New 3D & Wearable Devices for Learning

In 2014 we saw an explosion of suddenly affordable cutting-edge devices hit the consumer market and some learning designers and researchers are already bringing them into real and virtual classrooms.  If you missed out on some of these game-changing devices and what they might do for learning, check out the following 2-minute cheat sheet.

Note: Special thanks to Jim Cook & Jai Honeybrook-Carter at the Innovation TechLab at the University of Sydney, Rob Manson & Alex Young at BuildAR, and to the staff at the Powerhouse Museum for sharing their experiences, showing off their gadgets, and catalyzing change.

Happiness, the MOOC

Join me and 100,000 others in Berkeley's new online course on the "The Science of Happiness".

Taught by world leaders in positive psychology from Berkley's Greater good Science Center, there will be Q&A session with the likes of Dacher Keltner, Sonja Lyobimursky, and Barbara Fredrickson.  This free MOOC is a unique opportunity to learn the fundamentals of positive psychology to inform your work with technology (and life).

 I've been invited to lead the Positive Computing "dojo" with Dr. Rafael Calvo (my colleague at the Positive Computing Lab in Sydney) and Dr. Anna Pohlmeyer (Delft Institute of Positive Design in the Netherlands). This special interest group will bring together those interested in applying wellbeing psychology to the development of technology.  

Learning Technology Research Fest

Who's up for a free and fun day of posters, roundtables, and silly prizes - all centered on cutting edge EdTech research? I know I am.  If you're in Sydney, don't miss out on the 2013 Sydney Learning Technology Research Fest, hosted annually by the Centre for Research on Computer Supported Learning and Cognition.  You can catch up with me at the poster session where I'll be answering questions about the research I did for my book, Interface Design for Learning and at the interactive sessions where I'll be joining experts in wellbeing for a session on how technology could be used to support socio-emotional learning in schools. Register online.

Extreme Accessibility - How to save lives with eLearning

Far from the typical audience of corporate or university eLearning, Thare Machi Education designs lessons on topics like human trafficking and cholera for learners who are extremely poor, mostly illiterate, totally unfamiliar with technology and speak hundreds of different languages.  How's that for a brief?

On Memory and the Life of Maps

There are so many childhood objects that leave indelible marks as one grows up, from the microscope that gives you a secret window into invisible worlds, to the medical kit which made you a superhero with the power to fix people.  In his articles, The gears from my childhood, renowned MIT professor and educational technologist, Seymour Papert, explains how playing with and loving gears gave him a conceptual model that lasted a lifetime.

Upon undertaking a mental hunt for influential childhood objects myself, I ended up in a kind of serenade to maps and memory.  Rote memorization is nearly tabooed in these days of Active Learning and Google access (and with good reason).  But what I learned from maps is that, perhaps, there's a modest place for it yet...

ELearning for Healthy Minds

A growing number of learning programs dedicated to psychological wellbeing are finding their way into schools and workplaces across the globe.  This is probably due, in part, to the concern over technology-induced stress and mounting scientific support for the value of practices like mindfulness and meditation.

This new type of education has begun to manifest digitally in the form of mobile and web programs like MoodGym and the Mindfulness app.  Wellbeing programs, including the myriad that target physical health, often leverage personal analytics and visualizations to support reflection.

The recently launched, Smiling Mind, boasts an elegant, welcoming, and cleverly all-ages appropriate interface design.  This program of "modern meditation for young people" is sponsored by non-profit organizations like the Inspire Foundation, leaders in psychology interventions for young people.   It's entirely free, so why not try it on for size, or share it with someone in your family.

Technology designed to support wellbeing (which certainly isn't always a learning program) is referred to collectively as Positive Computing.  You can find out more about the field at PositiveComputing.org.

The Institute for the Future

If you haven't already, head to the Institute for the Future (IFTF). Their site abounds with projects and infographics of interest to eLearning Interface Designers.

For example, they have a project on The Magic of KidsTech which shares insights on unique applications of technology, such as mobile apps, for kids learning, health and wellbeing.

