Classroom
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Schools in Singapore issuing iPads to teachers and students
Reuters is reporting that, at an initial cost of S$135,000 (about US$100,000), a pilot program handing out iPads to 140 students and 10 teachers at Nanyang Girls High School, Tampines Secondary School, Nanhua Primary School and Dunman Secondary School in Singapore aims to replace textbooks and increase interactivity in the classroom. Students can connect to the internet, download books and notes, share workbooks and access course materials all from their iPads. In talking to Reuters, 14-year-old student Chloe Chen said, "It's much more convenient. Teachers can just tell us to go a website, and we can immediately go and do our work." While the iPad has been used to help feed the hungry and by doctors in surgery, the education world seems to be where it is destined to have the biggest impact. So far, we have seen examples of colleges in the US handing out iPads to students and of textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt testing a full year Algebra course app, so one can imagine just how many places tablet computers will show up once they become even more popular than they already are. I have heard from two teacher friends that they would love to have an iPad in their classroom, saying that it would help them stay up-to-date and organized, but neither one of them said they would want the students to have them because it would just be a distraction. However, if for no other reason, iPads in the classroom would help them facilitate paperless courses for students, and that alone could save them a lot of headaches. [via MacStories and 9to5 Mac]
Austin Independent School District makes deal to buy more video games for classrooms
We've seen educational video games show up in the classroom before, and it looks like one school district is coming back for more. The Austin Independent School District has ordered up another set of edu-games from a company called Tabula Digita that provides 3D, first-person action-based games to teach students how to do basic math and algebra. One sample scenario in the games has students calculating the location of an in-game weather station on a graph, and then using the data found there to make charts and track down alien creatures. The press release doesn't mention costs, but according to its website, 15 single-user licenses to the games cost the school $1049.25 each, making up a cost of just over $24,000 for the entire 350 student program. The students, who were part of a 10-day JumpStart program and had previously failed a math retest, were allowed to play the games for 30 minutes a day, and, afterwards, 82% of the kids said they had improved their understanding of the concepts. No word on how their k/d ratio came out.
15 Minutes of Fame: Learn to game, to game to learn
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes - from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Fun is a great motivator for learning – but you knew that, didn't you, World of Warcraft player? Think of all the math you've used poring over DPS charts and gear stats, all the reading you've done deciphering terse quest instructions ... the research you've put in to decode what you need to know and then where to find it ... the tactical analyses you've ground out figuring out how to get that last boss to fall ... Peggy Sheehy and Lucas Gillispie came to our attention in the comments of a previous 15 Minutes of Fame about a player who teaches a college course inside the World of Warcraft. "My middle school will be starting with an after-school club (always the gateway)," wrote Peggy, "but others joining us will be implementing it with the 'at-risk' student population, the 'gifted' student group, as well as mainstream classes for specific content-area projects." This is no upstart project; Peggy established the first middle school on the Teen Grid in Second Life three years ago, while Lucas has established an online wiki where educators all over the world can collaborate on a standard-aligned curriculum for using WoW in the schools.As Darkmaster Gandling would say, "School is in session!" 15 Minutes of Fame pulled up a chair to chat with Peggy and Lucas on using WoW as a platform for teaching.
California school district getting 1,000 Asus Eee PCs
Students in California's Fresno Unified school district have a little something to be excited about this week, as officials have just invested $650,000 in 1,000 Asus Eee PCs, set for classroom deployment over the next few weeks. The concept is to use the miniscule laptops alongside good, old-fashioned textbooks, with each student being given the chance to create a "digital portfolio" of essays, drawings, and whatever else they can get away with. The computers will remain in roughly 60 classrooms, and will be shared by students -- but some worry they'll hinder the learning process by distracting pupils. Says Stephen Lewis, a geology professor at California State University, Fresno, "Teaching and learning is a person-to-person business. Are we moving toward a remote-control classroom?" We're not sure what he means by that... then again, we drifted off half-way through his statement to watch a video of that dog on a skateboard.
Whiteboard projectors are / aren't dangerous: UK schools edition
Don't look now (for serious, we really mean it), but yet another health scare is taking those in England by storm, and this time whiteboard projectors are to blame for inducing panic in the hearts of mums and dads everywhere. The quarter-million academic projectors that have been installed all across the UK are now the focal point of an ongoing study, which suggests that a "viewer's peripheral retina could be overexposed even when they are not actually staring directly into the beam." Protesters are suggesting that the brightness be toned down to no more than 1,500 lumens, and a number of sensitive teachers and students alike have reported "dazzle effects" after looking at the board for an extended period of time. We could wonder if anyone actually expects the school systems to revert back to chalk in order to get things done, but more interestingly, who's up for swapping their PJ out for an RPTV (you know, before your retinas dissolve)?[Via The Register]
Modular AudioGear system allows teachers to tone it down
While your offspring may be too busy attempting to snap a blur-free image of his / her instructor to actually listen to the lecture, those dedicated few who actually show up to learn may appreciate what AudioGear provides. Crafted by Logical Choice, this modular audio system is designed to allow every student, regardless of proximity to the teacher, hear his / her voice loud and clear. The system places a number of speakers around the room and equips the moderator with a wireless lapel microphone in order to broadcast their voice evenly without resorting to the tried and true screaming approach. Moreover, school's can "upgrade" their purchase in the future without replacing the core hardware in order to acquire a "voice enhancement system with infrared microphones for the teacher and students." Initial response in a number of Florida schools has been fairly positive thus far, but this thing sure would bum out the habitual nappers in the back row, for sure.
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.
Kids schooled in Second Life
Kids these days with their online avatars ... Why, when we went to school, we we had to put on clothing and shuffle off to a real classroom. Today's kids are apparently taking classes within Second Life, phoning netting it in from their rooms.CNN says that more than 60 colleges and other educational institutions hold classes inside Second Life. The article also describes a real sense of community between remote students in the virtual world, almost as if they were sharing an actual classroom.This might make us sound old, but we don't quite believe that the quality of the virtual meeting space can approach the real world. But we old-school curmudgeons have never taken a class within Second Life and might be underestimating its power; maybe we'll be telling our grandkids what a real-world school-bell sounded like.
