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EDLD 5305 Module 3

Dwayne Harapnuik —  January 9, 2019

Learning from Leaders – What Lines are Others Taking

Following the example of a successful innovator can also get you past the most challenging obstacles and can save your organization time and money.

Course Outcome/Goal

Learners will identify technology innovations and embrace them as opportunities rather than challenges, recognizing that they can proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their organizations.

Module Outcome/Goal

After completing this module, you should be able to:
Highlight the opportunities technological innovation spawns.
Develop strategies to proactively use these opportunities to move your institution/districts toward developing active learning environments.

Introduction Video

The Lines That Went Before You

Readings

Refer to the links in the module assignment

Please note: To stay, as current as possible additional cases study examples will be identified and provided shortly before the start of each course.
Want to Innovate? Discussion
Consider the following two TED talks:
In Want to innovate? Become a “now-ist” Joi Ito the head of the MIT Media Lab skips the future predictions and instead shares a new approach to creating in the moment: building quickly and improving constantly, without waiting for permission or for proof that you have the right idea.

Joi Ito: Want to innovate? Become a “now-ist”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjTVGIw4z8

In Click here– blended learning and the future of education Monique Markoff challenges us to consider that we have had computers and educational technology for a long time—yet we aren’t we at the point where we are using technology effectively to enhance the learning environment? What can we do about this?

Click here– blended learning and the future of education: Monique Markoff at TEDxIthacaCollege

Instructions

Participate in a class discussion, which you begin by addressing the following issues/questions.

What else can we learn from these examples of innovation?
Education is what people do to you and learning is what you do to yourself… need to learn is how to learn. Are you actually practicing this in your learning environment? Why or why not?
Ito challenges us to: “Stop this notion that you need to plan everything, you need to stock everything you need be so prepared and focus and being connected, always learning fully aware and super present. I don’t like the word futurist I think with we should be “Now ists”. If you are not a Now ist, what is holding you back?
Are you flexible? Is your school flexible enough to allow teachers to be innovative and to experiment blended learning or other ways to use technology to enhance learning?
Are you committed to have kids really use technology? Are your colleagues able to commit to use the technology?
Are you able to able to create the necessary learning environment where students are giving the choice, ownership, and voice through authentic projects?

Please remember the list of questions are for your benefit and are intended to help you focus your thinking. We are not asking nor expect you to answer each question in your discussion–rather you should use these questions to help focus on how the insights gained through this discussion will help you to add another component to your innovation plan.

This discussion will be assessed as part of your participation grade.

Learning from Leaders

Assignment Value: 75 points

In this assignment, you will review examples(s) of organizations who have used disruptive innovation as a catalyst to bring change to their organizations and gain insights and ideas on how to develop an innovation plan or proposal and to also implement a innovation initiative or strategy in your organization.

Since 2008, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has been recognized nationally as a visionary leader in campus-wide exploration and 1-to-1 deployment of iPhones, iPod touches and iPads. Notice how ACU has leveraged mobile technology to bring about transformative change in this Southwest Texas university campus.

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MTLI) is one of the longest running best documented 1 to 1 initiatives running in North America. The 10 years of experience with the MTLI provides perspective that we can all learn from.

Instructions

Step 1
As a starting point in your review, consider the significance of what ACU refers to as “Video Vision Casting.” One could argue that the spark that started the process at ACU is the Connected Movie produced in 2007, even before Apple had announced the 3G iPhone. Unfortunately, the video is longer then it could be by today’s Youtube standards so overlook the length and look to the vision that the video creates.

Review the following videos that explain how ACU leveraged the disruptive power of the iPhone and iPad as a catalyst for the change in learning on their campus:

ACU Connected Part 1

ACU Connected Part 2

Review the following ACU Mobile Learning Reports:
2008-09 Mobile Learning Report – https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1722951-dt-content-rid-21194482_1/xid-21194482_1
2009-10 Mobile Learning Report – https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1722951-dt-content-rid-21194485_1/xid-21194485_1
2010-11 Mobile Learning Report – https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1722951-dt-content-rid-21194486_1/xid-21194486_1

AND

If you are considering a 1 to 1 initiative review the MTLI site and pay particular attention to:

About the MTLI – explains the how and why of the program – http://maine.gov/mlti/about/index.shtml
Research & Evaluation Reports – the published results of what worked, what didn’t and why. – http://maine.gov/mlti/resources/research.shtml
MTLI Manual – provides all the details of how the program works. – http://maine.gov/mlti/resources/manuals.shtml

