DyKnow

Help getting started

Friday, August 27, 2010 by Joel Dart

School is back in session for many of our customers, so the support and development teams have been all hands on deck taking phone calls and answering emails about setting up the server, importing classes, and all the other tasks necessary for starting the year. Early on I was dealing with a customer who was needing quite a bit of help importing users through our Data Integration Tool (DITO). After we'd worked our way through the setup over the phone, one of my teammates pulled me aside and said "Hey Joel, you did a fine job on that call, but you really should have taken them to the implementation setup page."

I hesitated, thinking to myself, "Implementation setup page? We have one of those?" I normally pride myself on staying apprised of what the other departments are doing, but this one had really slipped past me. So I checked out the page at http://www.dyknow.com/implementation/ and the specific setup page and was completely floored. These are great resources, and if you haven't checked them out, I strongly suggest you do. Firstly, the setup docs have all the links to the DITO specification, knowledgebase articles for the alternative Bulk Import Tool, and explanations for manual setups. Secondly, it's got links to all the important links such as request an MSI, ask a trainer, and the DyKnow Community Site. Finally, and this is perhaps the best part, the implementation page has links to all the self-paced training guides for Vision, Monitor, PowerPoint, and the Administration Console.

Wow, there are a lot of really great resources available that I have been lax on promoting, so check these out if you're wanting to dig deeper. And a huge congratulations and thank you to our customer services team for an amazing job well done.

Finally, good luck to everyone in the new year!

Is technology really killing the lecture?

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Katie Hahn

Today I read an article on the Wired Campus blog (The Chronicle of Higher Education) about professors at NYU using podcasts and lecture capture technologies to free more time during class for personalized instruction. This teaching technique is trending upward rapidly, but it isn’t necessarily new. One of my favorite presentations about this methodology is called the Upside-down Classroom by Dr. Dave Berque from DePauw University. He has been presenting on the Upside-down Classroom for many years (watch a presentation here). Is technology really killing the lecture? - interactive education software, lecture capture, record and replay notes

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this approach, let me explain. Using this method, first the instructor must prepare a presentation/lesson and record it in some fashion (whether that is in DyKnow, podcast, videos, etc). Then before class, students view the pre-recorded presentation (as homework). The idea behind this approach is nicely put by Dave in his 2008 WIPTE paper titled “Turning the Classroom Upside-down Using Tablet PCs and DyKnow Ink and Audio Tools.” Here is an excerpt from Dave’s 2008 WIPTE paper:

“The approach is called ‘upside-down’ because the traditional classroom lecture now occurs outside of class, while the active learning that is often associated with completing out of class homework assignments now occurs during the class period while the teacher is present to coach, support and challenge students as appropriate.”

Giving the “lecture” or “presentation” to students before class allows the teacher to utilize in-class time for active learning activities and/or personalized instruction to reinforce the concepts learned in the pre-recorded lesson. Another wonderful educator utilizing this technique is Jeff Edmonds from Catherine Cook School in Chicago, IL. He blogs for Digital Learning Environments and in this post (“Pre-recording Lessons Provides 1-on-1 Time”) he discusses the benefits of utilizing a technique similar to Dave’s upside-down approach.

If you read the comments on the Wired Campus blog post, you will see there is are mixed feelings about this style of teaching: some educators have “tried” it and said it didn’t work, others are excited about the possibilities. Regardless of your stance, I think we can all agree the real question here is… is it really best to spend your limited time during class lecturing to students, or conducting active learning exercises while giving more personalized instruction. I venture to say that most educators would choose the latter.

The most important piece of knowledge take away from these educators at NYU, Dave and Jeff is that, unlike the title of the Wired Campus article, lecturing doesn’t necessarily need to be “killed” perhaps it just needs to take on a new form. Maybe the Wired Campus blog post should have been titled “Killing the Traditional Lecture with Technology” instead of “Killing the Lecture with Technology.”

On a somewhat related note, does everyone know what WIPTE is? It’s the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education. If you’re considering tablet PCs or have tablet PCs, this is a great conference to attend. I also highly recommend picking up a WIPTE Book (you can order one at Amazon or contact web20@DyKnow.com and we might be able to wrangle one for you).

Alvarado ISD Case Study - Increased Computer Usage from 40% to 90%

Friday, August 6, 2010 by Katie Hahn

In my last post I alluded to our pending case study with Alvarado ISD and I'm proud to announce it is now available for your reading pleasure! Ok, we actually released the case study at ISTE but it’s been a hit and I want to share it with everyone who reads our Alvarado Independent School District and DyKnow Software blog.

A little background on AISD - the district serves roughly 3200 students and faculty in a 75% economically disadvantaged community. Despite their economic status, AISD has a one-to-one netbook program in the Intermediate School and recently purchased more laptops to expand the program into the middle school.

