Archive of ‘information technology’ category

data is the new oil in Industry 4.0

Why “data is the new oil” and what happens when energy meets Industry 4.0

By Nicholas Waller PUBLISHED 19:42 NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Why “data is the new oil” and what happens when energy meets Industry 4.0

At the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) this week, the UAE’s minister of state for Artificial Intelligence, Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, went so far as to declare that “Data is the new oil.”

according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author, economic historian and one of the world’s leading experts on the oil & gas sector; Daniel Yergin, there is now a “symbiosis” between energy producers and the new knowledge economy. The production of oil & gas and the generation of data are now, Yergin argues, “wholly inter-dependent”.

What does Oil & Gas 4.0 look like in practice?

the greater use of automation and collection of data has allowed an upsurge in the “de-manning” of oil & gas facilities

Thanks to a significant increase in the number of sensors being deployed across operations, companies can monitor what is happening in real time, which markedly improves safety levels.

in the competitive environment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, no business can afford to be left behind by not investing in new technologies – so strategic discussions are important.

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more on big data in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=big+data

more on industry 4.0 in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=industry

storytelling with data

Storytelling with Data: An Introduction to Data Visualization

Mar 04 – Mar 31, 2019

Delivery Mode : Asynchronous Workshop 
Levels : Beginner,Intermediate 
Eligible for Online Teaching Certificate elective : No

Data visualization is about presenting data visually so we can explore and identify patterns in the data, analyze and make sense of those patterns, and communicate our findings. In this course, you will explore those key aspects of data visualization, and then focus on the theories, concepts, and skills related to communicating data in effective, engaging, and accessible ways.

This will be a hands-on, project-based course in which you will apply key data visualization strategies to various data sets to tell specific data stories using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Practice data sets will be provided, or you can utilize your own data sets.

Week 1: Introduction and Tool Setup
Week 2: Cognitive Load and Pre-Attentive Attributes
Week 3: Selecting the Appropriate Visualization Type
Week 4: Data Stories and Context


Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to create basic data visualizations that are effective, accessible, and engaging. In support of that primary objective, you will:

  • Describe the benefits of data visualization for your professional situation
  • Identify opportunities for using data visualization
  • Apply visual cues (pre-attentive attributes) appropriately
  • Select correct charts/graphs for your data story
  • Use appropriate accessibility strategies for data tables

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets is required to successfully complete this course. Resources will be included to help you with the basics should you need them, but time spent learning the tools is not included in the estimated time for completing this course.
What are the key takeaways from this course?

  • The ability to explain how data visualization is connected to data analytics
  • The ability to identify key data visualization theories
  • Creating effective and engaging data visualizations
  • Applying appropriate accessibility strategies to data visualizations

Who should take this course?

  • Instructional designers, faculty, and higher education administrators who need to present data in effective, engaging, and accessible ways will benefit from taking this course

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more on digital storytelling in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+storytelling

more on data visualization in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+visualization

school security and armament

Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards and secret snipers

Billions are being spent to protect children from school shootings. Does any of it work?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-and-campus-safety-industry

  Nov. 13, 2018

Although school security has grown into a $2.7 billion market — an estimate that does not account for the billions more spent on armed campus police officers — little research has been done on which safety measures do and do not protect students from gun violence. Earlier this fall, The Washington Post sent surveys to every school in its database that had endured a shooting of some kind since the 2012 killings of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn., which prompted a surge of security spending by districts across the country.

In 2016, Utah’s Union Middle School had a surveillance system, external doors that could be accessed only with IDs and an armed policewoman, known as a resource officer, when a 14-year-old boy shot another student twice in the head during a confrontation outside the building just after classes ended.

“Even if we would have had metal detectors, it would not have mattered,” wrote Jeffrey P. Haney, district spokesman. “If we would have had armed guards at the entrance of the school, it would not have mattered. If we would have required students to have see-through backpacks and bags, it would not have mattered.”

The survey responses are consistent with a federally funded 2016 study by Johns Hopkins University that concluded there was “limited and conflicting evidence in the literature on the short- and long-term effectiveness of school safety technology.”

school shootings

Much of what can be done to prevent harm is beyond any school’s control because, in a country with more guns — nearly 400 million — than people, children are at risk of being shot no matter where they are. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Medicine found that, among high-income nations, 91 percent of children younger than 15 who were killed by gunfire lived in the United States.

The solution, Goudreau concluded, was to embed former Special Operations agents, posing as teachers, inside schools. He argued that the benefits over resource officers were obvious.