Reknowned game designer Jane McGonigal is an affiliate, and she explores how games can be designed to foster profound experiences that change people and improve the world (see Evoke)

The IFTF also has a project on the Future of Learning.
Check it out.

UX and UI for eLearning - Presentations online

The eLearning Guild recently hosted an online forum on Graphic design and UX/UI design for eLearning.  One of the highlights for me was the talk by Erin Sappington Kreb and John-Carlos Lozano of SweetRush.  Their slides were impeccable and their advice well communicated.

In a later session I presented a series of research-based guidelines for eLearning interfaces to a dynamic audience of instructional designers, managers and visual designers who made a wonderful momentary community, sharing ideas and experiences.

You can still view presentation recordings on the eLearning Guild Website.

Experts call for more "Learning experience design"

Janet Kolodner at ICLS 2012

I was ecstatic in the audience of Pierre Dillenbourg's talk at last week's International Conference of the Learning Sciences when he made an open call for more work to be done on HCI for Education. Later, in an interactive poster session of innovative learning technology, ISLS society founder Janet Kolodner echoed agreement for this need, appropriately recasting it as "Learning Experience Design".  This triggered additional comments from the crowd on the unique role of graphical user interface design in the learning context.

The work Dillenbourg showcased was created by a multi-disciplinary team, and as a design solution to a problem they discovered through observation (not a technology-led approach). This narrative is utterly in tune with user experience design methods. Moreover the results, such as the lantern he showed (pictured here) were effective, elegant and appropriately minimalist - again, design thinking principles at work.

Lantern awareness tool

I'm inspired that even the research leaders at conferences like ICLS are beginning to articulate the need for a greater focus on user interface and experience design for learning.

I look forward to a new era that brings the fields of the learning sciences and user experience design together so that we can finally take a principled, research-based and human-centered approach to the design of user interfaces and experiences for learning.

Design for a wiser world

Rich learning experiences can help us grow in wisdom as well as in knowledge and capacity. While many are wringing their hands at the perceived negative effects of technology, Positive Computing opens the door to a future in which human-centred design evolves to a kind of humanity-centred design.  The Interactions feature article "Positive Computing: Technology for a wiser world" explores both a vision and point of practical departure for a future in which technology is actively designed to support wellbeing and wisdom.

View article.

Workshop / conference on educational interfaces

The third annual Workshop on Educational Interfaces, Software and technology, associated with CHI 2012, aims to combine "the pedagogical expertise of the cooperative learning, and learning sciences communities with the technical creativity of the CHI, UIST and interactive surface communities."

Held May 5-6, You may have just missed it this year, but the papers are now online, and keep your eye on this workshop, as they plan to make it a conference within two years.

Online Forum on Visual Design for Learning!

This August, the ELearning Guild will focus one of their Online Forums on visual design for learning.  Graphic Design, UI Design and Visualization for eLearning will be held this August 23-24th and attendance is virtual (via Adobe Connect) so come as you are.  I have been invited to speak at the forum and will present:  "Guidelines for Effective learning Interfaces".  More information is available on the Elearning Guild Forums website.

Online games for behavioural intervention

Jennifer Wilson, Director of The Project Factory gave a riveting presentation about the use of games for learning, behavioural intervention, and health at the University of Sydney last week.  Melinda Lewis kindly published the juicy menu of interactive examples that Wilson cited during her speech.

For example, Luminosity is a popular game-based brain trainer that promises to improve your memory and ability to learn (or as you might call it, an adventure in neuroplasticity).  You can also learn how to lower your own blood pressure with Deepak Chopra's meditation and physiological feedback system via WildDivine.  Check out the full list for an exploration into the state of the art in this blossoming area of e-health.

Francotoile - language learning with video

FrancoToile is a showcase in presentation simplicity. It's a resource for French language learners, created  in Canada that leverages what web video has to offer to expose learners to the various sounds, dialects and slang of native French speakers from diverse communities across the globe.