If you are considering a 1 to 1 iPad initiative review the:

Franklin Academy High School Initiative Wiki – http://ipadfa.wikispaces.com/home

If you are considering a blended learning initiative review:

Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015 – http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560788.pdf
Blended Learning Implementation Guide: Version 2.0 –  http://digitallearningnow.com/site/uploads/2013/10/BLIG-2.0-Final-Paper.pdf
Implementation of Blended Learning at the School Level: A Case Study of the iLearnNYC Lab Schools – http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/a-roadmap-for-implementation.pdf
Blended Learning in DC Public Schools: How One District is Reinventing its Classrooms – https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/-blended-learning-in-dc-public-schools_084713921628.pdf

Regardless of your interest in mobile learning, 1 to 1, blended learning, or other technology-focused initiative it is always a good idea to keep the right perspective that it isn’t just about the technology it is about the learning. Alan November does a wonderful job reminding us of this in his article:

Why Schools Must Move Beyond One to One Computing – http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/why-schools-must-move-beyond-one-to-one-computing/

Similarly, AJ Juliani talks about starting with learning beliefs and learning principles even before talking about technology in his post:

Why We Went Multi-Device, Multi-Platform for Our 1:1 Initiative – http://ajjuliani.com/why-we-went-multi-device-multi-platform-for-our-11-initiative/

These case studies listed above are just a few of many examples of how other organizations have implemented technology to enhance learning. Feel free to use other examples in your planning process.

Step 2

From your review of the sites and case studies in Step 1 and from using the ideas gleaned from your literature review, develop an implementation outline for your innovation plan. At this point in your studies, we do not expect you to have fully detailed and complete report or implementation plan. You do have enough information to develop an implementation outline that provides significant details for the first year of your plan and then a more general or broad overview of the following months or year(s). You will be revisiting and revising this implementation outline in EDLD 5304 and again in other courses in the DLL program.

While the format of the implementation outline is up to you keep in mind that you will be posting this plan to your ePortflio for peer review so this plan MUST be submitted as a link from your ePortfolio. Also, keep in mind that the most important aspect of implementation outline is to identify who your audience will be and why and how they will use the material.

Step 3

Add your outline to your blog site for peer review.
Visit at least three other classmates sites and review their outlines.

Peer Review Process

If you are the first person to visit a classmates site preface your review with the heading “Peer Review 1”, if you are the second, preface your review with the heading “Peer Review 2” and so on. Everyone must follow this heading process so that we can ensure that all outlines get reviewed.
Each outline should be reviewed by at least three different classmates, so if you come on a site that already has three reviews move onto another site and offer your feedback. Feel free to visit all your classmates sites and offer comments and to get ideas for your own outlines.
Your review should take the form of encouragement, questions, suggestions, recommendations and other forms of positive feedback. If you notice issues with an outline ask questions rather than give criticism. All reviews must be completed by midnight on the Wednesday of the following week.

Step 4

Revise your implementation outline based on the comments from your peers.
Include links to your innovation plan and your literature review so that we can see how these components of your change strategy fit together.
Submit the completed implementation outline by 11:59 PM CST on Sunday of the fourth week of the course.

Submission Details:

This assignment MUST be submitted as a link from your ePortfolio so include the assignment URL in the provided document template: Assignment3-EDLD5305-Submission.docx Click for more options

Download the document template,
Post the URL into the space at the top of the document template,
Add your name to the document,
Rename the file with your name and assignment identifier
Upload the file to Blackboard by or before the deadline.

If your assignment does take the form of a Word or Pages document then you can simply paste the content into the document template and complete the assignment submission as outlined above.

The School of Education is using this submission process in its online courses for two reasons:

We wish to provide you an offline copy of the assignment instructions that you can refer to.
We want to ensure there is a consistent and permanent record of assignment submissions that can efficiently be converted to hard copy.

Formats:

While the format of the implementation outline is up to you keep in mind that you will be posting this plan to your ePortflio for peer review so this plan MUST be submitted as a link from your ePortfolio..
Use the APA format to cite your sources.
Use the assignment name, your last name and first initial (assignment name + last name + first initial) to label your assignment submission.

Add to ePortfolio:

Since this assignment is part of the course outcome of identifying technology innovations, embracing them as opportunities rather than challenges, and recognizing that they can proactively be used as catalysts to enhance your learning environment and organization you will also need to add this to your ePortfolio. In the final module you will be required to consolidate all the course assignments into a cohesive section on your ePortfolio, so we recommend that you add this to your ePortfolio as you go along rather than wait until the end.

