Posted By Ian Jukes
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Month: October 2014
Posted By Ian Jukes
Even with all of the digital options, Post-it Notes are still a handy way to jot things down for future reference. To help you keep those small pieces of paper organized and with you at all times, 3M released the Post-it Plus app for iOS. Capable of capturing up to 50 of the squares at once with the camera on an Apple device, the software allows to you sort by category and share with your fellow collaborators for further brainstorming. There’s also the option to export to PowerPoint, Excel, Dropbox and other places should the need arise. More size compatibility is on the way, but for now, the app recognizes all square Post-it Notes. Of course, Evernote has been doing something similar for the Moleskin faithful, and now folks who prefer the individual stick-on option can quickly digitize their work.
It is easy to see how this could evolve into a classroom of the future. We like high tech, but on a deeper level we crave real time, interpersonal connectivity. More importantly we want to be able to blend on-site and telepresence attendance. For a long time we have managed this with limited tools, from Google Hangouts to Twitter. But tools like BeamPro steps it up a notch.
Posted By Jason Ohler
This picture of my family was taken last week. You may notice that one of my sons looks like a talking head on a video monitor. Three weeks ago, he moved to Hong Kong. This is the story of how he attended a very important family gathering (from 8,047 miles away) using his iPhone as a 3G hotspot, his MacBook Air and a remarkable device called the BeamPro from Suitable Technologies.
I became aware of the BeamPro at a trade show a year or so back. To me it seemed like a complete parlor trick. Truly, what is the point of a remote-controlled webcam? Moving it has to be clunky at best and the experience is cute, but ultimately meaningless… or so I thought.
Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention
Fast-forward about a year and I find myself with a resolute, but despondent wife planning a super important annual family gathering with her middle child half a world away. My wife is not a technologist, but she came up with the right idea. “Let’s get an eye-level iPad stand on wheels and have Brent FaceTime into the party.” She said this with a smile that was illuminated by the satisfaction of a Eureka moment. While it was a good idea, I knew there was a better one. We reached out to the team at Suitable Tech and requested a demo unit; it arrived the day before the party in three boxes.
Some Assembly Required
Even for a tech-savvy expert, “some assembly required” says, “no chance this works on the first shot.” Wrong! Attach three cables, pop the video monitor on the base, plug the charging station into the wall and you’re good to go. Start to finish: 10 minutes – and seven of those were opening and unpacking the three boxes. The app downloaded in about a minute, set-up was very fast and about a minute later, I was controlling the BeamPro from my MacBook Pro. I sat in the kitchen and used the BeamPro to chase the cat around the living room. Super fun!!!
Best Laid Plans
The evening of the event (morning for my son), we got the bad news. The cable company had not yet installed broadband in his new apartment. All he had was an iPhone 5 to use as a hotspot. This is worse than it sounds because in Hong Kong, even with a 4G SIM card, an iPhone 5 is only a 3G device. 3G? Even Facetime is questionable over 3G; surely the BeamPro would not fare better. Wrong!!!
Not only did the BeamPro work over 3G, it worked flawlessly. Parlor trick? No, paradigm shift… here’s why:
According to Scott Hassan, CEO and founder, Suitable Technologies, the BeamPro “… enables anyone, anywhere to be present, participate and interact.” My son Brent agreed. He said that using the BeamPro gave him the ability to physically act and intervene on his own behalf. He was especially struck by his ability to look other guests in the eye, hear them perfectly and carry on a quality conversation with the “sensation of full agency.” From my point of view, BeamPro is a behavior changing technology.
Origins and Overview
Beam (the company) stemmed from its founders’ frustrations with remote work. Even though lots of technology (email, chat, etc.) helped people keep in touch, the company says, “… our remote team members felt isolated, things got lost in translation, and calling multiple meetings for daily work was disruptive.” That’s when the company set out to create an “effortless remote presence.”
That said, we have several great options for video chatting online. FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Skype, Snapchat… the list is not endless, but it is very long. If your computer has a webcam or your mobile device has a front-facing camera, you probably have several good video chat client options at your fingertips. With so many inexpensive options, why would anyone think sticking a 17? video monitor on top of a $20,000 remote-controllable robot was a good idea?
