DistanceLearning
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Arkansas school to trial iPod, WiFi-equipped school bus
If you thought taking a ride on the GamerBUS was a thrill, this one will really make you long to be a youngster in Arkansas again. Reportedly, the Sheridan school district is launching the Aspirnaut Initiative to bring laptops, iPods, and wireless internet right onto Bus 46, and amazingly, they expect kids to actually glean knowledge rather than hit up a round or two of Counter-Strike. The project hopes to make the unbelievably long (three hours, to be exact) commute that some rural students face a bit less boring and a tad more educational, as students will have access to informational podcasts and web-based learning modules whilst cruising on home. Interestingly, the three-year pilot project will not give students class credit for their extra effort initially, but for brainiacs who stick with the program, they'll purportedly be keeping the goods for themselves once the trial run concludes.[Via ArsTechnica]
Education as portable as a pop song
Your next class may fit in your pocket, according to John Austin of the Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram. Distance learning is becoming "as portable as a pop song", a phrase I loved enough to use as the headline for this post. The article lists numerous success stories including one guy who works on an off-shore oil-rig, another who teaches cardiology and uses the iPod to help his students learn the distinctive sounds of heart murmurs, and distance learners who otherwise live their life on airplanes. Going virtual means adapting content. Amber Finn of Texas Christian University talks in the article about how she learned to shorten her lectures and mix up her presentations to make them work better as portable media. One thing the article points out, which is often missed in this kind of coverage, is the additional costs of spoken over printed media. Given the high price of in-class instruction, whether for evening or regular University classes, I'm guessing there may be a long term savings for students despite short term cost increases.
Emotion-tracking rings to assist in distance learning
Let's face it, not all of us will have the luxury of attending a school where we get to construct massive LEGO machines or learn how to become savvy in SMS, but a developing technology that tracks student emotions could help tutors and distance instructors alike in keeping kids focused while learning. Co-developed by Essex University's Vic Callaghan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Liping Shen, the emotion-tracking tutoring software can analyze physical signs to keep track of a student's attention span, their level of understanding, and even the amount of stress a certain lesson produces. Aimed to help tutors become more effective and to add another layer of "personal" to distance-based education courses, the software would receive information about a student's "heart rate, blood pressure and changes in electrical resistance caused by perspiration" via a sensor-laden, Bluetooth-enabled ring worn on one's finger. The information can then be assessed to determine a student's interest level and frustration level, but a decibel meter to measure snoring isn't likely to be included. If all goes as planned, the team intends on testing the system out in "real learning scenarios in China" to further tweak their creation, so it won't be too long now before an interest-tracking ring will become as necessary as pencil and paper a stylus and a tablet PC come class time.
