24 posts tagged “edutainment”

Edutainment & Convergence Site on Wix with Flash!

Sep 19, 2009
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Edutainment & Convergence Site on Wix with Flash!

The Blogging Chronicles With Professor Isidra Person-Lynn: Ease Of Use Of Blogs

Apr 30, 2009
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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

American InterContinental University Online ...

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.

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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.

The Blogging Chronicles Interviews with Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College

Apr 23, 2009
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By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D, Publisher & Managing Editor & Isidra Person-Lynn

Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III

I have been contacted by many so many colleagues online over the past few years to explain edutainment & convergence that I finally relented to a series of mini-interviews with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College. Neither one of us can recall who contacted who first online, but that is the point of edutainment & convergence or E & C as Isidra likes to call my techniques and approaches to learning, marketing, communications and technology: edutainment & convergence is collaborative, interactive, intuitive and yes, social.

This is my answer to the first question from Professor Isidra.

Professor Isidra Person-Lynn: Dr. Chris, why did you start blogging?

Me: I must say that when I first introduced the twin concepts of edutainment & convergence during my research in graduate school my professors loved it but some did not totally understand all of its ramifications. However, the department chair and my dissertation chair, Dr. Howard L. Simmons and Dr. Rosemary Gillet-Karam immediately got it and encouraged me from the first day I entered the program in fall 2003. In truth, I now realize that I was ahead of the technology as far back as 2001 when I predicted what would become the iPhone as my Master's professor reminded me when I debated him on this issue and he told that technology was way off in the future, but I digress LOL!

For me blogging is the future business model for many professors, researchers, authors, businesses, and students

Prof. Weiss-Lambrou: Podcasts for teaching & learning

because of its interactive and immediate nature. This is why Twitter, a micro-blogging tool is so popular! Think about it, you can now tell a story quickly on your blog and take a photo with your iPhone, Blackberry Storm or other smart phone. The significance of Ashton Kutcher beating CNN to one million followers and raising money for hungry people in Africa should not be discounted. This was a shot across the bow of mainstream media during tough economic times. The age of narrow casting is here to stay and that is why professors, researchers, students and businesses need to use these social media tools because they keep you in constant communication on how to refine what you do and create a better product.

I have been using blogs for the entire year at Loyola, and I used it from 2006-2008 with students who interned with me while creating their Master's or undergraduate portfolio. It has been quite successful even with some old school professors. Why? Because one can link in a PowerPoint, photos, videos, audio, music and text with my links in one place across multiple platforms.

A New Kind Of Dear John Letter: My Response To The Newspaper Industry's Attack On Fair Use

Apr 8, 2009
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By Dr.Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Producer

Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III

This article was an email that I sent to John Murrell of Goodmorning Silicon Valley. John took a courageous stand by suggesting that he hopes the newspaper industry does not succeed in discouraging fair use which has been severely damaged since the DMCA of 1998. I suggested that the DMCA and the Telecomm Act of 1996 with its deregulatory approach created media companies that were not only too big to fail, but they were too big to be true watchdogs of the republic and the result was a Congress that did not read these laws in too many cases and a Congress and a Presidential Administration that has worked in concert to consciously or consciously to weaken free speech rights,

AAAS 2007 Annual Meeting Plenary Lecture: Larry Page

The Internet is the one true hope to shine light on these issues but it is being attacked by dying industries, like the music and print media industries, that continue to operate with a 19th century model instead of working with companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft that are utilizing a 21 century business model. The Associated Press and other print outlets are leading a copyright campaign that closely resembles the dreaded RIAA and MPAA campaign of suing customers. Instead of creating a better mousetrap they are suing to get the horse back in the barn that can never fit the horse again. His response will follow my email that I sent yesterday.

