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Jaclyn Ruszala

1-to-1 Computing: Turning Around School Technology - 6 views

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    This article explains why the district chose laptops over tablet and how the community is helping to turn the schools around.
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    This is a very throrough article.If replaceing computers every 4 years and maintaining them is only 4% of the budget, I wonder what all the resistence is to schools maintaining computers. Is 4% still too much? Is 4% specific to this Alabama district? Also, I felt individualized instruction for foreign language would be the best way to transition a school towards networked individualized learning in a school environment. It's silly that everyone in elementary schools has to take the same language simply because there is only one foreign language teacher. Instead of a Spanish teacher you would need to hire multi-lingual specialists who are able to monitor langauge acquisition. Cool future!
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    "The teachers that were involved said that if every kid had their own computer, we could do amazing things". It would be interesting to know if the teachers presented some concrete ideas of 'amazing things'. It would also be interesting to know whether they have a bank of spare laptops to loan to the students while the defective ones are getting fixed. I have a feeling that in the not-so-distant future the choice between a tablet and a computer may become a moot point. The hardware that powers a MacBook Air and iPad is very similar. We have laptops that double as tablets and tablets that are paired with a keyboard to be used as a laptop. Eventually these two will merge.
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    Great overview of the issues -- I agree with Kasthuri -- I think the issue will become moot
Jeffrey Siegel

The Effect of Technology on Classroom Learning & Attention - 0 views

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    Important questions to ask students 1. What do students think is the best use of technology in schools? 2. What do students think the roles of computers should be in the classroom? 3. What do students think about computers being used as tutors? 4. Do students want more time with the teacher or is the computer instruction enough? 5. What is a good use of the internet in classrooms?
James Glanville

Idaho Teachers Fight a Reliance on Computers - NYTimes.com - 3 views

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    Good article highlighting the tension created by Idaho's push to incorporate online-learning and computers into state education. 
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    Great article James! THey show the full range of teachers' reachtion to top down directives. I wonder what their reaction would be if the directive was NOT about technology but rather a requirement to customize instruction. Customization is too hard to do as an individual teacher. You would have to rely on technology to get it done. I love the teacher who insists that she teaches kids "how to think" by using her lecture style. Oh Boy!
Yang Jiang

Smarter Than You Think - Aiming to Learn as We Do, A Machine Teaches Itself - NYTimes.com - 3 views

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    I think it is interesting because it is related to our online discussion about artificial intelligence. Can machines and computers be as smart as humans and read language?
Arthur Josephson

A four-year university computer science curriculum using only Coursera - 1 views

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    A step forward in comprehensive online ed, and also an example of "mashing up" existing offerings by a third party. This guy "thought it would be an interesting exercise to see if it was possible to design a reasonable computer science curriculum using just Coursera courses (a MOOC)."
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    I think that's a really interesting exercise--especially the one comment about "you could take all these in about six months." Thanks for the link!
Jacqueline Mason

Formally Modeling Pretend Object Play - 0 views

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    Building computational agents that are capable of play-- the promise and impediments.
Garron Hillaire

Smarter Than You Think - Aiming to Learn as We Do, A Machine Teaches Itself - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • “For all the advances in computer science, we still don’t have a computer that can learn as humans do, cumulatively, over the long term,”
  • The Never-Ending Language Learning system, or NELL, has made an impressive showing so far. NELL scans hundreds of millions of Web pages for text patterns
  • NELL is one project in a widening field of research and investment aimed at enabling computers to better understand the meaning of language.
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  • “What’s exciting and significant about it is the continuous learning, as if NELL is exercising curiosity on its own, with little human help,”
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    CMU working on an AI that is curious about language.
pradeepg

John Underkoffler on gesture based computing - 0 views

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    Exciting video. Please share any gesture based computing resources you come across - prg115@ Gesture based computing is the topic of my assignment. On another note, I really like a quote from this talk "Technology is capable of expressing generosity. And we need to demand that" I think I understand it.....
Mohit Patel

