one more h5p template – Accordions

Alrighty. If you liked the Glossary/Terminology h5p template, and you thought the Tab h5p template was ok, I’ve got a new one for you. My goal here was to set up an “Accordion” – style interaction, mimicking similar types of expand and collapse tools all the cool kids are using today. As I mention in the template, h5p does have a content-type for this, but you can’t customize it (well, not without getting into the code).

So, the new template looks like this:

Go have a look – https://kylemackie.h5p.com/content/1290941857695765899 – download a copy for yourself and make something cool. Let me know what you come up with.

Take Your Kyle to Work Day (take 1): @ The Letter M Marketing

As part of my “Take Your Kyle to Work Day” project, I had the unique opportunity to spend a day with the fine people who work at The Letter M Marketing. TLM has a long history, and an impressive list of clients.

What struck me most about TLM is their engagement with the community. They approach marketing as a genuine conversation. This conversation helps businesses and organizations tell their stories, build connections and co-create meanings.

What if you could rebuild the University from the ground up?

Some inspiration from from Michael Wesch:

Wait for the punchline at the end.

Master of Karaoke?

cc: flickr.com/photos/derekgavey

From the “Research Interests” section of my application package:

“My course work will focus on media, technology and literacy. The proposal for my research project is to focus on media-enhanced presentation styles that encourage improvisation and participation. Specifically, I will be examining PechaKucha, Ignite, PowerPoint Karaoke, and Battle Decks events. My final project will explore how these presentation styles can contribute to meaning-making and community building in an educational setting.

My research will focus on these presentation styles as a new type of literary form; a digital, participatory, fluid and multi-modal script. Through an examination of these presentation formats, I’ll discuss how the enforced structure of these styles affects the information presented, suggesting that the rules demand a creative and intentional approach to meaning-making. I will look at ways in which this enhanced script creates a new performative experience, establishing new relationships between the presenter, audience members and external online participants who are contributing to the discourse during the presentation. I will explore the interplay between the live events and the online commentary, examining how the boundaries blur between the "real" presentation and the "backchannel" conversation, and how this interplay can serve to enhance or distract from the intended meaning of the performance.

My research will draw from and advance the work done by Guelph’s Media Education Project and the international Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice research project. I will be working with educators to explore how these presentation styles can be incorporated into course delivery and student assessment.  Together with these educators, I will explore the new literacies necessary for students to be able to effectively participate in and learn from these new presentation styles.  Beyond the context of the University, I will build partnerships with the technology and arts community and community-based organizations, with the goal of creating a community engaged approach to this scholarship.”

@barrydahl put it well: “Cool – you’re going to get a degree in PechaKucha and Karaoke. I’m looking for a program in slot car racing and ping pong.”

I’ll show him!

Guelph Technology Economy, 2011 Conference

The Guelph technology sector is one of the key elements to the Guelph economy, and is growing. I was honoured to be asked to be part of the steering committee for the 2nd Annual Guelph Technology Economy Conference – January 18, 2011.

I participated in the conference last year. It’s an important event for a number of reasons:

• support for the technology sector in Guelph
• awareness of the significance of the Guelph technology sector and knowledge-based companies
• networking and connections between technology companies, higher education, and knowledge-based companies

There’s a great line-up for this, ranging from Jim Jarrell to Doug Minett to Kirk Roberts to Kelly Brooks and others.

Arts & Digital Media, Innovation Guelph, Mobile Applications, Cloud Computing, Data Acquisition and Processes and Local Recruiting, Food, Prizes, and all that.

Conference Website.
Registration.

School is a game. It’s just not a terribly well-designed game

At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the “game layer,” a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.

School is a game. It’s just not a terribly well-designed game… There are levels. There are C. There are B. There is A. There are statuses. I mean, what is valedictorian, but a status? If we called valedictorian a “white knight paladin level 20”, I think people would probably work a lot harder.

Having fun yet?

The future of gaming: *this* changes everything.

Forget memorizing button sequences, drop the joystick, and put down the Wiimote: Microsoft Kinect, which can “recognize faces, obey voice commands, and track body movements,” according to the LA Times, will enable users to control their video game avatars just by moving their bodies in front of the Kinect (see video below). Kinect users will also be able to control movies just by speaking commands, such as “play” or “pause.”

(Huffington Post)

Controller-free? This is huge. Not just for gaming. Consider applications for education, accessibility, communication, information design…

Contrary to what our good friends at Apple would like us to believe, THIS changes everything.

The future of reading

Text 2.0

What if your book really knew where you are gazing at? Awesome potential.

Toxicology. The (Family) Musical.

Minutes ago, I posted the following to my Twitter and Facebook pages:

RT @kylemackie: I (admittedly) know precious little about toxicology, but maybe you could help me write a musical about it: http://bit.ly/dCxUjP #toxmusic

The results so far.

Join in!

Get excited and make cool shit.

Bought this at the Student Print Show and Sale on March 19, 20 and 21, 2010 (Friday – Sunday) at the University of Guelph (Zavitz Buildling).

Print by Lizz Caston.