Revolution in Education through Technology

What an exciting day for students around the world with the historical joint announcement today by MIT and Harvard about edX to deliver interactive classes from both universities - FOR FREE!

According to the edX FAQ - "Features will include: self-paced learning, online discussion groups, wiki-based collaborative learning, assessment of learning as a student progresses through a course, and online laboratories." It also goes on to clarify "It will move beyond the standard model of online education that relies on watching video content and will offer an interactive experience for students. And the technology will be open-source; other universities will be able to leverage the innovative technology to create their own online offerings."

The credit for this revolution definitely goes to Salman Khan of the Khan Academy that I blogged about back in 2010. Sal started by creating videos to teach some students in his extended family and later went on to record thousands of videos by giving up his well paying financial services job. I am sure even he could not have predicted the silent revolution this had started. Students around the world could now put their headphones on and get small lessons from Sal with an experience similar to one-on-one tutoring. His videos have been now distributed in offline versions to remote parts of the world with no / low bandwidth.

Earlier this year there was also a joint collaboration announcement between Khan Academy and MIT to improve STEM education at the K12 level. Great opportunity to create content for the students, by the students.

Prior to this there have been numerous video recordings of classroom lectures recorded and made available via iTunes U and YouTube EDU. While learners around the world are learning, so are educators in exploring this unknown territory on digital / technology enabled learning. The revolution is off to a great start and the only advice I have to learners is to invest in a good device like MacBook Air, iPad or a Chromebook and a good Internet connection. Happy lifelong learning.

Fitbit and the Gamification of Fitness

Came across another great example of Augmented Humanity while reading through Matt Cutt's post. A small device Fitbit that sits in your pocket or various other places on the body. Keeps tracks of the steps you take, the stairs your climb and even your sleep when worn on the wrist. Wirelessly update all the tracking information to your account on the web. Great for the "Quantified Self" in me!

Decided to give it a try with some skepticism. Few months into it and I am actually seeing a big difference in my outlook towards fitness. The real reason seems to be in the way Fitbit implements the principles of Gamification - The game techniques for non-game applications to encourage users to engage more. Here are just some examples -

1. 10,000 Steps a day - By afternoon you know if you are not going to make it and you are already guilty and motivated to walk or run to meet the goal. Ending the day achieving the goal is addictive. The inherent human nature to compare and compete and to complete something you started is the source of motivation. The progress bar on LinkedIn profile telling you it is only 70% complete motivates you to complete it - another example of gamification. 
2. Badges - A silly badge like the lifetime 50 miles or 500 Floors Helicopter height can motivate even grownups - again because it taps into the game techniques that are known to work on humans. If you are a social person and like sharing this with friends then even more fun to compare and compete.
3. Sleep Tracking - A nice chart of how much you slept and how many times you were awakened in the night is a motivation to check first thing in the morning.

Install their mobile app and start tracking how much water you drink, food you eat, weight and much more. And you will be surprised to learn so much more about you. Eg. I was getting less than 5,000 steps a day and just being aware of that has automatically made me park far away in parking lots or take stairs instead of elevator. A little badge does not hurt at the end of the day as a reward.

Now all I need is a Pulse Oximeter, a BP Monitor, a Wireless Weighing Scale, may be an iPhone ECG and if its not asking too much then a quick blood analysis kit. These are all near the $100 mark. Oh throw in the Google Glasses as well. Seriously, with this level of information being tracked silently, analyzed in the cloud and presented with gamification, the yearly physical exam suddenly seem like a ridiculous idea!

Wish You A Very Zenware New Year!

Powerful computing devices continue to wire us deeper into the human network. Ironically this has increased the amount of distractions that can bring our productivity down to a halt. New email alerts, IMs, SMS, Phone calls, Blinking light on your phone, G+, FB, Twitter alerts, Skype from that distant relative who has an urgent need to just say hello and for some there are also alerts from your thermostat, toaster, home security and almost everything that can connect to the Internet.  Not to mention the addictive games and urge to comment on that photo from a friend. I will not even start talking about the changing meaning of the word "friend"!