 

POD conference 2018 Portland OR

2018 POD Network Conference

Date: November 14, 2018 – November 18, 2018
Location: 921 SW Sixth Ave  Portland, OR, 97204 USA
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/event/21577490/
Respondents on the 2016 POD Membership Survey indicated a strong need for learning center management and leadership skills. This session, facilitated by four center directors from very different institutions, responds to this need. Session participants will examine: 1) management and leadership responsibilities, especially in the context of continual change; 2) strategic alignment of the center’s work with institutional mission; and 3) evaluation of center work and demonstration of impact. Participants will leave with an individualized professional development plan, practical tools, and guiding questions that enable them to seek out relevant sessions and colleagues during the conference.
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/event/21577321/
In this workshop, we explore powerful model (Symposium) for engaging faculty in campus initiatives and supporting them to take a more active role in leading during times of change. We have successfully used symposium to broaden faculty participation in change initiatives, connecting this work to what matters most to faculty and providing avenues for more inclusive collaboration across disciplines and divisions. Much of the workshop will be devoted to helping participants (1) identify areas where they can lead change on their campuses and (2) develop a draft plan for using symposium to increase faculty engagement in these efforts.
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/event/21577217/
Faculty are often unable to complete a proper learner analysis because they know little about the students that comprise their classlist. At our university, we have been surveying incoming students for five years to collect enhanced demographic data and for the past two years have been sharing aggregate, anonymous data with faculty. Resources have been provided on how to make sense of the data for teaching purposes. In this study, we conducted focus groups with faculty to learn how they have used the data and resources and also to find out what additional data would further support their teaching. (My note: big data in education, as discussed by Nancy Sims keynote at LITA Nov, 2018)
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/event/21577219/
Summative peer review of teaching (SPRT) is used in many higher education institutions. Unfortunately, the evaluative “power” of SPRT for making high-stakes career decisions can be limited due to lack of meaningful criteria and faculty resistance (Chism, 2008). To address this situation, our teaching and learning centre engaged in a collaborative culture-change initiative to develop a rubric for SPRT that would serve the University-wide committee with responsibility for final recommendation on matters of promotion and tenure. In this session, we discuss our collaborative process, debrief challenges and how we addressed and/or anticipated these, and share the SPRT rubric. (My Note: CETL)
https://guidebook.com/guide/149245/event/21577409/
This session will introduce participants to the gamification of faculty development through an interactive small group design scenario that asks participants to take a traditional faculty development experience and then gamify it using the gamification design framework [1]. Gamification involves the use of game design elements and experiences in non-gaming environments. When applied in faculty development settings, gamification has the potential to encourage faculty engagement and motivation and can lead to behavioral change that can impact their teaching. (My note: ask me; i have been trying to educate CETL directors for the past four years on this opportunity)

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more on POD conferences in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=POD+conference

can XR help students learn

Giving Classroom Experiences (Like VR) More 
 Dimension

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/11/02/virtual-reality-other-3-d-tools-enhance-classroom-experiences

at a session on the umbrella concept of “mixed reality” (abbreviated XR) here Thursday, attendees had some questions for the panel’s VR/AR/XR evangelists: Can these tools help students learn? Can institutions with limited budgets pull off ambitious projects? Can skeptical faculty members be convinced to experiment with unfamiliar technology?

All four — one each from Florida International University, Hamilton College, Syracuse University and Yale University — have just finished the first year of a joint research project commissioned by Educause and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard to investigate the potential for immersive technology to supplement and even transform classroom experiences.

Campus of the Future” report, written by Jeffrey Pomerantz

Yale has landed on a “hub model” for project development — instructors propose projects and partner with students with technological capabilities to tap into a centralized pool of equipment and funding. (My note: this is what I suggest in my Chapter 2 of Arnheim, Eliot & Rose (2012) Lib Guides)

Several panelists said they had already been getting started on mixed reality initiatives prior to the infusion of support from Educause and HP, which helped them settle on a direction

While 3-D printing might seem to lend itself more naturally to the hard sciences, Yale’s humanities departments have cottoned to the technology as a portal to answering tough philosophical questions.

institutions would be better served forgoing an early investment in hardware and instead gravitating toward free online products like Unity, Organon and You by Sharecare, all of which allow users to create 3-D experiences from their desktop computers.