Aakash 2 - The $20 tablet that could transform computing as we know it | Impact Lab - 1 views

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    This is very "hot" in India at the moment. The president of India has given 200 of these to the university I work at and they are distributing it, for free, to loads if other institutes. It costs $25!! I haven't seen the quality of the device, but I have seen other low cost, about $150, tablets and I don't like them AT ALL. D you think e device quality and user experience will not be deterrent given the price point?
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    Mohit, I've heard a lot about the poor quality of the device and very little about HOW universities intend on using these tablets. It seems like another case of top-down intervention that's tech-driven rather than learning-driven, which is rather unfortunate. Also seems even more unfortunate that even though it's a tech-driven initiative, they haven't thought out the *quality* component of the tech. Oy... See this article for critiques of the tablet: http://www.techulator.com/resources/5523-Most-Annoying-Defects-Flows-Datawinds.aspx
Kasthuri Gopalaratnam

Massive Open Online Courses Prove Popular, if Not Lucrative Yet - NYTimes.com - 2 views

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    ""No one's got the model that's going to work yet," said James Grimmelmann, a New York Law School professor who specializes in computer and Internet law. "I expect all the current ventures to fail, because the expectations are too high. People think something will catch on like wildfire. But more likely, it's maybe a decade later that somebody figures out how to do it and make money." "
Kasthuri Gopalaratnam

How Computerized Tutors Are Learning to Teach Humans - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    "As the session continued, Lindquist gestured, pointed, made eye contact, modulated her voice. "Cruising!" she exclaimed, after the student answered three questions in a row correctly. "Did you see how I had to stop and think?" she inquired, modeling how to solve a problem. "I can see you're getting tired," she commented sympathetically near the end of the session. How could a computer program ever approximate this? "
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    Thanks to Dr. Dede for inviting Neil Heffernan to speak to our class a while back. Great to see Dr. Heffernan's work being covered in the press.
Margaret O'Connell

Internet in 2020 (Graphical representation) - 2 views

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    It's interesting ... I don't like its view of hackers as all bad, however ... I like to think that more and more people will be hacking/programming and it won't be for bad intentions but, rather, for customizations -- software, hardware, and not necessarily full computers ...
Maung Nyeu

The Mackinac Center: Outdated thinking stands in the way of online learning | Detroit F... - 3 views

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    In the US, 250000 students are enrolled in full-time public virtual schools in 30 states, according to Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade association. Although that's just a fraction of the country's 50 million students, it has grown 30% each year. Some schools in Michigan already shown the advantage of digital learning.
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    This is an interesting article. I am just concerned that it is not unbiased or driven by an agenda other than improving education. I found this information about the Mackinac Center online: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mackinac-center-public-policy I am starting to realize that a lot of the technology in schools rhetoric is driven by corporate and political interests, and as the industry becomes ever more profitable, I'm worried that companies are going to jump in and try to influence policy, rushing through the movement toward the wrong kind of technology in schools- i.e. sacking half of the teaching staff and replacing them with cheap computers. I think one of our most important jobs as Harvard TIE students is to education the public about the right ways to adapt technology in the classroom, and the important role that teachers will continue to play in this movement.
Bharat Battu

India's $35 tablet is here, for real. Called Aakash, costs $60 -- Engadget - 3 views