EDLD 5305 Innovation Plan
EDLD 5305 Module 1
EDLD 5305 Module 2
EDLD 5305 Module 3
EDLD 5305 Module 4
EDLD 5305 Module 5

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Musician to Physician: Why Medical Schools are Recruiting Musicians

Dwayne Harapnuik —  August 7, 2018 — Leave a comment

Musician to Physician

A recent CBC news post reveals that Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), as well as other Canadian universities, have discovered that a musical background is a good predictor of success for medical students. Why? Constant, continual improvement is central to being a musician and this skill is crucial and transferable for future physicians. The study of music helps the learner to:

  • Avoid complacency
  • Constantly reassess what you are doing
  • Reflect on how to continually get better

Doctors have to continually reflect on how they can improve and continually get better especially if they are surgeons.

This post also confirms the research on deliberate practice by Anders Ericsson. According to Ericsson (2016), deliberate practice is much different than traditional practice because instead of just doing the same thing over and over again the learner focuses on the continual pursuit of personal improvement that is directed by well-defined, specific goals and continuous feedback that drives incremental gains. A skill or ability that a person is working towards is broken down into small enough components where feedback on the performance is used to help the learner make small adjustments that will lead to incremental improvements. The feedback can come from a teacher, mentor, or coach who observes where the adjustments need to be made. The continuous feedback can also come from peers, video, timing devices and other technologies that can provide the learner data that helps map their progress. As the learner gains experience and expertise they can also are able to see where they need to make the adjustments themselves—this is one of the key differences between amateurs and experts.

Another key aspect of deliberate pracitices is that the learner must constantly practices outside their comfort zone. Just far enough to push the boundries but not so far to cause fear and immeidate failure. This is where a few percentage points of pushing the boundry can cointribute the continous incremental gains that are so important to improvement. These incrimetnal gains can add up over time to enable one become an expert. Ericsson’s research into how long it takes one to become an expert was miscontrued and popularized by Malcom Gladwell in his 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success where he posited the10,000-Hour Rule. Gladwell suggested that the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill simply practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours. Ericsson refuted Gladwell’s claims and pointed out that in some disciplines expertise can be achieved in as short as 5,000 hours and in other,s true expertise is achieved in over 20,000 hours. Furthermore, attaining the level of expertise is only the beginning because the world’s best continue their discipline of deliterate practice throughout their tenure of being at the top of their field. Regardless of how much time is conmitted, the key is deliberate practices with continual feedback that leads toward incremental gains.

Getting back to the story about musicians becoming good physicians because of their ability continually improve it is important for us to understand as educators are that there has to be a purpose for one to commit years of deliberate practice. Whether it is to become a Chessmaster, a world-class musician, a world-class athlete or to be the leader in a particular field the drive toward this end goal only happens if the goal is real world or authentic.

It takes real world or authentic learning opportunities to provide the context for learning and to drive the intrinsic motivation for the learner to persist in making those continuous incremental improvements over time. This is why it is so important as educators to recognize we must not only prepare our learners for the test but we need to prepare them for life. We can do so by creating a significant learning environment in which we give our learners choice ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities – the CLSE+COVA framework.
We need to continually ask – are we preparing them for the test or are we preparing them for life.

Additional posts exploring deliberate practice:

References

Ericsson, A., & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertise. New York, NY: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Co.

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CSLE+COVA Workshop

Dwayne Harapnuik —  July 24, 2018

In the CSLE+COVA Workshop for the Lamar University School of Education Teacher Education Workshop on July 25, 2018, we explored how:

  • We can make a more significant impact on our learners by giving them authentic learning opportunities to prepare them to thrive in the real world.
  • We can equip our learners to solve complex problems and realize their greatest potential when we give them choice, ownership, and a voice through these authentic learning opportunities.
  • ePortfolios can be leveraged to support these learning opportunities and to engage learners as they find their voice in sharing their creations.

Workshop slide deck: CSLE+COVA Workshop.pdf

The following books, videos, and methods were used or referred to in the workshop. You can access the workshop slide deck from – add link here

Workshop Videos
Please note that additional videos have been included that were not viewed in the workshop.

