R.I.P Zaption

And it's finally happened......

With the huge number of companies offering free digital tools in the online education space, many of
which offer paid premium versions, it was inevitable that at some point one would fail.

Sadly it is Zaption, the interactive video creation tool, a product that more often than not made the top of many teachers most useful tools lists.
Zaption hasn't failed as such, but been acquired by Workday, a large player in the HR and Corporate training industry. Workday it seems, agrees with educators that Zaption is a great technology and offered the company enought money for them to sell. Rather than share it with the world, Workday has made the decision to shut the stand alone service down so it can incorporate Zaption's features into its own product.

This is certainly a blow for the thousands of teachers that have developed content for Zaption and all the more harsh given that Workday will not continue to support existing Zaption Tours. As of 30 September Zaption will disappear.



What does this mean for those of you with Zaption tours as resources your courses? The short and tough answer is you will lose your work.

Looking forward, there are a couple of great alternatives that are available, Playposit and EdPuzzle being the two leading contenders. The TEEL Team will be comparing these two services over the coming fortnight and will report back on the pros and cons of each. Stay tuned for our take on the best approach for creating interactive video in the post Zaption era!

Blurring the Lines of Reality - 2016 Update

I was fortunate to attend Magnify recently, a two day Virtual and Augmented Reality conference hosted as part of Auckland Tech Week. Although focus was directed at the entertainment, media and marketing sectors with speakers like Academy Award winning stunt coordinator Guy Norris from Proxi VR, Ian Taylor from Animation Research, and New York advertising heavyweight Catherine Patterson, responsible for Dell Computers Golf the City AR campaign, I came away with plenty of ideas how this technology can benefit the eduction sector.




Vendors had plenty to show off. Nokia was unveiling its $100,000 Ozo professional VR camera and at the consumer end of the market Samsung's Gear 360 Camera and Headset could well be this Christmas's Hoverboard. To experience being inside a cinematic movie experience courtesy of Proxi VR film technology, where action is taking place all around you rather than in front of you and actors communicate to you as if you were actually in the scene is an unreal experience. 

Immersive technology is seen by those in the know as crossing over into the mass market this year.  There are big clues as to what is becoming possible for us in the education sector. True VR is still out of reach to most institutions but experiences such as the Quake History Demo developed by New Zealand company Sensorium, demonstrate the educational possibilities this technology will offer. 

YouTube, Vimeo and "visual expressionist" kings GoPro now support 360 video (to experience this, watch the example videos at the bottom of the post) and with Samsung investing heavily in consumer products, like it or not, the flood of user generated content is almost upon us. With its applications ranging from advertising, media, tourism, medicine real estate...... and yes education, VR and AR is being touted as a significant new development.


Quake History Demo from Sensorium VR on Vimeo.

Its easy to come away from an event like this and think that there is no way this will happen in education. Think again. It wasn't long ago that the idea of filming your own video resources and posting them online seemed like science fiction. AR and 360 video technology will appear first. Products the Gear 360 put surround video production in the hands of anyone and software like Aurasma assist with AR content and is already being used in schools. Stay tuned for the first AR resources coming to Waiariki Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in the next few months.


Here are three quite different examples of 360 degree video. I particularly like the Chernobyl example as it skilfully incorporates historical footage into the ruins of the former Soviet nuclear power station.

360 Degree Tornado - use the arrow controls to navigate around, or even better download the latest version of the YouTube app and watch on your phone




Primary School Age 360 Solar System Tour



360 Chernobyl Documentary Trailer


...... and as a first day of winter bonus - an amazing video of the soon to be released Omni from GoPro. Click here

Who Else Wants to Create Interactive Resources?

The TEEL Team are kicking of the first series of 30 Minute Tech Takeaways for 2016 with a fortnight of refreshers on three of the best digital tools for creating interactive resources; Zaption, Thinglink and Powtoon.
Why do we think these three are so good?
All are free, easy to learn and use, can add interactivity to existing resources and help increase course engagement.
First session is on Wednesday April 13th. Come along to The Qube in Rex Williams for a demo or refresher. If you can't make the scheduled times, get in touch and we can arrange a time to suit you or your team.

Three Ways to Ask a Question

Great teachers understand the importance of feedback as part of effective teaching and learning. Feedback allows teachers to check understanding, get a sense of student opinions on a topic and encourages decision making. Feedback contributes to stimulating, lively learning. One way to get feedback is with a great question and in this post we look at three different ways to do just that - ask a question.

Hands Up

The tried and true approach since Grandma was a preschooler, hands up is great for all sorts of reasons, but may not give the most accurate responses. Students are inclined to vote with the majority, or at least with the first responders, and quieter students may not want to vote against the majority even though they are confident in their own answer.  If the question is based on a sensitive issue or involves students publicly identifying their personal beliefs, some may not feel comfortable displaying these in a public setting.

Clickers 

Clickers, which were all the rage a few years ago, and more recently polling software such as Poll Everywhere, can be feature filled and flexible, especially if class sizes are large (100+). The one major downside of clickers and polling software is that they rely on every student having either a clicker or mobile device. "My clicker's battery is flat", "I can't connect to the internet", What's the web address again?"..... you get the picture.

Plickers - Better than Clickers? 

Enter a really cool tool called Plickers,  the 2106 iteration of tech based mass questioning solutions. Yes, it has its limitations, but it certainly ticks many boxes for ease of use and practical features. Put simply, it's a polling tool that uses hand held QR codes and the teachers mobile device.

Why do we like it? Several reasons...

It's a low tech, high tech solution. Students do not need a device. Simply hand each student a printed QR Card from the free downloadable PDF on Plickers website.

Its flexible - Set up classes and questions prior to your lesson, or create them on the fly. Responses can be anonymous or tagged to individual students. Questions can be one-off or part of a running record. Results can be graphed, tabled and exported.

It's fun - Use it for assessment or just to add some competition to your class. You can display the results instantly, letting your class see how individuals answered, either anonymously, or if appropriate, by name.

It's Free!

How do you use it?
Hand out a QR card (they come as set in PDF form) with four response options on it to each student in class - get the students to hold the card up oriented on what answer they choose - scan the class with your mobile device using the free Plickers app - watch the responses get recorded on the screen as you go.

If you want to know more about this great tool, come over to The Qube and ask for a quick demo from one of the TEEL's or keep an eye out for upcoming workshops later this month.

A Snapshot of Moodle Usage

Our Learning Management System Moodle, is a key part of how we deliver online learning to students.
Google, through its analytics service, can provide us with an enormous amount of data on its usage, which allows us to identify patterns such as how many times users visit the site, what days and time of day are most popular, what the average length of each visit is and what type of device was used.

This data can help us make sure we are providing a service that fits the needs of its users. More importantly though, analytics can tell use about how successfully students are interacting with course content and whether they are progressing as expected or falling behind.

Here's a snapshot of a few statistics from 2015. Of interest is the 50% increase in mobile and tablet usage since last year. This increase is unlikely to slow in upcoming years and raises some interesting questions as to how we as educators, develop online communities and deliver online content to always connected, mobile learners.

You can hover over the image to see specific numbers.