All this has increased our desire to document and share minute details of our lives in 140 characters, Photos, Videos, Interesting links and breaking news to score that extra social brownie point. How does one get some creative work done in the middle of this? Enter zenware.. A new breed of software that is simple, clean, minimal and lets you focus on the work at hand with no distractions.

I came across this concept of zenware recently and was reminded of the days in not too distant past where I did not own a cell phone or had email and Internet at work. The desk phone was probably the only distraction other than colleagues stopping by the desk or the occasional call to the boss's office.

I am writing this on OmmWriter on the Mac that eliminates all distractions and makes writing fun again. Mac Lion's Spaces, Full-screen apps and many others are joining the ranks of zenware like Notational hold more promise. This is a great start and I will not be surprised if an industry is created out of this concept that lets you do one thing at a time in record time with absolute focus.

Wish you ultra-productivity this new year with zenware and wish you are able to make more time for real relationships with your family, friends and nature! Life demands this from us.

Pure Google "switch" for all Android devices

There is growing anger around the undisclosed-apps or apps-you-cannot-uninstall being shipped with smartphones. The latest is Carrier IQ and a whole bunch that gives one phone-rage like City ID, Verizon V Cast apps, Blockbuster, Backup Assistant that you just cannot uninstall as they are baked into the OS. Not to mention drain of the precious battery juice on stuff you did not even want in the first place. This makes one feel that the bloated Windows laptops are better as they at least allow you to uninstall apps.

Here's an idea for Android - how about putting a small switch under the battery somewhere which when flipped will deliver a Pure Google experience with the original Android build from Google similar to the one that runs on the Nexus series.

This way consumers have a choice - those who are fans of carrier or handset manufacturer customization like Motoblur or HTC Sense can continue using that. And for the rest who prefer a Pure Google experience can just flip the switch.

Android is open source and Google cannot force handset manufacturers to do it but imagine the tremendous competitive advantage if HTC or Samsung or someone else were to do it. Samsung already knows how to do this with their Chromebook developer switch! Manufacturers can still continue to  differentiate with better hardware like faster CPU, HD camera, Apps in the Android Marketplace that users can install / uninstall and better form factors.

Flip the switch and get the latest desserts straight from Google without the usual long delay for applying customization on top of it. This might also help in solving the Android fragmentation problem. It will not be easy to implement this with support for so many different hardware combinations, heated discussions with carriers and manufacturers. But for a company that takes pride in Focus on the user and all else will follow, nothing is too difficult to implement.

Cant wait for the next Pure Google experience!

Your Personal Air Force One

Not many people know that Air Force One is not just the name of the special US Presidential aircrafts that most of us have seen in pictures. But it is the official air-traffic control call sign for ANY US Air Force aircraft carrying the President. ANY US Air Force aircraft and not just one or two.

Switching gears to the laptops that most of us use daily for work, education or pleasure. More and more of our time is spent on web applications in the web browser. Very little desktop apps are now being used. No wonder Google imagined a laptop that has JUST the browser in it and nothing more. The browser does not minimize, does not close, there is no desktop or the Start button. These are the Chromebooks running the Chrome OS. Samsung and Acer now have few models in the market.


My first experience using one of these was the CR-48 limited model and later the Samsung one. These things go from power down to login screen in about 10 seconds. Login with your Google Account and you are in. Nothing (technically there is a little information in the cache) really gets stored on the device. You are instantly connected to your mail, docs, photos, videos, social networking etc. There is even the connection back to the old paradigm of computing via Citrix.

So what's the connection between Chromebooks and Air Force One? Very simple. Any Chromebook in the world is YOUR Chromebook as soon as you log in. Everything is stored in the cloud so if you lose a Chromebook no data is lost. Just get another one or borrow one from a friend or the airline and you get the same experience as your own Chromebook.

Your Gmail ID is your new call sign to make any Chromebook your own Air Force One for as long as you are logged in to that device!