Discs, even Blu-rays, are so yesterday’s medium! Why collect discs when you can stream movies and TV shows via online sources (like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu) and local/connected storage (like USB drives, computer, home server)?! No wall full of discs and no swapping discs in/out, just instant access via a nice, graphical user interface (GUI) 
!
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I recently encouraged my e-development team, made up of learning, reference and mobile designers and developers, to debate and rethink our e-learning technical approach. We’ve been relying on HTML, JavaScript and Flash for the last five years. Flash has been at the heart of our multimedia and interactivity innovation within e-products we build. Flash took off in the late 90′s and still accounts for more than 90% usage in e-learning out there, but with the rapid adoption of mobile in this space, particularly tablets, HTML5 is all the buzz. Even Adobe has conceded and all but killed Flash for mobile, touting its Edge authoring tools for the “modern web”.
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The core of my professional career for the last 15 years has centered on technology-powered learning. With my Master’s in Instructional Technology and years of hand-on instructional design experience, I’m hardwired to think through applying adult learning principles and the latest technologies in designing, producing and deploying all high quality digital learning solutions. One of the most important ways to make e-learning lessons come alive is via well thought-out interactions and multimedia that engage learners. Provided they’re tied to foundational learning objectives and mastery, they make learning effective for learners, and for providers who need measurable outcomes that transfer to real work application.
The Mede8er MED1000X3D is a 1080p hi-def media streamer with support for playback of 3D frame-packed Blu-ray ISO’s (which exact Blu-ray disc image files). It also plays the other 3D formats: side-by-side (SBS) and top/bottom.
While not the first full 3D streamer to hit the market, the 1000X3D deserves serious consideration as Mede8er is behind it. With their previous streamers, they’ve managed to offer better features, functionality, and user experience at a reasonable price-points that other manufacturers with similar hardware in this space haven’t. Does the 1000X3D continue that tradition with 3D support in the mix? Let’s find out…
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Moodle is an open-source content/learning management system (CMS/LMS) that piqued my interest recently. It’s free, with community development, quite full-featured, including being customizable. And, did I mention it’s free?
With my own experience with different LMS solutions with e-learning, and the custom LMS used where I presently work, these things can be costly exercises in frustration. As business units or companies who specialize in content also take on becoming LMS developers, they often get burdened by the latter while taking their eyes off the ball, the former, and what really encompasses their core competency. So, the appeal of Moodle is a low risk solution for managing and delivering digital content, and keeping the focus there, the end goal, not the means to the end.
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Here are links to Android (in-house) and iOS (outsourced) mobile apps I’ve overseen development for in the past year:
I’m presently involvement in the development of an iOS container app for several Mosby’s exams prep, with in-app purchases. This is a cutting edge project for Elsevier as it involves web administration and cloud set-up to let users pull in additional content into their smartphones. I’m also involved in a hybrid container app for Mosby’s Consult and Skills, which are referential products, and content from which will be pulled into smartphones via API’s and web services.
In addition to the above, a Kindle Fire version of CEN was also developed in a mere week as much of the work from the core Android smartphone version could be repurposed. This app remains unreleased as Elsevier tries to reach an overall agreement for content distribution with Amazon.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with a really talented media developer on my team, whom I not only collaborated with on this article, but have truly synergized with to innovate, workaround, and forge ahead on mobile with very few resources, on the side, while we do our regular jobs on e-learning development.
