.
Fire Eating and Tweeting at Ellucian Live 2014: Through April 9, 2014 I had mentioned to some folks that all events for me since.....say 2001 had been a let down because of the lack of fire eaters and sword swallow ers.
Top 20 Tweeters at Ellucian Live Through Sunday April 6, 2014
Meaningful social collisions are still flying of the devices at Ellucian Live 2014. If you haven’t become engaged in the conversation here are some resources to help:
Intro to Twitter for Attendees at the 94th Annual AACC 2014 Conference
10 Reasons to Tweet at a Conference
Could you Tweet that Please: Twitter Tips for Conference Presenters
8 Tips for Using Twitter to Create Engagement at a…
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My Favorite Tweets from Day 4 of #sxsw14
My Favorite Tweets from Day 4 of #sxsw14
My Favorite Tweets from Day 4 of #sxsw14
zach_batastini4:05pm via Twitter for Android Some key marketing takeaways: be relavant, if your not optimized for mobile your optimized to fail, and have quality content #SXSW14
Retweeted by EiSTechnologies
jenwil873:52pm via Twitter for iPhone
My Dad is at #SXSW14 for “work” rough life, old man, rough life. #jealous
BKohlmann2:40pm via Twitter for…
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