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Campus of the Future” report, written by Jeffrey Pomerantz

https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2018/8/ers1805.pdf?la=en

XR technologies encompassing 3D simulations, modeling, and production.

This project sought to identify

  • current innovative uses of these 3D technologies,
  • how these uses are currently impacting teaching and learning, and
  • what this information can tell us about possible future uses for these technologies in higher education.

p. 5 Extended reality (XR) technologies, which encompass virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are already having a dramatic impact on pedagogy in higher education. XR is a general term that covers a wide range of technologies along a continuum, with the real world at one end and fully immersive simulations at the other.

p. 6The Campus of the Future project was an exploratory evaluation of 3D technologies for instruction and research in higher education: VR, AR, 3D scanning, and 3D printing. The project sought to identify interesting and novel uses of 3D technology

p. 7 HP would provide the hardware, and EDUCAUSE would provide the methodological expertise to conduct an evaluation research project investigating the potential uses of 3D technologies in higher education learning and research.

The institutions that participated in the Campus of the Future project were selected because they were already on the cutting edge of integrating 3D technology into pedagogy. These institutions were therefore not representative, nor were they intended to be representative, of the state of higher education in the United States. These institutions were selected precisely because they already had a set of use cases for 3D technology available for study

p. 9  At some institutions, the group participating in the project was an academic unit (e.g., the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University; the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University). At these institutions, the 3D technology provided by HP was deployed for use more or less exclusively by students and faculty affiliated with the particular academic unit.

p. 10 definitions
there is not universal agreement on the definitions of these
terms or on the scope of these technologies. Also, all of these technologies
currently exist in an active marketplace and, as in many rapidly changing markets, there is a tendency for companies to invent neologisms around 3D technology.

A 3D scanner is not a single device but rather a combination of hardware and
software. There are generally two pieces of hardware: a laser scanner and a digital
camera. The laser scanner bounces laser beams off the surface of an object to
determine its shape and contours.

p. 11 definitions

Virtual reality means that the wearer is completely immersed in a computer
simulation. Several types of VR headsets are currently available, but all involve
a lightweight helmet with a display in front of the eyes (see figure 2). In some
cases, this display may simply be a smartphone (e.g., Google Cardboard); in other
cases, two displays—one for each eye—are integrated into the headset (e.g., HTC
Vive). Most commercially available VR rigs also include handheld controllers
that enable the user to interact with the simulation by moving the controllers
in space and clicking on finger triggers or buttons.

p. 12 definitions

Augmented reality provides an “overlay” of some type over the real world through
the use of a headset or even a smartphone.

In an active technology marketplace, there is a tendency for new terms to be
invented rapidly and for existing terms to be used loosely. This is currently
happening in the VR and AR market space. The HP VR rig and the HTC Vive
unit are marketed as being immersive, meaning that the user is fully immersed in
a simulation—virtual reality. Many currently available AR headsets, however, are
marketed not as AR but rather as MR (mixed reality). These MR headsets have a
display in front of the eyes as well as a pair of front-mounted cameras; they are
therefore capable of supporting both VR and AR functionality.

p. 13 Implementation

Technical difficulties.
Technical issues can generally be divided into two broad categories: hardware
problems and software problems. There is, of course, a common third category:
human error.

p. 15 the technology learning curve

The well-known diffusion of innovations theoretical framework articulates five
adopter categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and
laggards. Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003).

It is also likely that staff in the campus IT unit or center for teaching and learning already know who (at least some of) these individuals are, since such faculty members are likely to already have had contact with these campus units.
Students may of course also be innovators and early adopters, and in fact
several participating institutions found that some of the most creative uses of 3D technology arose from student projects

p. 30  Zeynep Tufekci, in her book Twitter and Tear Gas

definition: There is no necessary distinction between AR and VR; indeed, much research
on the subject is based on a conception of a “virtuality continuum” from entirely
real to entirely virtual, where AR lies somewhere between those ends of the
spectrum.  Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino, “A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays,” IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, vol. E77-D, no. 12 (1994); Steve Mann, “Through the Glass, Lightly,” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 31, no. 3 (2012): 10–14.