Kyle Berger (who I wrote about here) is the mastermind behind AISD’s one-to-one computing program. Kyle thinks like a businessman - this is somthing I realized during my discussion with him for the case study. Like I said before, he is very unique in his approach. That is why I'm not surprised to see lots of great articles popping up about his program. I was thrilled when I read this article by Ken Royal over at Scholastic. Ken discusses in-length Kyle's unique “entrepreneurial” approach. Some of the things Ken discusses can also be seen here in our Creative Tips from AISD for a Successful One-to-One Computing Program but I definitely encourage everyone to read his article.

On a side note, Ken also has a personal site dedicated to technology in education. It's a great resource for anyone who is interested in keeping up with the rapidly changing technology landscape. The site is called Educators’ Royal Treatment. Go to his site and check out this great article about AISD’s “Caught on T.A.S.K.” program. It’s a must-read if your looking for creative ways to drive teacher adoption or encourage them to integrate technology.

There is so much information in this post I think I need some quick links so here you go:

· Alvarado ISD and DyKnow Case Study: Getting Teachers Comfortable with Technology

· Scholastic: The Royal Treatment – District IT Gets the Business

· Educators’ Royal Treatment Web site

· Educators’ Royal Treatment: Caught on T.A.S.K.

Embedded content in 5.3

Thursday, July 29, 2010 by Joel Dart

A DyKnow panel takes on many roles depending on the specific needs of a class. The panel has always been a writing surface/whiteboard. This role is the most obvious as, by default, creating a new notebook gives you a blank panel and selects the pen tool. Additionally, our files are called notebooks, an obvious allusion reinforcing this metaphor. When I think of a DyKnow panel, I typically think of this role, but there is another fundamental role the panel plays: a content portal.

The shared whiteboard metaphor maps easily to the moderator writing notes and those notes being sent to all the students, but sharing now includes prepared content, PowerPoint slides, polls, and web pages. The panel in many cases is very different from a writing surface, and it's in this vein that embedded content was added to 5.3.

Lets say you find a website with a really interesting piece of content. The most obvious example of this is YouTube where you have a video you'd like to share with your students. Previously, you could embed webpage for the video, but now you can right click the video select "Copy embed html" and in DyKnow's insert Web Page dialog paste in that code to share only the video. No ads or comments, just the content you wanted to discuss. YouTube has streamlined this process with the context menu option, but Scribd, VoiceThread, Google Fusion Tables, and many other online tools only require you to find the Embed or Share buttons and copy/paste.

Features are nice, but what's the point? To me the point is that we can do better than text and images. If you're moving your materials to a digital form, that form should act like one. Digital media link, animate, and interact with you, and increasingly these media are more important in the classroom. So whether you're wanting to embed a social media tool to spark discussion or you're wanting to use a specific tool for a class activity without giving full access to the browser, 5.3 has what you need. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Saving polls

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Joel Dart

If you keep careful watch on the product's version history page, you may have seen 5.3.32.0 had an enhancement to the save to csv functionality we have in polling. The functionality since DyKnow 5.1 has been that you give a poll, wait for the results, and then click the save button to save the results of the poll as a csv. The file you save would have your questions, answers, and the individual responses from your students. At the time, polls were created exclusively on the fly during class, meaning storing the custom question/answers was largely critical to making sense of the results that were stored. When we added the ability to create polls when preparing for class, the role and capabilities of polls changed. Suddenly, it wasn't quite so cumbersome to have several quick quiz questions (what a mouthful) in the same class as sending the poll was an easy click away. Additionally, the answers were clearly defined before class and saved with the notebook making the perfectly preserved question/answer in the saved file unnecessary.

And thus we arrive at the enhancement. Now polls in the same Session are added to the same csv file. The results still have the individual responses, but the formatting has been tweaked to more easily import into excel or whatever program you use to view csv files. Additionally, we've removed a bit of the ceremony involved in saving the poll. Per convention, clicking save would open a file dialog box that asked you for a name and a location to save. This type of bookkeeping is disruptive to what matters most to you: teaching your students. Therefore, we now automatically save the poll results into a special folder in your Documents folder using a standard default name for the csv file (click the link after you save the poll or just go to Documents/DyKnow Documents/Saved Polls).

So go check out the new polls and let us know what you think.

Alvarado ISD inspired me to blog again

Friday, May 7, 2010 by Katie Hahn

A couple days ago I had the privilege of talking with two fantastic people from Alvarado ISD (Texas) about their 1:1 program for an upcoming case study - their names: Kyle Berger, the executive director of technology services, and Julie Holland, the instructional technology coordinator.

I am always inspired after talking to our customers - especially these two. Four years ago Kyle and Julie, along with many other players, went to work planning and prepping for the districts pending 1:1 initiative. Programs like Alvarado's are gaining popularity, but Kyle and Julie are particularly unique in their tactical decisions.

I was especially fascinated by why they started their 1:1 program in the 3rd and 4th grades. In my opinion, the most common place to start a 1:1 program is with the freshman class, then give the computers to each incoming freshman class thereafter... this means the freshman will carry the same laptop all four years (God willing) and then each incoming freshman will do the same.

