Rumored specs:

Quad Core
Siri Support
Improved Cams
4G
Better resolution
Thicker than iPad 2
Significantly improved battery life
Also, iPad 2 price will drop and may continue to be sold

Well these are all rumors so take them with a grain of salt but be ready in the next 2 months to see iPad 3.

Here is a good site that explains the recent rumors: http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/ipad-3-details-2/

*Note – if you need to see how to create a blogger blog, please see this post

Here is a video tutorial that I put together which shows you how to create your first blog with blogger:

*Note – To see the next post on Blogger features click here

Why is this? Students and parents should know who their teachers and professors are. They should know about all the work we do. They should know how many publications, presentations, and past work experiences we have had. I recently (yesterday) had a student tell me that her mom was asking about her professors and she liked the fact that she could go to my website and see my resume and some information about me. This is a great way for us as faculty to demonstrate just how valuable we are. Many of my colleagues and peers resumes are very impressive and I think its a great idea for us to show that off. It also shows we know a little bit about technology and are not stuck in the stone ages.

Having a website is just one way to accomplish this. Of course many of our schools have a ‘faculty page’ but these are very generic. Having your own website can really show off your skills and is informative to our students. My point – faculty, develop a website for yourself. If you are not tech savvy, ask your instructional technologists, they would be more than willing to help you out!

I think this is awesome and I believe having an understanding of basic computer logic is a great skill to have. This is why I push software like Gamemaker, Squeak, Scratch, etc. which require one to understand basic programming logic.I also teach HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and Actionscript in my classes.

However, I do think people are jumping the gun a bit with Javascript. The reason why? Javascript by itself is rather useless. I would not tell someone to learn javascript unless they had a solid foundation in HTML and CSS first. You really cant do anything with javascript without HTML. Learning javascript without HTML/CSS is like learning to hold your breath, then being put into a deep swimming pool without knowing how to swim.

So while I believe learning Javascript is great and I think everyone should learn basic programming…at least the logic, I believe that you should understand HTML and CSS before jumping the gun and learning Javascript.

So for those who want to learn js, just take a few weeks and learn HTML and CSS first. They are both very easy to learn – the easiest languages. Then when you have that foundation learn javascript. Then when you understand js, start learning a database language like PHP or Ruby.

- HTML5 is simply an update of HTML4. It does a few extra things, like include a video tag. It is not this be all end all code that will replace Flash and by itself is not very powerful.

- HTML5 is not compatible on most browsers right now. There are many standards issues. Please see this report for more details: http://www.longtailvideo.com/html5/.

- The power of HTML comes from Javascript. Javascript has been able to do much of this for many years, it is NOT new. Most of the features people seem to think HTML5 can accomplish are really javascript features.

- Flash is used for a lot of things that it was not designed for, like web banners, just because there is not other tool out there. Flash was designed for rich interaction and games not web banners. HTML5 is not going to be used for these rich interactions and games, flash will be. Maybe someday this will happen, but not in HTML5. Maybe HTML6, 7, or 8. But remember Flash will continue to evolve as well in that time.

- The power of HTML5 really comes with mobile devices, not PCs. However, with more advancements in mobile processors such as quad cores, etc. This really isnt going to matter much. The only thing really stopping Flash right now on mobile devices is Apple. However, you can put flash onto apple mobile devices -  its a workaround though and not a process the average user can accomplish. Having said that, the same can be said of HTML5, the only thing stopping it from PCs right now is compatibility so as that gets better its use will grow.

So what exactly will HTML5 be used for that Flash once did?

Mobile applications. HTML5 will be used in the mobile world. Its more compatible and it’s free, which is the pure beauty of HTML5. However the main thing to point out here: HTML5 runs different on each browser right now. So its great if running on one device, like the iphone. But if running on android, iphone, and pc its really a pain to code. Flash is much better when using multiple devices. To get HTML5 to work on multiple devices I need to ‘trick’ the code for each browser which takes a lot of extra development time and adds a lot of extra code to my product.