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John, I loved your story today and I know that it takes a lot of courage to disagree with the boss. The real problem of media consolidation is in part why we are in this poor transition period. Once you get a bunch of conglomerates owning more than 7-7-7 or 12-12-12 the result is that we have the news and editorial policy being in the hands of increasingly fewer folks who often have short-term thinking and profits in mind. The 1918 ruling will not help them when they essentially abandoned it by allowing links and re-posting for years before this uprising by the AP within the past 2 years. Fair use will not die under the Obama Administration because of the fact that he was a Constitutional scholar.If these folks had thought about making bloggers affiliates who can assist them in generating traffic, this would be a smarter model and it would enable them to spread their advertisers out to the micro-level.

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0

Lawrence Lessig

Newspapers should consider themselves social businesses in the model of Muhammad

Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

Yunus' Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. We really need great reporting and logically written editorials regardless of the viewpoint. The real problem is one of ideology. We made a decision nearly more than 30 years ago that capitalism is more important than the democracy and it has wounded both capitalism and democracy. If the press had been doing its job and critiqued the former administration as it is justifiably critiquing this administration maybe just maybe we would be in a better economic position because we would have some of the money spent in the war in Iraq to bailout ordinary Americans, small businesses and yes the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry is paramount to the future of the republic, and if the industry

Prof. Lawrence Lessig Explains Creative Commons Licensing

does not learn how to partner with the online companies I few it will become irrelevant like the music business is becoming. The perfect analogy for this current fight between Google and the newspaper industry is the music industry versus Apple, Google and other online companies. The newspaper industry simply does not understand the Internet because it is still stuck in a 20th century based mindset, and when one does not understand a new industry one has to partner with leaders in a new industry to move one's content.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together: Highlight

If I were in charge I would immediately call in Google, Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, Time Warner, Comcast, SprintNextel, Verizon, Quest and Microsoft and I would transform my content to digital content that would be downloadable, entertaining packaged and even serious in an NPR mode. We already know that NPR radio is the walking case study of a successful old medium that transformed itself through podcasting into a successful new media product on the web. Now this will

Ballmer: "advertising, advertising, advertising!"

not be easy it will require the

A Closer Look At The iPhone

newspaper industry to exercise patience and re-train its commentators and reporters into virtual personalities and reporters. It would be a more personalized version of the news that could include all of the news. If they try to monetize, local TV on the web will literally eat their lunch because they already understand video and audio better than many publishers. This is ironic since many publishers own TV properties. The bottom line is that this convergence transition is killing the old newspaper industry so that a more vibrant multi-media based newspaper industry will replace it. Believe it or not, once the transition is completed the newspaper industry will eventually become dominant again once it learns to transform itself into the digital media that it was destined to become. I will be posting this on my blog for my class at Loyola College in Maryland because I think the publishing industry is making the same mistake that the music industry has made and this is terrible for us all as citizens where the printed press was the only industry that was given full Constitutional protection in the First Amendment.

Sincerely,

Eric Schmidt on Yahoo and Microsoft

Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III

Below the is John's response to my email.

Hi Chris,

Thanks much for sharing your thoughts. What you're envisioning has a lot in common with what Google's Eric Schmidt talked about to the AP conference today (http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_12094522). I believe such an outcome is possible, but I still worry whether the finances will hold out long enough to evolve without losing some valuable institutions along the way.

Best,

John

Now That's Edutainment: Luke O'Brien Raps "I Love Knowledge" @ Loyola College in MD

Apr 6, 2009
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By Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III

As usual my fellow producer and professor extraordinaire Professor Jay Dunmore told me about one his star students: Luke O'Brien! Luke is really taking YouTube by storm as he closes in on 5000 views since last Saturday with this rap anthem titled I love knowledg

Luke O'Brien - I Love Knowledge HD

Loyola student producer/director Grey Shannahan joined creative forces with Luke to create this instant classic that promotes education through edutainment and convergence. If you think you have the talent to promote education through rap or hip hop find me on Facebook because we are looking to produce and direct you.

Do not be surprised when he becomes a real star one day rapping on positive themes with and edutainment flow. Here he is with his Edutainment & Convergence debut: Luke O'Brien with "I Love Knowledge." Now that's edutainment!

Tonight - It's More Fun To Compute With Convergence!

