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An '80s-era Amiga controls the heating for an entire school district
Think the Windows XP workstation you use at the office is ancient? It doesn't hold a candle next to what the Grand Rapids Public School district is using to control its climate systems. All 19 schools covered by the authority depend on a nearly 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 to automate their air conditioning and heating. It communicates to the other schools using a pokey 1,200 baud modem and a wireless radio so behind the times that it occasionally interferes with maintenance workers' walkie talkies. Oh, and a high school student wrote the necessary code -- if something goes wrong, the district has to contact the now middle-aged programmer and hope that he can fix it. It's a testament to the dependability of the Amiga in question, but you probably wouldn't want to trust the well-being of thousands of students to a computer that's probably older than some of the teachers.
Apple is making it easier for schools to put iPads in classrooms
Apple's dreams of putting iPads in classrooms have run into a number of roadblocks, but one of the biggest is simply the amount of work involved -- each slate needs its own account, making it a nightmare if you want to outfit an entire school. That won't be a problem for much longer, however. Both MacRumors and 9to5Mac have discovered that Apple is ditching the requirement for individual IDs on school-supplied iPads as of this fall. Staff will just have to decide which devices get apps or books, letting teachers focus on the actual education instead of getting things running. They'll still have plenty of control, so kids can't load up on games and other distractions unless they get the green light. It's too soon to know if this will lead to more kids taking home tablets instead of textbooks, but there will at least be fewer barriers to making that happen. [Image credit: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images]
Los Angeles schools won't be giving students their own devices
Los Angeles' one-time dream of giving every student an iPad (or any device, for that matter) just got dashed. The city's school district superintendent, Ramon Cortines, tells the press that he doesn't believe LA "can afford" gadgets for each student. Instead, schools will fall back on a more conservative model that doles out hardware when kids need it for lessons and tests. The move is unfortunate if you like the idea of young learners having their own laptops and tablets, but there's no question that reviving earlier plans would have been daunting. The iPad effort was going to be expensive ($1.3 billion, at last count), and it ran into problems with misuse almost as soon as it began. Cortines suggests that the initiative reduced education to a "gimmick of the year" -- to him, device programs have to be sustainable. [Image credit: AP Photo/Michael Conroy]
MIT's light-up robot garden teaches you how to code
If you're teaching kids how to code, what do you do to show that software makes an impact in the real world? MIT has a clever idea: a robot garden. The project lets you control a grid of Arduino-linked "plants" through programming that makes them blossom and light up in pretty (and occasionally mesmerizing) ways. It'll even teach the virtues of distributed computing -- you can tell these leafy robots to bloom or change color in algorithm-driven sequences. The garden is just a demo for now, but it'll eventually turn into an easy-to-replicate curriculum for students who'd otherwise have to settle for seeing their results on-screen. [Image credit: Jason Dorfman, CSAIL]
New York City schools are getting free access to Office 365
Now's a pretty good time to be a New York City schoolkid. Microsoft has announced that all of the city's public school students (and their teachers) are getting free Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions -- if you qualify, you'll have five desktop and five mobile licenses as long as you're part of the local educational system. Ostensibly, the goal is to make sure that kids won't be "confined to the classroom" and can finish that big book report on any computer.
Schools ban watches from exams to keep cheating off wrists
If you think your school is overly cautious when it makes you ditch your phone before a big test, you haven't seen anything yet. BuzzFeed News has learned that multiple universities have issued blanket bans on all watches during exams in case students are wearing smartwatches they could use to cheat. According to London's City University, it "wouldn't be practical" to have proctors checking every watch to make sure it's analog -- it's easier to make you write with bare arms. The move is unfortunate if you're used to glancing at your watch to gauge your progress, but it does make sense given how easy it is to get memos, text messages and other unfair advantages on your wrist. Whether or not you think smartwatch cheating represents a major problem, it's probably a good idea to leave that Pebble or ZenWatch at home during your mid-terms.
Amazon's first staffed pickup spot lets students get textbooks quickly
Sure, Amazon has unmanned delivery lockers to save you the trouble of waiting for a courier, but that human touch could come in handy sometimes. What if you need help with a return, for instance? That's where Amazon's first-ever staffed pickup location, Amazon@Purdue, promises to come to the rescue. The location lets university students and faculty both pick up their online orders and drop off returns (including textbook rentals) in a helpful, trustworthy place -- you shouldn't have to worry about someone swiping your new laptop while you're in class. It's potentially faster, too, as some products qualify for free one-day shipping to the Purdue facility.
