Learning Solutions

I am watching a webinar on the release of Blackboard 9, a learning management system that has finally incorporated some 21st century technologies: drap and drop, social networking, blogs, and journals.  The most intriguing feature is the connection with open source learning management systems, such as Moodle and Sakai.  Is this a peace offering, or a sign of things to come, that Blackboard will take over the open source market.  Ask Desire2Learn…

The problem I am having is that the presentation, like all their other presentations, is rather dry.  Blackboard has always come across as a monopolistic, “take it or leave it” entity, not going that extra mile to sell their product.  Proof in point, not 30 minutes into the presentation, ther are already selling their hosting solution.

True tale wiil be the cost increase associated with the new release.

Are we finally going to take the plunge and recognize the value of what we saw in Minority Report with Tom Cruise manipulating data without using a mouse?

Vincent John Vincent of GestureTek (http://www.gesturetek.com/) describes the functionality of gesture technology:

Gesture technology is enabling advertisers to entertain and inform as an individual walks across a floor space or interacts with a wall and moves their head, hands, legs, or feet – wiping away one colorful picture or dynamic image and revealing another. GroundFX from GestureTek, for example, enables people to walk over a floor space and turn over interactive tile components, step on animated buttons to call up information and run videos, add color to black and white images they step over, and even kick balls and other objects that appear on a floor or wall.

http://www.industrial-embedded.com/articles/vincent/

While the corporate world has implemented gesture technology as a critical marketing tool, education is slow to understand the value of a tool that draws the user into the environment, instead of being a passive observer.  This type of learning solution is ideal for universities in attracting prospective students and creating a collaborative atmosphere from the first moment a new student steps on campus.

Take a look at these examples for inspiration:

http://gesturetek.org/VideoPreviewGallery/_External/index.html

How might this be used on your campus?

An Aggie Mom is a special person. She has to suffer through countless Aggie jokes when she tells her friends where her child is going to college. She has to drive the endless road to College Station—for there is no short cut. She prays silently when her child leaves to make the long trip to school each time after a visit home. An Aggie Mom has to endure the comment, “That’s just like an Aggie,” every time her child does something less than perfect—sometimes a lot less than perfect.

But the Spirit of Aggieland is alive and well in the heart of each Aggie Mom. She cheers the athletic teams even when she knows none of the rules and none of the players. Her heart swells with pride when the scholarly accomplishments of faculty and students are related in the media— even when she has never heard of the individuals or of what they have studied. Sounds of the “Aggie War Hymn,” “Silver Taps,” Reveille barking—sights of the Twelfth Man towels, the Aggie Senior Ring: All these things make an Aggie Mom proud. But nothing can compete with the pride shining in her eyes as her Aggie crosses the stage with diploma in hand— and looks up into the crowd searching for Mom’s face. Being an Aggie Mom does not end at graduation, because once an Aggie Mom, always an Aggie Mom!

(Composed by Binnie Dierschke, mother of Patrick Dierschke ‘91, and past president of the San Angelo A&M Mothers’ Club)