Apr 6, 2009
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By Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Producer

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In tonight's course, we will be discussing and demonstrating the impact of computers on the field of communications based on Rodman (2008), my lecture and your interpretations, insights, and collaborative discoveries. Specifically, we will be discussing the second part of edutainment and convergence: convergence. Convergence is the merging of many or multiple technologies into one technology that incorporates the features of several technologies. The computer is the epitome of convergence (Gee, 2004, 2005;Heidelberg, 2008; Howe, 2008; Prensky, 2006; Tapscott & Williams, 2006).

Think about it!

The computer enables one to do the following: send written messages in the form of email; speak directly with another

Applications20080609

person through web cameras; store audio files, store music files, store video content, store photographs, edit music, video and photgraphs, download and transfer audio, video, and print content; create online or printed publications; view movies, listen to music and read periodicals like newspapers or maganzines; speak directly to one another by "phone" through voice over Internet protocol with Skype or Vonage or GTalk; and watch television or user-generated content on YouTube, Hulu or iTunes (Apple, 2009; Dell, 2009; Google, 2009; Hulu, 2009; Microsoft, 2009; Skype, 2009; Time Warner, 2009; YouTube, 2009). In fact, the future of the computer is the handheld device according to many experts, and this explains the popularity of the iPhone, the iPodTouch, the Kindle, the Blackberry line, the Sidekick, the SonyPSP, the Zune and other handheld convergence devices.

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In tonight's class, the course will be produced and casted by me, but you will be the lead actors and the directors for the course tonight just like last week. I have already purchased our prizes for the game show portion of the program when Paige, Shelby, Emalee, and Chet are the line producers for tonight. Rebecca and Big Willie will coach Patrick tonight as he makes his debut as the lead director and Stefanie will be his assistant director for our skits tonight that bring the chapters 12 and 13 of Rodman (2008) alive.

Have you noticed how I have used citations in my post to give credit or examples of what I am talking about for the reader? This is an example of scholarly writing. the general rule is that you cite other people as evidence that you actually conducted research while you are providing your rich descriptive narrative of what actually took place in class or how you are justifying something that you write in your blog (Creswell, 2005). My point is this: you utilize experts to make the points that you wish to make just like a lawyer uses the law and specific cases to make his or her point in the courtroom. I will be using my Edutainment site to demonstrate this point, and I will be using my Edutainment & Convergence Research site to cite my findings.

Class Is Now In Session With Dr. Chris

Mar 14, 2009
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By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.

Publisher & Producer

I have heard from many of you during my extended absence to focus on running The Center For Internet Research, teaching, researching, writing my book, and producing my new Edutainment & Convergence show which should be airing online in a month. However, I have a new class Introduction To Communications at Loyola College in Maryland. My site has a green look during the semester. I will be using my other sites too! Naturally, I have added Edutainment & Convergence methods to the class. One of my students Julie is now a friend on this site. The final exam will be a combination presentation, online blog on Vox, a Facebook evaluation, and a written research paper that will be comprised of their blogs with research.

For everyone reading this post, your homework today is to review the Barack Obama address to Congress and the Republican response from Governor Bobby Jindal of Lousiana on YouTube, Facebook or any online source. I want you to review each speech and identify their three key messages, evaluate their credibility, evaluate their confidence, evaluate their body language and voice tonality, evaluate their emotional appeal. Finally, explain whether or not they were both effective or ineffective. Who was more effective as a communicator based on your evaluation and explain why? Who was credible based on the facts of what they said and explain why? Do not fear using factcheck.com or org to assist you on this point.

Feel free to Facebook friend me as Doc Chris to keep up with class for the rest of the semester.

Edutainment, Cyberwar and Convergence!

Oct 3, 2008
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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.

It's Time To For Performers And Media Outlets To Embrace Edutainment!