TI's super-slim graphing calculator shows that math can be stylish
Who said that graphing calculators were dead in the smartphone era? Certainly not Texas Instruments -- if anything, it's showing that there's still plenty of life left in dedicated math machines. Its new TI-84 Plus CE is 30 percent thinner and 30 percent lighter than the regular Plus, making for a surprisingly sleek-looking way to crunch numbers. It has six times the memory, too, so you can store more color graphs and images (and, let's be honest, a fresh copy of Drugwars for goofing off mid-class). TI hasn't divulged pricing for the Plus CE, although its new design and advanced feature set hint that it'll be relatively costly when it arrives in the spring. Look at it this way, though: you might just be the envy of your fellow students when you take this svelte plotter out of your backpack.
Forget detention: Illinois students might have to forfeit their Facebook passwords
A law that went into effect at the start of 2015 will allow Illinois school districts to demand the social media passwords for students that break the rules or are suspected of cyberbullying. Motherboard received a copy of the letter sent to parents, which details the law: "If your child has an account on a social networking website, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, ask.fm, etc., please be aware that State law requires school authorities to notify you that your child may be asked to provide his or her password for these accounts to school officials in certain circumstances." However, the law doesn't explicitly state that officials are allowed to demand the passwords: rather, that schools must have a "process to investigate whether a reported act of bullying is within the permissible scope of the district's or school's jurisdiction."
Acer's latest Chromebooks are built to survive the classroom
Chromebooks are a big deal for schools because they're cheap and relatively easy to lock down. However, not just any Chromebook will do -- ideally, you want a laptop that can survive bumps and drops from less-than-careful students. Acer thinks it can handle that unforgiving audience, so it's launching two educational Chromebooks built to take pupil-inflicted punishment, the 15.6-inch C910 (shown up top) and 11.6-inch C740 (below). Both have shells that withstand up to 132 pounds of force, corners that handle falls from up to 18 inches high, and reinforced hinges that won't easily snap. The C740 even gets specially extended hinges to make sure it won't flop or twist in high-stress situations, such as a kid's backpack.
Teachers in diverse areas are learning how to promote programming
If you want a wider range of kids learning how to code, it's not enough to encourage the students; you have to train the teachers, too. Accordingly, Code.org is launching a training campaign to help teachers promote programming in 60 high-diversity public school districts. The goal is to expose pupils from different cultural backgrounds to coding and make them comfortable with pursuing an education in computer science. It'll take years before it's clear how well the initiative works, but it won't be surprising if tech companies eventually have an easier time recruiting candidates from minorities that typically go underrepresented. [Image credit: Kevin Jarrett, Flickr]
New York City lifts its blanket ban on cellphones in schools
New York City kids may be reluctantly heading back to school this week, but they just got some (mostly) good news. As promised during Mayor Bill de Blasio's election campaign, the city's Department of Education is lifting its outright ban on cellphones in schools. The New York Times understands that principals (with help from parents and teachers) will decide just when and where students can break out their phones. By default, kids will be allowed to keep their phones around so long as they're hidden. If schools want, though, they can require that young learners drop cellphones off in a designated place. They can also give permission to use phones at certain places and times, such as outside during lunch breaks.
FCC approves $1.5 billion funding increase to upgrade school broadband
Schools depending on the FCC's E-Rate program to update their internet infrastructures are about to get a little more help: the Federal Communications Commission just gave the program an additional $1.5 billion in funding. The decision was hotly contested -- with Republican commissioners arguing the cost was simply too high -- but the decision eventually split down party lines, passing with a 3/2 Democrat majority. It's a major win for schools and libraries counting on E-Rate discounts, as the program's $2.25 billion budget hasn't seen an increase since 1997 (and a slight inflation adjustment in 2010).
iRobot's newest machine is made for student hackers
Many educational robots tend to be complex and expensive, or simple and cheap. Where's the middle ground for students who want to build sophisticated things, but don't want to pay a fortune just to get started? iRobot thinks it can reach that happy balance with its new Create 2 robot. It's effectively a Roomba 600 series vacuum turned into a hacker's paradise. Instead of the usual cleaning equipment, you'll find easily accessible, clearly marked spaces that practically beg for add-on hardware (like cameras and arms) and cosmetic modifications. It's the foundation for a robotics project rather than a fully accessorized (and therefore costly) machine, as CEO Colin Angle tells us. You will get many of the tools you need to get cracking, though, including a programming framework, example instructions and 3D printing files for extra parts. So long as you can write code and plug in through USB, you can turn the robot into a Bluetooth-controlled DJ, a miniature security guard or whatever else your budget and skills allow.