Kyle and his team took a different approach, they started the program in the 3rd and 4th grade, with the plan of expanding the program to the entire middle school. Now, every student (roughly 750) in the middle school (4-6th grades) has a laptop for the duration of the school day. Kyle predicted, by starting the program in the middle school, parents would become so enthusiastic and maybe even accustomed to the laptop program they would approach the school board with their concerns about the lack of 1:1 learning in higher grades. And sure enough, his predictions are coming true. All 7th and 8th graders will have a laptop by 2012 and the program is almost entirely driven by the community.

We plan to release the case study at ISTE 2010 - which, by the way, I might actually get to attend. YES, can you believe it, they might actually let me out of here:

Who else is going to ISTE 2010???

PS: I'm sorry for being a bad blogger and neglecting everyone like this. I give you permission to yell at me in the comments section :)

Math Input Panel

Thursday, May 6, 2010 by Joel Dart

One of the benefits of tablet pcs is the potential (and in many cases realization) of more natural user input. This has led to many many handwriting recognition projects and solutions over the years including the Tablet Input Panel available from Microsoft. With Windows 7, Microsoft has added a new "input panel" that is specifically trained to read math: the Math Input Panel.

Slope forumla in the Windows 7 Math Input Panel

You can find the Math Input Panel (MIP) in the Accessories menu or just type "math input" after clicking the start menu on Windows 7. From here you can simply write the equation you want and the panel will turn it into text. As you can see from the screen shots, this is a major win for legibility in my case.

When you want to insert the equations, there's an insert button you can press that will paste it into the active application. The MIP uses a format called MathML which DyKnow doesn't currently understand. However, you can easily use our screen shot tool to capture the equation or, if you need the equation to coexist with text in a textbox, paste from the MIP to Word and then once you've got your text and equation formatted in Word, paste it into DyKnow.

Now, if you're used to inputting equations using LaTeX or a sophisticated equation input system, you will probably be unimpressed (thus far that has been my experience when introducing the MIP to this class of people). Writing out these equations by hand will surely take much longer now that you've mastered the art of keyboard input, however, I personally have had insufficient practice at these systems so for me this is great.

I was curious to see what it could handle, so I went over a few complex equations from the MathML specification.

MIP initial read of Einstein Field Equations:

Math Input Panel recognition for Einstein Field Equations

After spending about 45 seconds with the select and fix tools:

And check out this complex example:

Very complex example of math equation input

To be sure this one took me about 15 minutes to fix the initial chaos, but this also was my first time trying to input a complex equation into the MIP. The second time I tried saw significant gains as I started to learn some of the tricks to help out the system. For instance, you can see I left justified the numerator in my fractions and this greatly increased the system's ability to recognize my chicken scratches.

So whether you use this tip in DyKnow or not, I hope you find it useful. I know it will make my equation input much simpler.

What are you up to next Thursday

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Joel Dart

Earth Day is April 22, next Thursday at the time I'm writing this. One really cool celebration I've been reading about is over at the TeachPaperless blog. Shelly has no affiliation with DyKnow, but I'm personally a fan of the blog and am really a fan of this idea. At this point, over 1100 teachers have promised to use and accept no paper for Earth Day. To be sure, though, going paperless is really about using technology to better engage your students. Leaving behind the paper is a bit of a metaphor, after all. So if you haven't already, go sign the pledge and if you were already planning on teaching paperless, good for you! Now, you can take this day as an opportunity to get your colleagues excited about the possibilities for their classes. See why I'm a fan?

From PowerPoint to DyKnow: A View from the Ski Slopes

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Dave Berque

My brother and I learned to ski as young children. We learned naturally, as kids are prone to do, by watching our older friends. We had no formal instruction, and we had the bruises to prove it! My parents, eager to share our interest, decided they would learn to ski too. However, they took a much more rationale and systematic approach. They used a technique, popular at the time, called the "graduated length method." On the first day, newbie skiers use very short skis (only a foot or two long) and practice on gentle slopes. Each day the student is graduated to a new pair of skis, with each new pair slightly lengthened as compared to the previous day. Similarly, the student is introduced to more challenging slopes with each passing day. As much as I hated to admit it, by the end of a five-day week my parents had relatively few bruises and were skiing as well as my brother (they were probably skiing as well as me too - but that I will never admit).

What would a graduated length method look like if it were used to help teachers become comfortable with technology to enhance student learning? Could this approach help teachers adjust to interactive teaching software in as few as five days? My guess is that it could - and that it could do so very effectively. Here is what this approach might look like if applied to helping a teacher graduate from PowerPoint to DyKnow learning software.

Day One: Create, Present, and Annotate
Before class the new teacher should create his or her content in PowerPoint as usual, optionally reusing existing content including content that comes with a text book. PowerPoint animations (fly-ins) may be included if they are helpful. At the start of class the teacher should start a session, selecting the PowerPoint content as prepared notes. During class the teacher should highlight, underline and optionally annotate the notes for emphasis. Although the teacher will be running a session today, the students will not join it. The session is running only to practice in preparation for day two.

