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working hard trying to meet deadline on an upcoming article about touchscreen technology in schools for the November issue. Keep an eye out for it, and I will make up for this by posting three blogs a day for the next two weeks. Promise. Okay not really. Be patient.
If you haven't noticed, laptops are getting smaller and lighter as they get more powerful and feature-laden. This week, Sony announced the launch of its new Vaio TT Series, a great example of the trend, "the world's lightest Blu-ray Disc notebook," according to Sony. This little beauty uses a carbon fiber chassis, has a 11.1 inch screen, weighs 2.87 pounds and is less than an inch thick. An Intel Centrino 2 processor, 256GB solid state hard drive and up to 4GB of RAM are also crammed into that tight space like clowns in a clown car. Admittedly a little small to watch Blu-ray disc high def movies on, except maybe on the flight to your next conference. But of course, an HDMI port hooks you up to an HD monitor for the ultimate viewing experience. Lots of other specs and optional features are at the link. Not really a one-to-one option, but if you're in the market for a portable-yet-powerful laptop PC for yourself or staff members, this model ain't cheap (starts at $2,000) but it's a pretty compelling choice.
For all you LEGO Mindstorms fans out there..... LEGO Education has just announced they are bringing back their Pneumatics Set, discontinued a few years ago, as an add-on for their Motorized Mechanisms Set. LEGO claims the Pneumatics set "enables students to explore power systems, sequence and control, pressure, kinetic and potential energy, prototyping, and more through the use of compressed air." The 31-piece set and corresponding activity pack software includes video clips and features 14 principle model activities that introduce students to the basics of pneumatics, along with 4 main models and activities and two open-ended problem solving activities. The set goes for $55 and begins shipping in October '08, but you can pre-order right now.
We're going to be running a feature article about touchscreen technology in an upcoming issue of DA... so I've been keeping an eye out for any mention of it lately. There's a lot out there. For example, just the other day in the UK, researchers at Durham University unveiled a demonstration of the interactive classroom of the future they've been working on, which uses multi-touch interactive "smart desks." The university's development initiative, called SynergyNet, is itself a collaboration with manufacturers, with a goal of encouraging, you guessed it, more collaboration in the classroom, through new technology. Lead researcher Dr. Liz Burd says "The new desk can be both a screen and a keyboard, it can act like a multi-touch whiteboard and several students can use it at once." Pretty fascinating. Just when you thought everything tech was getting smaller.... it's like a huge version of the iPhone. Keep an eye out for future giant MP3 players you have to wear as a backpack.
A new report by IT market research firm Compass Intelligence released a few hours ago (as reported on UK site EarthTimes) finds that U.S. K12 and higher education will spend $47.7 billion on information technology this year, and will spend $56.2 billion every year by 2012. That kind of growth is probably unsurprising to most, given the rate at which schools are integrating technology into nearly every aspect of their students' education. What I find interesting is the specific functionality the report says will drive the growth: collaboration.
"The fact is, most schools are wired with broadband connectivity, yet have utilized broadband primarily for communications and information gathering. Collaboration is seen as the next phase in utilizing existing broadband technology to share, teach, and expand student reach."
The report cites applications such as "distance learning, multi-campus lectures, laboratory and experiment collaboration, and international research collaboration" as just a few practical examples. Of course we're already seeing this "next phase" in a variety of online tools, in everything from curriculum to professional development, to student research and social networking.
An important trend to keep in mind in your long-term technology plans. How will your district technology foster collaboration?
The Smithsonian Institution has come under fire in recent years, having actually reached the point of being called a bloated bureaucracy and accused of sloppy governance by Congress (oh, the irony!!). The legendary museum organization had certainly grown to a massive scale over its 162 years of existence, to include 19 museums and galleries, 9 research centers, a zoo, and a $1 billion operating budget funded largely (70%) by tax dollars. But what really got the attention of, well, everyone, was the just slightly controversial, lavish spending of its ironically named director (until this year) Lawrence Small: a salary just shy of $1 million, chartered private jets, a luxury townhouse and chauffeur service paid for by the Institution, not to mention the fact that he served on three corporate boards at the same time, which paid him a total of $5.7 million from 2000-2006.
So the new director, G. Wayne Clough, was brought in in July to clean house, streamline operations, and better connect with the public, including K12 students.
And so, in some of his first efforts to make the museum more relevant to the current generation, he's bringing in "video gaming experts and Web gurus," and the Institution will begin digitizing the 137 million scientific, artistic, and historical artifacts from the collection. This is still a very preliminary announcement, as they have no idea how much time or how much funding this will take, but Clough's intention is to make a digital online destination for schools to access, offering a virtual field trip opportunity that most schools could never before imagine.
