Hardware+and+network+technologies+in+the+classroom

[|Using the technology of today, in the classroom today.]
 * Hardware and network technologies in the classroom**

"What is **//good learning//**? That may be a subjective question. But it’s likely that many educators would give answers  that fall in the same ballpark… …students **collaborating** and d**iscussing ideas, possible solutions**… …**project-based learning**, designed around **real world contexts**… …**connecting** with other students **around the world**, on topics of study… …immersing students in a learning experience that allows them to grapple with a problem, gaining **higher-order thinking skills** from pursuing the solution…"
 * The 'best bits' of this paper -**
 * "Many agree that games, simulations, and social networking technologies have much to offer education. Yet while the benefits of these offerings are still making themselves apparent, a growing number of educators are making sure they are on the front-end of the wave. By appreciating that the students filling their classroom chairs have a different perspective on the world, these teachers are able to experiment with new ways to connect with kids through these technologies. Moreover, the research is supporting this work, showing that “multimedia education improves both comprehension of the lesson material and students’ interest in the lesson topic”"
 * [|The Institute of Play] - For the past several years, this research-based, youth-oriented organization designs game-based learning environments, curriculum, and professional development programs centered on helping teachers gain fluency in the effective use of digital media and games for learning.
 * The educational benefits of WoW - While not targeted at education, nor seeking to cover any type of educational content, Green & Hannon (2007) cite multiple skills associated with being a “guildmaster” (one of the roles in WOW)
 * attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members;
 * creating apprenticeship programs;
 * orchestrating group strategy; and
 * managing disputes.
 * Games and simulations have been a key component of training doctors and military personnel, but even businesses like PricewaterhouseCoopers used a game about a mining company in outer space to teach its employees about derivatives. Although that may seem a bit “off the wall,” the fact is major corporations, the Department of Defense, and the medical community would not use these tools if they were not highly effective.
 * Gaming is already a widespread activity in our culture —more than 45 million homes have video-game consoles (Feller, 2006). Over 154 million Americans play video games (that’s about half of the country’s population) (Emrich, 2005). In a given week, the average eighth-grade boy will play video games for about 23 hours, while the average girl will play about 12—that’s even more time than they spend watching TV (Dawley, 2006). Therefore, one of the most obvious benefits to using these technologies for learning is that students are often already familiar with these interfaces and the “language” of interacting with and utilizing them.

[|New York schools enter the iZone] They're being told to find new ways to provide a more individualised education, to change the shape of the school day, explore what technology can offer and even ask whether pupils need to be in school at all. "The challenge we face is nothing less than transforming our schools from assembly-line factories into centres of innovation," said the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who warns that the US school system is falling behind international rivals. The NYC Lab School is part of an initial group of 81 schools taking part in the iZone experiment, which has expanded to 160 schools and will grow to 400 schools by 2014. Schools will have a three-year roadmap to develop and then implement their plans.

"By losing ground in our schools we've also lost ground in the economy," said Mayor Bloomberg, when he launched the iZone's plan to recover the sense of educational initiative. "The economic challenges facing the middle class in this country, especially stagnating wages and the growing incomes gap, is directly related to the educational challenges facing our schools," he told New Yorkers. "The only way we can remain an economic superpower is to modernise our education system and to do it right now."

**Laptop computers** **Intel-powered convertible classmate PC** media type="youtube" key="Ptl7_8UZjqo" height="315" width="560" align="center"

**Life in a day: Abel and his laptop** media type="youtube" key="JnKhVajQ6rw" height="315" width="560" align="center"

One Laptop per Child media type="youtube" key="c-M77C2ejTw" height="315" width="560" align="center"

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[|Oct 1st 2009 | //MONTEVIDEO// | from the print edition]  Shiny new toys, certainly. An educational revolution? Perhaps FOR the past year the pupils of Escuela 95, in a poor neighbourhood of Montevideo, have had a new learning tool. Each has been issued with a laptop computer. This has been of particular help to the 30 or so children with severe learning difficulties, says Elias Portugal, a special-needs teacher at the school. Before, he struggled to give them individual attention. Now, the laptops are helping them with basic language skills. “The machines capture the kids’ attention. They can type a word and the computer pronounces it,” he says.

[|Digital textbooks open a new chapter] - // 18 October 2011 - Last updated at 23:00 GMT // South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum. By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.

DIGITAL CLASSROOMS

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is giving 6.8 million free laptops to school pupilsUruguay plans to be the first country where all school pupils are given their own laptopApple says 600 US school districts are switching to digital textbooks on iPadsAmazon has launched a rental service in the US for digital textbooks for students

**Handheld devices**
 * iLife brings student projects to life.
 * iWork makes productivity more fun.
 * iPad. A whole new way to create.
 * iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps are transforming the way teachers teach and students learn.
 * From lectures and slideshows to gallery tours and interviews, podcasting engages students in ways the printed page can’t.
 * Find lectures, lessons, books, and podcasts and download them for free. iTunes U is available to everyone — students, teachers, and lifelong learners.