Day Two: Get Students to Take Notes and Check Student Status
Since the teacher is now comfortable starting a session, importing prepared content, and making annotations we are ready to move on. Today students will join the session and will be asked to take notes in the private notes area. Additionally, on at least one PowerPoint slide (more is better), the teacher should provide an area for the students to respond to an open-ended question such as: "What do you consider to be the most important point(s) we discussed today?" A content specific question can be used in place of this generic question if desired. After the students have written their responses, the teacher should orally confirm one key point from the class and then should ask the students to set their DyKnow status to indicate their level of understanding of the point. If desired, this process can be repeated for additional key points.

Day Three: Add in Some Polls
In preparation for today's class the teacher should insert at least one DyKnow Poll into their PowerPoint notebook. For example, the teacher might plan to start class with a poll that reviews a key point from a reading assignment or from the previous class meeting. During class the teacher should ask students to respond to this poll -- the results should be displayed and optionally discussed.

Day Four: Collect Student Panels
In preparation for today's class the teacher should create at least one slide that has room for the students to complete an instructional activity so their answers can be shared with the class. For example, the student might be asked to briefly summarize a reading, to translate some sentences from one language to another, to solve some math or science problems, to label parts of a figure or diagram, to draw some graphs, and so on. During class students should be encouraged to use panel submission to share their work with the class, allowing the teacher to compare and contrast some of the student submissions.

Day Five: Your Choice
As we approach full-length skis, teachers should be encouraged to select their own new instructional technique to try. Techniques such as participant chat, participant control, embedding web content, work groups, returning collect work and screen grab are just some of the possibilities to consider.

I am going to give this a try the next time I orient a new DyKnow teacher. If you try it first post here and let us know how it goes!

Tales from the final push

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Joel Dart

Earlier this week, we released DyKnow 5.3 (in case you've missed it, I've collected the posts about 5.3 here), and the past two weeks I have spent way more of my time in the lab testing the product than I have making coding changes at my desk. This is a good thing as it means we've finished up development on features and known issues for the release. It's also been good, though, to get reacquainted with some older features that I don't commonly see or hear about.

An interesting theme I see in DyKnow Vision has been one of providing students a way to participate anonymously. In many ways, this feels like a terrible idea. We've all seen what anonymity on the Internet has done to people, and introducing a veil in between you and between your students feel counterproductive to engaging. However, someone must have realized and communicated to us that sometimes embarrassment can stifle engagement even more. And I'll admit maybe I'm reading too much of this narrative into some of these features, but once I started seeing it, I saw it everywhere.

When testing you tend to identify a particular feature and spend a lot of time ensuring that all aspects of that feature are working, and the place I started this past week was in the Options dialog. Perhaps the most obvious and most discussed of the "anonymous" features I recognized is the "Allow Anonymous Panel Submission" feature in the "Session" section of the Options dialog. I mentioned this last week, but by checking this checkbox, students will be able to submit panels anonymously. I recall back in 5.1 when discussing feature usage and importance (when trying to determine how to group and position features), several users called the feature indispensable when discussing sensitive topics.

Continuing my testing of the Options, I noticed on the "Popular" section options for the Session List.

For those that don't know, the Session List is a list of all the students in your Vision Session. The list displays their name as well as other additional information such as their status (how well they understand the topic), their submitted panels, their current work group number, and whether you have shared control (letting students demonstrate how to work out problems for the rest of the class). When students have submitted panels, you can just click on the panel beside the student and it will open up the panel for you to see. If you want to virtually bring a student up to the board, you click the students name in the Session List and click the Share Control button and they're in control.

Back to the options, I noticed that there were all these checked options that said "Show Name/UserID on Session List," "Show Participant status on Session List," "Show submitted panels on Session List," etc. Of course by default these were checked because it doesn't seem like it'd be much of a list if it didn't show anything. But when I thought about it, if you're running DyKnow on a projector in front of the class (and not using projector mode), all your students would be able to see that Johnny's just not getting it. Sometimes, this is what you want as it may encourage your students to help Johnny. Other times, this will embarrass Johnny to where he shuts off or just stops updating his status. So then there's an option to hide the different fields. You can hide the user's name so you'll see that the students who haven't submitted panels don't get it. If students are in work groups you can see Group 4 is having trouble. If you want the names, you can hide the status (you still have the pie chart at the bottom to let you know if students are having problems.

Continuing on, right above Session List options, you've got an option to Identify Users on Panels. This is useful when students have submitted panels, but if you don't want it to show, there you go. Later on in the day, I was running a session and sent a quick poll. In 5.1 you were suddenly able to know how each individual student responded to the poll, but if you felt that would censor the responses, you can make the answers "anonymous."

So there's been this big theme throughout the product that I never noticed till now. Only took me 7 years to see it. So given my track record, is there something I missed for promoting anonymous conversation?

Building Institutional Support for your Technology Innovations

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Dave Berque

Next weekend my university will be visited by prospective students who want to learn about our campus and programs. Each student will be eager to make a good impression... and so will the university. In these days of increasingly competitive admissions it is certainly in a school's best interest to point out their strengths during this important recruiting events. And showing how a school uses technology to enhance student learning is a good way to do just that.