There are several reasons to like the BeamPro. The sense of agency is certainly a big one, but there are many others. As you can imagine, the BeamPro was the talk of our evening. Some people thought we had gone “Star Trek.” Others instantly adapted. Brent (a millennial with years of video game experience under his fingers) became an expert user within minutes. My wife was happy. I was happy. My son really experienced the evening; our guests all spent time with him and got some breathtaking views of the Hong Kong skyline as a bonus. Well done, BeamPro!
Hardware and Software
The unit has two wide-angle cameras: one pointed straight out and the other aimed at the floor. When you “drive” the BeamPro, the two views on the monitor become one and you quickly and effortlessly learn to navigate your remote physical surroundings. The sonic experience is truly amazing. A 6-microphone array with noise canceling capabilities makes you feel like you are in the room. You can screen share on the 17” 4:3 LCD screen or just display the image from your webcam. It is very useful for teaching or demonstrating anything.
The battery life is great, 8 hours (active), 24 hours (standby) and the BeamPro will auto-park in its charger when you hold down the “p” key. It can “walk” as fast as most people and there are all kinds of ways to change your viewing angles, speed of travel and optimize your experience.
$20,000? You Must Be Joking?
While $20,000 is a huge amount of money for a webcam on steroids, it is not a lot of money for a BeamPro. The device is industrial grade and is built for commercial use.
However, this winter, the Beam+ Suitable Technologies will debut. This new unit will retail for under $2,000 and it will be awesome in its own right. The Beam+ will feature a 10? LCD display, two HDR cameras, a 4-microphone array, two hours of call time and be perfect for having your son join you for a family gathering all the way from Hong Kong.
Isn’t $2,000 a little steep for a robotic webcam? Possibly, but let’s put it in perspective. A coach ticket to Hong Kong is approximately $1,700 round trip. That does not include transportation to and from the airport or hotel. So, for this use case, it’s an easy sale.
We’re going to have both the BeamPro and the Beam+ rolling around our upcoming 7th Annual Media Technology Summit on October 23 at the Sheraton Times Square. Want to get an up close personal view? Come join us. BTW, if you’ve read this far, email me for a discount code – you deserve it!
When it comes to our kids the mantra is “safety first.” But what happens if safety means spying on your children’s online activities? Potentially, this is what ComputerCOP allows parents to do. A number of questions come immediately to mind. In light of recent NSA revelations, could the government do this to us? That is could our government (the parents in this scenario) make the case that spying on its citizens (us, the children) was for their own good? But the thornier question really is this: If you could be privy to everything your children do online, would you really want to know? I’m sure there are some parents whose children have been endangered by online activity who would support this wholeheartedly. Would the rest of us want this power too… just in case?
Posted By Jason Ohler
A county sheriff from Limestone, Alabama is sticking by his department’s endorsement of ComputerCOP, a shady piece of software given to parents to monitor their kids online. Other law enforcement agencies, it appears, have followed that example.
Earlier this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an investigation into software called ComputerCOP which approximately 245 agencies in more than 35 states, plus the US Marshals, have been distributing to parents to use to monitor their children. The software is essentially spyware, and many versions come with a keylogger, which in some cases transmits unencrypted keystrokes to a server.
In addition to ComputerCOP’s security issues, the EFF discovered misleading marketing materials that wrongly claimed endorsements from the US Department of the Treasury and the ACLU. “Law enforcement agencies have purchased a poor product, slapped their trusted emblems on it, and passed it on to everyday people. It’s time for those law enforcement agencies to take away ComputerCOP’s badge,” Dave Maass of the EFF wrote in an article that was republished on Ars on Wednesday.
Still, many of the sheriff’s and police departments endorsing this software continue to stick by it. In many cases, the agencies have sunk thousands of dollars into purchasing the software.
In an article published by a local news outlet, County Sheriff Mike Blakely of Limestone, Alabama called the EFF an “ultra-liberal organization that is not in any way credible on this. They’re more interested in protecting predators and pedophiles than in protecting our children.”
He added, “There are some parents out in Columbine Colorado, if they had this kind of software, things would have turned out differently.”
Blakely also told the news outlet, “We have had the key logger checked out with our IT people. They have run it on our computer system… There is no malware.”
In a phone conversation with Ars on Friday, Sheriff Blakely referred us to the department’s IT guys, whom he promised would return our call on Monday. Sheriff Blakely continued, “This is a disk that we give people but it is completely free… and parents are welcome to it if they want it.”
With respect to the EFF he said, “I’m not against their criticism but I just think they’re probably more interested in protecting predators and pedophiles than in protecting our children.”