For the future of 3D technology in higher education to be realized, that
technology must become as much a part of higher education as any technology:
the learning management system (LMS), the projector, the classroom. New
technologies and practices generally enter institutions of higher education as
initiatives. Several active learning classroom initiatives are currently under
way,36 for example, as well as a multi-institution open educational resources
(OER) degree initiative.37

p. 32 Storytelling

Some scholars have argued that all human communication
is based on storytelling;41 certainly advertisers have long recognized that
storytelling makes for effective persuasion,42 and a growing body of research
shows that narrative is effective for teaching even topics that are not generally
thought of as having a natural story, for example, in the sciences.43

p. 33 accessibility

The experience of Gallaudet University highlights one of the most important
areas for development in 3D technology: accessibility for users with disabilities.

p. 34 instructional design

For that to be the case, 3D technologies must be incorporated into the
instructional design process for building and redesigning courses. And for that
to be the case, it is necessary for faculty and instructional designers to be familiar
with the capabilities of 3D technologies. And for that to be the case, it may
not be necessary but would certainly be helpful for instructional designers to
collaborate closely with the staff in campus IT units who support and maintain
this hardware.

Every institution of higher
education has a slightly different organizational structure, of course, but these
two campus units are often siloed. This siloing may lead to considerable friction
in conducting the most basic organizational tasks, such as setting up meetings
and apportioning responsibilities for shared tasks. Nevertheless, IT units and
centers for teaching and learning are almost compelled to collaborate in order
to support faculty who want to integrate 3D technology into their teaching. It
is necessary to bring the instructional design expertise of a center for teaching
and learning to bear on integrating 3D technology into an instructor’s teaching (My note: and where does this place SCSU?) Therefore,
one of the most critical areas in which IT units and centers for teaching and
learning can collaborate is in assisting instructors to develop this integration
and to develop learning objects that use 3D technology. p. 35 For 3D technology to really gain traction in higher education, it will need to be easier for instructors to deploy without such a large support team.

p. 35 Sites such as Thingiverse, Sketchfab, and Google Poly are libraries of freely
available, user-created 3D models.

ClassVR is a tool that enables the simultaneous delivery of a simulation to
multiple headsets, though the simulation itself may still be single-user.

p. 37 data management:

An institutional repository is a collection of an institution’s intellectual output, often consisting of preprint journal articles and conference papers and the data sets behind them.49 An
institutional repository is often maintained by either the library or a partnership
between the library and the campus IT unit. An institutional repository therefore has the advantage of the long-term curatorial approach of librarianship combined with the systematic backup management of the IT unit. (My note: leaves me wonder where does this put SCSU)

Sharing data sets is critical for collaboration and increasingly the default for
scholarship. Data is as much a product of scholarship as publications, and there
is a growing sentiment among scholars that it should therefore be made public.50

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more on VR in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality+definition

public domain video clips

Library of Congress launched the National Screening Room. The National Screening Room currently offers about 300 videos. The videos are digital copies of films made in the 19th and 20th centuries. You can browse the collection by date, location of the filming, and subject. You can also search for videos that are parts of other LOC collections. All of the videos in the National Screening Room can be viewed online and or downloaded as MP4 files.

Flickr is known for hosting millions of images, but it also hosts lots of videos. how to find public domain videos on Flickr

Pixabay has been one of my go-to sites for public domain images for years. Pixabay also offers public domain video clips that you can download for free.

The Public Domain Review is a website that features collections of images, books, essays, audio recordings, and films that are in the public domain

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more on free images in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=stock

places to find public domain images online.

Geocaching

IhamĂ€ki, P. (n.d.). IhamĂ€ki, P. & Heljakka K. (2018) “Travel Bugs”: Toys Traveling Socially through Geocaching. Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/37675498/Iham%C3%A4ki_P._and_Heljakka_K._2018_Travel_Bugs_Toys_Traveling_Socially_through_Geocaching
Keywords
Geocaching, Travel Bugs, Toy tourism, Toy Mobility, Gamification, Social play
 ABSTRACT
This study explores emerging types of mobile and social play patterns through theobject-based, but technologically enhanced practices of toy tourism. As our case studiesdemonstrate, object play practices in the digitalizing world are not only becomingincreasingly social in nature, but even more mobile than before. As illustrated by ourstudy focusing on Travel Bugs in the context of the international game of geocaching,toys become mobile through different practices partaken by players, willing to either become involved in toy tourism with their playthings. Our study consisted of 45 survey responses from geocachers traveling with Travel Bugs. According to the results, mobileand social object play practices enabled by the platform of Geocaching become gamified
 – 
 i.e. more perceivable, goal-oriented and measurable.
 
Our main contributionis a conceptual framework in which the relations between the digital, the physical andthe social dimensions of toy tourism are modelled

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more on gamification in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=gamification

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