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    Tying into discussions this week about bringing access to mobile devices to all via non-prohibitive costs, while still reaching a set of bare-minmum technical specs for actual use: India's "$35 tablet" has been a pipedream in the tech blog-o-sphere for awhile now, but it's finally available (though for a price of roughly $60). Still though, as an actual Android color touch tablet, with WiFi and cellular data capability - I'm curious to see how it's received and if it's adopted in any sort of large scale
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    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jkCXZtzqXX87-pXex2nn23lWFwkw?docId=87163f29232f400d87ba906dc3a93405 A much better article that isn't so 'tech' oriented. Goes into the origin and philosophy of the $35 tablet, and future prospects
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    I had heard months ago that India was creating this, but was not going to offer it commercially - rather, just for its own country. Just like the Little Professor (Prof Dede) calculator, when tablets get this affordable, educational systems can afford classroom sets of them and then use them regularly. But to Prof Dede's point - can they do everything that more expensive tablets can do? Or better yet - do they HAVE to?
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    I think this is what they're aiming to do - all classrooms/students across the country having this particular tablet. They won't be able to do everything today's expensive tablets can do, but I think they'll still be able too to do plenty. This $35 tablet's specs are comparable to the mobile devices we had here in the US in 2008/2009. Even back then, we were able to web browse, check email, use social networking (sharing pics and video too), watching streaming online video, and play basic 2D games. But even beyond those basic features, I think this tablet will be able to do more than we expect from something at this price point and basic hardware, for 2 reasons: 1. Wide-spread adoption of a single hardware. If this thing truly does become THE tablet for India's students, it will have such a massive userbase that software developers and designers who create educational software will have to cater to it. They will have to study this tablet and learn the ins-and-outs of its hardware in order to deliver content for it. "Underpowered" hardware is able to deliver experiences well beyond what would normally be expected from it when developers are able to optimize heavily for that particular set of components. This is why software for Apple's iPhone and iPad, and games for video game consoles (xbox, PS3, wii) are so polished. For the consoles especially, all the users have the same exact hardware, with the same features and components. Developers are able to create software that is very specialized for that hardware- opposed to spending their resources and time making sure the software works on a wide variety of hardware (like in the PC world). With this development style in mind, and with a fixed hardware model remaining widely used in the market for many years- the resultant software is very polished and goes beyond what users expect from it. This is why today's game consoles, which have been around since 2005/6, produce visuals that are still really impressive and sta
Allison Browne

Students make computer design 3-D reality - 4 views

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    Mark Reford, who heads the school, and Michael Zeigler, the school's technology director and a teacher, said a new course marries the worlds of art and technology for middle school students, promotes higher-order thinking and gives kids insight into the future of manufacturing. 3D printers are not new but If you 've never heard of them it is a fun technology to investigate.
Bharat Battu

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design - 2 views

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    A former Apple interface designer critiques Microsoft's 'Productivity Future Vision (2011)' video that has been spreading on the web (and a couple of you have shared here on Diigo).  The Apple guru's biggest gripe? Microsoft portrays a future dominated by single finger interaction with touch-enabled devices. But we are already seeing more elaborate Human-Computer interaction involving more of  our bodies and communication modes-- full body (Kinect, Microsoft), and voice & hearing (Siri, Apple). Mr. Victor says that Microsoft's vision wasn't as revolutionary as it seems.
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    I agree with the author on Microsoft's lack of vision about future technologies (which I also ranted about on facebook). At the same time, we have to note that Microsoft currently has devices that enable 'full body' communication and Apple does not. And their latest wonder 'Siri' was acquired, not developed internally. I respect Apple for their innovations but we haven't seen any 'vision' from Apple yet and I am curious to know what they might be thinking.
Jennifer Hern

