User:Daniel K. Schneider
About myself
- My E-mail: Daniel.Schneider at unige.ch (E.g. if you have questions about the why and what of this Wiki)
- See my good old HTML Home Page
- Classes in french: Cours STIC: STIC I - STIC II - STIC III - STIC IV
- Classes in English: See Courses and workshops
- Talks: some slides
Blog
Last 10 posts from Blog:DKS, my wikilog:
Translating Euclid - Designing a Human-Centered Mathematics
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 23 May 2013 - updated:23 May 2013
An interesting new book by Gerry Stahl. Quote:
“The wellsprings of human creativity and logical thinking that flowed forth in the origins of Greek geometry were progressively covered over and transformed into regulated procedures and otherworldly objects. 20th century philosophy frames this cover-up as a paradigmatic example of the over-reach of rationalization. In the sequence of world-historic epochs, successive reification of phenomena of geometry and more generally of the being of objects altered the relation of people to reality. These transformations are associated with the rise of rationalism and an ideology of individualism. Although these changes brought powerful advantages, they now need to be balanced by an approach of human-centered informatics, which guides students to understand the principles of geometry as products of human creative-discovery.” (p. 29).
This book has passages addressing problems beyond geometry, i.e. I bought it because it also addresses design “The proposed conception of geometry emphasizes the central role of the construction of dependencies as a design activity, integrating human creation and mathematical discovery to form a human-centered approach to mathematics.” (Abstract)
- Stahl, G. (2013). Translating Euclid: Creating a human-centered mathematics: Morgan & Claypool Publishers. 325 pages. Abstract/buy
- Web page: http://GerryStahl.net/elibrary/euclid
- There is also a preprint
Fast electric bikes (ebikes)
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 26 April 2013 - updated:26 April 2013
Ebikes are trendy, because they allow for fast and easy transport in cities. In addition, they can be used for commuting and they positively contribute to our planet's ecology. There are interesting opportunities for education:
- Technical design and STEM principles: An ebike as learning object can be used to study mechanics, physics and electronics.
- Technical design (advanced): At least one of the better designs was made in collaboration with an engineering school
- Technical design and fabrication (DYI): E-bikes can be hand-crafted, i.e. be used as ambitious object in a design and fabrication class
- Teaching evaluation methodology: Evaluation of e-bikes is relatively easy, and could be conducted as a class project
Now with respect to "fast". Some countries do not seem to have any restrictions, but most do. E.g. in Germany or Switzerland you are allowed to buy ratified pedal-assisted bikes that provide assistance to 45km/h. If you live in France or the UK you are out of luck ...
Read more in electric bikes in education
Open Badges 1.0
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 20 March 2013 - updated:20 March 2013
Via Edsurge: The Mozilla Foundation officially unveiled Version 1.0 of its Open Badges project at the Digital Media and Learning Conference last week. It's the culmination of eight months of beta testing and development, during which over 600 companies, non-profits, foundations, and other organizations have issued over 60,000 badges.
Badges may replace / complement some of the more traditional certification schemes (e.g. formal continuous education certificates delivered by universities and training companies).
- openbadges.org
- MozillaWiki
- Educational badges (General overview in this wiki)
Permissions for files (e.g. pictures) in EduTechWiki
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 10 January 2013 - updated:10 January 2013
After a few years of waiting, I created the menu that users who upload pictures and other files can use for specifying a copyright. Of course, the default copyright remains the same. But since we often reuse pictures from other sources, authors in this wiki should reproduce more systematically the appropriate copyright. It could be done before, but the menu makes it easier ...
It is not easy to get something that is both not too complicated and appropriate for various purposes. Comments welcome :)
- See MediaWiki:Licenses. Click on Upload file to see how this menu renders.
Other examples:
Read Open content, a piece I wrote some years ago and that certainly would need some updating ...
Multitasking in the classroom
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 8 January 2013 - updated:8 January 2013
Read Students Think They Can Multitask. Here’s Proof They Can’t. A commented list of research articles.
Citizen cyberlab projet launched
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 19 December 2012 - updated:19 December 2012
The Citizen Cyberlab is a three-year EU-funded citizen science project to study and enhance the opportunities for learning and creativity available to participants in online citizen science projects. We are partners.
The logo was found by Margaret Gold during lunch time in Paris (see where)
Update to EduTechWiki
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 12 December 2012 - updated:17 December 2012
I upgraded the software to MediaWiki 1.20.x and also updated all major extensions. Everything seems to work fine.
Real MOOCs
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 8 November 2012 - updated:18 April 2013
Recently, some elite universities managed to convey the idea that the future is MOOCs, in the same vein that a few years ago they sponsored Open educational resources, a largely unsuccessful initiative.
IMHO, teachers and learners from developing countries and poor universities in the western world are in danger of thinking themselves as vessels meant to receive academic hamburgers. Wake up and start doing something on your own ! So let me point out that, initially, MOOCs were neither designed for one-way teaching nor as propaganda tool. I suggest to distinguish between real MOOCs that adopt connectivism (or other open education models) and MOOCs that largely adopt a tele-teaching model invented in the 1960's plus bits of peer tutoring sugar. Nevertheless, there are situations where so-called "xMOOCs" that are very close to traditional teaching (lectures, weekly structured work, etc.) can be useful, e.g. advanced classes in specialized subject areas.
