NetGenEd 2011

"Mass Extinction"—and other curated games to be developed within CMS—are designed to demonstrate the educational power of games for incorporating museum collections, research, and expertise in reaching this young audience—a group whose passion for learning in both the sciences and the humanities is vital to the world's well-being.

Games often have a fantasy element that engages players in a learning activity through narrative or storylines. Educational video games can be motivating to children and allow them to develop an awareness to consequentiality.[1] Children are allowed to express themselves as individuals while learning and engaging in social issues. Today's games are more social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.[2] Students that participate in educational video games can offer deeper, more meaningful insights in all academic areas. The success of game-based learning strategies owes to active participation and interaction being at the center of the experience, and signals that current educational methods are not engaging students enough. Experience with and affinity for games as learning tools is an increasingly universal characteristic among those entering higher education and the workforce

is a branch of serious games that deals with applications that have defined learning outcomes. Generally they are designed in order to balance the subject matter with the gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.

But as of yet they only provide feedback in a global manner applied to the whole screen.

able to give localized active haptic feedback

controlled by a magnetic field. MudPad is covered by a pouch filled with MR fluid

LONG BEACH, California (AFP) — US university researchers have created a portable "sixth sense" device powered by commercial products that can seamlessly channel Internet information into daily routines.The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures.The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.The MIT wizards cobbled a Web camera, a battery-powered projector and a mobile telephone into a gizmo that can be worn like jewelry. Signals from the camera and projector are relayed to smart phones with Internet connections."Other than letting some of you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report' it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you," said MIT researcher Patty Maes.Maes used a Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference stage in Southern California on Wednesday to unveil the futuristic gadget made from store-bought components costing about 300 dollars (US).The device can recognize items on store shelves, retrieving and projecting information about products or even providing quick signals to let users know which choices suit their tastes.The gadget can look at an airplane ticket and let the user know whether the flight is on time, or recognize books in a book store and then project reviews or author information from the Internet onto blank pages.The gizmo can recognize articles in newspapers, retrieve the latest related stories or video from the Internet and play them on pages.

he 2010 Horizon Report includes examples of augmented reality like the Wii under the category Gesture Based Computing. Gesture recognition enables humans to interact with mechanical devices using simple natural gestures. In the future, the use of a keyboard, a mouse or even a touch pad may become a thing of the past with innovations in gesture based computing. See a video slide show of The New Media Consortium/ Educause report Click Gesture-Based Computing : 2010 NMC Horizon Report iPhone geotags. Geotagging and Geolocation Another important part of augmented reality applications is the use of geotagging and geolocation. A Geotag is a GPS coordinate that associates content such as videos, textual information, audio or any user- generated content to a specific location. When photographers use digital cameras, they have the choice to date stamp the video or photo. A Geotag is similar to that type of tag. AR applications draw on specific tags created by companies but will also depend on content that everyday users add through Geotagging. When we go to Google Earth to view a location, we are now able to find pictures and information added by users through these types of tags. Marker vs Markerless Augmented Reality AR Marker QR Code. AR Marker QR Semacode. Currently, many people associate augmented reality with black and white squares that trigger augmented reality elements. These black and white squares are called markers. Markers are also called QR (Quick Response) codes or Semacodes. A QR code is a two dimentional bar code that allows its content to be decoded at high speed. Markerless technology requires no marker to know the position of the object or person. Smartphone browsers that layer information over live locations are often considered in the markerless category, although they still use embedded "marked" information through geolocation and geotagging. The goal is to have augmented reality work much like this HP commercial Jerry Seinfeld for HP

Blog 100 Most Educational iPhone Apps August 31st, 2009 You probably carry your iPhone with you everywhere, so why not make it an integral part of your education? These apps are all educational in nature and will have you learning about math, science, geography, history, English, and foreign languages; help strengthen your skills with brain exercises and quizzes; provide reference material; and offer opportunities to boost your productivity so you can devote more time to your studies. Check out these apps to see which ones you need for your iPhone–and your education.

So here is a speed test of T-mobiles 4G internet on the new G2. It has a max