Here are two good sources discussing this issue:

http://remysharp.com/2010/02/08/html5-vs-flash/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/fredcavazza/2011/07/17/why-opposing-html5-and-flash-is-a-non-sense/

*I am sure there will be many more HTML5 posts on here as it evolves:)

What I notice in the world of gaming and simulations is that one releases a game that should run on many different systems and then many unforeseen issue arise. This is usually caused by people having old or different versions of browsers, different GPU cards, incorrect settings, different sized monitor, etc. While we try to control for this in companies when designing training or in the game world by describing minimum specs, its still just not that efficient.

In fact, this even translates into the HTML5 vs flash debate because if you are developing specifically for the iPad you might need to use HTML5. However, that HTML5 app probably will not work on the PC or Android device correctly. Thus the need to release multiple versions or include a lot of extra code. This same thing happens to so many games and simulations. The latest example being the new Star Wars game by Bioware (SWTOR). They released this game a bit early and many users are having lag or frames-per-second (FPS) issues and now they need to find and fix them. So what is the solution?

There are a couple of workarounds but no single solution. One would be to develop for one device only, such as the iPad or xbox. This is actually what I love about the xbox or iPad. If I buy an xbox game or iPad app I know it will run flawlessly for the most part on my machine because it was designed for my machine. However this becomes impossible when trying to reach all audiences as too many users have other machines such as PCs. My personal solution? Create a standard for devices each year or every few years that all devices released during that time should have. So if that standard includes a certain amount of memory, gpu, html5, flash, etc then all devices would have it and thus be able to run game and simulations released during that time.

1.According to training magazine, money spent on training increased 13% in 2011 to $59.7 billion.

2. Average trainer (Instructional Designer) salary in 2011: $84,142 (elearning guild reports: $79,890)

3. Development times to create one-hour of e-learning (The eLearning Guild, 2002):

- Simple Asynchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 117 hours
- Simple Synchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 86 hour
- Average Asynchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF’s. etc): 191 hours
- Average Synchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF’s. etc): 147 hours
- Complex Asynchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 276 hours
- Complex Synchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 222 hours

4. Instructor presentation time of face to face courses:

Dugan Laird (1985), listed these instructor preparation times (based on U.S. Civil Service estimate):

- Course is five days or less, then 3 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
- Course is between five and ten days, then 2.5 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
- Course is over 10 days, then 2 hours of preparation for each hour of training.

5. Chart from ASTD 2009:

 Source: http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

Sources:

http://www.trainingmag.com/article/2011-training-industry-report

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/trainsta.html

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

http://www.trainingmag.com/article/training%E2%80%99s-2011-growth-spurt

From nwlink.com: The eLearning Guild. (2002). The e-Learning Development Time Ratio Survey. Retrieved October 27, 2007 from: http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/1/time%20to%20develop%20Survey.pdf

From nwlink.com: Laird, Dugan (1985). Approaches To Training And Development (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?id=148&action=viewonly

http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

Why have your own website? Well let me ask you to search for yourself on Google, what comes up on the first page? Anything about you? Do other people have your name? Does your facebook page come up? Well guess what, when you graduate and begin to interview your potential employer is going to search for you as well. So if your facebook page is coming up it’s time to make is private. So if you are going to be searched online, why not intentionally point people searching for you to a website that is designed to ‘show off’ your work? That’s right, send them to a site of your choosing on purpose. So, just as an example, search for me, ‘Ray Pastore’ and you will see that this website you are on comes up first. I WANT people to find this site.

Why else do you want a site? You can put it on your resume. Showing a potential employer that you have enough technical skills to build a website can help in almost any career. Plus if they choose to, they can go to the site and this is your chance to show them your portfolio. Show them sample writings, projects, as well as your philosophies toward your field.

Now if I buy and create a site is it automatically number one on search results? NO! You need to make it SEO friendly but that is for another post on this blog.

So how do you buy a website?

I always recommend Icdsoft.com because that is who I use. In fact, if you go through my link that I give my students, you can own a web address and build a site for $38.50 a year. Here is that link: http://icdsoft.com/promo-code/course359. And I do not get anything if you use that link, so don’t think I am trying to sell you something here. Another company I like is bluehost.com, however, they are more expensive, around $100 a year, which is usually out of a students price range. Godaddy tends to be another popular one however I have only had bad experiences with them, so I do not recommend them.

