Maker Faire: @ a Barnes & Noble Near You!
An interesting new take on immersive computing: Blended Reality from HP
ISTE 2014 and CMK 2014
3D Printing at Beauvoir! - Wait... What?
Looking through a window to the future - A day made of Glass 2
A quick peek at Windows 8!
Speak to your Browser... It will listen.
What is an Education... and what is Intelligence?
Is The Keyboard Dead?
2020 Vision
Skype in The Classroom
Is This The Future Of Textbooks????
Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.
OK... now that you have seen it and most likely formed a first impression, let me share mine, if I may. I kno(w)... I kno(w) [<-- you see what I did there? Clever, huh?] this is a marketing video and in a perfect world if this thing works like it does in that video... I'm impressed. What makes it different from things that I've seen in the past is that publishers have not just PDF'ed books as they have done for PC's or Mac's or eReaders. They have partnered with publishers and seem to have created a more "book-like" experience for the student. I mean really... how long do you think it would take... say... You... to figure this thing out? My guess is... not to long at all. Once you figure it out, it might take a bit more time to become efficient with it, but hey, none of these concepts are really foreign are they?
With that said... my first thought though is that it's HUGE! Who wants to carry around this monstrosity? Especially with that ... much smaller thing we all see on TV all of the time... you know... that "revolutionary device"... with the fruit on it? This thing is not quite as attractive as one of those now is it? And it's certainly not marketed as well. Lets be honest, If you weren't reading this, you probably wouldn't kno(w) that this thing even exists. If you didn't use a Tablet PC every day, would you know what it is or what it's capable of? Do you really know what all of it's capabilities are now?
Well...Check out the next video to see their reasoning for the size, and some other good stuff about this new textbook.
So, they make a single screen version too. Thats a good touch, but can it compete with the HP Slate 500 and it's full fledged Windows 7 OS, that can run MS Office and Skype and...? How many devices do we need? Can one do it all? You be the judge.
What does all of this mean for our students? How will they push the market to put out products that will do what they need them to do? What else will they use devices like this for? Maybe we should talk to our kids about this, and see what they think. Will anyone show this video to their students?
FaceBook Heart's Skype
Articulated Naturality
OK... So most have you have probably heard of something called Augmented Reality. Dictionary .com defines it as -
QPC - Articulated Naturality Web from Justin Montgomery on Vimeo.
OK..... Did you get all that? No.... Watch it again.... I'll wait.
Now, My question to you is: How will this change the way that our children will learn in the future? I would love to hear some creative possibilities about how this technology can be used personally, and in the classroom (and outside of course.... the world is a classroom you know) to learn.
As always, your comments and questions are not only welcomed but encouraged. I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a great weekend!
What Does Digital Citizenship Mean To You?
Digital Citizenship, Interactive Whiteboards, and One-to-One Computing
http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/video/iste-2010-interactive-whiteboards
http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/video/iste-2010-one-to-one-computing
Food For Thought over the Summer Break
As always, your comments are not only welcome, but encouraged.
Oh, and if you happened to miss his talk from TED 2006... here IT is!
The Wait Is Over! ...Well... in 5 days it will be.
Hello World! Remember me? My... How I have missed you all!
ooVoo: One up on Skype? Maybe two or three?
OK... OK... I haven't had time to blog lately, but I thought this might be worthy of a post.
I have been waiting (years now) for Skype to add some Multi-User Video Conferencing functionality to their already amazing free product. (Can you tell I like Skype?) Up to this point the only Multi-User video conferencing options were uber-pricey and required special network appliances to work.
Well... the wait is over, but... Someone has beat Skype to it.... and that someone is ooVoo. That's right.... ooVoo. This dandy new little piece of software let's you video conference with up to four different users for.... wait for it...................... FREE! So, if you are here in DC, and you have some family in CA, and some more family in NJ, and even more in PA (as I do).... you can all talk and see each other at the SAME TIME! Any more than four users including yourself, your going to need to pay.
To get started using ooVoo: just go to www.oovoo.com and download the software. Create an account, add some friends... and your ready to ooVoo! If someone you know doesn't want to install the software... That's OK..... you can send anyone an invitation to video conference through the web! Basically, it sends them a link to a website, when they click on it, they join your conference in a web browser. You can't do that with Skype!
OK... This is the disclaimer section of the post: This is pretty new stuff, and they haven't quite worked all of the bugs out yet, but hey.... you get what you pay for.... right? The voice quality tends to echo a bit and video can't even touch Skype quality, but it's not too bad... And I'm sure it will get better. Because it is free, it also does have advertising as you can see in the image above. The interface is a bit darker than what you may be used to with Skype too.
The best part is that I can't imagine that Skype won't have an answer for this. I'll be keeping my eye out on both companies to see how things are progressing. A little competition usually helps the people get what they want.
I hope you found this post informative and helpful. I will try to not let so much time pass between posts next time. :)
As always..... Many Thanks..... and your comments are not only welcome, but encouraged.
CAM-Trax: Please not just for Games!
Last night, I stumbled across this post from Engadget in my Google Reader about some new software called CAM-Trax being developed for Gaming. It uses a web cam to track movement of colorful objects that can be "locked in" by the software and used as a controller. The best part of this is that the objects can be anything as you will see in this video.
So here it is (Enjoy the Bestie Boys music!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw
The sad part about this whole thing is that it's only being developed for gaming right now! That is all well and good for games and the gaming community, as this would be a great step for them. However, What about the rest of the computing world? To think of gaming as the only application for this is a bit narrow, wouldn't you say?
I can imagine this being used for interfacing with PCs in a variety of ways. How about for an art application? or just as an interface to your computer without having to touch anything? I could see this being used in some type of science or Physics application to track movement, speed or velocity. The possibilities are countless in my mind right now, and I would love to here what kind of use you all can think of.
My worry is that because it is being developed for gaming right now, these guys may get an offer from some gaming company to buy the technology and who knows if it will make it out for other applications.
I have signed up for the BETA and when it comes out, I will be sure to share my experience with you all.
I hope you found this post to be at least thought provoking and somewhat informative.
Lets hear your thoughts!