Category Archives: learning and teaching

amidoinitrite, ds106, edtech, education, learning and teaching, learning design

Jim talks about preparing students for a connected future, and everything else

Leave a comment

Five years later, I was finally able to attend one of Jim’s talks in-person when he spoke about ‘preparing students for a connected future’ at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

The DS106 assignment bank was inspired in part by ravelry, and the patterns it shared.

amidoinitrite, concept, game based learning, homework, learning and teaching, learning design, resource development

WWW – Simple access to web pages

Leave a comment

I’m building an interactive experience which makes use of available weather data, much like the data services made available by the BOM or the OpenWeatherMap. This means I need to be able to load data from the web, parse it and then transform 3D geometry based on real world locations and the loaded weather data.

That’s a whole load of stuff to figure out and then pull together, so I’m making a start by learning how to load data by retrieving the contents of URLs and weather specific data, just to get the whole thing going.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
//using System.Xml;
//using System;

public class SimpleWebAccess : MonoBehaviour {

	IEnumerator Start()

	{
	
		WWW www = new WWW ("ftp://ftp.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/IDV10751.xml");
		yield return www;
		print (www.text);

		}
}

Related links

amidoinitrite, edtech, education, elearning, field report, learning and teaching, learning design, resource development

WIFI PASSENGER FLOW ANALYSIS TRIAL – Richmond Station

Leave a comment

I’m interested in the teaching and learning as well as art applications of this technology. What’s interesting about this as an exercise is the wasted opportunity to celebrate and showcase respondents of their input into the data gathering and research process. Metro and Monash could have actively showcase the exercise by representing the number of passengers/users on the platform in a creative way, personally and publically – on their device and on large screens and through speakers. Doing this may mitigate some of the possible resistance by passengers who only find out about their contribution to research after the fact – they see a small sign that gives them an option of opting-out by turning-off their WIFI (and therefore disabling their own WIFI connectivity – work/study), which isn’t really fair.

WIFI PASSENGER FLOW ANALYSIS TRIAL – FAQS

Who is conducting this trial?

This trial is a joint initiative between Metro, Public Transport Victoria (PTV) and Monash University.

What is this trial about?

Metro, PTV and Monash University are conducting research to gain real time data of passenger numbers on platforms at Richmond station and on board trains travelling from Richmond across the network.

This is about using technology to provide better information to improve the services we provide to customers.

What will the trial do?

Information will be collected on how people are using Richmond Station by counting the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices on the platforms and trains.

As a result of this collection of data, Metro will be able to further analyse how it can improve the customer experience by:

collecting data to better inform future network service planning
improving information available at stations and allocation of customer service staff
Identifying crowd movements on and around platforms
providing customers with a better overall service

When will the trial take place?

The trial will commence on the 17th of February 2017 and run until the 30th of June 2017.

Where will the trial be conducted?

The trial will focus only on passenger flow on platforms 7,8,9 and 10 plus the concourse at Richmond Station and on board four trains.

All areas where this technology is active will be clearly marked to advise customers.

How does it work?

Wi-Fi routers will be installed on platforms 7,8,9 and 10, plus the concourse at Richmond Station and on four trains. These devices will be able to count the number of active Wi-Fi devices in the vicinity of these platforms.

How can I opt out?

All you need to do is to turn off the Wi-Fi on your personal device and you will not be included in this trial.

Can you access my personal information from my electronic devices?

No. Personal information is never traced or tracked.

Your devices unique identification number (MAC address) is put through two levels of encoding. This ensures your personal information cannot be traced or tracked.

How will I know what trains I’m being tracked on?

All trains where this technology is active will be clearly marked with posters to advise customers.

Will I start being registered as soon as I step on one of the 4 trains or only when we approach Richmond Station?

The technology counts the number of active WiFi devices on board the trains regardless of their location on the network. However during analysis only trains that travel through Richmond station will be considered.

Who has access to this information?

