21apples

See You In 2007

Posted by arvind s grover Sun, 24 Dec 2006 15:40:25 GMT

I’m finally putting my report cards aside. I’m going to spend some time not thinking about educational technology for as long as possible. I’m headed to Spain and Morocco to do some backpacking. I can’t totally put aside the technology though as I pack my digital camera, memory cards, travel adapters, chargers, CD-R’s, USB card reader etc. During last year’s India trip I took similar equipment. This time I’m not taking a laptop though as I am only carrying one backpack. No room for extras. Just enough clothes to make it and a guidebook to pick my next destination.

I picked up a new digital SLR camera, the Canon Digital Rebel XTI. I am a bit of a photo snob, and I love my digital point and shoot (Panasonic Lumix). But this camera takes photos to a whole new level. I am amazed at my initial shots. I sprung for a decent prime lens which is giving me some great results.

I will be abroad for new years, but hope to try and tune in to some of the Worldbridges New Years Webcastathon. Some great voices will be broadcasting around the clock, so tune in when you can. If I have access to Skype I might try and jump in from a Spanish Internet cafe.

Happy holidays and happy new year everyone. See you in 2007.

Technorati Tags: camera, Canon, Digital Rebel XTI, Morocco, backpack, Spain, travel, Worldbridges

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Want A Laptop Program In Your School? Careful What You Wish For

Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:00:50 GMT

As a technology director in a laptop school people contact me from all over the world to ask questions about our program. Our school was a very early program (1997), and remains one of only a few girls schools with a laptop program.

While you are thinking about all the glamorous things that can come out of a laptop program, let me give you some of the least glamorous tech support cases I have seen:

• Keyboard not working. Remove the keyboard and find some fake fingernails underneath. Reattached and keyboard worked normally.
• Cat tears apart student laptop by ripping all the keys out and scratching up the entire inner case. Obviously needs a new keyboard, but the cat’s hair is inside everything.
• Student eating sushi, working with laptop – you can imagine, but soy sauce on a motherboard just doesn’t work.
• Repeat example above with : water, coke, diet coke and iced tea. (students and teachers)
• Student takes out emotional frustration on laptop with expired warranty – family had to buy a new one, that hurts.
• Just last week: sheepish student comes to tell me that someone threw up on her laptop! Everything corroded on the inside. Thank goodness for Dell Complete Care warranty.

These are all true, so if you are thinking about a laptop program at your school, buyer beware. As someone in my office noted, what kind of laptop party was that kid at anyway?

Technology in schools creates amazing opportunities for learning, but the practical is, well, just that…practical.

Technorati Tags: education, hardware, laptop, laptops, schools, students, teachers, technology

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American Technology (and Education) Left in the Dust by South Korea?

Posted by arvind s grover Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:28:03 GMT

Norimitsu Onishi article in the New York Times about South Korea’s robotics efforts make American technology and educational technology seem somewhat archaic. (read the article soon, because the NY Times charges you after a week. Or bookmark it with ma.gnolia and they will save a copy for you)

Some factoids about South Korea from the article:

• this month they will introduce WiBro, the 10 megabit wireless Internet connection for your home (faster than your cable or DSL modem)
• first country in the world to to have high-speed Internet in every primary, junior and high school (the U.S. still doesn’t have that)
• you can watch TV on Korean cell phones (U.S. companies are starting to offer this now too)
• Microsoft and Motorola test new technologies in South Korea before the U.S.
• 17 of 48 million people in South Korea are members of CyWorld, a social-networking website (not just kids)
• 72% of South Korean households have high-speed Internet access (in the U.S. it is 58%, ranking 15th in the world)

CyWorld is so popular in South Korea that many politicians, celebrities and companies have formed profiles on that site rather than creating their own websites. CyWorld is similar to MySpace or Friendster in that you create your own profile, and then indicate who are your 1st circle friends. The rest of the space connects accordingly.

The article speaks to commitment. South Korea certainly doesn’t have more money or resources that the United States, but it is committed to using technology to improve the lives of its people. The national government offers information technology courses to homemakers and makes subsidized computers available to low-income families. That is commitment. Here in the U.S., the federal government decided to completely cut educational technology spending (read it yourself here), while standing by companies like Verizon who are trying to prevent cities like Philadelphia from giving away free wireless access. By 2010, they intend to put a networked robot in every home (the Jetson’s have finally arrived!).

