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Reading Rainbow roaring back with RRKidz iPad app, 'disruptive' ebook technology in tow
LeVar Burton may best be known 'round these parts for his role in Star Trek, but he'll soon be known as the guy who made childhood reading relevant again. It wasn't that long ago that today's up-and-coming adults were soaking up all sorts of useful knowledge during their summers, glued to a PBS station and doing their darndest to climb inside of mum's CRT television. And now, their kids will be doing likewise -- but with an iPad. Burton has plans to produce an educational RRKidz iOS app that enables readers to "explore topics of interest in a multimedia-rich environment, with voice-over-enhanced children's books, familiar videos of Burton at real-life places, and games." In order to do so, he's planning a "disruptive" technology that'll bolster a conventional PDF book with basic animations, voice-overs and games "in a matter of hours." There's no specific time table on a release, but we're guessing Burton's moving along as usual pace: Mach 5.
Dublin City University adopts Chromebooks -- time to go streaking through the quad!
Instead of handing out cheap mugs (or iPads... or iPods) and sending students on their merry way, administrators at Dublin City University will be showering incoming freshmen with free Chromebooks -- in doing so, it'll become the first European higher-education institution to adopt the device. As you probably recall, Google's always-connected laptops have gone through various incarnations throughout the years, but they've always included a dash of WiFi or 3G and a pinch of hasty boot -- intentionally ditching local storage for the cloud. The Google Chromebooks for Education partnership is said to support DCU's commitment to make 80 percent of its classes partially or fully online by 2013, allowing coeds to stay in their Scooby Doo pajamas or attend class from Pi Kappa Delta HQ. Now, if only the dining hall supported online ordering...
Best Buy / NAB to host DTV transition workshops for the uninformed
Best Buy has been pushing out "surveys" asserting that the vast majority of America still isn't prepared for the looming 2009 digital TV transition for months now, but at long last the retailer is stepping up to do something about it. Similar to Circuit City's initiative earlier this year, Best Buy is teaming up with NAB to host in-store DTV workshops in the 25 largest cities across the nation. The festivities will begin on the morning of November 17th in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and a smattering of others, and of course, you can count on store employees coaxing you into buying a DTV converter box right then and there. Ah well, whatever it takes to get you prepared. Like an Eagle Scout.
Kaplan to train you for the SATs through your DS
For those of you looking to bone up on your college-level analogies, Kaplan, Inc. has teamed with Aspyr Media to bring you a SAT prep title for the DS. The project is still early in development, so there is no name or screens yet. Sadly, that's about all we have to go on right now.We must say, the decision to bring such an application to the DS shows (to us, at least) the kind of smarts that would score well on the SATs. [Via Joystiq]
Circuit City steps up to educate customers about DTV cutover
It'd be too easy to just mark off Best Buy's earlier announcement regarding its decision to no longer sell analog TVs as a simple coincidence, but whatever the case, Circuit City is hitting back to let the whole world know that it cares, too. Aside from confirming that it plans on participating in the NTIA Converter Box Coupon Program, it also announced that it would be "incorporating DTV transition reminders and messages into the closed circuit videos that run on its TVs," include cutover advisory information in its advertising supplements, install store signage to inform customers of the impending change and train employees to be well-versed on the whole matter. Stay sharp, though, we can just hear the PSAs turning into sales pitches now.
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.
