Fibre on a copper budget

Self serving 'independent study' released today has me shouting profanities at the radio. All you have to do to save a few billion dollars and still deliver fibre is change the termination box inside the user's premise.

Watch this 20 minute video presentation

Bloom's 'Digital' Taxonomy

Since its publication in 1956, Bloom's Taxonomy has been a foundation of most modern education systems. While the overarching principles have remained the same, changes in understanding, experience and technology have seen the Taxonomy take on a number of different forms, for a number of different purposes and applications.

The below overview shows the progression of Bloom's Taxonomy, how each thinking skill applies in practice, and examples of activities using digital tools.

Get your printable hi-res version at https://www.fractuslearning.com/2014/08/18/blooms-digital-taxonomy-overview/

Beyond Knowing Facts, How Do We Get to a Deeper Level of Learning?

As educators across the country continue to examine the best ways of teaching and learning, a new lexicon is beginning to emerge that describes one particular approach —deeper learning. The phrase implies a rich learning experience for students that allows them to really dig into a subject and understand it in a way that requires more than just memorizing facts.

The elements that make up this approach are not necessarily new — great teachers have been employing these tactics for years. But now there’s a movement to codify the different pieces that define the deeper learning approach, and to spread the knowledge from teacher to teacher, school to school in the form of a Deeper Learning MOOC (massive open online course), organized by a group of schools, non-profits, and sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation.

Read more at MindShift: blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/02/how-do-we-create-rich-learning-opportunities-for-all-students

MOOC lecture archive: http://dlmooc.deeper-learning.org/live/archives/

The Ultimate DIY Product Photography Tutorials

Are you running an online shop and want to display your products in the most appealing manner? Are you considering hiring a professional photographer for that purpose? Well, if your answer is yes, we would request you to first take a look at this compilation where we are sharing 40 excellent tutorials that will teach you how to shoot perfect product photos for your online shop. After going through these tutorials you will not need the help of any professional photographer.

Read more: http://www.smashingapps.com/2014/08/18/the-ultimate-diy-product-photography-tutorials-for-your-online-shop.html#ixzz3BALRacHv

Peer to peer network app allows group chat

FireChat is a group chat application that works without cell service

Read more at http://gigaom.com/2014/08/21/firechats-new-update-makes-it-easier-for-burners-to-chat-their-friends-in-the-wifi-less-desert/

RØDE microphone for smartphones and tablets

Highly recommended although I wish the cable were another metre longer 

http://www.smartlav.com/

Inexpensive boxes could help bring mobile coverage to the billion people who lack it

The innovation comes in a gray box roughly the size of a microwave oven. It has solar panels on the outside to power cellular equipment inside, along with the software for management functions like billing and analytics. Secure the box somewhere and link it via satellite to a voice-over-IP network, and you’re ready to open shop as a mobile service provider. 

Read more at www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2014/humanitarian/kurtis-heimerl

Mobilise Your Workplace

By example, the transformative power of digital media in the workplace. If you'd like to talk about mobilising your business, leave a comment below.

http://www.zdnet.com/plumber-flushes-away-paper-blockage-with-mobility-tools-7000032412/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral

Four ways to prepare literary stories for oral telling

Four ways to prepare literary stories for oral telling | Limor's Storytelling Agora

The Table of Truth: Re-imagining the Dinner Table as a Digital Media Storytelling Tool

This idea melds the classroom, debate, dining and digital tools over a dinner table which, as far as we can tell, is the first that digitally records, captures, inspires, and transmits stories.

Read more at Flip the Media

How to tell a story that stands out in the digital age

There are a lot of reasons this story works very well in the digital age. Generalising these into lessons to apply to all stories in the digital age, I find four:

1. The story is really unique and unexpected. Unexpected content is one of the three ingredients for a successful viral according to Kevin Allocca in his great TED talk on what makes videos go viral on YouTube, a lesson that also works for other forms of content.
2. The story is told in the public space, in ‘active communities’. The streets, Facebook, general media: all the places where the story happens are easily accessible for most people and designed to foster discussion. Unlike your own website or Tuesday night discussion group people come to these places for stories and are, therefore, more likely to respond to them.
3. The story is about the audience. The most important lesson I took from Nancy Duarte’s brilliant book Resonate is to treat your audience as a hero whenever you tell them something. People should not only be involved and directly addressed, it should be their story, the thing they are telling, to make it stand out. People usually listen to themselves.
4. The story helps create real life connections, has a physical component. The most heavily discussed issue in Leuven, I believe each great story in the digital age needs a physical element to really turn people from simply interested into highly enthusiastic.

Read more at The Museum of the Future

Mobile survey software

Survey Anyplace enables anybody to create appealing surveys for tablets and smartphones. It makes response rates go up, and helps companies tune their offerings to increase customer satisfaction and revenue.