As part of our recruiting weekend I will be teaching several mock classes in one of the pen-based classrooms I regularly teach in. Since I use DyKnow interactive teaching software in all of my courses it is only natural for me to use the software during these mock classes. The students and their parents will participate in hands-on teaching examples from my own discipline (computer science) and I will also borrow some examples from my colleagues who use DyKnow in eleven different disciplines at DePauw including Japanese language, economics and psychology. When I gave a similar session for prospective students a few months ago 22 out of 24 participants rated the session as "excellent."

Given the importance of technology to high school students it may not be surprising that 18 year olds have found my mock classes to be exciting. What may be more surprising is the similar interest that has been generated at the other end of the age spectrum. For the past four years I have also offered hands-on mock DyKnow classes to members of our 50th year reunion class during alumni weekend. These participants have been very impressed by the way the classroom has changed since they were in school.

Whether my mock classes have been offered for prospective students or alumni it feels good to know that I am contributing to the larger University mission. And, of course, it never hurts to build a strong base of administrative offices on campus who understand the importance of technology in the classroom. This base helps maintain DePauw's culture of institutional support for continued technology innovations - and I will continue to work to build it at DePauw. How can you build a base at your own school?

The Class

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Joel Dart

In case you missed it, a class at Denver University created a great parody of the Office. In the video, Michael (the teacher) struggles to teach students about technology in the classroom.

Students complain they're not using the expensive technology they were required to buy. They complain that other students are distracting them by looking at Facebook the whole time. They call Michael out as he uses technology for technology's sake (the Skype scene is hilarious). Simply put, this class nailed it.

It's an often overlooked reality that technology in the classroom doesn't make teaching better. Recently I saw in the DyKnow twitter stream this article about one-to-one laptop initiatives being only as effective as their teachers. This is a pretty common-sense point but an important one nonetheless. Teachers effectively using technology in the classroom is what makes teaching better. In the end of "The Class", the students lay it out simply for Michael asking for collaboration, better use of Blackboard, less reading from PowerPoint slides, and more active roles in the class. In some ways (such as "don't read directly from the PowerPoint slides"), students are merely asking that you don't let technology get in the way.

So to beat a dead horse, technology is a tool and you should always choose your tools to fit the job to be done. I work at DyKnow because I know firsthand of the benefits that can come from effective use of DyKnow in the classroom, but that doesn't mean there aren't many ineffective uses. So how do you get from "The Class" to "the class of your dreams?" I think Michael actually gets it right when talking to his students. January's Educator of the Month Mandie Mathany from Auburn Jr. High School stressed that each class is different. This takes a lot of tenacity and a lot of getting to know your class. If students are initially intimidated by this conversation, you can have students submit their concerns anonymously (go to the Options dialog and check Allow Anonymous Panel Submission in the Session section). Once you and your students are on the same page, you can work together to create the active classroom environment that best suits their needs using the tools to that end.

The search for access

Thursday, February 11, 2010 by Joel Dart

Yesterday I was reading on Ars Technica that Google announced "delivery of open-access, fiber-to-the-home Internet service at speeds of 1Gbps." Essentially Google will become an Internet Service Provider at a "competive price" all the while offering speeds that are much faster than the average speed in the US of 4.8 Mbps. This is just meant to be an experiment, and who knows if this extra competition will have any actual effects.

However, I can't help but wonder if in their "open access" this will allow for sharing of connections between multiple households (or an entire community) the way that the community in Ypsilanti, Michigan is sharing. By using wireless repeaters, essentially the Ypsilanti group is able to share multiple broadband connections and provide free access to the community... and sharing this much faster broadband speed provided by Google would make the access even faster and maybe more reliable.

Imagine the profound possibilities (such as continuing class on a "snow day" like at McAuley High School) if you could know that students had Internet access at home. With access to public libraries and general broadband penetration, it's becoming more of a reality, but there are many communities in the United States that still lack this access. Maybe with more programs like this and some community activism, the access divide can be closed and these possibilities realized.

DyKnow 5.3 Posts

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Joel Dart

I realize that many of my posts about the coming DyKnow 5.3 release have been spread out over time. I decided to collect all the posts written thus far (and will try to update this list as we write more).

5.3 hits Pre-Alpha (Screen broadcaster)
Breaking the fourth wall (Monitor chat)
Sending it back (File request)
Taking notes on your homework (Replay annotation)
Embedding Google Fusion Tables (Embed Videos)
The new feature I hope you never use (Auto-Recover)
The continual push (Performance)

Let me know if there's something you're interested in a specific feature or if you'd like to hear more about something already covered.

The iPad makes a big splash

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 by Joel Dart

So have you heard about the iPad? It's the Apple tablet that has been discussed for years and many thought was fully realized by the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPad is an additional device to accompany your phone and laptop computers (in the future, everyone owns a messenger bag). It is supposed to define reading on the web, and by making multi-touch the primary input, it will push application development towards more natural interfaces. But does it have a place in education? There have been two very interesting arguments that I hear about the iPad.