Aug 1, 2008
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UC Davis on iTunesU

By Chris A. Heidelberg III, PhD

Why is it that no one was really paying attention when Gil Scott-Heron said, " The revolution will not be televised." Scott-Heron was not only right, he was absolutely on point because that is exactly what is happening! Remember when Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, this was the true beginning of true convergence because it put the power of technology literally in the hands of students and professionals alike. Once the iPhone, the iPodTouch and iTunesU officially debuted last year the revolution went into high gear.

Apple Music Event 2001-The First Ever iPod Introduction

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The fact that schools like Stanford, MIT, Duke and many other prominent schools are on board with iTunesU is a shot across the bow of traditional education and the telecommunications companies that have been using traditional distance learning platforms in large rooms or directly to personal computers. What makes iTunesU special is that students literally can summon their course on demand on a computer or portable device anytime, anyplace and anywhere! Moreover, professors and students can utilize tools like Digg and Facebook to promote, share, bookmark, and blog the course internationally, and they can utilize video services such as blip.Tv, YouTube, Google video, Yahoo video, Vimeo, and Brightcove to to disseminate the content of the class through iPhones and iPodTouch devices too!

A Closer Look At The iPhone

The fact that iTunesU is a free service is a winning hand for Apple and I am sure that Google and Apple will figure out a way to monetize this and share some of the proceeds with the schools through advertising in a non-distracting way so that academics do not hit the roof with anger. Nintendo is doing a very similar thing with its Nintendo DS model and its highly popular Wii platform with its Wii Fit game. Nintendo has already integrated learning into a few of its games and I see them taking a serious plunge into serious gaming already because of Wii Fit. Microsoft and Sony will definitely respond to stay competitive with Nintendo.

Wii Fit

The Wii Fit is a game that teaches one how to get fit, and iTunesU gives you a class in your hand. The only thing missing is innovative content! Are you listening Jive Records, Warner Brothers, Def Jam, A& M, Virgin Records? I am listening to an edutainment based rap song that teaches multiplication and it is already a hit in the Baltimore-Washington area. These are two areas with high public school dropout rates and majority African American populations, and anything that can help these children learn and have fun in school is critical. The house is literally burning while experts are fighting over whether or not an esteemed Harvard professor should pay kids to learn! Why not! The rap game actually popularized the term edutainment with KRS 1 back in the early days of hip-hop, and now it is time that the new school rappers go back to the roots of rap and provide something lasting and positive to young people who are often from the same backgrounds and areas as many of the rappers.

I have an experiment with anyone that will take it. Ask your child regardless of age to tell you the words to Lil

You Must Learn-KRS 1

Wayne's Lollipop and then ask them to recite a serious academic lesson verbatim. Most of them will flunk this test, but if you challenge them to write a rap about their history project, Hamlet or any other type of literature, basic science principles or a how to on math you may get a surprise. Say what you want about Bill Cosby and Barack Obama, but the education problem is an American issue and a matter of national defense. The country is turning brown and multi-colored and if we are serious about not leaving any children behind in this nation. KRS 1 said it years ago, " You must learn!" I guess the learning establishment was not listening! I can guarantee you that within ten years there will be a rise in learning rappers and I am looking for them.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together Part 4 of 7

The time is now, we cannot keep creating two jails: one for the mind and one for the person in America. Edutainment and convergence is a force that is here to stay! It is time for performers and media outlets to create, promote, and financially get behind serious hip hop that teaches learning principles, or are they really about money and all that stuff about social responsibility is really horse hockey? Victor Hugo once wrote, "There is one thing more powerful than all of the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come!" Today that ideas is iTunesU but record labels as well as the rest of the entertainment world is missing out on a chance to make real profits and transform society. The question is this: do they have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing the right way for the right reasons and still get

FKCC iTunes U Intro

paid? I think we all know what the answer should be! These media firms often hate Apple and Google, but they often fail the creativity test instead of trying to work with these creative companies for the long haul they like suing them or punishing them even when it costs them big money like the Viacom and NBC fights have demonstrated! For once will someone show some leadership in academia and corporate America, and work with people like me to help to solve this problem.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Gil Scott Heron

I focus on tech things because I see the power of technology when combined with the arts and educational theories and practices in innovative fashions. Apple, Nintendo, and Google should not have all the fun and get paid! Let's share the love of gaming, convergence, and the joy of learning through music, drama, art, and dance. Gil Scott-Heron was right revolution has not been televised but it sure has been streamed and downloaded.