“As sheriff, I went down [to schools] and met with kids and I taught them about bicycle safety and not to talk to strangers,” Blakely said, adding that handing out ComputerCOP was just another branch of the department’s efforts to keep kids from being solicited online.
“If you and I were married and had a 14-year-old daughter, then yeah I could check on who you’re talking to online and you could check who I’m talking to,” he said. “But if [ComputerCOP is] used properly, it’s something we whole-heartedly endorse. Now if you’re of the persuasion of the people of the EFF who would rather not do anything, then that’s something that I can’t help.”
He also noted that the police wouldn’t see the results of ComputerCOP’s surveillance after a parent installed it on a computer. “This is not us checking on their kids, this is parents checking on their kids, [and it includes] stuff to read about how to deal with bullying,” and other things parents might not know how to address.
When Ars suggested that the keylogger portion of ComputerCOP could hypothetically allow hackers to see parents’ passwords that they type into the same computer their children use, the sheriff once again referred Ars to the IT department.
Ars also contacted four law enforcement agencies around the country who have made ComputerCOP available in 2014, including the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, the Dunwoody Police Department in Georgia, and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin. (The list of departments that have supplied ComputerCOP to parents is long, but these four have made the software available most recently.) None of the departments Ars contacted were available for comment.
After the EFF report was published, the District Attorney for the County of San Diego—which spent $25,000 in asset forfeiture funds on 5,000 copies of ComputerCOP in 2012—issued an alert to users of ComputerCOP, citing “potential security issues,” and telling parents to turn ComputerCOP’s keylogging features off. According to TechDirt, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis has stuck by her support of the software.
Using digital games in the classroom doesn’t have to break the bank. Teachers and students can take advantage of free, content-rich, browser-based digital game hubs with hundreds of potential games to choose from. Educators can use these games for teachable moments, warm-ups, homework assignments, re-teaching concepts – the list goes on and on. I originally wrote this post for MindShift back on March 27, 2014. Please enjoy it and use the games hubs as resources for instruction.
Written by: Ryan Schaaf
Web-based games can prove to be a treasure trove of learning opportunities, and there are a variety of content-areas, age ranges, and skill levels to choose from. The true pay dirt for browser-based learning games can be found on large online digital game hubs. Here are 10 game hubs players that teachers can use to as one tool in their arsenal.
Headed by Brad Sheppard, Sheppard Software hosts hundreds of free, online, educational games for kids. The site organizes its games into categories, which allow students and teachers to easily navigate by subject area and find a suitable game that caters to either an instructional need or a child’s sense of curiosity and thirst of knowledge and challenge.
PBS KIDS creates curriculum-based entertainment. The games site hosts a number of browser-based gaming experiences based on popular literary and media franchises such as The Cat in the Hat, Curious George, Sesame Street, and more. Games are organized by subject-type, which includes math, healthy habits, science, reading, and teamwork.
3. Mr. Nussbaum
Created by Greg Nussbaum, a Virginia public school teacher, Mr. Nussbaum boasts over 3,500 content pages with a wide variety of learning games organized by content type and grade level. This site is also optimized for use on a tablet and an interactive whiteboard.
The world-famous National Geographic hosts over 100 fun, engaging, and interactive science, action, adventure, geography, quiz, and puzzle games. For a free game hub, the production quality on games or interactives such as Wildest Weather, On the Trail of Captain John Smith, and The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom is truly remarkable.
5. Poptropica
Under the creative direction of Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Poptropica® is a virtual world in which kids explore and play in complete safety. Every month, millions of kids from around the world are entertained and informed by Poptropica’s engaging quests, stories, and games.
6. Funbrain
Funbrain, created for kids ages preschool through grade 8, offers more than 100 fun, interactive games that develop skills in math, reading, and literacy. Plus, kids can read a variety of popular books and comics on the site, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Amelia Writes Again, andBrewster Rocket.
The British counterpart of our PBS, the BBC, offers interactive digital games and activities involving subjects such as literacy, numeracy, history, mathematics, music, and the arts. The games are also categorized into age ranges. The cartoon graphics are very appealing for children, but the content is stellar for teachers and parents that want children to play to learn.
With games and activities that meet curriculum needs for math, science, language arts, and social studies, Primary Games houses over 1,000 game titles. The site includes curriculum guides for teachers to use in conjunction with the games.