The first argument adamantly warns that the iPad is designed as a consumer device unfit for active-learning classrooms. There's no camera, keyboard, or Flash support (things current netbooks and tablets do have). You can have an amazing classroom without these things, yes, but you should choose your technology to support your pedagogy not the other way around. This is an interesting argument, and one that I didn't anticipate being so frequently posted on Twitter and in the blogs I read. It's hard to type on an on-screen keyboard. Even when the keyboard is full screen, creating papers, blogs, and wikis (and all the other text-based projects) will be difficult. Additionally, selecting text (a staple of formatting and editing) on the iPhone/iPod Touch is a slow error-prone process. It is presumed that this will additionally be the case for the iPad. So with all the beautiful video and great online reading experience, from a pure learning standpoint, aren't you back to some form of sage on a stage?

The other interesting argument I hear about the iPad is somewhat of an answer to the first argument yet simultaneously the same answer. The other argument is that the iPad will have a place in education but probably not in the first wave. While the former crowd focuses on the now, this crowd hopes for a better tomorrow. Many assume that the features we're wanting now will be in later versions, and that this initial iPad release is the tip of the iceberg for future innovation. The iPad will force all computer manufacturers to produce beautiful, well-designed products, and the magic of multi-touch will create a new breed of easy to use applications by necessity. For instance, check out Apple's demo of iWork during the presentation:

(or here for the full Keynote)

What's interesting to me is the emphasis in the additional gestures and ease of use features highlighted in the keynote. For example when discussing Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet program in iWork, there was a point where they emphasized how easy it is now to highlight a section of a pie chart by moving it out with your finger. This action, in the past, has been an incredibly complicated series of actions that would have proven to be so unnatural and indiscoverable on a touch device that they would have essentially not existed. My guess is that the same code that lets you move out the section with your finger could also let you move out the section with your mouse. But the point is that the much simpler user experience was added because of the necessity to do it on the form factor. The point is that yes maybe with current project editing paradigms, the iPad will not be a capable production machine. On the other hand, it could mean that for that very reason new gesture-based editing paradigms will be created that are far easier and will make us more productive.

I think both sides agree that we don't necessarily have that right now from the device and applications available. In many ways, I assume the reason why the apps have not been written is because it seemed impractical to create them for the iPhone, given its small size. It will be interesting to see what developers do with the new form factor. Nonetheless, classroom change does not come from what developers do but instead what teachers and students do. Time will indeed tell if the iPad will find its own place in education, if it will inspire other devices such as the One Laptop Per Child's XO3 (which they hope to price at $75) that will find a place in education, or if the device will not be the tool the classroom needs.

the continual push

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Joel Dart

For DyKnow 5.2, as I often mention, we totally rewrote the DyKnow panel to be more stable and more WYSIWYG (specifically the rendering of text). Because of a few of the technology choices we made along the way, we also saw an increase in performance. In fact we saw a major increase in performance. As promised (last year) I ran through some benchmark tests for drawing notebooks to share just how much performance we've gained in 5.2. In my benchmark ink test, DyKnow 5.1 drew the panel in an average of 4.3 seconds. DyKnow 5.2 however, drew the panel in an average of 1.7 seconds. In my benchmark text and images test, DyKnow 5.1 drew the panel in an average of 4.6 seconds with a standard deviation of 3.1 (the range was 2.8 to 11.8 seconds). DyKnow 5.2, however, averaged 0.3 seconds with a standard deviation of 0.1 seconds (the range was 0.2 to 0.6).

Additionally, 5.1 was much less responsive when performing actions such as zooming and scrolling around panels. So 5.2 came out and we developers felt very good about the increased performance. And then something very interesting happened. Now that the client was running so much faster when dealing with lots of ink, we noticed notebooks that contained lots of ink. Significantly more ink than what we'd seen in the past. We're talking zooming the client to 250% zoom and writing as small as you can to cram in as much as possible. These were not the usage patterns we'd seen before.

Now we started looking at the time it took to save all this ink when saving your notebooks. Based on some of your feedback and this new usage data, we found a few ways that really sped up save times and put out a server patch with these improvements. But we haven't stopped there. Following our initial stress test for DyKnow 5.3, we implemented changes to improve performance when submitting or retrieving very large panels in a Session. We're also working on ensuring institution-wide scalability for our new file request feature (speaking of pushing lots of data). For the past few weeks, it has been all about squeezing out as much performance as possible, especially under these high load situations. And this is how DyKnow can be used to engage an entire lecture hall with hundreds of students. It's a continual push but so worth it.

Looking the other way

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Joel Dart

To be clear, this is my blog and I am responsible for my own content. There are no inherent promises made by anything I say or talk about. I am careful to talk about a feature I'm working on only after I know it's making it into the product, but this blog isn't a press release. The point is, I'm going to talk about technology but it doesn't mean that DyKnow will be using that technology. With that disclaimer in place, away we go.