Ohio college is building a drone arena for its students
It only makes sense that schools teach the next generation how to design and fly unmanned aircraft. However, you can't just set a legion of drones loose on campus -- not so long as FAA regulations prevent it, anyway. Ohio's Sinclair Community College has come up with a clever workaround for this problem. It's building a 40-foot tall drone arena that will let students in its aviation programs fly drones away from airports (where the programs currently have to operate) without worrying about licenses or nasty weather. Pupils will have to wait until the facility is ready in early 2016 to commandeer UAVs indoors, but it could give them a leg up in an aviation industry where pilots are increasingly optional. [Image credit: Billie Ward, Flickr]
US government wants $1.5 billion more per year to get schools online
The FCC isn't depending solely on help from tech companies to get more libraries and schools connected to the internet. According to the New York Times, agency chairman Tom Wheeler will propose that the FCC should have up to $1.5 billion more to spend per year on internet access for education, giving it an annual budget of $3.9 billion. That's a hefty 62 percent increase, but officials reportedly believe that the upgrade is necessary given that many schools don't have data fast enough for modern learning. Over 40 million students don't have quick broadband, and existing offerings sometimes can't cope with the sheer demand from kids.
Harvard used cameras to track attendance without telling students
You've probably had professors that got on your case for missing class, but they don't hold a candle to what Harvard University's faculty tried this past spring. The institution conducted an experiment that used surveillance cameras to track attendance, snapping photos that a computer analyzed to determine the number of empty seats in a given lecture hall. While the system couldn't identify individual students, the school didn't tell the 2,000 people involved that they were under watch -- they had no way to object to the test.
Google gives students unlimited cloud storage
Google's invasion of our classrooms (and its war on paper) continues unabated. Back in August in the search giant released an online education tool for teachers who wanted to digitally manage their classes, and now it's launched an improved version of Google Drive that's free for folks toiling away in academia. The company's new Drive for Education is basically the same thing as its enterprise-based Drive for Work, which means you're looking at unlimited storage space (albeit with a 5TB file size limit) and access to Google Vault for message archiving.
Google lets college students borrow a Chromebook
If you brought a big, conventional laptop with you to college, you're probably regretting it right about now. It's not fun to lug a heavy machine and your textbooks around campus. You may have an easy way to try out something a little kinder to your back, though. Google has unveiled the Chromebook Lending Library, a demo program that lets students borrow a featherweight Chrome OS machine for a few days. So long as Google is on the school grounds, the system is yours; you can take notes in class or just catch up on Netflix in your dorm room. The Library arrives at both Syracuse at Walnut Park and Texas State University next week, and it'll swing by other institutions in the weeks ahead. The big catch? You can't actually buy a Chromebook from the Library if you're enamored with the experience -- you'll likely have to venture into town to pick one up.
Los Angeles doesn't want $500 million worth of iPads after all
A US$1 billion plan to give every student in the Los Angeles Unified School District an iPad, while beefing up the district's internet capabilities and other infrastructure, is now dead, according to the L.A. Times. The deal would have started with a $30 million purchase of tablets from Apple, which would have grown to roughly $500 million worth of iPads as the program expanded. The reason for the change is twofold: First, the district found that the iPads weren't ideal for the purposes for which they were being implemented, noting issues with both the screen size and some third-party keyboards that didn't work as intended. Second, and perhaps most damning, was a disclosure by L.A. Unified's Superintendent John Deasy that revealed an uncomfortably close relationship between Deasy, his staff, and the companies that would have benefited the most from the deal -- Apple, of course, and Pearson, who was to provide educational content on the devices. Deasy has denied than any favoritism took place. As far as the school district's technology plans, Deasy says the plan to equip every student with "a personal computing device" is still in the works, though the specifics have not yet been hashed out. [Photo credit: Flickingerbrad]
