Piggybacking on Diego's post... Apple's [AAPL] plan to bring better educational tools to children worldwide could include a solar-powered iPad rig equipped with pico projectors and more, except the solution doesn't come from Apple -- but does use iPads. **UPDATE: Apple PR have informed me that "School Box aka School in a Box isn't Apple's".

Does anybody know much about KPCB? Here are some good statistics about mobile internet trends from February. They also have this article http://www.kpcb.com/insights/internet-trends-2011 from the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fran just last week. Just curious as to their background and credibility. Published February 2011 by Matt Murphy and Mary Meeker This multimedia presentation co-authored by KPCB partners Matt Murphy and Mary Meeker outlines and analyzes the top 10 trends defining the current worldwide mobile Internet industry.

This is more of an FYI. It was posted on the TIE Facebook site, but just in case you didn't see it, I thought this was interesting if you wanted to either read about it or compete in it!

Is it only a matter of time before we will see more fulfillment of major aspects of the Wireless EdTech and National Educational Technology Plan mobile recommendations? I HOPE so! When Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty suggested last September that the time had come for electorate to engage in meaningful debate on the issue of handheld media devices in the province's classrooms, the backlash was swift. The public wanted nothing of it.

This is a nice follow-up to Kasthuri's post from the 60 Minutes segment. A Toronto teacher who works with special needs students says Apple's iPad has become an important tool in helping her students communicate and learn. Stacie Carroll, a teacher at Toronto's Beverly Public School, told Metro Morning host Matt Galloway the iPad has helped teachers connect with students - including those with autism - who often struggle to communicate.

Got something you want to find on the Guardian website? Tweet your question at our new @GuardianTagBot service to get an answer with the help of the Guardian's Open Platform The Guardian is experimenting with a new Twitter-based service, and would like your help to test it out.

I know that some of us in our other classes have been discussing iPads and their use in the education space, and I dug this up from my archives as some of what teachers and admins have to say about buying and using the iPad in their schools.

Maung - I actually attended Gagliolo's session at ISTE this summer as I, too, am a proponent of this new technology, but as you point out, this means "extra homework" for the teacher. And most teachers I know are already strapped for time and professional development and are not interested in a new device that is "one more thing" they have to learn and use in an overwhelming standards based curriculum environment. The only way (in my opinion) that we can get teachers to embrace this new technology is to have it do something MORE efficiently and easily than something THEY ALREADY do. It cannot be an add-on. It has to replace something overtasking from their plate.

Related to the challenge of infrastructure outlined in class and in the NETP.

Interesting article about why other education systems work and how/why the US's might consider changing.

This opinion article attacks RIM (Blackberry) for the outage fiasco experienced earlier this week and it got me thinking about the server outages, latency, bandwidth issues that schools face routinely even when trying to upgrade their infrastructure to meet the demands of today's technology. If education adopts mobile devices as essential or central tools in the formal learning space, how might the frequency of "dead zones" or transmittal issues effect the synchronous advantage of using such devices in class? If RIM had issues, I guess maybe it just adds one more layer of complexity and consideration to the integration of mobile technology into the classroom that will have to be accounted for and more importantly - tolerated?

See a need, build something to meet the need, and go from there... StudyBoost is the result of a brother watching his brother and friend try to study for the GMAT without carrying around the book. Born: an IM client that allows for collaboration on questions and answers applicable to the test by both students and teachers - wherever and whenever. For Wiske's class - wouldn't this fit nicely into the CoI and PI models? If so, why wouldn't school embrace this use instead of worrying about inappropriate use of phones in class? Make the lesson or assignment engaging enough - generative enough - to hook and sustain appropriate interaction on the device that 93% of children have ACCESS to? Sounds like a win-win?

I love these lines from the article: "Just as schools have always pushed teens to read critically and pick apart authors' arguments, she says, educators must now teach kids how to consume media critically and, ideally, to produce it. 'It's really a shift from thinking of a library as a repository to a community center, a place where things actually happen,' says Taylor Bayless, 27, a librarian and one of the center's mentors."

The idea of "showing what you know" and earning badges instead of degrees? In this economic downswing, could something like this become the new emergent way of learning and of assessing? Thoughts?

David Walter Banks/Luceo for Education Week Susan Kramer watched her packed 10th grade biology class weave through rows of desks, pretending to be proteins and picking up plastic-bead "carbohydrates" and goofy "phosphate" hats as they navigated their "cell." As they went, they explained how the cell's interior system works.

Florida Educational Technology Conference has a FREE virtual conference at the end of October where one of the sessions is on

Tech for Tots: Using Technologies to Enhance Early Learning

Thought some of you might be interested in attending something like this. I am sure there are other tech conferences, this just happens to be one that shows up in my inbox every year.

http://fetc.org/Events/Virtual-Conference/Home.aspx

How young is TOO young to get technology in front of children? Baby Einstein DVDs are used as early as a few weeks old to "babysit" (entertain, soothe, and occupy) a baby - is the tablet just the newest "babysitter" on the market?

Nice to see the upfront PD that took place before this initiative as well as the thorough security in place for the devices themselves.

Written by Jason Rosenthal Social media was originally all about broadcasting to the world - or at a minimum, your select group - about your likes, dislikes, or even what kind of eggs you had this morning. But social media today… well, it's not just for breakfast anymore.

As emergent as we seem to be (or as a society, WANTS to be), notice some of the deep-seeded thoughts around traditional educational practice that are sprinkled throughout the article.

I am wondering if the current financial state of most schools can support where this technology is going. Are we doing learning a DISSERVICE by expecting them to upgrade their technology infrastructure at the pace that technology changes?