9 posts tagged “education”
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer & Isidra Person-Lynn
This was the fourth in a series of interviews with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn. In this interview, I discuss the importance of ease of use when constructing blogs for learning.
Professor Isidra Person-Lynn:
How hard do they say they are to set up?
Me: Actually, blogs are fairly easy to set up; however, I would recommend Vox and Blogger because of their ease of
use despite my affection for Wordpress which creates great looking blogs.
The biggest problem that I had was teaching folks how to load PowerPoints onto the blog. It was fairly simple but I would say approximately one-third of the class did not know how to do this, so I put the instructions online and demonstrated it live in class. In fact, some students figured out how to put all of the PowerPoints up as posts and it looked great.
The other thing that I had to demonstrate was how to load video from YouTube directly in the post, but this was not as big of an issue. Ironically, loading photos did not seem to create a problem.
Overall, it was pretty painless! I just had to keep reminding folks to answer the questions, and post them on the blog so that they would be ready for their final which could be posted on their blog too.
This did two things. First, it provided students with an opportunity to think about what they were writing from a visual and audio perspective and they had to basically create storyboards through video and photo images to tell a story in a more concrete and three dimensional way than basic print can ever do; and it also enabled students to create a paper from my final exam questions just by cutting and pasting legally with citations.Yes, I tricked them into learning while having fun, but I warned them in the beginning that they would be learning despite my methods. At the end of the day, my students, to a man and a woman, loved my approach and all of them expressed this in very complimentary terms.
Copyright 2009 Edutainment & Convergence
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer
This is the third interview with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College on the subject of Edutainment & Convergence. Specifically, we focused on blogging; however, I was quick to point out how edutainment methods and convergence technology can be utilized effectively in the classroom from a learner-centered perspective. This is the reason that I put the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergei Brin in this post. They discovered what would become Google while working on their dissertation at Stanford and trying to find a better search vehicle. This is the power of critical thinking and discovery.In this interview, I explained what I discovered about my students in terms of what they think, how they, and why they had developed these thoughts. Overall, I found my students to be pretty good critical thinkers once they were taught how to think critically by asking them questions and more importantly getting them to ask critical questions. I even tackled the controversial area of allowing texting in my class. My answer may horrify some educators, but I have found with my classes that this was never a problem because I set up texting rules and my class was so interesting that my students hardly ever texted.
Professor Isidra Person-Lynn:
What have you discovered on your students' blogs?
Me: I have discovered that students were more gifted than even I thought, and I am an optimist. The critical thinking
was quite evident once I got them emotionally involved in discussing issues like texting in class (which I allow because they are writing and because I want them to tell whoever they are texting what we are doing in class including parents and guess what they hardly ever text in class which is ironic and this is a pattern), legal and illegal downloading, the corrupt behavior of some media executives,and the relationships between media consolidation and the banking scandal as a result of the Telecomm Act of 1996 and if you read the posts you will see that they are really into the discussion.
I may have to add actual debates next. I also discovered that I got continuous feedback about the direction of the class. They were quite honest online and were receptive to fair critiques because we developed trust when I began implementing what they wanted within my lesson plan.
In fact, the last four classes were executive produced by me, and largely produced by the students after I gave my 10 minute open on what we would be doing. They wrote and blocked out the skits, did the casting, and made presentations and we were still done early so I dismissed class so that folks could work on their blogs.
I also discovered that most students can tell a good story when you make it "real" or authentic for them based on their life histories. At the end of the day, I work for my students and they are my customers and my extended family, so I am going to nuture them through things like spelling issues, slang and structure issues in time. Since this was an introductory course, I was most interested in getting them to critically think and provide cogent analysis in writing. This is the foundation for the writing, and commucation in general, because once a students discovers her voice or his voice, she or he is free and the scholarship will follow!Copyright 2009 Edutainment & Convergence
By Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Producer & Isidra Person-Lynn
This is the second interview with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College on the subject of Edutainment & Convergence. Specifically, we focused on blogging; however, I was quick to point out how convergence technology can be utilized effectively in the classroom from a learner-centered perspective. If the student likes it, and it promotes learning maybe researchers and curricula designers need to place more focus on the needs of students, and less attention their needs and other quantitative measurements. If we as educators and researchers continue to focus primarily on the numbers, and place less emphasis on the people who make up the numbers, we will continue the cycle of educational malfpractice that has resulted in achievement gaps nationally at nearly every level of education. I focused on the needs of the students and constantly adjusted my approach to fit their needs and to meet the core objectives of the course curricula. If the student is the consumer why are we not looking at both the needs and the wants of this unique consumer who also requires nurturing during the process. I focused my answers on the edutainment and convergence methods that I utilized in the class that resulted in the specific content of the students' blogs.
Professor Isidra Person-Lynn
What is the student's initial response?
Me: I can tell you right now that most of them were shocked that I was going to allow them to blog in class. A few
were concerned because they did not feel like they were technologically gifted enough to do it. It is important to note that I had a variety of students ranging from the disciplines of finance, marketing, business, communications, speech pathology, and English.
