November 25th, 2009

Are cheap LCDs a good choice for classroom sharing?

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 11:07 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: LCD TV, LCD, Computer, Monitors & Displays, Projectors, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Hardware, Components, Personal Technology

An increasing number of teachers in my district are really beginning to embrace classroom technology. At the very least, most are presenting information to students using PowerPoint, the Internet, demos from calculators or scientific probes, or are using interactive response systems. Others want to lead their students through activities in a computer lab or while their students are using laptops.

All this means that their minimum classroom tech requirements are usually LCD projectors and a computer. But is there a cheaper, easier alternative? After all, for many schools, an LCD projector in each room can be prohibitively expensive and ceiling mounts (far more practical for daily use than a projector resting on a cart in the middle of a classroom) can be impractical or expensive to install.

LCD televisions, on the other hand, just keep getting cheaper. While Black Friday deals on HDTVs are really outstanding, as PCWorld points out,

Steep price declines over the past year plus the usual Black Friday madness make this a good time to buy–but even if you wait, you’re apt to find great deals throughout the holiday season.

While this advice is obviously directed at consumers, it begs the question, can low-priced LCD TVs serve most classroom computer demonstration needs? 32″ and 40″ TVs can often be found under $500. While it’s true that LCD projectors have also come down in price considerably, LCD TVs can be wall-mounted and won’t need expensive replacement bulbs.

My question, though, is are these big enough to be really effective? The price is certainly right, many classrooms already have televisions, and most of the LCD TVs have a VGA input, making the process even easier. What do you think? Is it time for a little Black Friday shopping? Or at least a little budgeting for cheap LCDs next year?

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November 23rd, 2009

Is it time to go quad-core?

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 9:53 pm

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Quad-core, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Christopher Dawson

I need a new laptop. My oldest son’s laptop finally bit the dust, and he’s pretty well attached to it, both for personal and school purposes. As a likely film major, my Mac would serve him well (at least through the first year of college, at which point he’ll be due for a serious upgrade if he sticks with the film program).

At the same time, we’re looking at some interesting virtualization technologies for a big refresh in July and more and more often I find myself needing to run and test multiple operating systems. I think I can justify the cost of a quad-core laptop for my own purposes, both at my day job and blogging/reviewing/testing for ZDNet. For just over an extra pound, I can jump to a 16″ widescreen display on models from HP, Dell, and Lenovo and give my eyes a break from my current 13″ screen.

The introduction of Intel’s quad-core Core i7 processors has also caused another drop in price on mere Core 2 Duo-based laptops, making for a very cool buying season (and what looks to be very competitive prices for the 2011 fiscal year). But are there any other users for whom a quad core is justified? I don’t even think I could justify it for myself if I wasn’t spending my own money and using it as a work, home, and writing machine.

Quad-core servers? You betcha. Maybe even a quad-core desktop or two in a media center or video production classroom. And certainly outside the K12 space, plenty of fields will benefit from dropping prices on quad-core workstations.

However, this is much more an opportunity to pick up cheap dual-core machines in general than it is to look at quad-core chips for most educational settings.

How about you? What settings or labs will see quad-cores soon in your schools?

November 23rd, 2009

Can Obama make science cool?

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 9:24 pm

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Education, Science, Teacher, Christopher Dawson

On Monday, I wrote about the decline of science education in the US, as well the rise of “unscience” and our growing struggle to compete with China in terms of real innovation. As if he wanted to hand me the perfect segue, President Obama announced the administration’s Educate to Innovate program, encompassing everything from increased funding to public-private partnerships to an annual White House Science fair.

The President’s announcement is available here and video of the speech is embedded below.

The key idea, though? Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in this country is hurting for many reasons. Regardless of the reasons, it’s time to change this and “…show young people how cool science can be.” The President also said something that hopefully we all know:

…because a great teacher is the single most important factor in a great education, we’re asking states to focus on teacher effectiveness [through the Race to the Top initiative] and to make it possible for professionals — like many of the people in this room — to bring their experience and enthusiasm into the classroom.

Will anything actually come of this rhetoric? I sure hope so. For now, the program involves some significant partnerships (quoted below), but I’ll be watching for real action and funding to trickle down to schools who manage to really address the STEM deficiencies the President outlined. Here are the initial partnerships announced Monday:

• Time-Warner Cable, Discovery Communications, Sesame Street, and other partners will get the message to kids and students about the wonder of invention and discovery.
• National Lab Day will help build communities of support around teachers across the country, culminating in a day of civic participation.
• National STEM design competitions will develop game options to engage kids in scientific inquiry and challenging designs.
• Five leading business and thought leaders (Sally Ride, Craig Barrett, Ursula Burns, Glen Britt, and Antonio Perez) will head an effort to increase private and philanthropic involvement in support of STEM teaching and learning.