9. ABCYa.com
This game site offers teacher-created and approved educational computer games for elementary students to learn math and language arts on the web. Featured by The New York Times, Apple, and Fox News, ABCYa.com provides young children well-crafted games and activities.
Arcademic Skill Builders are online educational video games that offer a powerful approach to learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills. Arcademic games challenge students to improve their scores through repetitive, timed learning drills that provide immediate feedback.
Ryan Schaaf is Assistant Professor of Technology at the School of Education at Notre Dame of Maryland University.
GoPros in education. Should we allow them? Should we encourage them? How soon before a teacher assessment oversight committee requires teachers wear them so they can watch what they do in a classroom? And students, should they be able to wear them? We have seen issues before with “secording” – secretly recording – teachers who are having a bad day, sometimes as part of a student prank. Should a student be able to record their classroom experiences and share them? And keep in mind that one day GoPros will be far less obvious than they are now; Google Glass (iGlasses) is the first step in that direction. Imagine these as contacts.
The article doesn’t address any of this, it just brings you up to speed on the status and direction of GoPros. Keep in mind that it’s just 2014.
Posted By Jason Ohler
Update on September 29, 2014: GoPro has officially announced the Hero4 Black ($500) and Hero4 Silver ($400), both available on October 5, 2014. Much of the rumor we reported on is accurate, with the Black model supporting cinema 4K video recording at 30 frames per second and 2.7K at 50 fps, while the Silver model has a built-in touchscreen display, 2.7K recording at 30 fps, Full HD 1080 video recording at 60 fps, and 720p at 120 fps. GoPro says the Hero4 Black doubles the performance power of its predecessor.
Both models have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (working with the GoPro App or new Smart Remote); 12-megapixel photo resolution with 30 fps burst mode; a QuickCapture mode; HiLight Tag to mark your favorite moments when recording; SuperView mode for immersive wide-angle shots; Night Photo + Night Lapse for time-lapse shots at night; improved audio capture (two-times the dynamic range over the last gen); manual controls for adjusting color, ISO, exposure, etc.; Auto Low Light mode; and a new button that lets you adjust camera settings quickly via the front LCD.
The Black and Silver versions of the Hero4 will also come in either Surf or Music kits. These will come with special mounts for either placing on a surfboard, or a mic stand or instrument. GoPro says the Wi-Fi connection is 50-percent faster than in the previous generation, and have better power management. With the Black model, GoPro is touting the ability to capture 4K photos, in which an 8.3-megapixel photo can be extracted from a 4K video. It means users can capture both high-quality videos and photos without having to choose between the two.
As we originally alluded, there’s a new entry-level model for $130. Simply called the Hero, it’s more barebones as it lacks wireless connectivity, but it still captures Full HD videos at 30 fps (720p at 60 fps). It retains the familiar Hero form-factor and waterproof housing, but has the lower price point to appeal to hobbyists and parents buying an action cam for their kids. In addition to these new products, the Hero3 White ($200) and Hero3+ Silver ($300) will remain in the lineup.
Original story: It’s been almost a year since the latest and greatest Hero3+ models appeared for sale in the GoPro range, and we have a steady stream of leaks to suggest that new devices are just around the corner. The next set of GoPro cameras are rumored to include an integrated touchscreen, 30fps 4K recording (up from 15fps) and a low budget model.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like 4K recording at 30fps and a touchscreen will appear on the same model — the Hero4 Black Edition will have the top-notch specs, while the Hero4 Silver Edition will offer the user-friendly touchscreen, according to Petapixel and other sources. Audio capture quality will be improved across the board. If the rumors are correct then action camera fans will be able to order the new models in mid-October.
Related: PowerPole isn’t your ordinary GoPro stick, charges action cam while filming
There’s a monster thread on Reddit that pulls together everything that’s been unearthed so far from leaked promotional materials. We haven’t heard anything official from GoPro yet, but with the yearly product cycle almost up and the GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition now listed as out of stock it seems a fairly good bet that new devices are imminent.
The Hero4 Black Edition resolution frame rates are said to include 4K at 30 frames per second, 2.7K at 30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps, and 720p at 120 fps. The Silver Edition can capture 2.7K at 30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps, 960p at 100 fps, and 720p at 120 fps. New manual settings are also rumoured to be on the cards.
Further speculation centers around a budget model called the Hero. This device will offer video recording up to 1080p at 30fps but drops features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the touchscreen. If you want to get yourself some decent quality footage but don’t have an extra few hundred dollars to play around with then it looks like the Hero could be the camera for you. We shouldn’t have too long to wait to see if these leaks are on the money: GoPro is said to be readying an announcement for as early as next week.
