I presented yesterday at DESA 2016 (Digital Education Show Asia). There were great presentations and many good resources shared.  Stay tuned for updates.

We are planning for NU virtual software lab. We are working with IBM and try to develop a solution. SPSS was selected as one of the trial programs.  Members of the NU Instructional Committee will be submitting School requests by March 28th.

NU faculty and students are grateful to Microsoft Kazakhstan for assistance with Office 365 installation. More details here.

Special thanks to NU student volunteers!

Ok, it is probably more then you ever wanted to know about SMS…

“Text messaging originated as a concept more than three decades ago, and the first phones with the capability were introduced by Nokia in 1993, according to this infographic about SMS. Exchanging messages across networks followed a couple of years later, and growth since then has made texting an integral part of consumers’ lives to this day.”  ITProPortal.com (U.K.)

GoSoapBox allows you to have your audience respond to questions through their laptops, tablets, and phones.

In GoSoapBox the Polls tool allows you to survey your audience by having them select an answer choice in response to a question. The Discussions tool allows you to have students reply to open-ended questions.  One of the simplest yet effective survey options in GoSoapBox is a tools called a Confusion Meter. The Confusion Meter allows students to simply say, “yes, I get it” or “no, I don’t get it.” All of the GoSoapBox survey tools can accept anonymous feedback.

You can use the Social Q&A tool to have students submit their questions to you. Students can see each others question submissions and vote them up if they want to.

“This report provides valuable insights and guidance for policy-makers and school leaders about the need to embrace digital and open resources. Europe needs to raise its game if we are to ensure our young generation are prepared for their future careers,” said Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. “Improved digital skills and access to digital and open resources are crucial, not just for better teaching, but also for creating flexible education models that make life-long learning easier.”

You can access this report here.

Apparently, one-seventh of the world’s population got a smart phone last year (see this publication). I am not sure about the numbers in Kazakhstan, but it seems all our students have phones. It might be a good idea for us to start exploring how this technology can be used for learning and teaching. Let’s start with diigo collection on this topic.