November 23rd, 2009

Falling behind in science? No kidding!

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 10:51 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Vaccine, Flu, H1N1 Flu, Science Education, Healthcare, Christopher Dawson

Our school district is providing H1N1 shots to any students whose parents request it. It’s an easy way to build some so-called “herd immunity” in the age group most vulnerable to this particular flu strain. In fact, my 7-year old was the very first in the district to get his shot since he was lucky enough to be at the school we identified as a pilot. “Only one more shot to go!” he says.

While that’s all well and good, our vaccination program, along with the entire H1N1 debacle nationwide has exposed just how little science many people really understand. This is hardly limited to our very typical community. People rely far more on Fox News than they do on a solid foundation of science education. Reactions run the spectrum from hysteria and fist fights at local clinics (fortunately nothing like that at our school-based clinics) to fear of this “unknown” vaccine.

These visceral and extreme reactions say far more about our educational system than we do about anything else. Intel released a report last week showing that showed many Americans believe that we’re headed towards an also-ran status on the world stage of innovation because we lag in math and science education. China is more than happy to take the lead and yet, since their math and science education is quite rigorous already, identified creative thought and entrepreneurial skills as keys to their success. Check out my post highlighting how to add value in education with technology, especially the section on what 21st Century Skills really are.

Let’s stick with the flu, shall we? How many people really know that you don’t throw up with the flu, or that a “stomach flu” is a misnomer? How many people realize that H1N1 is really just a flu? How many people realize that H1N1 vaccines are prepared in the same way as we always prepare flu vaccine? How many people understand the testing and quality control or why pregnant women need to receive a shot without preservatives?

OK, enough flu talk. Let’s talk about the way we teach math and science. So many of our students are taught procedure after procedure with drill after drill. How many times can we repeat a skill so that students memorize it? And the minute they memorize the skill, a problem requiring a little bit of creativity crushes them because it doesn’t fall within the rote technique that they learned? Go ahead: ask a typical 6th grader to walk you through some fraction manipulation problems. Or ask them to estimate what an answer to a problem should be. Some will have no problem. Many will struggle.

We’re falling behind in science and technology because too few are willing to drastically change their approaches to teaching, fund schools to hire the best and brightest (regardless of educational background), or provide serious teacher training and development to move into a new era of instruction.

It’s time for a change folks. It’s time for the unscience (seriously, click the link - listen to what Kirk Cameron has to say…oh boy) to end and it’s time for our education in hard skills to be so fundamentally rigorous that we can focus some more on those soft skills that China is aggressively pursuing.

November 20th, 2009

YouTube automatic captioning: one more reason GOOG's not evil

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 7:40 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Google Inc., YouTube Inc., Video, Speech Recognition, Corporate Communications, Emerging Technologies, Marketing, Christopher Dawson

Earlier this week I noted that YouTube’s partnership with Univision was one more reason to make the web service available in schools. What better way to supplement Spanish instruction than with current, relevant, and interesting content freely available through YouTube? Now, Google has introduced some more useful YouTube technology: automatic captioning.

Perhaps having a hearing impaired vice president (Vint Cerf) helped make this project a reality. The lead developer on the project is also deaf, but regardless of motivation, automatic captioning of YouTube videos is yet another reason to keep the service open in schools and libraries, where the increased accessibility can provide a useful tool both for deaf students and for multimodal learners who can benefit from text accompanying video and audio.

While the captioning is in its infancy, it’s already associated with National Geographic, providing an immediate educational resource. The speech recognition technology that can generate the captions will also improve video search capabilities, allowing educators to more quickly find relevant materials and discard the junk that also likes to inhabit YouTube.

Perhaps even more interesting, though, is the ability to add transcripts to videos. Even if the speech recognition isn’t perfect (which it isn’t yet, although Google has a lot of experience with the technology through Google Voice and GOOG-411, both of which are improving fast), users can transcribe video, upload the text, and then automatic timing will advance the text as needed. How useful would that be for online course content?

Google may be embroiled in any number of antitrust-related difficulties, but from this perspective, at least, GOOG is certainly not evil. In fact, this is yet another really useful bit of educational technology from the company.

