I don't really understand all about this project out of MIT but want to learn more about it. Thi s is what they say on their site:
"ikuli is a visual technology to search and automate graphical user interfaces (GUI) using images (screenshots). The first release of Sikuli contains Sikuli Script, a visual scripting API for Jython, and Sikuli IDE, an integrated development environment for writing visual scripts with screenshots easily. Sikuli Script automates anything you see on the screen without internal API's support. You can programmatically control a web page, a desktop application running on Windows/Linux/Mac OS X, or even an iphone application running in an emulator. "
If we want students to become citizens who understand their role as a citizen then we need to teach them to understand and respect the power of questions.
Without the freedom and courage to ask that paradigm shifting question then progress and innovation would cease to exist and we would become slaves to our past and out-dated solutions.
The power of just one word can totally change the meaning of something as intrinsic as national identity.
The more students have an opportunity to read, speak and write the more they are going to understand the power of words.
The moment students craft words meant not just for the teacher and a few other peers, but for the wider world, is the moment students learn that a misplaced, mispronounced, or misspelled word has consequences far beyond a grade. These authentic learning opportunities are crucial to prepare students for the new realities of a more global and transparent world.
Students (and teachers) need to understand that everything they do communicates, whether they know what they are communicating or not.
Once students really figure out who they are and what they stand for then they can more comfortably be themselves. However, an important social skill that many students have difficulty grasping is knowing appropriate social norms in various settings.
Anyone can be a teacher... if you are alert and willing to learn from others. We need to teach students to be alert and willing to learn from sources other than textbooks. We need to teach students how to create and cultivate learning from a personal learning network, in order to extend the traditional capabilities of school from the limited hours of the school day to the unlimited hours beyond the school day. The informal classroom of life offers lessons far more valuable than the classroom if only we are open to learning from each other each and every day.
Today’s learning is interactive and without walls. Individuals learn anywhere, anytime, and with greater ease than ever before. Learning today blurs lines of expertise and tears down barriers to admission. While it has never been confined solely to the academy, today’s opportunities for independent learning have never been easier nor more diverse.
with participatory learning and digital media, these conventional modes of authority break down.
They create their own paths to understanding.
learning to judge reliable information.
finding reliable sources.
learning how.
collective pedagogy
fostering and managing levels of trust.
collective checking, inquisitive skepticism, and group assessment.
growing complexities of collaborative and interdisciplinary learning
Networked learning
in contrast, is committed to
cooperation, interactivity, mutual benefit, and social engagement
The power of ten working interactively will invariably outstrip the power of one looking to beat out the other nine.
contrastingly, is an “open source” culture that seeks to share openly and freely in both creating and distributing knowledge and products.
Networking through file-sharing, data sharing, and seamless, instant communication is now possible.
Learning never ends. How we know has changed radically.
new institutions must begin to think of themselves as mobilizing networks.
mobilize flexibility, interactivity, and outcomes. Issues of consideration in these institutions are ones of reliability and predictability alongside flexibility and innovation.
Students may work in small groups on a specific topic or together in an open-ended and open-sourced contribution.
These ten principles, the authors argue, are the first steps in redesigning learning institutions to fit the new digital world.
This is the talk given at TED by Richard Baraniuk on Connexions, an open-source system for free educational content and his belief that this type of innovation will replace textbooks (YAY!). It's the first link on the list; I didn't save the link itself because it opens on a media player and that's really annoying. Click and enjoy! (PS If you've been living as a hostage on the moon for the last couple of years and haven't heard of TED give it a look/listen - it rocks).
A fun discussion topic with technology students, this blog post about futuristic inventions in wearable tech includes buttons that are really mp3 players, a dress with room for a sim card that makes it funciton as a mobile phone when you lift your wrist, and the one I want -- the Massage Me Massage Video game - that makes a game out of having someone massage your back! (Oh yeah!)
This would be a great area to review and then have students invent their own.
Fascinating Evolution of Classroom Technology over at Edudemic (hat tip Stephen Downes.) Look at how many of these technologies are still here in some forms. All I can think as I read about halfway down is the ah so lovely smell of that mimeograph paper!`