One of the trends that came forward during the Media Future Week 2011 in Almere, was Gamification and Chris Crawford gave a very inspiring presentation about game design. In his vision a game designer is god of the universe that he creates for the game. What could this mean for education?

Do you have any idea why higher education is still mainly delivered as classroom teaching? Most lecturers know that a lot more is possible and some of them even enrich classroom teaching with innovations such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and iTunes U. But knowing it is one thing, applying this knowledge is another thing. Why?

Last week was the EDUCA 2010.  This congress is the largest international platform for exchanging ideas and experiences on ICT-supported education and training in Europe. During this congress several students of the University of applied Science Utrecht had a job to registrate the sessions with our weblecture-system Prestentations2Go. Two of the students (Faye van der Bos and Martin Doornekamp) participated in a forum about cross media and how they want to use ICT in there own educational environment. Of course their presentation and the debate is also captured and to see at presentations2go.

The start of the new academic year (last week) at the university of applied sciences Utrecht went considerably smooth. A few minor glitches such as classrooms double booked or too small for 35+ students. But considering the additional students from the rather-new-but-extremely-popular Communication and Media Design (around 240 new students) the building is holding up. And as long as the wireless network is working I’m a happy camper. Comes to show that I’m easily pleased when it comes to services within the university. I don’t mind the long queues at the canteen, coffee machines or the printers but don’t take away my Internet.

Perhaps I am a bit occupationally deformed when it comes down to (digital) media. That’s probably because I’ve been in the media business for three decades. That must have lead to full incorporation of media as such in my life. Sometimes it is hard to understand that what I regard as important may be of utter uselessness to others who just take the media as they are. But then again, media are in every people’s lives, whether one likes it or not

While Apple launched its iPad in the States, it promoted its new digital learning environment – iTunes U – in Nederland. This was quickly followed by the news that Apple will introduce iAd advertisements in its apps, and that a prototype of the new iPhone was “stolen”. Apple knows how to create a hype, and how to create an ecosystem of hardware and software that surrounds more and more people!

Marc Lammers, coach of the gold-winning women’s hockey team at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, was one of the keynote speakers at the OWD2009. In his speech he explained how the hockey women had become so successful. Stimulation of already strong developed skills eventually resolves in an upgrading of less developed skills, was his main message.

I came upon a nice picture of a layar (that’s not a mistake. It is the commercial name of virtual layers on mobile phone applications) on a mobile phone. We see Keizersgracht in Amsterdam on a nice autumn day through a VodaFone branded cell phone. We can look through the phone and the apparent Funda site, the Dutch real estate site. Intriguing. In the same image, we read information regarding a house at Prins Hendrikkade, costing about 349,000 Euro. As an example of what’s coming up, I’d say it is a great picture. From a reality point of view, I tend to say that this mash-up is a hoax. The picture we see is indeed Keizersgracht. The bridge you may spot at the end of the canal is Leidsegracht. It is where I walk the dog twice a day. The shot is taken at the bridge of Leidsestraat. Prins Hendrikkade is by no means even close to this point. I know because I live just behind the left-side houses. And, a propos, there’s no way one might acquire a flat for that price in the Prins Hendrikkade area (which happens to be near Amsterdam Central Station and Nemo. But, who cares. VodaFone has made its point.