However, I had experience in this area, so I gave a live demonstration on how to use Vox and I even used my own usability standards that I developed from my research. I divided my students into groups that specialized in the varioius media areas: film/tv, radio/music, print, the Internet and public relations.
The assignment became collaborative in nature since the groups were part of a larger production that I supervised. The students who were techologically gifted assisted students who were not as gifted, and the writers and producers made sure that everyone particiapated online. It empowered the students. Everyone had to work together as groups and as a larger group in order for me to utilize my famous over-the-top skits in the classroom and my version of the game show called Food or Funds.
The students who presented could be quizzed at any time by me or I could quiz the audience. Correct answers resulted in prizes! The challenge for the students was that they had to record what the skits were about, what lessons the skits taught based on the readings, what did they learn that they did not know about the media industry, and they were challenged to critique and commend the industry for perceived rights and wrongs. Yes, all of this was placed on the web via our Facebook group and then transferred to the blogs on Vox. I was notified by Twitter and Facebook when they were done.
Copyright 2009 Edutainment & Convergence
The end of the fiscal year for the federal government is a really stressful time which often prevents me from writing especially when I busy educating my future edutainment and convergence too in my role as an adjunct professor as part of my post-doctoral work. The recent financial crisis that has swept the world has compelled me to thing about how edutainment and convergence has now impacted each of us on a new front: cyberwar. The recent conflict between Russia and Georgia demonstrated in plain view how potent a weapon cyberwar is in the hands of the technologically superior nation. Cyberwar enables countries to literally attack the central nervous system of a nation quickly, efficiently and below the radar to ordinary people.
There have been other examples of cyber attacks by Chinese hackers on West both in the UK and America. It is no small wonder that the official advertising mantra of the United States Air Force is now stated as air, space and cyberspace. This is why the government has really taken its years of gaming research and applied it tactically for real combat operations. In many cases organizations like ADL, Advanced Distributed Learning, have been leaders in testing games and using simulation for educational and combat purposes for federal and military training.
Here is my revolutionary thought for today: why is it that higher education and K-12 has not embraced gaming and simulation as teaching tools in the web 2.0 world of their students who are digital natives. The simulation and critical thinking skills alone will produce the thinkers and doers who will be necessary to function in the cyberwarfare environment from both a military and corporate perspective. Cyberwarfare is real! Corporations are now facing some of the same problems that nations face in guarding valued assets. The sad truth is this: if one wants to compete in a global economy the educational community will have to develop a new cadre that make a good living and combat the next virtual war by using edutainment and convergence as teaching tools for very real threats. Well my break is over and so is this post.
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008).
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch owners who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes,
Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation.
Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the
sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create
their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to
teach and publish online simultaneously.
Administrators are going to
have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring
adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they
do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they
win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many
professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with
universities because of the new crop of intellectual property
attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Editor
I know I have said a lot but I think Ballmer, Gates and Microsoft is a company to seriously look at investing some cash in because they have done all of these things, and they are investing in the touch based and voice based technologies that will bring people with disabilites into the mainstream through the Internet and portable devices. All you need to do is look at the Surface and the new Zune and see that Microsoft is gradually building the momentum, spending the money, and most importantly borrowing innovation and inspiration from its Xbox unit which has spurred a think different mentality within the software giant. Xbox could transform into two units if Bill Gates has his way. One unit will be the purely entertainment side that is tremendously successful; however, I believe based on my own research that the new unit could dwarf the entertainment unit. What is the new unit you ask? The new unit would be the edutainment unit which would create serious games to teach students at every academic level courses, theories, research and streamed classes too just like iTunesU and now You Tube. Most universities have Microsoft technology and Microsoft could pair gamers, media production experts, game designers, professors, and administrators together to produce a series of interactive educational games, video, audio, assessment tools to measure student achievement online, and actual classes from universities that could be downloaded or streamed. Microsoft's version of the Alexandria Library project could give Google a run for its money if Microsoft committed its money and will to such a project. Since K-12 education is mandatory, and college is becoming almost mandatory for most people in the digital age, I would think Microsoft would have the influence, the money, and the synergy to create XboxU, XboxEdutainment, XboxSearch, XboxMedia, XboxTesting and XboxNet which could be the network that embeds adds and links into these products in exchange for free or low cost projects. Especially now that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working to bring technology and education together through schools in our major cities. This can help end the digital divide! Remember Bill Gates in the presence of Steve Jobs said that now technology can finally do something for education. Bill and Steve, if you like these ideas give me a shout, this soon to be PhD is just suggesting the tip of the iceberg. I dare you! On a serious note you can see the foundation for Microsoft of the future has already been laid and this software company has become a software company, a device maker, an entertainment company, and now it is becoming a social networking company, an educational research company, an educational publisher, an edutainment company, and an advertising company. If Microsoft doesn't watch out it could become an online television network which is what Apple is going to have to do to get AppleTv rolling. Remember, I own a Mac and iPods and favor Final Pro Cut for editing my productions over Avid, but I still own a PC and a Windows Media based phone and will keep it when I get my iPhone. The future will connect for Microsoft because its advertising, advertising, and advertising to steal a phrase from Ballmer. I hope you liked this mini-series of posts. That is what I think what do you think?