How to Fold a Shirt in Under 2 Seconds

CSLE+COVA Change in Focus Part A

CSLE+COVA Change in Focus Part B

Digital Learning

Specialized Demo 7 Build

How to Implement the CSLE+COVA Framework

If someone needs directions, don’t give them a globe. It’ll merely waste their time. But if someone needs to understand the way things are, don’t give them a map. They don’t need directions; they need to see the big picture (Seth Godin, 2017 para. 1).

In order to effectively implement the CSLE+COVA framework, you need to see the bigger picture of how these well established constructivist ideas come together. More specifically you need to see the bigger picture of how to create a significant learning environment in which we give you choice ownership and voice through authentic learning opportunities.

The following pages and videos have been designed to help you understand why and how to use CSLE+COVA framework and what that will mean to your learning experience and your organization. We recommend that you use the following pages in sequence but as you will see as you become more familiar with the CSLE+COVA framework we leave that choice up to you. We also want to point out that these are the same theoretical, pedagogical, and practical principles that we use in the Master of Digital Learning (DLL) and Leading at Lamar University so you will be in good company with hundreds of other educators who are looking to use technology to enhance the learning.

How to Implement the CSLE+COVA Framework (How to Succeed in the DLL)
CSLE+COVA Framework

CSLE+COVA Research & Theoretical Foundation – https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7079
You will find links to the peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters that directly point to research that supports the COVA+CSLE approach and also to the theoretical foundation and supporting research that informs the CSLE+COVA.

Reference

Harapnuik, D. K., Thibodeaux, T. N., & Cummings, C. D. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning Opportunities. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7291

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.

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How to cut through the hype of educational promises

Dwayne Harapnuik —  May 2, 2018 — 2 Comments

Personalize Learning GrantWhen educational issues hit the evening news it is very important that you understand how to move past the hype to see what is really happening. The announcement of Chicago Public Schools and nonprofit Leap Innovations receiving a $14 million grant from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to expand personalized learning to 100 schools is definitely worth investigating. Without fully understanding what personalized learning means within the educational context, on its own merits, it sounds like a great idea. If we look to the recent confession from Larry Berger, CEO of Amplify about what personalized learning actually is. Berger’s company Amplify creates products and curriculum that are supposed to “truly personalize learning” (https://www.amplify.com/curriculum) and since he and his company has spent over a decade using big data algorithms to promote this model, his insider knowledge is useful.

Berger argues that when most people refer to personalized learning they are referring to the engineering model of personalized learning. His explanation of the model is worth repeating verbatim (link to the full confession):

You start with a map of all the things that kids need to learn.

Then you measure the kids so that you can place each kid on the map in just the spot where they know everything behind them, and in front of them is what they should learn next.

Then you assemble a vast library of learning objects and ask an algorithm to sort through it to find the optimal learning object for each kid at that particular moment.

Then you make each kid use the learning object.

Then you measure the kids again. If they have learned what you wanted them to learn, you move them to the next place on the map. If they didn’t learn it, you try something simpler.

If the map, the assessments, and the library were used by millions of kids, then the algorithms would get smarter and smarter, and make better, more personalized choices about which things to put in front of which kids.

I spent a decade believing in this model—the map, the measure, and the library, all powered by big data algorithms.

Here’s the problem: The map doesn’t exist, the measurement is impossible, and we have, collectively, built only 5% of the library.

To be more precise: The map exists for early reading and the quantitative parts of K-8 mathematics, and much promising work on personalized learning has been done in these areas; but the map doesn’t exist for reading comprehension, or writing, or for the more complex areas of mathematical reasoning, or for any area of science or social studies.

If the CEO of one of the leading personalized learning companies is willing to confess that – The map doesn’t exist, the measurement is impossible, and we have, collectively, built only 5% of the library – then perhaps we should listen to him. Especially when he points to the fact that if we really want our kids to learn how to learn then we need to take a look at what “your best teachers and coaches do for you—without the benefit of maps, algorithms, or data—to personalize your learning?”

Chances are these great teachers and coaches created significant learning environments in which they gave you choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities. Learning has always been personal because until you take ownership of your own learning by making meaningful connections you do not learn. Effective teachers have always known that learning is the responsibility of the learner and their role was to create the environment in which this could happen.

These types of teachers have always used the latest technology to enhance the learning environment and recognized that technology, big data, and algorithms as simply tools that can be used to help make this happen. Unfortunately, we have the tendency to look to the tools to solve our problems. We need to head the warning or confession of the foremost tool maker and remember that: The map doesn’t exist, the measurement is impossible, and we have, collectively, built only 5% of the library

Instead of looking to technology to solve the personal component of personalized learning we need to look to the great teachers who have been doing personalized learning all along by giving their learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities. These people have also been using technology in those authentic learning opportunities to help their learner explore, create, collaborate and communicate.

