Posts in March, 2010

March 31st, 2010 in Feature Content, Xplana.com Product Development

How to Build a Social Learning Platform — Part 1 (Video)

As I talk to people about our new platform, the question I hear most often is how do you go about designing and building a social learning platform. It’s a great question and one I like to answer. There are three primary pieces to our product design foundation. 1) Don’t work in a vacuum; 2) Develop a core product philosophy; 3) Be aware of your product principles Read Article

March 31st, 2010 in Daily Research Update

Google, Amazon, and Apple

Today’s research update focuses on the competition between Google, Amazon, and Apple for dominance in mobile technology and e-books. We also discuss Flash/HTML5 video and mobile technology in education Read Article

March 30th, 2010 in i said/u said

i said/u said: Online Courses vs. Traditional Classrooms (Video)

i said/u said is a video dialogue in which two participants — Xplana’s Director of Product Design and Research, Rob Reynolds, and another educator, student, or technologist — respond to a question about education. The responses are recorded independently, and neither participant is aware of what the other has said. We place these together to create a spontaneous dialogue and to provide insight into important issues in technology, education, and culture. In this segment, Rob and Stacy Zemke discuss the pros and cons of both online courses and traditional classrooms Read Article

March 30th, 2010 in Daily Research Update

Content Distribution, Self-Publishing, and Mobile Web Trends

Today’s research update discusses the strength of the iPad as a content aggregation and distribution device, as well as its potential for rich text-based content. We also take a look at Brightcove’s HTML5 video solution and post some recent statistics on mobile Web usage Read Article

March 29th, 2010 in 21st Century Learning, Feature Content

The Future of Education — Learning the Language of Revolution

There are certainly changes, and radical ones, coming to education. My question is whether we will be like the newspaper industry that has seen the media revolution happening in front of its eyes, yet has not been able to react or adapt quickly enough to take advantage. Ultimately, I hope we will take the time to understand the language of educational revolution and accept or reject it based on the merit of the ideas themselves and not with regards to how well they align with our own language and thinking Read Article

March 29th, 2010 in Cartoons

Gotta Have Kids (Cartoon)

“We should have some kids. How else we gonna stay up with technology?” Read Article

March 29th, 2010 in Daily Research Update

Open Education, Apple, and Smart Phones

Today’s research update focuses on a recent article by Anya Kamenetz in Inside Higher Ed, and several reaction to her ideas on the ransformation of education in the U.S. We also take a look at Apple and Amazon, and at the rapid increase in smart phone ownership Read Article

March 26th, 2010 in Feature Content, Imagine a World

The Gifted Educator Program

Imagine a world where educators stand and declare – “Every child in our school is gifted.” It’s a world where Gifted Student Programs are tailored to recognize and encourage each child’s unique giftedness, a world that flourishes as individual students come to believe in their equal ability to contribute along with their peers. Now imagine this world is just around the corner Read Article

March 26th, 2010 in Daily Research Update

Social Book, the iPad, and Smart Phones

Today’s research update takes a look at Doug Johnson’s five characteristics of the evolving social book, as well as iBooks features on the new iPad. We also point to articles on LMS mobile strategies, smart phone statistics, and new geotagging capabilities in the WordPress iPhone app Read Article

March 26th, 2010 in Weekly Research Index

Weekly Research Index | March 26, 2010

Welcome to our Weekly Research Index, where we list links and summaries of the salient articles we have bookmarked this week. This past week we saw a build up of news around the iPad and e-books, as well as an emphasis on mobile devices due to the CTIA Wireless Conference taking place in Las Vegas. Read Article