HGSET561

Moving in the other direction of Virtual Reality, this inventor has come up with a machine or 'robot' that actually renders digital designs/artifacts into solid, 3-dimensional objects. Surprisingly the machine is pretty cheap and is sold as a kit that the user has to build on his own before turning a photoshop image of his long lost dog Booger into a 4x4x6 hard plastic idol to wear around neck. I jest, but from a 'learning from the whole' perspective, the entire process could be really engaging and educational.

Describes a group looking at the role of technology in both formal and informal educational settings.

On the frontier of neuro-engineering, the ultimate AI.

I've always been interested in the use of these so called 'e-readers', how they hopefully will take the place of books, will let you take notes right there on the digital text and will seriously lighten you backpack. Obviously these things haven't quite caught on yet, but the techology is certainly starting to get better and better in this area!

The article defines and describes the characteristics of authentic learning.

Okay, this is just seriously cool. Surrealisms makes you smart!

For those of you interested in trying out a bit of augmented reality at home, try out this green energy augmented reality application available from the GE web site. You will need a printout of the glyph (the black square design provided on the web site) and a webcam in order to get this to work. Audio volume adjust according to the distance of the glyph away from the webcam. This little AR app was designed using ARToolKit originally created by Dr. Hirokazu Kato.

Augmented Reality Sample created for General Electric using ARToolKit. You will need a webcam and a printout of the glyph (the black box design that the AR object will need to anchor to).\n\nI can't directly anchor to the augmented reality sample, so please bring your mouse pointer down to the bottom of the browser window to where it says, "Navigate the Smart Grid," and click the augmented reality icon on the far right of the navigation bar that appears.

Some Chinese school officials have gone against the wishes of the national government and removed Internet filtering software becuase it "has strong conflicts with teaching software we need for normal work." On the other hand, many public schools in the US not only tolerate draconian filtering policies, but elect to implement such policies on the local level! Why are we willing to sacrifice educational opportunities for some imagined sense of security about our children? If you haven't looked over the "Unmasking the Digital Truth" Wiki, I highly recommend that you do so. It discusses some of the common misconceptions about Internet filtering in schools and associated laws. (http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/)

Article about how some schools in China have uninstalled the controversial Internet filter (Green Dam), which was required to be installed on all public systems by mandate of the Chinese government.

A series of reference materials for software from MS Word to Vim to Linux. Highly useful for people who want to become more efficient in software use.

An example of an AR application for Google Android phones that takes advantage of the phone's video camera and GPS capabilities.

I was speaking with Chris yesterday and we agreed that it was going to be the entertainment industry that would pioneer this technology. At this point, it looks as if Vuzix core market and strategy for growing their AR library is business (training) and academia. The fact that you can see through the lens but ALSO see the 'broadcast' image is huge. Yesterdays AR demo would have been soooo much more immersive had we been able to keep one eye on the R (reality...cars, appraoching hornets, etc) and one I on the AR.

Since we dabbled with augmented reality today in class, I thought Educause's statement regarding the 7 things you should know would be an appropriate summary of where this technology may be going. I find their "7 Things" briefs great ways to get an overview of what is up and coming in technology. See PDF link at bottom of page to view the resource.

Another Educause collection regarding educational technologies.

Collection of research from Educause dealing with learning principles and practices. Nice background info to help understand where technology fits into the big picture.

Vuzix is one company that is taking augmented reality to its next logical step: display screens built in to glasses. The glasses in this video layer 3D content on the view of the users surroundings when the user looks through the glasses.

What are some possibilities for e-books in math? Is it realistic to believe this will entice students to read more? How interactive are these e-books?

The presentation on the ARG alien abduction in class today reminded me of this awesome news story a couple months back. Sans fancy technology, a school staged an alien abduction for its students. Unfortunately, they got some flak for the War of the Worlds effect it had on the younger kids. But this school seems really awesome and I hope no one got disciplined for providing an innovation learning experience.

Article discussing Dede's research in augmented reality with a focus on place-independent scenarios.

This is a Slashdot article that points to a research paper (unfinished) that analyzes which elements are most important in the success/failure of a game. The abstract and conclusion sections of the article are succinct and accessible. The results are quite telling. One wonders if the results are consistent across game genres/audiences/distribution methods.