(This article was originally published on September 28, 2014.)
As digital learning games evolve, so does their relevance for 21st Century teaching, learning and assessment. Developers are inching ever so closer to designing digital games that embed academic content, provide educational scaffolding for a personalized learning experience for each player and assessing learner performance while simultaneously collecting data for educators. However, Emmanuel Felton at The Hechinger Report examines the potential for students to create their own learning games and the transferrable skills they develop during their endeavors.
Posted by: Ryan Schaaf
A new generation of educational games is harnessing students’ love of video games and turning them into voracious learners — without them even realizing it.
That’s the promise, anyway. Unlike previous educational games that functioned like glorified worksheets or tech-enhanced tests, the latest game developers say they are closer to figuring out how to unlock kids’ passion for gaming.
While some programs still use video games as the primary mode of instruction, other developers think kids’ passion for gaming is so strong that they will want to build their own games.
Nikki Navta, who spent 20 years in textbook publishing, founded Zulama, a curriculum that lets students design and build games, after a conversation with her two teenage sons.
“They were obsessed first with Minecraft and then with World of Warcraft,” Navta said of two popular online games. “I was initially mortified but as I listened to them I could see the possibilities for increasing engagement in the classroom.”
While the course topics are futuristic — for example, 3D modeling and mobile game design — Navta argues that the increased engagement results in academic achievement in more traditional subjects, like English and social studies.
“They are working collaboratively and doing the kind of teamwork that employers are looking for,” she said.
Navta says that Zulama’s hands-on courses moves the curriculum from rote memorization to learning that fosters creativity in students.
Navta was one of several developers at the EdSurge Tech for Schools Summit in Los Angeles in mid-September — an expo that gave over 30 companies a chance to show off their wares to administrators and teachers — who say educational gaming is getting closer to the goal of melding higher order learning with entertainment.
Robert Huizar, a fourth grade teacher who was at the summit to rally other teachers to use Zeal, a math and English game.
Students, who create avatars called Zealots, work through a series of questions. The game has two modes. The competition mode has students race to the finish line by correctly answering questions quickly. In collaboration mode, students earn points by helping fellow students who are struggling.
While the interface is fairly standard, Huizar says that the way the game can be integrated into the classroom is a critical improvement.
“Zeal helps teachers make the Common Core fun by turning it into a game,” said Huizar. “Students earn coins as they do their work. It makes learning cool. They come in the next day and ask, ‘How did you do on that place value objective last night?’”
Huizar, who used Zeal in his classroom last year, teaches at a Rocketship Education charter school in East San Jose, California. Rocketship’s founder left to start Zeal.
Huizar boasts that Zeal gets an accurate reading of each student’s level of understanding right away, allowing for personalized instruction for each student. Last year, he taught a class of 120 kids using Zeal.
“I don’t have to intervene when they are on Zeal,” said Huizar. “That frees me up to pull kids who were either really interested in a topic or that needed extra help into smaller groups.”
Shubha Tuljapurkar, Director of Globaloria, West, agrees.
Like Zulama, Globaloria is a game design program, which sets out to teach students Science, Technology, Math and Engineering material by having them design and code games.
“They don’t know that they are learning,” said Tuljapurkar. “That’s what’s powerful. They are learning how to, for example, code Flash. That’s an important skill. But that’s not necessarily something a kid wants to do, but they do want to create their very own monster.”
Globaloria allows students to play their finished game and publish it to the Internet and holds game design competitions where students can win prizes like laptops.
Christopher Elementary School in southeast San Jose, California, is one of the schools using Globaloria.
“Christopher isn’t a rich school,” said Tuljapurkar. “But we have seen test scores rise and I personally have seen the students’ confidence build up after they won our global game design competition.”
Despite the hype, there’s still little research about whether educational gaming is improving student achievement.
In April 2012, Pearson, an education company that sells textbooks and other educational products, released a report on the effects of gaming on academic performance. The report found that studies were rare and the results were mixed.
And if the goal is to have students engage with educational games in the same way they engage with games like Minecraft, they still have a ways to go according to Angel Carrasco, a seventh grader at KIPP Sol Academy in East Los Angeles, who spoke on a student panel at the summit.
“You can play games in school and learn but it’s not really the kind of games we play at home,” said Carrasco.
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