Interview #2 – Welcome back to Edutainment & Convergence! I am your host Chris Heidelberg, and with me again is makeup artist and hair stylist Erin Doyle from . Ms. Doyle has provided her services to everyone from Hollywood celebrities to political figures to film directors.
Chris:
Welcome back, , for our second interview, I would like to talk to you about edutainment & convergence more in depth.
What new media technologies and techniques have you been working with lately and do you see any being able to transfer to higher education? In your case I am also looking at makeup techniques and hairstylists with computer simulations as well, if you use them to transform physical appearances.
Erin:
Well, that doesn't really apply to my work. I haven't had the opportunity to use computer
Chris:
Which entertainment techniques and technologies do you utilize most often in your job and why? Which technologies would you like to use but have not had the opportunity to do so yet? Which technologies do you believe may offer some of the best hopes for the future of education for both students and teachers?
Erin:
:
Well, again, I don't using any technology in my work…unless sending and receiving e-mail counts. I'd love to have a chance to work with the computer simulations for hair or makeup because there are some high-end salons in that have that technology. The computer simulations would have been great when I was in training. For the future, laptops and Ipods are definitely the way to go!
Chris:
Which entertainment techniques do you believe are best suited for transferring to education and please explain why by providing specific examples?
Erin:
:
In training professors to understand how much their image is important in educating their students because students learn more when they have a professor that looks more professional…rather than someone who looks like they just rolled out of bed. As far as techniques go, interactive video… especially for those of us who are visual learners…is the most effective to learn and the technology is already here to make that happen.
Chris:
What skills and technology competencies do you think that modern educators will need to become successful edutainers with students? Why do they need these skills?
:
Erin:
I think I just answered that in the previous question!
Chris:
Since you are the only licensed cosmetologist in this study, I have a specific question on personal appearance as an edutainment tool.
As a professional makeup artist and hair stylist, how important is physical appearance for a professor or teacher in a classroom setting or through a video based class on the Internet or television? Explain.
Erin:
LOL! Again, I think I just answered that in a previous question. I can't emphasize enough how important personal appearance is. Especially as an educator, you need to be a role model, just like kids look up to entertainers and celebrities as role models.
Welcome to Edutainment and Convergence. This blog is part of a multi-portal effort that began in 2001 while studying convergence as part of my Master's degree coursework. I predicted in my final paper that a multi-media cell phone that combined ease of use, style and reliability would be the way that Americans could download course work and go to class. At the time I was making national films throughout the country for a large government agency and we had already made the successful transition from beta sp to digital beta, and linear digital editing to non-linear editing with the avid. This transition began in 1992 , and was in full bloom by 1998. I realized that cameras were getting smaller and smaller and so were the editing systems and the monitors.
While directing a location film shoot in Carmel, California featured a tiny handheld monitor about the size of Blackberry, and that is when I was totally convinced that someone would create a miniature device that would be a computer, a monitor, a television, a phone, a radio and an Internet device. I will never forget my professor initially dismissing me in class when I suggested in August 2001 that a device like this would arrive within five years. Once I saw the initial iPod, and later the Photo iPod a few years later, I knew that my prediction would come true, and that professor later came to me and admitted that I was right before I graduated. He then challenged me to get a doctorate degree and study this phenomenon, and of course I took the challenge in 2003.
However, this time I decided to pursue a PhD in Higher Education, and I decided that I would research how entertainment techniques and convergence technologies and how they could be utilized in higher education from the perspective of entertainment professionals since I was one. I had produced, written, directed and even host more than 100 films, television shows, instructional television shows, commercials, conferences and public service announcements and I wondered why higher education did not understand why so many children and adults were turned off by education.
So I decided to literally travel to Los Angeles, San Antonio, New York, Washington, DC and Palm Beach, Florida to interview several entertainment professionals. The title of my dissertation research is "Edutainment and Convergence: How Can Entertainment Techniques be Utilized in Higher Education from the Perspective of Entertainment Professionals. This blog will specifically provide the research interviews, and you will get a glimpse of the subjects. Each agreed to reveal their identity in effort to promote research transparency in a non-lethal qualitative research methodology.
Throughout this research there were three guiding research questions that drove this research.
- How can entertainment techniques and convergence technology be utilized in higher education from the perspective of entertainment professionals?
- Which entertainment techniques, gaming technology and convergence technology was transferable to higher education?
- Can edutainment and convergence assist in creating a learner-centered environment that can produce effective results?
This research was conducted as broadcast interview, and audio and video clips will be posted on this blog from initial interviews as well as a transcripted interview (Creswell, 2005).
The interviews are presented in a media style with follow up questions in a style reminscent of James Lipton. This blog differs from the wordpress blog because it is more multi-media. This research is advocacy based and encourages academia and media professionals to work together to promote learning, and to create entertainment based research with profit potential.
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