Personalized learning is one of the many educational technology quick fixes that we have a tendency to hope will solve our learning challenges. There are many more ideas, issues, and topics that need clarification and we are looking to you and our Digital Learning and Leading students to join us in exploring these significant issues.

  • Consider the following list as a starting point and let us know if you would like to write an article, post or other publication that will bring real clarity to the learning environment:
  • Never been a better time to be a learner and/or teacher
  • Growth mindset & Grit criticism
  • STEM instruction is mostly delivered via lecture
  • The much-needed shift to mastery learning
  • Personalized learning problems & benefits
  • Individualized instruction
  • Differentiated instruction
  • Additional names for competency-based education
  • Why technology isn’t a Quick fix
  • Silicon Valley’s failed promises with edtech
  • Problems with SAMR and related quick fix methodologies
  • Learning styles and related educational Zombie myths (bad ideas that just won’t die)
  • Problem-based instruction that isn’t
  • Shift from passive to active learning
  • Choice
  • Ownership
  • Voice
  • Authentic learning opportunities
  • Why all elements of COVA must co-exist
  • COVA from a student perspective
  • The issue with taking ownership and agency – why folks don’t do this
  • Creating significant learning environments
  • Future of education
  • Connecting the dots – making meaningful connections
  • Why – go & show rather than sit & get
  • Digital leader vs digital manager
  • Design thinking for designed learning
  • Confronting the Myth of the ‘Digital Native’
  • Decades of evidence…but where is the change? Translating educational research to practice
  • 18 years into the 21st century – how are we doing with 21st Century learning
  • Communities of Practice (CoP’s) and their impact
  • Problems with STEM/STEAM initiatives
  • Importance of Learning How to Learn
  • Importance of asking good questions vs finding right answers
  • Reality of Thorndyke vs. Rhetoric of Dewey – more to be said
  • Failing forward
  • Feedback to Feedforward
  • How to Avoid the Hype/Getting Caught in the whirlwind of day-to-day processes

Please contact either Dr. Thibodeax or myself (Dr. Harapnuik) if you would like to research, write, and publish on one or more of these topics. This list is also just a starting point so if you have other ideas with which you would like to collaborate write, just let us know.

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Never Been a Better Time to Be a Learner

Dwayne Harapnuik —  February 1, 2018 — Leave a comment

Never been a better time to be a learner
We live in an amazing time. The advancement of technology and innovation is moving at an unprecedented pace and we are starting to see some pivotal changes. For example, the World Economic Forum (WEC) estimated that in 2016 more than 30 countries electricity production from solar panels has reached grid parity with coal and natural gas (Bleich & Guimaraes, 2016). The WEC report also pointed to technological advances and falling costs in batteries and storage technology to the point where expanded production and use of electric vehicles is expected in the near future. We have reached an inflection point with renewable-energy cost-effectiveness and future advances will rapidly accelerate. Another example of amazing life changing advances comes from research at the University of Minnesota. Researchers at the University’s College of Science and Engineering developed a noninvasive brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) that allows people to control a robotic arm in three dimensions, using only their minds (Meng et al., 2016). This research reveals the viability of controlling prosthetic limbs using only one’s mind which has the potential to help millions of people. Scientist are making amazing progress with this breakthrough technology and we may soon see the restoration of movement for those inhibited with spinal cord injuries (Regalado, 2017)

Another way we are seeing millions of people’s lives being changed is through connectivity. Diamandis (2016), a futurist, points to the wiring of the planet as one of the four primary driving forces that will transform our planet. He believes that we are less than a decade from every person having multi-megabit connectivity to the world’s information. Countries like Canada have recently declared high-speed internet an essential service so we are beginning to see a major commitment to these ideals (Kupfer, 2016). Fortunately, like most people in urban North America, I do not have to wait for this connectivity and have access to all the world’s information in the palm of my hand; therefore, I can easily state that it has never been a better time to be a learner.