From an education perspective, they are committed to giving their students access to 21st century tools so they can compete and thrive in a 21st century world. They realize that with broadband access, Internet-enabled phones and social-networking websites comes responsibility. To ensure their students know how to practice safely online, they created educational programs for all schools:

...in February, the government released a 256-page “IT Ethics” textbook for junior and high school students. Teachers are expected to spend 30 hours instructing from the textbook, whose chapters include “Healthy Mobile Phone Culture,” and “Protecting Personal Privacy.

The U.S. needs to take a long hard look at itself as it seems like we take an arrogant approach to things sometimes – feeling that we are the world hegemond simply because our military is the strongest. Let’s not confuse the issue. Just because we can beat everyone else up, doesn’t mean we are smarter. We need to make strategic choices to make sure that the citizens of the U.S. and the students of the U.S. are being provided what they need to excel. Right now, it seems like we have a long way to go.

p.s. I know the robot in the picture is Japanese, but I couldn’t find a good Korean robot photo that was not copywritten

Technorati Tags: education, FCC, future, Internet, New York Times, Norimitsu Onishi, Philadelphia, robot, robotics, safety, schools, South Korea, students, technology, Verizon, WiBro, wireless

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3,000 Apple iBooks in 3 Days

Posted by arvind s grover Sun, 19 Mar 2006 06:27:58 GMT

Came across an image gallery of of Miramar High School’s 3,000 iBook laptop deployment. Apparently it only took 3 days, which seems impossible. I have been involved in my fair share of way smaller deployments (< 100) and I thought those were challenging.

It is great to see so many 1:1 deployments happening around the country. I just want to hear a lot more about the faculty training programs and curricular changes that are going into place the year before the 1:1 deployments.

images from Jaron Brass

Technorati Tags: 1:1, Apple, curriculum, education, future, iBook, laptops, photos, Mac

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LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT

Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 07 Jan 2006 15:49:23 GMT

Lego has just announced the new version of MINDSTORMS, the fantastic robotics programming package. The new version is called MINDSTORMS NXT. The main idea is for users to be able to build more interesting robots, more easily. A great article in Wired reviews the development process, and explains how the original MINDSTORMS kit has 70% adult users, and 30% young users. Lego hopes to reverse this trend by making a better user interface and programming language.

The old system will not be compatible with the new system, so all of us in the education market need to get ready for new expenses if we want to try the NXT system. From the pictures, the new brick (robot brain) is very elegant. Gone is the big yellow box, and here is the accessory-friendly, sleek new brick (click image for big close up). New and improved sensors include: ultrasonic (for “seeing”), sound, light, touch, rotation (inbuilt in motors). These open the doors to improved robot performance. One of the best new features is Mac version of the software.

The new brick is USB and Bluetooth compatible which may lead to some really neat interactions with devices like Bluetooth headsets, camera-phones and more. Gone is the difficult-to-use infrared tower that has been the bane of so many student and teacher programmers.

I think the idea of an easier to use Lego robotics kit is a valuable one and a dangerous one. Lego is excellent at building step by step instructions on how to build things (see Ikea for the opposite of good instructions). However, programming and computer science are not about following instructions to build products. Computer science is about problem solving, trial and error, debugging. I would rather see Lego build a better debugging interface than build more guides. Students already have ideas of what to build. We just need to enable them to be able to succeed. None of us as teachers are looking to make our students good instruction manual readers. We want them to be inventors. Since I haven’t seen NXT yet, I won’t comment on how well it facilitates this, but I can only hope it does.

Lego announced a new blog, nxtbot.com which will provide news on consumer electronics. So far, the blog only has 3 posts, but it just started. Add to the RSS readers and let’s see what they have to share.

Lego has also has an exciting developers program which will let 100 lucky people test out the new NXT system early. You will then be eligible for a reduced-priced NXT set when it releases. Throw your name in the hat, I already did (deadline: February 5).

Technorati Tags: computer science, education, hardware, blog, robotics, software, teaching

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Electro-phile

Posted by arvind s grover Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:31:00 GMT

Digital media and electronics have made much in life easier. Traveling however may not be one of those things. Here are the items I am carrying with me to India.

Apple Powerbook G4 laptop with iGo Juice travel AC adapter, Panasonic Lumix digital camera, Apple iPod Mini (no longer in production) mp3 player, Siemens S65 mobile phone, MTG USB 2.0 card reader, SimpleTech USB 2.0 flash drive. Include the chargers and cables, and you have quite a package to carry.

Technorati Tags: hardware, India, travel

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