The number of devices will be the only information collected. Your personal information is never traced or tracked and will remain completely anonymous.

The raw data is only held by Monash University and will be deleted 90 days after finalisation of the trial. The statistical information will be used to gauge the accuracy of this technology and will be shared with Metro and the PTV.

How can I get more information?

For more information you can contact the PTV call centre: 1800 800 007

Passenger advisory in context.

 

Detail of the exceptionally small notice advising passengers that they’re part of a trial.
amidoinitrite, edtech, education, elearning, field report, learning and teaching, learning design, resource development, startup

EduGrowth pre-accelerator pitch night

Leave a comment

And the winner is…

amidoinitrite, education, hackathon, learning and teaching

Is everything hackable?

Leave a comment

Is everything hackable? Yeah, I think so. Does hacking known problematic student administration-style services and ‘wicked problems’ potentially lead to better teaching and learning outcomes and experience for students, staff and the university? Could it be done in 36 hours? That’s the answer I wanted to find out when I attended Monash University’s HackMon.

First up, introductions. This is where each team pitched their initial project idea with the hope of attracting new team members to help them solve their wicked problem.

Academic director of MU-OLT, Kris Ryan provides a teaching and learning context during his introduction on the morning of the first day.

Detail from the imagination wall, a breakdown of hackathon activities over the next two days, with pre-hack events.

Hackathon breakdown, including pre-hack activities. Next steps/post-hack-style activities could also be worth mentioning…

And then it started, which was awesome.

There was a whole lot of activity, including much horse trading and team building.

Taking a break for lunch on the first day. Great view from the seventh floor of 271 Collins Street.

Themes by project teams – Digital assistants (“What now and how?”), Resource/facilities management and Scheduling (What can I use?), status dashboards (“What and when?”)
amidoinitrite, education, homework, learning and teaching, learning design, resource development

Service Design Boot Camp at GA

Leave a comment

On Saturday 20 August I attended the Service Design Boot Camp workshop at General Assembly in Melbourne, which was pretty cool. I’ve been interested in the discipline for some time, exploring aspects of design process, prototyping, testing and iterating with Coursera’s Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society open online course online course, but I’ve never had the chance to embrace it fully face-to-face, until now. Awesome.

On the promotional page for the workshop they said “This course is for anyone that has an interest in applying the design process to solve complex problems. It’s likely you’ll have many transferable skills or experiences that will be put to use through the course of the day.” Cool. That’s exactly what I want to be able to do.

What did we do?

In the workshop we worked through the components that make up the practise of service design:

  • Discovery: gaining empathy and understanding the needs and pain points of users.
  • Ideation: Developing a range of ideas on how to develop a solution to meet the needs of all users.
  • Prototyping: Testing and iterating, including the customer experience, “front of house” interactions, and back of house dependencies.
  • Communication: Articulating the many facets of your offering in a concise way.

Discovery

Define

define_2016-08-20-12.39.32

define_2016-08-20-13.28.26

define_2016-08-20-13.24.42

define-2016-08-20-13.28.17

define_2016-08-20-13.28.22

define_reframe_2016-08-20-14.38.51
“How might we..” “for…” “so that…”

design_storyb_2016-08-20-14.50.02

Deliver – Service blueprinting and role play

Completed service blueprint for our solution.
Completed service blueprint for our solution.
communication
We use role play to articulate the customer journey and services we designed.

Leading practitioners

amidoinitrite, learning and teaching, repossessed to skate, skateboarding

Deliberate practise with feedback

Leave a comment

You have to have feedback as quickly as possible. 10,000 hours with a teacher, with constant feedback, is critical.


What better feedback than skateboarding? You skate, you make a mistake, you fall, you bleed. Repeat.

If you don’t get better, you break bones and have to stop. If you learn from your mistakes with the help of teachers, you stop bleeding.

Deliberate Practice with Feedback.
Deliberate Practice with Feedback.