I do need to qualify my optimism for learning by sharing that I have been proclaiming that it has never been a better time to be a learner since the early 1990s. As an undergraduate student in the late 1980s and graduate student in early 1990s, I had been using bulletin board systems (BBS) and campus mainframes through programs like Kermit and Telnet as well as campus-wide information systems (CWIS) through Gopher and Archie. When the first world wide web (WWW) browser, Mosaic, came out in November of 1993 and then Netscape was released in October of 1994, I knew that the world was rapidly changing and I could see that we were on the cusp of making all the world’s information easily and readily available. In the fall of 1995 when I created my first online course, I encouraged my students to embrace the belief that it has never been a better time to be a learner.

Seeing the rapid growth of internet connectivity from the late 1980s to mid-90s, I assumed that by the late 1990s or early 2000s that our education systems would rapidly move online and we would see a radical transformation in the way that we used technology to enhance learning. By the late 1990s, I had been teaching fully online for several years and developed several online courses, conducted workshops, professional development sessions, and shared my online teaching and learning insights through articles and conferences. However, I started to see that most of my colleagues were not as quick as I was to move to teaching online.

In my doctoral research, I developed Inquisitivism, which is an approach to designing and delivering web-based instruction. This approach shares many of the same active learning principles found in minimalism and other constructivist approaches. I believed that if you created an environment where you used active learning principles like guided discovery, collaboration, and real-world assignments you could help adult learners deal with the fear of technology and change, and encouraged them to use of the Inquisitivist mindset of “HHHMMM??? What does this button do?” moving to online learning would be much easier (Harapnuik, 2004).

By the early 2000s when I completed my graduate studies, I started to see that the move to using technology to enhance the learning environment and the move to online learning was not going as quickly as I hoped, so I started to look for reasons why the uptake was so slow. Even though I lived in Canada, one of the most connected countries in the world, in the early 2000s I realized that the notion that “all the time and anywhere connectivity” really was not the norm for most people. Despite the fact that I had been using a BlackBerry since 1999 most people viewed connectivity to the world wide web or the internet as more of a challenge than a convenience. By the early to mid-2000s, I realized that we needed a simple, convenient, and mobile way to access the internet if we wanted to see a major shift in the way we were using technology to enhance learning. This idea might enable more people to move to online learning. So, when Apple released the first iPhone in mid-2007 and then the iPhone 3G in the fall of 2008, I knew that mobile learning was going to change everything, and once again, I optimistically believed that it was the most amazing time to be a learner.

It has been over 10 years since Apple introduced the iPhone that really put the mobile into mobile learning and since that time Google’s Android has outpaced the iPhone to really make mobile computing ubiquitous. In the past decade, the growth of Apps on both the IOS and Android platform have enabled mobile phone and tablet users to switch between, Kindle, Audible, Evernote, DropBox, Google Drive, Google & Apple Maps and SOOOO many other apps on all types of mobile devices. With the growth of the cloud and Google Drive and some many other cloud-based services, one can hardly imagine why we relied on digital media like CD and DVD drives a mere decade ago. I am writing this post on my MacBook air but am also looking at books and articles on my iPad all the while I am getting text message and twitter feeds on my iPhone. I can’t recall the last time I actually purchased a paper-based book. It doesn’t make sense to purchase a hard copy when you can carry your entire library on your iPad. I have always been a big reader but I have been reading and listening to more books than I ever have. When you factor in all the digital journals that are now accessible online and the significant move toward open sources journals and the power of Google Scholar research has never been easier. When you factor in the convenience of listening to podcasts on every imaginable topic and watching videos on YouTube by some of the most renowned experts in the world I think I can once again say that there has never been a better time to be a learner.

References

Bleich, K., & Guimaraes, R. D. (2016). World Economic Forum renewable infrastructure 
investment handbook: A guide for institutional investors. Retrieved from 
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Renewable_Infrastructure_Investment_Handbo
ok.pdf

Diamandis, P. (2016, December). Tech Blog [Web log post]. Retrieved from 
http://www.diamandis.com/blog/transformation-of-humanity

Gartner. (2017). Hype Cycle Research Methodology | Gartner Inc. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

Kupfer, M. (2016, December 22). Canada’s telecom regulator declares broadband 
internet access a basic service. CBC News. Retrieved from 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/crtc-internet-essential-service-1.3906664

Meng, J., Zhang, S., Bekyo, A., Olsoe, J., Baxter, B., & He, B. (2016). Noninvasive 
electroencephalogram based control of a robotic arm for reach and grasp tasks. 
Scientific Reports, (6)38565, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38565

Regalado, A. (2017) Reversing paralysis. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2017/

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. (2007). Effectiveness of reading and mathematics software products findings from the first student cohort (Report p. 140). Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20074005.pdf

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