Publishers Usher in the Next Generation of Digital Publishing Suite

Publishers Usher in the Next Generation of Digital Publishing Suite « Adobe Digital Publishing function clearSearch() {document.search_form.s.value = "";} adobe.com      Adobe Digital Publishing / Publishers Usher in the Next Generation of Digital Publishing Suiteby Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Team  

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The 99% Conference: Shifting from Idea Generation to Idea Execution

The 99% Conference – “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” – wrapped up a couple of weeks back, and there have been some amazing conversations among leading creatives and visionary speakers. We’ve excerpted a few of them below, thanks to the wonderful recap from the 99 Percent team, and included snippets of a visual documentary of the event from illustrator Wendy MacNaughton. 

RILLA ALEXANDER | Designer & Illustrator, Rinzen
“Without the doing, the dreaming is useless.” Most creative professionals are dreamers. Sure, a tendency to be struck with ideas and inspiration means you’re in the right field, but it takes discipline to persevere past the “dreaming stage” and start chipping away at really making it happen.

JONATHAN ADLER | Founder, Jonathan Adler
Forget about strategy occasionally; missteps are okay. We’re trained to focus on a goal and make “strategic decisions” to reach it, but a rigid plan can stifle creativity. Give yourself the freedom to “make whatever is in your head” and do something risky from time to time. You never know how it might turn out.

JAD ABUMRAD| Creater & Host, Radiolab
Embrace “gut churn.” Gut Churn is that awful feeling of discomfort and uncertainty you have when you’re not sure if your idea will sink or swim. In the early days of Radiolab, Jad’s cohort remembered, “years and years of being sick to my stomach.” Greatness might not always feel good, but heading into unchartered territory is rarely comfortable. In fact, “gut churn” probably means you’re onto something.

JONAH LEHRER | Author, Imagine: How Creativity Works
“The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it.” It turns out that scientists can actually predict when you’re most likely to have an epiphany. In fact, being relaxed and not thinking about the problem you’d like to solve ups your chances of having that “aha!” moment. Ergo, the most productive thing we can do when we’re stuck is: Forget all about work. Force yourself to waste time – take a walk, a shower, a day off – and you just may find what you’ve been searching for.

TONY FADELL | Founder & CEO, Nest
“Frustration is where my creativity comes from.” An early curiosity about how things worked, understanding how they were built, and then wanting them to be built differently – and better – is where Fadell’s unique brand of creativity came from. Inspiration is highly personal and often strikes unexpectedly; be attuned to the world around you to find more of it.

SCOTT BELSKY | Co-founder & CEO of Behance
A labor of love ALWAYS pays off. Even “failures” in the eyes of others are enriching for us. Every dead-end helps lead us in the right direction.

Get the full recap of in Key Takeaways on Making Ideas Happen along with the complete look at The Illustrated 99% Conference 2012.

TAGGED AS: 99% Conference 2012, Behance, How Creativity Works, Jad Abumrad, Jonah Lehrer, Jonathan Adler, Nest, RadioLab, Rilla Alexander, Rinzen, Scott Belsky, The 99 Percent, Tony Fadell, Wendy MacNaughton

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Generation Digital!

A little while ago, I was reading an article which highlighted some research by educational finance firm Syscap, revealing  that over 10% of primary schools spend less than £10 on ICT for each pupil – some nothing at all. This got me thinking.

 My son is in his third year of primary school but using ICT to communicate, play and create is already second nature to him. I regularly find myself outsmarted by him on the latest technologies, apps and digital tools – and he is only seven years old! It’s a medium the world is increasingly working in, and one which the younger generation are very much at ease with given they’ve never known life without it.

I was recently in touch with the Headteacher at Bamford Primary School in Lancashire, Cherie Rivero, who is passionate about enhancing her students’ creativity and confidence through the use of ICT.

Two years ago, Cherie introduced Adobe Photoshop to the school for her students in Years 4 to 6 and set them the task of designing an eight foot ‘Welcome to Bamford Primary School’ banner with pictures of themselves on it using the software – the design deemed the best now has pride of place outside the school.