Learning stages for User Experience Design

What a delighter to find my weekly helping of "A list Apart" this morning came topped with the title "UX for Learning".  A List Apart is an impeccably produced online publication from the makers of some of the industry's best websites and books on websites.  The latest post by Tyler Tate shows that  Learning is beginning to slide its foot in the door with a larger design audience.

Tate demonstrates how basic stages of learning can be applied to the design of everyday websites and links some practical examples of interface design decisions for commercial websites back to Kuhlthau’s stages of the search process.

In my view, it's not just a great indication of a growing awareness of how our knowledge about learning needs to converge with our knowledge about design, it's also evidence of how the Beatrice and Benedict of industry and academia are truly meant to be together in the end.  They don't always speak the same language, or think they share the same values,  but (at risk of infringing copyright on an Obama campaign) we must unite - we've so much to gain by sharing research, methods, processes, data and worldviews that why wouldn't we?  As Bob the builder would say "Yes we can."

Image details: Web interface for the Learning Sciences Conference I just designed for the International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Time management principle for design

Design is about details.  But then it's also about deadlines.  As such, I have developed this tenet to keep me focused...

"I vow to cultivate the discipline to not spend time on the details that don't matter, the patience to spend time on the details that do, and the professionalism to know the difference."

Thus today I will not double proofread my chats, or spend hours crafting email witticisms that only I will be impressed with, but I will do what it takes to get that alignment just right and not give up on my dizzying quest for proof of what works.

[Credit, of course, to Reinhold Niebuhr for the famous serenity original.]

Design inspiration: Naughtyfish

For utterly standout and inspired design, check out the work of Naughtyfish.
Including...

• The greed poster and the Africa poster for something immediately different, captivating, raw and effective.
• The Ordinary Day booklet for an inspiring approach to the use of photography that privliges mood and sophisticated emotion over the usual canned and oversaturated stock landscapes.
• And Sweet Little Things for guaranteed joy.

Not to mention, everything else they've done...

7 ideas for designing your own Prezi template

Powerpoint going stale in the cupboard? Boss banging on your door for a Prezi template?  I hear ya.  But how can you create a consistent look and feel to represent your organisation that isn't too restrictive, and in a program that breaks all the rules?!

Prezi has a growing bank of reusable prezis but these are pretty content specific.  So how to make a compelling and generic corporate Prezi template? There are no right answers yet, but here are some starting points.

Here are 7 approaches to the design of your own Prezi template to get the juices flowing...

Interactive graphics and HTML5

The promise of graphics that can change on the fly as users adjust them or enter data is delightfully web-appropriate.  People do it, but it's not excessively common-place for the same age-old reasons of browser incompatibility and scripting required.  The famous HTML5 "canvas" tag aims to allow browsers to handle interactive graphics natively.  Nice!  But what about Scaleable Vector Graphics? With all the advantages of XML, why didn't SVG ever get people excited?  The HTML5 team have chosen Canvas+JavaScript over SVG to manage changeable graphics.  But browser support is about the same between the two, so if you really want a pretty dynamic chart that changes when your users play with it, which should you use today?

Head to the excellent SitePoint article "SVG or Canvas" - How to choose the right format" for some elucidation on what the differences are.

For a more complete primer on HTML5 that is just the right length, and very entertaining (no really), I highly recommend HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith.

Space for learning

According to psychological studies, even small differences in distance and spacing can have a strong impact on a person's sense of security and their attitude towards what they are doing. The studies triggered different emotions by asking subjects to do something as subtle as drawing dots on paper closer or farther apart.  The difference in the distance between a person's dots statistically affected their attitudes towards something they read afterwards.   This would surely point us to the importance of layout and white space in our digital learning environments.  If we want learners to feel relaxed and positive about the task at hand, including sufficient whitespace is now supported by emotions research as well as by good usability guidelines. More in the Scientific American Mind article  "Arranging for Serenity: How Physical Space and Emotion Intersect".