Technology Training For The Automotive Service Industry
His is yet another iPad stuck in a car. It is not embedded in the dash and you can actually swivel the iPad from portrait to landscape mode. This installation also has the iPad reporting OBD-II data sent to it via a blue tooth OBDII transmitter plugged into the data link connector.
Around 1880 John Venn, a British logician and philosopher, developed a simple graphical way to represent relationships between two or more groups. Today this technique is known as the Venn diagram. A Venn diagram would represent two groups as two circles that overlap. The area where the two circles overlap represents a group that shares a relationship with both groups.
While a Venn diagram does a great job of explaining the relationship of statistical groups, it also does a great job of explaining my life.
For most of my life, at least my adult life, I have been passionate about cars and computers. That is my world. So as the Venn diagram above depicts, most of my life revolves around the implementation of computers in the automotive service industry. There are plenty of people that know more about cars than I do. There are also plenty of people that know more about computers than I do. But I don’t think there are many that know as much about both topics as I do.
Cars
I was one of those kids that would take his toys apart just to see how they worked. I didn’t tear toys up. I took them apart, put them back together, and they worked. I could build a small block Chevy engine before I had my driver’s license and I was probably the only 14-year old kid that knew the significance to “1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.” While I almost went to college to study mechanical engineering, I just liked cars too much. So I have made a living in the automotive service industry my entire life.
Computers
As soon as the first personal computers hit the streets, I was fascinated by them. I had to have one. I paid about $2000 for my first personal computer, an Apple IIe. This computer wasn’t even equipped with a hard drive and you had to insert a disc just to run an application program. I set up spreadsheets to handle payroll at my shop and used it to track inventory. From that first computer until today, I still work hard to understand new and emerging digital technologies.
While tonight was the first time I drew out a graphical representation of my life, I have subconsciously and instinctively applied this filter to about everything I do. A good example is this website. I work hard to keep on focus so that the site does not cover random automotive information or random digital information. I try to keep it in the context of digital technology within the automotive service industry.
When I started writing this post I though of my life’s Venn diagram as a two group diagram. In the process of writing and thinking about this topic I realized that in the last 10 years I have added another passion, education. So, I had to go back to Photoshop and make another graphic. I had to add a third circle.
My passion for education and particularly instructional design for online classes is coming on strong and deserves to be in my Venn diagram. This should be it. I plan on using my God-given talents in these three areas for the foreseeable future. My plan is to use the Digital Literacy Project as my medium to use these talents.
PS: After I posted this, I decided to add the 3-group Venn diagram to my blog’s sidebar. It looks pretty cool.
Well, it looks like the PowerPoint slide shown here might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for for the military. The author of the slide was attempting to show the interactions and complexity of the American military strategy in Afghanistan. Obviously PowerPoint was the wrong tool for this job. When General McChrystal saw the slide he remarked, “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.”
Based on a New York Times article posted April 26, 2010, the use of PowerPoint to deliver complicated presentations is embedded into the military culture. Junior officers spend so much time preparing PowerPoint presentations that they are often called PowerPoint Rangers.
Many military leaders are starting to push back on the concept of delivering complex military information PowerPoint-style. Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, actually banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005. McMaster was recently quoted saying “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control.”
Just like in the military, automotive educators need to be careful about trying to deliver complex automotive information via PowerPoint.
Click here, to view the full NY Times article.
Volkswagen will start a contest on May 3, 2010 to encourage designers, programmers, developers and interested users to help develop applications for their infotainment systems. This is the first case of an OEM opening up their development in this fashion. This project could take on the look of the iPhone/iPad platform where VW would provide the development platform and all the applications could be developed by outside the company
For full details read VW’s Official Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Apr 26, 2010Volkswagen Invites Users to Help Create the Infotainment Systems of the Future
Open Innovation Contest, “App My Ride”, begins on 3rd MayWolfsburg, Germany — April 26, 2010 — Volkswagen is inviting designers, programmers, developers and interested users to help develop applications for the Infotainment systems of the future as part of the Open Innovation Contest, “App My Ride”. With this contest, Volkswagen has become the first car manufacturer to use the idea of open innovation for the further development of its products.