When you do buy a site, I recommend a .com address. You can choose from .net, .org, .info, etc.

How do I build my site?

Well that is also for another blog post. You can take classes, teach yourself online, etc. I would recommend taking a class though so that you are doing things correctly. Correctly means that your site will show up on all browsers, mobile phones, and be optimized to show up first in search engines.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions:)

Personally, I feel the standards are a bit outdated and that they may be missing some. So I have taken it upon myself to do a research study on this topic. I am in the process of completing the competencies and will be sending out the survey shortly. Look for a post on this site.

“IMPORTANT NOTE: If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.”

What does this mean? You cannot take this work and put it into a book to sell or sell it anywhere else. Essentially you are giving Apple the rights to it.

This is kind of scary and not what this app should be about. Copyright needs to be maintained by the author. So Apple, if you are out there are and listening, please change this. I am now hesitant to publish here and I would recommend ALL to avoid this app until this is changed. If you want to publish, publish it online at your own website where you retain copyright.

Source:

mashable

pcmag

Have yet to try this tool out but since its from Google, I assume it does what it says – convert Flash .swf files to HTML5 files for use on iPhone/iPad. Let me know how it works:

http://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/

Mashable

Apple

Abstract: Can increasing the speed of audio narration in multimedia instruction decrease training time and still maintain learning? The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of time-compressed instruction and redundancy on learning and learners’ perceptions of cognitive load. 154 university students were placed into conditions that consisted of time-compression (0%, 25%, or 50%) and redundancy (redundant text and narration or narration only). Participants were presented with multimedia instruction on the human heart and its parts then given factual and problem solving knowledge tests, a cognitive load measure, and a review behavior (back and replay buttons) measure. Results of the study indicated that participants who were presented 0% and 25% compression obtained similar scores on both the factual and problem solving measures. Additionally, they indicated similar levels of cognitive load. Participants who were presented redundant instruction were not able to perform as well as participants presented non-redundant instruction.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131511002351

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), otherwise known as H.R. 3261, was started by Lamar Smith (R-TX) and other representatives (bipartisan group with their company sponsors) to the house of representatives (more info on SOPA at Google).

Here are the dangerous parts to this bill (from Mashable):

- Any site accused of supporting copyright violations can be shut down – felony to post copywritten material (without a trial)

- Attorney general has a right to take action against these sites (again without a trial)

- Once accused to copyright violations, no company is allowed to do business with this company and their site needs to be shut down

What does this do? This gives companies and the government the right to stop and shut down an internet site without due process, no court or trial involved, just being accused. So if you post something on Facebook, like a picture that is copyright protected, Facebook could be shut down. That is the extent of this law.

Many from the silicon valley are protesting SOPA, today January 18th 2012. These sites are going dark. Here is a small list of companies doing it (many more are as well and the list can found at the bottom of this post):

• Google
• Tor Project
• iSchool at Syracuse University
• Oreilly.com
• Wikipedia
• Reddit
• Mozilla
• WordPress.org
• Minecraft

If you go to wikipedia today this is the message you will find:

FYI – my site could be shut down after my post today because much of my information was paraphrased and/or taken from other internet sites…even though I am citing them here:

Websites going dark

Why sopa is dangerous

What is SOPA

Well stopping privacy doesn’t sound too bad?

No it doesn’t, however, given my example above, sites like facebook and youtube could be shut down because you or I post a picture or video that is copyright protected. Under current law, the Digital Millennium Act, when copyright material is found on a site, the site owner is notified they have a copyright protected image posted on their site and they have to remove it immediately. Well that sounds reasonable, right? I mean we need to protect copyright, but SOPA takes it a step too far.

You have perhaps seen the following symbol lately quite a bit on the internet? This is the symbol for LinkedIn:

This site is a social networking site, very similar to facebook. The difference however is big. LinkedIn focuses on your professional life. In fact, you profile is very similar to your resume. In addition to having a profile that includes your resume, you can link to others in the same field and you can search for jobs. Many jobs are being posted on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not complicated and is no harder to use than facebook, thus I recommend all of my students to get an account before they start applying for jobs – trust me when I say the person interviewing you will be searching for you:)

Here is a link: http://linkedin.com