**[|Apple Education Labs]** Learning with iPod touch and iPhone
 * With so many education apps available, you can carry an entire library of reference materials with you anywhere. Apps help transform the way teachers teach and students learn. And there are apps for every subject and every stage of learning.
 * A 24/7 learning store at your fingertips.
 * Apps aplenty.
 * Most of what you do online with a computer you can do with iPhone or iPod touch. And you can do it wherever you go.
 * Facetime
 * HD Video recording
 * Wi-fi wherever
 * Safari
 * Mail
 * Calendar
 * Keyboard
 * Voice memos
 * While you’re shopping for music on iTunes, you can also choose from more than 350,000 free course lectures, videos, readings, and podcasts from universities and institutions worldwide. It’s all on iTunes U.

media type="youtube" key="svZtva5pHDw" height="315" width="560" Learning with iPad = = Microsoft in Education
 * An incredibly responsive Multi-Touch screen. A large, high-resolution LED-backlit IPS display. A design that’s thin and light enough to take anywhere. iPad isn’t just the best device of its kind — it’s a whole new kind of device. And it’s poised to change the learning landscape.
 * Apps for Education
 * iWork for iPad: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers
 * Make movies and music with iMovie and GarageBand.
 * iTunes U
 * A novel way to buy and read books
 * With built-in features like video mirroring and AirPrint, one iPad can teach an entire classroom.
 * With just a few taps, you can print your reports, documents, email, and photos right from your iPad to AirPrint-enabled printers over Wi-Fi.2 There’s no software to download, no drivers to install, and no cables to connect.
 * With Video mirroring and the Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately), your HDTV or HD projection screen becomes a bigger version of your iPad. Students can see the iPad display and every tap, swipe, and flick of your finger — even when you rotate from portrait to landscape.

[|Free products and services for teachers]
Microsoft offers free tools to help engage students in a variety of subject areas—from movie-making to collaboration to science and beyond. Teachers can download these tools for free, the majority of which require no special training.

[|Xbox Kinect]
Xbox (with Kinect) transforms ordinary classroom experiences into extraordinary immersive education.
 * Revitalize classroom lessons with Body and Brain Connection.
 * Energize physical education with Kinect Sports.
 * Put the “active” back in after-school activities while fostering social development and collaboration with Kinect adventures.

[|Possibilities of Kinect in Education] media type="youtube" key="c6jZjpvIio4" height="315" width="560" align="center"

[|Going to Harvard from your own bedroom] - 21 March 2011 - Last updated at 03:04 GMT "In the online world you don't need to fill buildings or lecture theatres with people and you don't need to be trapped into a lecture timetable," says Peter Scott, director of the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. The Open University, the UK's open access university, which allows people to study from home in their own time, has been an international pioneer of degree courses online. ONLINE DEGREES  More than 66% of higher education institutions in the US offer online or part-online courses The University of Liverpool in the UK has more than 5,000 online students studying in 175 countries Open Yale offers a series of free online courses which can be followed by home learners, but without any exams or qualifications An open source project, OER Commons, includes free material from universities including Harvard and University of California, Berkeley

**Interactive whiteboards** A large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. The board is typically mounted to a wall or floor stand.

They are used in a variety of settings, including classrooms at all levels of education, in corporate board rooms and work groups, in training rooms for professional sports coaching, in broadcasting studios and others.

Uses for interactive whiteboards may include:
 * Running software that is loaded onto the connected PC, such as a web browsers or proprietary software used in the classroom.
 * Capturing and saving notes written on a whiteboard to the connected PC
 * Capturing notes written on a graphics tablet connected to the whiteboard
 * Online whiteboard
 * Controlling the PC from the white board using click and drag, markup which annotates a program or presentation
 * Using OCR software to translate cursive writing on a graphics tablet into text
 * Using an Audience Response System so that presenters can poll a classroom audience or conduct quizzes, capturing feedback onto the whiteboard

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[|UK school tech show moves to Abu Dhabi]  2 November 2011 - Last updated at 00:19 GMT The BETT Show, that annual four-day pilgrimage to educational technology in London's Olympia, has exported itself to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to become BETT Middle East. This learning technology trade fair now has a branch in the Gulf, as well as its flagship London event, bringing headline acts such as Microsoft, Hitachi, Epson, Cisco, Panasonic and Hewlett Packard.

"Schools and teachers in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia are hungry for change and technological innovation. In fact many are further ahead in this than some of the former 'top nations'” - Chris Merrick

//For educational games, go to [|www.educationarcade.org]//

= [|Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students]  =

- an active role rather than the passive role - actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information - students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress - teacher is no longer the center of attention as the dispenser of information, but rather plays the role of facilitator, setting project goals and providing guidelines and resources, moving from student to student or group to group, providing suggestions and support for student activity - students, even at the elementary school level, are able to acquire an impressive level of skill with a broad range of computer software - students acquire a basic understanding of how various classes of computer tools behave and a confidence about being able to learn to use new tools
 * **Change in Student and Teacher Roles**
 * **Increased Motivation and Self Esteem**
 * **Technical Skills**
 * **Accomplishment of More Complex Tasks**
 * **More Collaboration with Peers**
 * -**** an increased inclination on the part of students to // work cooperatively // and to provide // peer tutoring //.
 * **Increased Use of Outside Resources**
 * **Improved Design Skills/Attention to Audience**