In the so-called “App My Ride” competition, users can jointly develop new Infotainment applications with Volkswagen. A jury of experts will select the winner whose creativity will be rewarded with special prizes. “Our aim is to invite the international developer community to take part in designing a future system,” says Prof. Dr Jürgen Leohold, Head of the Volkswagen Group Research. So-called apps, also known as application programmes for certain devices which are available through an online shop, have helped to contribute to the smartphone boom. Applications designed by users (User Generated Content) are of central importance to the boom and are made available online by other users. Companies like Apple and Google successfully aid this nearly inexhaustible source of innovation.
“A quiet revolution is taking place right now,” explains Dr Johann Füller, CEO of the innovation agency partner to Volkswagen through the “App My Ride” competition, Hyve AG. “The customer-orientated culture of the internet places an enormous power in the hands of the users. Leading organisations are starting to harness this power to develop better solutions and increase their competitiveness.” Exactly what the “App My Ride” contest is targeting.
Currently a prototype for Volkswagen’s Infotainment system is being developed in which Flash applications designed by different creators can be accumulated. In order to research the potential of apps for the vehicle Infotainment system, Volkswagen is trying to produce the most varied collection of applications possible.
An “innovation community” open to all internet users will be created as of 3rd May 2010 for the competition under the following URL: app-my-ride.volkswagen.com. Here, participants in the competition can log in and either load programmed apps or send in their creative ideas for future ones. “The participants are supposed to imagine what the purpose of their ideal Infotainment system is and how it would work and now they have the opportunity to make it a reality. At the same time, you can analyse the existing apps on our platform and discuss their design, uses and purposes,” explains Dr Peter Oel, Head of “Control Designs and Drivers” of Volkswagen Group Research.
To develop an app, the participants must have the following:
- An idea for an app to be installed in a vehicle
- Graphic design of the user interface
- Programming in Adobe Flash / Flex
The purpose, design and logical construction of the app should be geared towards the possible requirements of drivers and other occupants.
The participant’s creativity will be rewarded at the end of the competition. The most innovative application will be chosen by the “App My Ride” community and a jury consisting of Volkswagen managers and external experts. Besides cash and non-cash prizes worth up to €14,000, a special prize for students will also be awarded. This involves a placement within Volkswagen Group Research in Tokyo, Shanghai, California or Wolfsburg. Moreover, the winner of the competition can also expect an exclusive trip to take part in an international vehicle presentation which covers the costs of the flight and hotel.
Wow, my first post in over a year. I am back :)
When you have a lot of information to push to a crowd, PowerPoint is not the tool for the job. Recently I had the opportunity to present at a local Web Technology Meetup Group in town. I was presenting on how to setup a membership-style website and I was going to be pushing a lot of data to them over the 90 minute presentation.
So, I went “old school” and made a handout. I planned on projecting the handout on the screen and plowing through the information as they followed along. I could jump over large blocks of “self explanatory” info if time ran short. As I started preparing the handout I kept thinking about:
So, I took an old school media and gave it a technology twist. I prepared the handout as a Google Document and then published it as a public web page. I printed 30 copies of the document to take to the meeting. I received a lot of compliments on the handout and the fact that I published it as a web page. In case the advantages of this are not obvious to you, let me reflect on how this worked out…
In Summary
This turned out even better than I thought it would. When I am in a forum and someone one asks a questions that I know I covered in the doc, I just give them a link to it and refer to the page with the answer. I have started getting questions about the subject from people around the world. Apparently writing a pretty good paper makes you an expert :) By placing my handout in the public web space, the conversation did not stop at the ennd of my 90 minute presentation. It lives on..,
This technique could be used in many educational environments. Most schools provide a LMS for content delivery, but this technique is so simple it is stupid. You could use it when you want the information to be available to those even outside the classroom. Each time you put a well written paper in the wild it also have a recruiting/marketing effect.
Now Available!