If You're Not Seeing Data, You're Not Seeing | Gadget Lab | Wired.com - 0 views

  • “augmented reality,” where data from the network overlays your view of the real world
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I knew that.
  • developers are creating augmented reality applications and games for a variety of smartphones
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Who are these developers? Lots of $$ backing them?
  • embraced a version of the technology to enhance their products and advertising campaigns.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Of course AR has been used to enhance private $$ making industries.
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  • Tom Caudell, a researcher at aircraft manufacturer Boeing, coined the term “augmented reality” in 1990.
  • head-mounted digital display
  • was an intersection between virtual and physical reality
  • he wants to be able to point a phone at a city it’s completely unfamiliar with, download the surroundings and output information on the fly.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Called Anywhere Augmentation.
  • stifled by limitations in software and hardware
  • requires a much more sophisticated artificial intelligence and 3-D modeling applications
  • must become affordable to consumers
  • early attempts have focused on two areas
  • your computer is prominently appearing in attention-grabbing, big-budget advertisements
  • Mattel is using the same type of 3-D imaging augmented reality in “i-Tag” action figures f
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Mattel is experimenting with AR... can I get a job there?
  • isn’t truly useful in a static desktop environment, Höllerer said, because people’s day-to-day realities involve more than sitting around all day
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Okay... so desktop computers are not for AR tech. People are mobile, so AR should be mobile. But what about people stuck sitting at a desk all day?
  • And that’s why smartphones, which include GPS hardware and cameras, are crucial to driving the evolution of augmented reality.
  • Ogmento, a company that creates augmented reality products for games and marketing
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Ogmento... see if they want to hire me, too.
  • movie posters will trigger interactive experiences on an iPhone, such as a trailer or even a virtual treasure hunt to promote the film.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      This is going to bring out the inner nerd in everyone....
  • The Layar browser (video above) looks at an environment through the phone’s camera, and the app displays houses for sale, popular restaurants and shops, and tourist attractions
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Where does this information come from? Who creates this information? Selected sources/companies who pay to have their information posted? A whole new competitive marketing strategy in the making.
  • it’s not truly real-time: The app can’t analyze data it hasn’t downloaded ahead of time.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I can only imagine crowds of people walking the streets staring at their apps, running into people and lamp posts, not to mention getting run over by cars... I think this technology might weirdly affect the health insurance industry.
  • You know more, you find more, or you see something you haven’t seen before.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      this is supposed to be the advantage of using AR from a commercial perspective... it is still self-centralized.
  • Nokia is currently testing an AR app called Point & Find, which involves pointing your camera phone at real-world objects and planting virtual information tags on them
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      This can be a really cool feature for teachers if they have a closed-group option. If you are part of the large network, there is all sorts of things people might plant that you don't want to see or know about... Another thought, if there is a closed-group option, perhaps this will create a whole new way of drug trafficking and helping illegal organizations hide information from authorities.
  • the hardware is finally catching up to our needs
  • Nvidia Tegra, a powerful chip specializing in high-end graphics for mobile devices.
  • place (real) Skittles on the physical map and shoot them to set off (virtual) bombs
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Are you kidding me? Marketing Skittles within an AR game?
  • open API to access live video from the phone’s camera
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Need this technology in order to produce AR. iPhone does not have it. Wonder why.
  • live tweets of mobile Twitter users around your location.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I can just imagine what a nightmare this app would be in a classroom full of students with handhelds....
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    Background on Augmented Reality. Reading for 9/14.
Uche Amaechi