November 19th, 2009

How to add value, not just more tech, with Web 2.0+

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 10:53 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Google Inc., Web, Google Docs, Corporate Communications, Channel Management, Notebooks, Marketing, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Christopher Dawson

I gave a presentation this morning to the Florida Council of Independent Schools on adding value with web technologies rather than just throwing tech into schools for its own sake. Although I was originally scheduled to present in person, my wife’s recent c-section prompted the coordinators to get creative and I ended up presenting remotely. Nothing like living the tech about which I was presenting.

The presentation is below; I created it in Google Docs and then remotely controlled it, along with a video and audio feed from my webcam via Google chat. Even with mediocre conference center networking on one side and a 3MBps DSL line on my side, video and audio were seamless (not exactly high-res, but I was actually able to interact with the attendees, so no complaints whatsoever).

The presentation tells the story, but a few questions that came up afterwards raised some great points:

• 1:1 computing doesn’t have to mean laptops for everyone. The goal is to get everyone connected to the Internet with cost-effective technologies and able to create and access content anytime. Can this be a smartphone? A netbook? A laptop? A next-gen e-reader? Definitely.
• Our Acceptable Use Policies and related documents are, in general, out of date and in need of collaborative review. Parents, students, staff, and administrators all need to be involved with creating sensible guidelines to help us educate “digital citizens.”
• Use of ePals, Google Docs, or simply well-trained staff can go a long ways towards mitigating distractions and potentially destructive behaviors associated with empowering students to create content.
• So-called “Digital Natives” don’t live in an 8.5×11 world; digital immigrant struggle with new content creation tools because it’s hard to envision web content printed on an 8.5×11 page. Time for a shift in mindset.

Thanks to FCIS for the opportunity to present and really exploit the power of Google Apps in a truly appropriate context.

November 18th, 2009

NComputing announces new Microsoft partnership

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 11:47 pm

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Partnership, Thin Client, Microsoft Corp., NComputing, Thin Clients, Workstations, Business Structures, Hardware, Finance, Christopher Dawson

I’ve featured NComputing a few times in this blog, largely focusing on their solutions that turn a single workstation into as many as 10 workstations using thin client technologies. In particular, I wrote about NComputing’s successful bid (beating out Intel and OLPC) to provide thin-client computers to as many as 1.8 million children.

Now things are getting even more interesting at NComputing with their larger-scale network solutions (which I’ll be reviewing soon, since the company will be sending me test units shortly) and, perhaps more importantly, a new partnership with Microsoft. While Microsoft already offers both virtualization and thin client support through Terminal Services, NComputing brings extremely low-cost, easy to set up terminals to the mix, as well as software that leverages terminal services.

According to the press release,

Initially, the collaboration with Microsoft is aimed at helping educational institutions take full advantage of multiuser computing on the Windows Server platform. NComputing and Microsoft share a commitment to advance multiuser or shared resource computing to make it easier for teachers and students in libraries, labs and classrooms to gain access to a genuine Windows experience at a lower total cost of ownership.

The agreement should not only simplify licensing for customers, but improve integration with Microsoft’s server products. Although NComputing products can work with a “server” running Windows XP, Vista, or (very shortly) Windows 7, Windows Server is obviously much better suited to supporting larger implementations.

Similarly, Microsoft has recently announced development of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010:

NComputing’s new USB-connected devices and vSpace software will support the new Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 (WMS) platform, which was announced last week with availability early next year. By using the new Microsoft WMS with NComputing’s ultra-low cost devices, educational institutions will be able to dramatically reduce their computing costs and expand access to computing.

NComputing also supports OpenSUSE Linux, but for institutions looking to grow their Microsoft infrastructures in very cost-effective ways, this partnership should spell improved functionality and speed, as well as a real alternative to vanilla Terminal Services or TS-based Citrix solutions. In particular, for labs of 30 or less, where an expensive virtualization solution simply isn’t justified, NComputing technologies may be just the ticket. Look forward to reviews soon.

November 17th, 2009

OpenSUSE Education announces Li-f-e 11.2

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 10:59 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Education, Novell OpenSuse, OpenSUSE Education, Li-f-e, Software Selection, Linux, UNIX, Tools & Techniques, Operating Systems, Open Source

Li-f-e is OpenSUSE’s Linux for Education product. While this product has been quietly maturing, it has, to some extent fallen off my radar. Particularly with their 9.10 release, Ubuntu and the related educational project Edubuntu has been all the Linux I’ve needed. Ubuntu is easy, it works well, and it’s fast. However, the latest features announced today with this release of OpenSUSE’s educational distribution have me downloading as fast as my BitTorrent client will allow.