This is just one of many great examples of how children as young as primary school age are using ICT to develop their creativity skills. The younger generation are eager to use these digital tools, we just need to open the door for them!

Liz Wilkins is Senior Marketing Manager for Education at Adobe Systems UK. Her involvement with Adobe Education products has seen her work closely with a range of educational institutions, championing the use of digital media tools in the curriculum, and their integration into a number of subject areas in order to better prepare students for the future demands of the workplace. Liz works closely with teachers and administrators integrating software, curriculums, and instructional resources as well as certification options and professional development tools. Through promoting digital literacy in cross-curricular education, teaching essential career skills, and streamlining administrative processes Liz has experience working in partnership with a diverse portfolio of schools and further education institutions.

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eSeminar now on demand: Rapid Animation Generation for Avatar Personalization in Adobe Captivate 5 Projects

April 21, 2011

Admittedly bizarre but tons of fun, this week’s eSeminar focused on saving money and still getting high quality images and animations for your eLearning modules by leveraging free animation software to create animations and even stage complex simulations. In a test of my rapidly aging laptop I held the session in Adobe Connect, did Captures with Adobe Captivate Full Motion Recording of Linden Labs Second Life and ran a browser for good measure.

Included below is the slide deck for the presentation, also available here via the link with the embedded text. As i mentioned during the session, the notes regarding the efficacy of personalization via avatar inclusion are on the downloadable slide deck here.

One of the more interesting considerations in this regard is what impact the avatar animation will have on learning. Studies related to this topic show that while the animation adds to the interest the learner may have in the content – the animation alone is not sufficient to lead to improved learning. So we have a couple of natural topics that emerge.

Perception: people will prefer the content with animation and slick graphics – if it is efficient and on topic.Learning: people will learn more when the animation is on topic. The theory behind this has to do with how we engage as conversationalists more than any other element.

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So should you do animation? When should you do animation. I recommend that you consider animation when you are working on creating engaging interactions that facilitate knowledge transfer by creating recognizable mimetic (story / scene) elements for the learner. If you are training workplace safety for an aquarium, having images of events happen in an aquarium will trigger better long term retention for the staff engaged in the training. Same is true for virtually any contextual information. Since most of the critical training we do is context-sensitive – the call for such images are frequent.

One limitation of stock photography and similar resources is that you often cannot find images that perfectly suit the context of the learning – and its conceivable that these limitations can decrease knowledge transfer. The eSeminar this week focused on using free animation / world creation software to build such context rapidly and at very low costs compared to other animation solutions. You’ll find the link to the seminar below.

LINK: Here is the LINK to the on demand version of the eSeminar.

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Next Generation Surface Unveiled at CES 2011

Yesterday, we lifted the covers off the next generation Microsoft Surface – or Surface 2.0 – at CES. Surface 2.0 represents an incredible collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung on the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface.

In the Microsoft CES Keynote last night, Mike Angiulo (Corporate Vice President for the Windows PC and Ecosystem Team) called the new version of Surface an example of “really extreme integration on Windows 7”. Gone is the “big box” Surface unit. Instead, there is a 4-inch thick 40-inch HD LCD screen (the Samsung SUR40) that can be used not only as a table but also as a kiosk mounted to the wall. The top is the biggest piece of gorilla glass that has been bonded to a LCD screen. Behind the LCD screen is a brand new technology we invented called PixelSense where infrared sensors are placed all across the screen where every single pixel acts like a camera. On the inside is a full blown Windows 7 PC powered by an AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core 2.9GHz embedded processor and a AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series GPU which supports DirectX 11. I really suggest watching Mike’s demo in the keynote to see all this awesome technology working. You can watch the keynote on demand on Microsoft’s Facebook page (click on CES 2011 tab).

For more information on the new Microsoft Surface including availability and pricing, click here for the press release on Microsoft News Center.

You can also check out Surface.com – which just received a face-lift.

I also recommend reading Steve Clayton’s blog post on the Next at Microsoft Blog and you can check out Eric Havir’s post on the Surface Blog with a video demo of the new Surface in action (I still recommend watching the Microsoft CES keynote from last night though!).

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