When I started this blog, I chose the name "looking both ways" because I felt that was my primary role at DyKnow. As a developer I spend a lot of professional development time keeping up with the latest technology, and as an edtech developer, I spend a lot of time keeping up with and understanding educational technology, classroom pedagogies, and learning. Along with tutorials and DyKnow features, I have mostly blogged about the latter, so I thought I might share things of interest in the former for a change.

Firstly, there's been the eReader craze this past Christmas season. This wasn't the invention of the eReader or creating digital copies of books, but this did seem to be the year that everyone started talking about it. The debate goes back and forth between praising the "stuff"-less future and mourning the passing of true ownership as you can't sell someone else your eBook (not to mention the 1984 scandal). When we first heard of the idea, my friends and I decided eReaders would take off once they entered the textbook market and drove prices down.

Secondly, there's a push toward mobile phone technology. Culturally, in the US at least, "there's an app for that" is instantly recognized (even with the DVR crowd who skip commercials). Google's Android phone OS is taking off as well with its many different flavors. And now one of the big industry pushes is towards 3 screens (tv, computer, mobile). This means there's going to be even more "apps" for, well, everything. To me this is one of the most interesting tech subjects as it relates to education. At first as I watched blog after blog and tweet after tweet discussing the plan of action for implementing smart phones and/or iTouches in the classroom, I couldn't quite place the underlying assumption. Many people asserted mobile phone integration with the same sense of inevitability as 1-1 computing often uses. Some people, however, have wisely noticed that an iTouch starts at $200 while netbooks start around double that.

Thirdly, there's a big advancement that, in my book, could never get as much love as it deserves: HTML5. This techology will give rise to web applications with drag and drop, audio/video, and even 3d animations... only with a browser. And when I say only with a browser, I mean without Flash, Java, or Silverlight installed in that browser (which you can't install on the iPhone/iTouch). The standard is still being created (and is officially a couple years out still), but you can already see the more advanced browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera implementing many of the features, and this has led to some cool proof of concepts and full on web applications including Google Wave. If you're using IE, you'll be in luck when IE9 comes out as at the last Professional Developer's Conference they announced HTML5 support. So why would you want web applications without plug-ins? Why is this cool? Fewer moving parts (browser + plug-ins vs browser) means fewer updates you have to worry about, potentially simpler debugging, fewer bugs.... that is if all the browsers implement it correctly. *sigh*

Speaking of web applications, Google is working on an operating system of their own that will run entirely on web applications. In fact Chromium OS is essentially going to be Google Chrome acting as an operating system. This will be another device you're not allowed to install plug-ins on. Additionally, there are questions of how useful it will be when not connected to the Internet, often considered a prerequisite to viewing web sites. I don't know if this one will really go anywhere, but I do find it very interesting and will be an excellent showcase of the power afforded by HTML5.

Third-point-fively, speaking of web applications, Amazon and now Microsoft have offered up cloud services where they worry about the IT and hosting pieces while allowing you to scale up or down your web services needs. In short, lets say you have seasonal demand *cough* school year *cough*. You need responsive servers during the busy season, but not really much if anything during the slow season. It'd be nice if the IT you pay for is the same as your demand, and that's essentially the idea behind cloud computing. Scale up or down as you will and you just pay for your usage.

Finally, there's the iSlate rumors. Apple is a closed book on the subject, but the speculation is fierce about the possibility of an Apple tablet. The general consensus on purely speculative rumors is that it will be a larger iPhone. I'm sure that everyone is missing something here as Apple doesn't usually just put out a product without something to talk about (ignoring Snow Leopard that is). So there's still a lot to hear about this one. Should I be the most surprised individual, I'd think the iSlate would be less of a tablet and more of a super eReader. They already have a Kindle iPhone app, and I can't imagine they're not after that market. I'd imagine there additionally will be some interesting notetaking capabilities built in with the readers.

So there's my current brain dump... and there's a lot of it because I've gotten really behind in talking about these things. In the future, I hope to be more timely. Sorry about that. Anyway, if you're interested in talking about these things comment away or if you have a different take, I'd be interested in hearing it. The future looks to be an interesting place indeed.

Why I've been a bad blogger

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Joel Dart

It's the beginning of January and that means everyone is talking about their goals for starting a new leaf which obviously means that you have to take a big step back and see where you're going wrong. Me? I'm a bad blogger. To be sure, I feel that I write quality posts, and I do write at least once a week. That's not the problem I'm talking about. My problem is that I don't comment on other blogs.

So why does this matter and why should I (or you) be better at commenting? It basically becomes a question of "what is a blog" and "when is it useful." One interpretation of a blog as expressed on Wikipedia is that a blog is a website that contains regular entries of "commentary, description of events, or other material such as graphics or video." This leads into the "when is it useful" question. To answer this question, I'm going to employ a few analogies (stick with me as I promise this has some relevance).

A blog can be used like a diary. You can write up your personal thoughts and lock it away where no one but you can use it. A blog can also be like a newspaper. You can broadcast your thoughts and make them available for anyone to read. The more people who read it the more valuable it becomes. In the former case, the utility of your blog is limited to how much you personally can get out of the blog.