Now that's edutainment!

Don't Celebrate Online And Invite Friends Too Much Or You Will Get Put In Time Out!

Jul 5, 2008
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By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer

I was sitting around enjoying the holiday when I realized that because of convergence technology like my cell phone,

Marshall McLuhan on YouTube

my mac, my PC, my SonyPSP and my iPodTouch I can literally keep in touch with friends and colleagues across the globe in literally an instant or a twinkling of an eye. When you think about it that is truly amazing!

Facebook Mini-Feeds with Steve!

As I sat here for a moment after being busted by Facebook for unknowingly adding too many friends too fast. Hey, I am a popular guy with a huge family and friends and they ought to set a limit and make it transparent. Yet I digress!
My good friend Jack Yan in New Zealand and I may live worlds apart physically, but we are definitely of the same mind. Jack recently wrote a scathing post about the practices of large bank in New Zealand. After reading Jack's post on Facebook, I was instantly re-routed to Vox where we are also friends and wrote a comment.

Facebook Sucks

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Think about that, I sent a message across the globe to comment on an article by a person who has become a friend all through the global village of the Internet as McLuhan (1968) predicted. Yes, the medium is the message, but I also believe that people are increasingly becoming the message. Jack's stance against the bank, and my current problem with Facebook, illustrates the power of the web for one to voice one's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with goods and services. While I have an issue with Facebook's policy, I wish when you receive a warning that it told you what the limit is. This is what I like about Apple, they give you the limits for computers upfront so that you can make an informed decision. Microsoft has a similar policy, so does Google, and so does Amazon.

BOOTED FROM COMCAST

Where am I going with this argument? The point that I am making is that ordinary people, even those of us with PhDs, do not fully understand all the agreements that we have to sign in order to use online services. I am a Facebook fan and they are by far not the biggest offender when it comes to being transparent, listening to your customers, and communicating with customer in non-legal language. What bothers me is that the law is supposed to interpret against the drafter of an agreement when there is a dispute according to my old contracts teacher Professor Korzack. The rationale is that when you draft an agreement, you know exactly what you want, but the other side may not understand the totality of this want.

Cell phones suck AT&T cingular verizon nextel sprint

So I guess I will serve out my punishment like a good cyber bad boy, but I want you to consider how the magic of the Internet has enabled us to literally have a freedom that was totally unimagined, yet hoped for by the Founding Fathers as we celebrate the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The Internet has provided us with wonderful freedoms, but if we are not careful to insist that the companies that we do business with are held to a high standard of transparency.

SPRINT SUCKS ASS I WANT MY 200 BUCKS BACK

Facebook Sucks A LOT...

If we do not make our voices heard through cyberspace, we risk becoming victims of the same type of tyranny that the Founding Fathers did anticipate that is why we have a Bill of Rights. Even though the Constitution has been diminished in recent years by both corporate and government interests, often acting in concert together, we still have the right to question authority en masse to protect our privacy, our sense of fairness and our basic sense of human dignity. Which is why the embedded videos on this post are all people questioning authority and the policies of big companies. Some of these videos are classic! This will become a regular feature on Edutainment & Convergence so send me links or your video protest here or on my Facebook page.

vista sucks

In final analysis, when you deal with online companies it is a lot like the large bug trying to talk its way into your home from the extermination company ad: you never know what you are letting into your life and how much pain they can you once you let them into your life. Remember, freedom is not free, and it is not for free or for wimps! So while I am serving digital timeout based on no due process, you just remember that freedom is not free. Enjoy your holiday and never give up the right to protest or peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances! Fight back! Unless you love Facebook like me! If you like this post make it viral and send it out!

Now that's edutainment!