It's of course a brilliant concept, one wonders why this wasn't a priority before. And like many new tech innovations, it raises questions as well. Is a virtual field trip to a Second Life-like museum environment beneficial? Less beneficial than a real museum tour? Or could it be better than in person? Say the virtual museum will have every artifact linked to video content, textbooks, lectures, and other resources, or offer the chance to examine a perfect copy of an artifact too precious to be displayed in public.... then perhaps the virtual museum could be better than seeing it in person? Would that be an authentic experience? Will we have to be "virtually" quiet and have our bags and purses virtually searched at the door? Is virtual flash photography allowed? Hmm. I guess we'll have to wait and see what it's like.
This report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has made headlines upon its release today, picked up by the AP and reprinted all over the place, and is the lead story at CNNTech. Among the conclusions of the survey of over 1,000 12-17 year olds: 97% play some sort of video game regularly. 86% play on a console like the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii or Sony Playstation. 50% played "yesterday" when asked by the survey. The report also concluded that "Game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others
at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and
political life."
Pretty amazing numbers, and should be a wake up call to those who still think (you know who you are!) video games are only played by: nerds, boys, the middle class, white suburbanites, social outcasts, loners, academic underachievers, the unathletic, yada yada. Video gaming is now as pervasive as TV watching among teens, and I think we will certainly continue to see more and more educational content and applications appearing as a result. The opportunity to engage game playing students in new ways is immense, and I think it's well past the time we embraced the potential.
Professional development company Teachscape has just launched a "Module of the Month" program (click on Product Information and fill out the form in the right margin), where anyone can subscribe and gain access to the course from the company's XL program made available for free each month. Each module uses video and other content addressing various topics, such as the upcoming English Language Development at High School (November), or Book Review: Speech to Print/Book Review: Overcoming Dyslexia (December). Subscribers receive an email announcement at the beginning of each month and a link to access it.
This seems like a great opportunity to: 1) try out Teachscape, if you're considering it, and 2) even if you aren't, get some development tools for free that districts usually pay for. You could subscribe, see what the topic is each month, and forward it to an educator or department head in your district that you think could really use it. Just be polite about it.
Visual presenter manufacturer AverMedia unveiled this bad boy, the SPB350, at InfoComm and NECC, but it was released on the market just recently. Visual presenters like this can be used in all kinds of ways, and like every other imaging technology, the resolution and image quality just keep getting better. The SPB350's camera is now a leading 5 megapixels, and provides a full HD 1080p output, has a 20X optical zoom, interactive software, network sharing ability, and a 4"X3" lightbox. Hook it up to a projector, HD TV or monitor and show documents, objects, dissections, District Administration magazine, all kinds of stuff in true HD for the whole class, auditorium, school, district, school board, practically anyone to see. Just a little better than making transparencies for an overhead projector, or having kids crowd around a model or illustration, or passing around an artifact or anything valuable. The MSRP is $2,499, but I've already seen it online for a great deal less, in the $1,500 range.
SAT prep services get into video games
By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer
Aspyr Media Inc.'s "futureU" PC game, designed with Kaplan Inc. to help students study for the SATs using simple math, reading and writing games, is now selling for $40. A portable version for the handheld Nintendo DS is expected to be available in mid-October for $30 and a downloadable version is also in the works.
Princeton Review Inc. is also collaborating on a test-prep game, with France's Ubisoft Entertainment SA. Called "My SAT Coach" and available for the Nintendo DS, it is due to go on sale this month for $30. It includes timed drills and more than 2,000 practice questions, as well as two full tests.
While there have been many computer-based learning and drill programs to prepare for standardized tests, this is the first time the test-prep giants are delving into video games for systems like the DS.
Both Kaplan and Princeton Review say the games are just one aspect of the plethora of test-prep materials and courses they provide. But as video games, along with social networking sites like Facebook, become a larger part of students' lives, it "makes sense to take our curriculum and deliver it in a fun way," said Kristen Campbell, director of Kaplan's college prep programs.
"FutureU" lets players customize a stick figure-like character with some very basic attributes, then jump into games like "Glyphs," a vocabulary booster that splits complex words into their roots to help people figure out their meaning. For example, the correct answer for "symbiosis" is "together" and "life." After a player clicks on both words correctly, the game will give a definition ("two associated but dissimilar organisms") and pick out the root words ("sym" and "bio").
"FutureU" also includes games based on test-taking skills, such as eliminating obviously wrong answers and skipping questions that are too difficult. Unlike the SATs, there are no time limits in "futureU." "My SAT Coach," however, is timed.
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