BYOD - Worst Idea of the 21st Century? : Stager-to-Go - 7 views

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    Uche, you keep posting stuff I have a problem with- OK I understand that BYOD policies may not be so great but I really believe that familes should shoulder some of the costs for hardware since degredation is such a problem. The schools can have agreements with vendors to provide certain laptops or tablets for a certain price point and they can design their systems to support these items. Parents are expected to purchase backpacks, binders, and school supplies. When parents can't provide these back-to-school supplies, schools cover it. The same should be for computers. Speaking as a middle class parent (refer to above article) I believe this is an important investment in our schools so that they can focus on hardware support and software implementation/ integration.
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    @Allison and Uche - I am torn. While I initially thought BYOD was a good idea so that schools would have to stop "blaming" their fiscal woes on their inability to integrate emerging technologies into the curriculum, I now have some appreciation with points from this article - especially around "false equivalences" and "enshrining inequities" in light of my own children's "bring your own electronic device" day that took place two weeks ago. As a school wide reward for meeting their Accelerated Reading goal, all students were told they could bring an electronic device to school to "play" with on Friday afternoon. This prompted my kids to call me (Skype) on Thursday night and ask me if I could buy them a DS or a SmartPhone that NIGHT so that they could bring either of those devices to school for the celebration. Now mind you, my kids have access to lap tops, iPad, Smart Phones, Wii games, GameBoy, iPods, Flip camera, digital camera, etc - albeit not their OWN - but still access to them for use (when Mom and Dad are not using them). But apparently, of the devices left that Mom and Dad weren't using, none of them were "cool" enough for this event. That got me wondering if BYOD might have the same effect on our learners making those who don't have the latest and greatest feel bad or less adequate then their friends or classmates who could bring something they deemed as "better?" Allison, your point seems to be that requiring parents to cover the expense of a digital device as a requirement for school is not a bad idea, but I think you are referring to expecting the SAME device to be purchased and used, not myriad devices with various capabilities, features and functions - am I understanding you correctly? And if we did try to mandate parental supply of digital devices, would we have a different kind of fight on our hands because, as consumers, parents might have their own biases around what they deem is the best device of all (not just PC vs MAC or iOS vs Android, but sma
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    I still believe that a system properly designed could mitigate some of your concerns. In reality, schools can not support any device that a student brings in. They are capable of supporting a certain number and if they build relationships with the vendors to sell those devices that the school is capable of supporting then families will be aware that the school will offer the best deal on the items that are compatible. Every year the school recommends items for back to school supplies. If the laptop could replace all of the binders it might be worth it. There are many factors to consider but the biggest obstacle is that schools maintain such old equipment because of their budget woes. Even when we can purchase the latest and greatest software, the computers can't run it.
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    What a great debate you guys are having! One point worth considering is that typically the parents are responsible for purchasing the supplies, while the school is responsible for providing the content (textbooks, workbooks, handouts, worksheets, videos, etc). In the near future these devices may also be the primary sources of content, replacing textbooks altogether. I would hope perhaps funding for textbooks could be transferred to funding for these devices. I would also hope that the price of these devices drops significantly (is the $35 tablet in our future?). Then of course the question of who pays is less important. In my job producing educational video for publishing companies, I spend way too much time dealing with various formats and compatibility problems with browsers, so I'd love to see a future where this becomes more standardized.
Jennifer Jocz

Boston publisher enters new chapter in textbooks - The Boston Globe - 3 views

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    An article about the shift towards computer-based teaching systems.
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    Thanks for sharing Jennifer. I currently work for Pearson and worked on many of the "digital paths" that the article refers tot. I am seeing first hand the shift in priority towards customized personal learning through digital technologies. Pearson's first attempt at integrating technology into their curriculum was a good start but I think the future of Pearson products will employ a lot of the strategies we've been learning in class from intelligent tutoring systems to fully integrated learning platforms. Very exciting shift for the educational publishing industry!
Maung Nyeu

At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    A contrarian view. "Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains."
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    Maung - I just tweeted this! The irony? I read it on my Android smartphone at the Apple store waiting to buy my iPad2!! Would love to talk more about this in class because I DID learn the "old fashioned" way and here I am as an adult, proficient at technology and attending Harvard...am I any less off for not being a digital native? Am I behind the rest of my HGSE because of it? Or has my learning technology as a late teen and adult benefitted me in some way that cannot be proven unless we conduct research with a control group devoid of technology all together during those early formative years? Would love to continue this discussion!
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    First of all - the girl in the picture of this article is reading Nancy Drew - who else spent most of their childhood with their head buried in a mystery series? :-) Secondly, I cannot tell you how valuable mud was to my childhood. Had I not been at a camp every summer where I was able to play around in mud and run through the woods all day, I would not be the person I am today. I think I did most of my growing and much of my learning in informal environments such as camp. It sounds to me like this school is trying to replicate those learning experiences...in a classroom. Not saying it's the way to go...but certainly an interesting model. Thanks for sharing!
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    Waldorf philosophy is different approach. For example, children learn to write first before they learn to read. As a result children may learn to read as late as 8 or 9. It's based on the anthroposophy philosophy. Children's who parents value these things will do well in a school without technology. Children who are plugged in at home would have a difficult time. This is effective for private school but not public school.
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