Sustainable Business Models: Issues & Trends Facing Visual Artists

But there’s a hugely expanded appetite for photography and with this comes new opportunities; the greatest obstacles to commercial expansion are the limits of our own imaginations and our fear of uncertainty. I see more and more brilliant business innovations, often sparked by young entrepreneurs with low overheads and little to lose.  Some of them are experiencing short-term success, some are not and it’s still too soon to judge which will sustain as the world moves forward.

Sustainable Business Models: Issues & Trends Facing Visual Artists

Awesome Accessories for iPhone Photography

Check this first:
8 Awesome Accessories for iPhone Photography
Then check these;
The iPhone suction mount

The Level Camera Cube

The Happy Helmet Bike Camera Mount

The Collapsible Camera Extender

The Monsterpod
The Camalapse

Turn your iPhone into a Hand-held Video Rig

The Dot iPhone Panorama Lens

The Glif: Minimalist iPhone Stand & Tripod Mount

The iPhone Swivl: Your Own Personal Camera Crew

The iPhone SLR Mount. Yes, it's really real.

Digital Time-Lapse Camera

The Olloclip 3-in-1 iPhone Lens
The iPhone Boom Mic
LED light for iPhone

Place-based Storytelling

"Placed-based storytelling enables a connection between the past and the present that enriches both; enriches our understanding of both. Not only in terms of how we view them, but especially in terms of how we use both the past and the present to guide us into the future." ~
Elizabeth Lay, Historiographer, Teacher
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: Place-based Storytelling

Screen Australia: The Big Picture

Screen Australia staff will be visiting Darwin this month to hold a public information session on how the agency is focussing its efforts to promote, grow and support Australian storytelling.

The session will also be an opportunity to connect with the industry and find out more about the new programs and broader current policy issues.

An Alice Springs session will be held in the near future.

DARWIN

Wednesday 26 September 3.30–5.30pm
RSVP by Friday 21 September: darwin.rsvp@screenaustralia.gov.au

Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront, 7 Kitchener Drive, Darwin

Screen Australia

Games For Civic Participation, Social Causes, And Fun

"Games allow you to create a system that when people participate, they generate a story," says Jeff Watson, a proponent of "civic games"--play that’s not just for fun, but has some underlying social purpose. "When people participate, it’s a lot more powerful than someone telling them what to do."


Many nonprofits have adopted game playing, as they seek new and more engaging ways of reaching audiences. Now, many of the best ideas have been collated into an example-rich report available via Co.Exist:

Apps 101

What’s the Difference Between Native Apps and Web Apps? Native apps are built to work on to work on one platform (like the iPhone), not multiple platforms. To download a native app, you need to: 1. Go to the appropriate app store 2. Search for and locate the app 3. Download the app to your device. By contrast, Mobile Web apps are built to work across different platforms, allowing you to have one app that works on all smartphones and tablet devices. Rather than needing to go to an app store, you simply access the app through the Internet browser on your phone. No downloads needed. To access a web app, you need to: 1. Type in the app’s URL in your browser (or scan a QR code). That’s it. No downloads. No waiting. To expand a little more on this concept click here.

Mobile culture: why does it matter so much?

Guardian Professional

9 Apps For Editing Video On Your Smartphone

Just a few years ago creating your own movie would have required an expensive camcorder to shoot, and your own –- often expensive -– video editing equipment in order to polish your video into something you’d want to share with others.

Now most smartphones come with built-in video cameras that can often capture high-definition videos worthy of your 50-inch high-definition television. In addition to replacing the camcorder, your smartphone can also be used as a video editor....

9 Apps For Editing Video On Your Smartphone

Mobile Learning Toolkit

The result of my thesis project is a Mobile Learning Toolkit that is designed to empower trainers in Africa and other developing contexts to integrate mobile learning into their teaching.

The 98-page toolkit contains 15 mobile learning methods divided into 4 categories that trainers can choose from depending on their needs – whether they’re looking deliver content; assign tasks; gather feedback; or provide support to their training participants.

These methods have been designed to be as inclusive as possible, with most requiring only low end devices (basic mobile phones with voice calling and SMS capability), allowing interactive learning experiences to be delivered right to the Base of the Pyramid.

In addition to the methods, an overview of mobile learning is included in the beginning of the guidebook and a set of practical tools that allow the methods to be immediately put into practice. 

Jenni Parker

15 Steps to Create Great Blog Videos

Just like it says on the packet. Via The Book Designer

The Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey from Snorkel Girls on Vimeo.

My new favorite video.

The media has two tribes, but there's only one winner

In England last year, over 126K freshman enrolled in ‘creative arts & designs’ programs while only 48.4K enrolled in computer science courses - but in the digital era, which will be better equipped for creativity?