As described on the OpenSUSE Education site,

openSUSE Education team is proud to present openSUSE-Edu Li-f-e(Linux for Education) based on openSUSE 11.2. We are for the first time using “hybrid” iso image, single iso can be used to create live DVD or USB stick…This release includes carefully selected softwares for students, educators as well as parents. The software selection encompasses everything required to make computers productive for either home or educational use.

A closer look at the included software available on the Live DVD (or bootable USB stick) is quite compelling:

• Full LAMP implementation
• Improved KIWI-LTSP implementation that can work either from the live DVD or be easily installed by non-technical users to get Linux thin clients up and running quickly (or to simply allow full PCs to access a terminal session on a Li-f-e server)
• “Applications include tons of Educational apps, graphics, development(many IDEs, compilers, debuggers etc), office suite, and complete multimedia support”
• Inclusion of the Sugar UI (from OLPC) as one of the desktop boot options

Again, the OpenSUSE team notes,

The aim of this DVD is to provide complete education and development resources for parents, students, teachers as well as IT admins running labs at educational institutes

There are a couple of pieces here that are really exciting. The Sugar UI really does represent a different way of interacting with computers and could be very interesting in the K-5 space. Edubuntu’s LTSP implementation is quite user-friendly, but KIWI-LTSP looks like it could be even easier; Li-f-e 11.2 also includes easy testing facilities for the thin clients, as well as built-in user accounts.

Jason Perlow recently reviewed a milestone release of OpenSUSE 11.2 and found it to be snappy and clean. Add a layer of all the software required for most educational institutions and we just might have a new leader in this space. A thorough review will be forthcoming.

November 17th, 2009

YouTube/Univision deal a huge resource for teachers

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 9:44 am

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: YouTube Inc., Material, Internet, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Christopher Dawson

Here’s one from the “One more reason not to block YouTube” files: Univision will be posting its content for free on YouTube. The details announced yesterday provide easy access to programming online for a quickly growing segment of the US population. Just as importantly from an educational perspective, though, Spanish language teachers and those working with English language learners will have ready access to a large library of materials.

There is, perhaps, no better way to learn a language than through immersion. While many curricula include supplemental materials allowing students to hear languages spoken by a variety of voices, the ability to access free, current materials is a real boon to language instruction. Better yet, these materials can be searched and embedded. Whether showing excerpts or full episodes, all instructors need is an Internet connection. Want supplemental materials for home? Just assign a bit of YouTube viewing. They’re doing it anyway, right?

As PC World explains,

Essentially, Univision could make its content ubiquitous, while American networks seem happy to keep their shows behind very specific gates.

Given that Spanish is arguably the single most important foreign language for US students to learn, ubiquity isn’t a bad thing in this case. This also gives Spanish-speaking students one more thing in common with their English-speaking classmates: plenty of online video content with which they can relate (and that eventually, they’ll be able to watch together with their classmates as easily as they can watch English YouTube videos).

November 15th, 2009

My new daughter is a lot like Linux

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 9:27 pm

Categories: Education Technology

Tags: Linux, Operating Systems, UNIX, Open Source, Microsoft Windows, Desktops, Software, Hardware, Christopher Dawson

OK…I promise, this will be my last post this week about my new little daughter. Really. No matter what cute things she does, I’ll limit my oohing and ahhing to Twitter. However, as I was changing her diaper for the umpteenth time today, I got to thinking about Linux. No, really. Here’s why.

It’s no secret that I like Linux. Just about any time I’m not using my Mac, which is increasingly in my budding filmmaker of a son’s hands, I’m probably using some flavor of Linux, even if it’s to run an RDP session on a Windows box. Of course, it’s also no secret that I spend a lot more time in a web browser that I do dealing with the OS, so whatever, right?

Well, there are still plenty of things for which an OS is useful, if nothing more than a secure platform on which to run your web browser. Even Google’s Picasa is a handy little photo manager that interacts nicely with web albums, but sits on a desktop to actually perform most of its functions. Video editing, desktop publishing, etc., all work better on an OS of some sort rather than some cloud-based application.

So what does this have to do with my daughter? And better yet, how could I possibly tie this into Ed Tech? Well, it all goes back to diaper-changing. I’ve changed more diapers than I care to count. Like thousands of them. Wet ones, slimy ones, scary ones. You get the picture. However, I’ve never changed a girl’s diaper. My other kids are all boys and I have long since mastered changing boy diapers. But it’s different when the diaperee is a girl. You have to check in the wrong spot to see if they’re wet. And cleanup from those slimy, scary diapers is a whole different ballgame with girls. With boys, if they decide to let ‘er rip while you’re changing said diaper, you know precisely where you stand. With girls, not so much. Read the rest of this entry »