With respect to connectivist MOOcs, read:
- MOOC’s and the McDonaldization of Global Higher Education By Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser, September 28, 2012, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Downes, Stephen (2012). Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, Essays on meaning and learning networks, National Research Council Canada, PDF (free 600p. e-book), Version 1.0 – May 19, 2012, retrieved nov 2012.
- Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. , retrieved 13:44, 9 March 2011 (CET) from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm
- What is a connectivist MOOC? (http://www.connectivistmoocs.org/)
- Three kinds of MOOCs by Lisa M. Lane.
- MOOCs, Courseware, and the Course as an Artifact, April 12, 2013 by Michael Feldstein.
- The Great Rebranding by Stephen Downes, April 13, 2013
Quotes from Siemens (2004:
- Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments. These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes, should be reflective of underlying social environments.
- Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.
More thoughts and resources can be found in George Siemen's Connectivism blog. Also look at connectivistmoocs.org. For example, a distinction is made between cMOOCs and xMOOCs: “A shorthand has emerged which distinguishes between connectivist courses – cMOOCs – and ones that are more broadcast-focused and reliant upon certification and peer testing. Organisations such as coursera, Udacity and EdX are examples of the xMOOC category.” (retrieved no 18, 2012).
Manage your thesis with Lego bricks
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 26 October 2012 - updated:26 October 2012
Last week I started my first serious 3D printing project: Develop a toolkit that I named (so far) "Lego-compatible thesis project boards".
The idea is that candidates configure a board with the most important "project management" elements of their thesis, i.e. tasks (most important), issues and problems, and finally chapter writing.
Currently, I am still experimenting with various designs, e.g. a 2 1/2 D design or a 3D design using stackable towers.
Read more in:
Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum" MOOC 10.1 to 13.2 2013
— by Daniel K. Schneider (talk) - 13 October 2012 - updated:13 October 2012
Quote: “This free, open and online course (MOOC) has been designed with further and higher education professionals in mind - lecturers, qualification teams, awarding bodies, learning technologists, library and student support staff and learning and teaching specialists - but may also be of interest to teachers (or teachers to be) in secondary schools or informal/work based learning facilitators, in fact, anyone with an interest in curriculum and learning design. The course has been funded by JISC as part of a benefits realisation programme and is intended to build on the success of the Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) (OULDI) and other JISC funded curriculum design and delivery projects.”, retrieved oct. 13 2012.
Course home page: http://www.olds.ac.uk/
MOOCs are somewhat controversial (e.g. described as marketing gimmik for those big universities who failed with their OER programs). For people interested or working in EduTech, this class should be a good occasion to get a first-hand experience.
Other
Needed a new desktop laptop
- It should be 3D enabled (both CAD and gaming 3D) and have both good Opengl and activeX support
- Fast CPU, e.g. i7-2630QM (Quad procesor) or better
- Biggest possible display
- a SSD (for quick installs and project start)
I finally got a DELL M6600 with a M4000 Graphics card (DELL gives universities huge bargains for some models). See an owners review at notebookreview.com. So far, I am happy with it, except for its low "HD" 1920x1080 screen resolution and the impossibility to connect it to our HD projector via HDMI. I'll have to investigate the latter - 18:32, 29 March 2012 (CEST).
Alternatives I considered:
- Gaming/multimedia laptops (can do for the little CAD I do)
- Alienware M17x (too heavy, good gaming 3D Radeon HD 5870 , good screen)
- Asus G73 series, e.g. G73JW (cheap, only hdtv 1080p, quite heavy, ok screen, good gaming 3D NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M)
- Acer Aspire Ethos (cheap, slim, slow 3D, bad screen)
- Apple MacBook Pro (slim, don't trust win drivers, slow 3D Radeon 6750M)
- Clevo (also sold as Sager or XMG Schenker, plus other brands) 17 in. and above series. Flexible configurations. Probably the fastest laptops, various i7 chips, GeForce GTX 560M/580M for the high-ends, 18.4 in FHD (1920x1080). No better resolution ? Cheaper than comparable "brands". Resellers in Germany: Schenker Notebook, Deviltech, Notebookguru.de
- Samsung Series 7 Gamer Notebooks, in various variants. 700G7A with Radeon HD 6970M, 4GB, is about Euros 2000, 4kgs and higher.
- Sony Vaio, VPC-F22S1E or similar.
- Cad Laptops (certified, also better OpenGL support)
- DELL Precision M6600, Nvidia Quadro 4000M or 5010M (too expensive!), HD (1900x1080), CPU: I7-2720QM (or better).
- HP EliteBook 8740W, 8760W (UWVA-Display, starts at 3.5kg, Various Nvidia Quadro (e.g. Quadro 4000M), various CPU, e.g. i7-2630QM
- Xirios W series from Schenker. Various configurations. An almost top W701 mobile Workstation model with a GTX 580M, Intel i7-2760QM, 8GB RAM, 300GB SDD etc. is about Euros 2500 (or about 2800 CHF). Schenker used to sell much more expensive Quadro-based models, e.g. the W710 (can't find them anymore).
None has what I would call a decent screen resolution. The actual trend is in fact towards less (i.e. HDTV 1900x1080 or 1900x900). There seems to be a fair market for custom-built laptops that may include larger screens, but I won't trust any that is not local (in case I have to return the unit for some quick repair)