Modern media are dogged by a “two cultures” mentality. On one side are the traditional bastions of media – humanities graduates who tell the stories in newspapers, on billboards, in adverts and books. On the other side are the tech crew: the developers who provide the increasingly complex and flexible infrastructure by which those stories can be told. At the moment, the two sides are largely unintelligible to each other. “Is this possible?” asks the writer of a cunning wheeze to make a story more interactive. “Anything’s possible,” replies the developer, a reply that closes off possibilities while pretending to open them.

In part, it’s a simple question of skills. The tribe to which I belong knows how to tell a story, but can’t grasp the digital possibilities. Being a technically illiterate journalist in today’s multimedia world is like being a pilot who’s a bit shaky on landings.

It’s not just a knowledge gap; there are subtler cultural divides at play. Paul Bradshaw, who runs Birmingham City University’s online journalism MA and is a visiting professor at London’s City University, says that different ways of learning are inculcated early on and are reflected in working patterns. The humanities graduates expect to read a book and learn from it. Developers are more hands-on, trying things out and adapting as they go. “Failure is part of the process,” he says. Different ways of working spawn garbled conversations.


Read more at The Guardian

The Avatar Economy

Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow's robots?

Progress toward the "avatarization" of the economy has been limited by two technical factors that don't involve robotics at all. They are the speed of Internet connections and the latency involved in long-distance communication. Connecting a Thai worker to a robotic avatar in Japan with enough signal fidelity to carry out nonroutine work may be more difficult than engineering a cheap robotic chassis and related control systems.

How much bandwidth is enough? A "perfect" (just like being there) connection to a robotic telepresence system must accommodate a signal of 160 megabits per second. Theoretically, too, the distance between robot and worker shouldn't exceed 1,800 miles: any farther and the operator could get confused by the time lag as signals travel round-trip. Realistically, however, avatar workers can probably be effective janitors or doctors even if they are farther away and sensory fidelity is weaker. The VGo runs on Verizon's 4G network, for instance, and the U.S. military's drone-control facility in Italy is 2,700 miles from Afghanistan.
Read more at Technology Review

The Facebook Community Commons

There is a quiet revolution happening on Facebook that is really helping to bring back the concept of ‘marketplace commons’ to rural communities otherwise adversely impacted by the overwhelmingly one-sided and increasing trade deficit of online connectivity.

Read more at BuddeBlog

Digital participation and learning: 22 case studies

Imagemakers investigated participation and learning activity in the digital environment. They interviewed 22 organisations to produce case studies which illustrate a wide range of approaches to using digital media to engage people with heritage, from crowd sourcing to geocaching and from mobile applications to websites.

This report draws together key themes and lessons to consider when planning and delivering digital activity designed to engage a range of different audiences.
Download the report at the Heritage Lottery Fund

Value: Creating Markets in the Digital Economy

Download this keynote presentation by @irenecing

The Future of Communications

What we want is less noise, more context, ease of use, ease of access and the certainty that our listeners understand the message. We’d like our messages to end up with the right person, without governments, corporations or cybercriminals peeking at information that isn’t meant for them. We’d even like to spur people into action. We have always used communication to convince or even make other people do what we want. Improved communication technologies help us to do that quicker and on a larger scale, hugely influencing the next divide between the haves and the have-nots.Where will this lead us?

The Next Web asked 6 experts from different fields to share their view on the future of communication.

The complex effects of technological dislocation

As Donald Schon pointed out in the 1970s, for most of human history technological change has been sufficiently slow that we have had plenty of time to adjust to it. Contrast the time it took the steam engine to spread from invention to widespread social and economic effect with the time it has taken for the internet to have an equivalent impact. There was plenty of time to adjust to the effects of new technologies in the past, e.g. it took most of the nineteenth century for the railways to kill off the canals. Now, technological change is so fast and so pervasive that entire industries are transformed in less than a decade: look at how far the newspaper industry has been transformed by the internet in just ten years, with book publishing likely to go the same way soon. Indeed, W. Brian Arthur has gone so far as to argue that the whole basis of the economy as it exists today is being overhauled through technological change, a point on which he is probably right.

The upshot of my argument is that technological progress now happens so quickly that we have limited time to manage its social and economic effects through institutional change. This is particularly difficult for the losers in the technology game, who may have to transform their lives to face a new economic reality. I’m thinking, for instance, of those former industrial communities in places like Wales and the North-East, where technology has enabled the emergence of a global market that has simply overtaken them. Our institutions have yet to be recast in such a way that enables people in these places to catch up and to add value to the new economy, instead trapping them in conditions of chronic worklessness. Individuals, companies and the whole economy need to be more resilient and adaptable.

Yet even if we could develop a new institutional framework to respond to this kind of change, it would probably be out of date as soon as it were operationalized. This is again a function of technological change. Instability becomes the norm.

Read more at Synthesis