My Good: a blog viewed by one person is only valuable to that person

In the latter case, the utility of your blog is limited by the number of people reached by your posts. This value of the network is described by Metcalfe's Law (if you're interested).

Our good: a blog's value is increased in relation to the number of people that read it

It's also intuitively understood when you think about how useful your phone is if you had the only phone in the world vs if there were two in the world vs if there were ten in the world etc. But I must correct myself. Above I said your blog is limited by the number of people reached by your posts, but I should have said can be.

Can be? I say this because we're living in the Web 2.0 world (guh, forgive the cliche). A blog can be a newspaper but it can also be a gathering place thanks to the ability to comment, rework, and discuss. As part of a social network, the blog reaches not only individuals but also groups (described by Reed's Law if you're interested).

Individuals connected to groups connected to groups connected to individuals...

Think of a group you're actively involved in and how each person brings a unique set of perspectives to that group. This person in many ways is acting as a link to other groups. But imagine how sad it would be if no one in your group ever talked. Imagine if the group never engaged each other. This is me. This is why I'm a bad blogger.

I am a follower of many blogs, but I'm a commenter on almost none of them. I do this because I feel a bit out of my league or that as a software developer and not a teacher/school administrator my experience and ideas are not welcome. Sometimes it's to avoid sounding ignorant or amateurish. All of these are bad reasons to withhold. By not engaging, I'm not only hurting myself but I'm decreasing the value of the blogs I follow. Plus, we're all learners regardless and chances are if they're freely sharing their blog posts with the world, they're there to help. So this year, I want to do a better job engaging and challenge you to do the same. There's a lot going on in technology, education, and in the DyKnow community and it's important we all do what we can to keep each other up to date and growing. If you have a question, ask. If you have a perspective, share. After all, the least we can do for students is to model the engaged classroom with our own learning.

Project Based Learning

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Joel Dart

My old high school, where my dad still works, has jumped straight into Project Based Learning (PBL) by adopting the New Technology High School model. Each time I come home, I make sure to get the latest scoop on how they're adapting to this vastly different teaching model. In PBL content and standards are learned by students as they are necessary to accomplish the project at hand. Teachers must design projects that will challenge and engage students as well as cover the subject matter necessary, but after the planning stages they spend less time as instructors and more time as advisors for student projects.

My educational background has been filled with the traditional lecture and exercise models where classtime is centered around topics, content, and discussion. In this environment, I feel that DyKnow Vision absolutely thrives providing features for collaborative note taking, quick assessments, backchannel discussions, and lecture capture. Work Groups encourages group exercises and provides tools for students to collaboratively work together, but this is still centered around the DyKnow panel which may not be appropriate for every project. So from my silo (and I encourage anyone who knows better to prove me wrong), DyKnow Vision can be somewhat of a clunky fit for PBL. Yes, even in PBL the lecture is not dead, and there are going to be many times where a replayable example or class discussion would benefit the students' project objectives, but it is definitely not the everyday class tool that I used in college.

But I think Monitor is coming into a unique situation. I've mentioned before that Monitor is not the favored son in my book, but many of the newer interactive features we have been and are currently adding to Monitor (including remote control, screen broadcast, and chat) are uniquely suited to providing this advisory role. By switching the chat mode to be to moderator only, students can be working in their groups and can quickly chat you a question that only you see. You can then send a quick reply back. If there are technology questions, you can view the student's screen and even take control to show them what to do. All of this can quickly and easily be done from your desk. This means that the easy problems can be fixed easily, so you'll have more time to focus on more complicated matters (the kinds of problems where you really need to walk over and talk things through).

2009: A Year In Review

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Kristy Guthrie

As the year comes to an end, I believe it's important to look at all of the great things that occurred in the past 12 months for DyKnow, for our customers, and for education, in general.

Stimulus Money -- there was a lot of hype about extra dollars for educational technology and for keeping teachers in the classroom. A lot of that money has gone out to states and, hopefully, to individual schools and districts. Integrating technology in the classroom is important when trying to provide students with learning experience that promotes 21st century learning.
Netbooks -- These "mini-laptops" continue to be very desired by the k12 community. With these lower cost machines, large public districts are starting to implement 1:1 computing on a larger level. Teaching strategies are really starting to focus on the use of technology in the classroom.
Addition of numerous International Schools -- It seems that an endless number of International schools are embracing classroom technology at an astounding rate. Many are moving to a 1:1 computing program and are implementing DyKnow as a part of that program as well. We're glad to count them as customers and we love hearing about all of the great things they are doing (for example, when school is closed because of H1N1, classes continued to meet virtually with DyKnow).
The release of 5.2 -- it's amazing what our software can do and the enhancements get better every year (for example, the PowerPoint Plug-In). Here's a synopsis of what was new in 5.2...and there are a lot of things to look forward to in 2010 with 5.3. Three cheers to our development team!

These are just a few of the many highlights from 2009 -- I can't wait to see what 2010 brings!