Student Video from Classrooms

The digital world we live in has made video capture any time, any where, and at times, without the subject's knowledge, permission, or awareness. Today's classroom is such a place.

Take a few minutes to look at this post from Leader Talk, a blog about educational administration. Be sure to take a few minutes to read the comments posted by readers as well. It brings up a great many questions.

Check out the posting and commentary here.

Some of my thoughts...

It's alarming at times the antagonism that can be shown, not just student - teacher, but person to person. Purposefully pushing someone's buttons just seems... I don't know the word. Having lived through some of these types of experiences, I understand the frustration on both sides in some, but the first and last video seem extreme, antagonistic, and purposefully mean.

As one of the readers commented, it's not surprising that teachers are leaving the profession in droves, yet they are often not prepared for the classroom of today. I know my professional training offered a lot on pedagogy and subject matter, but almost nothing on classroom management, which was, by far, the biggest challenge of my first several years (and, if I was still in a classroom, current years, I'm sure). How do we expect new teachers to excel when the most difficult aspect of the job is the one they learn the least about?

That may be the best question to examine out of this posting... the legalities of the videos seem insignificant to me next to this.

Your thoughts?

2,000 Frames Per Second

Advancements in cameras project a 1/1,000,000, per second frame camera coming out before the end of the year. I'm sure there will be some phemominal things done with that type of frame capture.

Have a look at this very cool video of a popped water balloon at a relatively pathetic 2,000 frames per second.




Very cool.

Free Online File Conversion Tool

Ever wondered how to download online files in any format you wish? For free?

Zamzar is now offering a great, free tool that takes any embedded online video and allows you to save the video on your own computer in several different format option.

This really is fantastically easy to use. You can sign up for a free account, you can do it without signing up, or you can pay a fee for even more benefits.

I've used it without registering, and it worked well, and is very simple to use. Keep this valuable tool in your toolbox.

Blackboard Gradebook

One of the larger LMS (learning management systems) around is Blackboard, who has finally overhauled their Gradebook in the next release of 8.0. You can see a preview of the gradebook's release here.

Nanobots and Cancer

There's a lot of questions floating around asking about nanobots, and what are the actual application of them. It all sounds so sci-fiction, and sounds a long way off.

This story from 60 minutes (12 minutes long) shows some of the future applications of the nanos, and how the greatest of scientific discoveries can come from the most unlikely of sources. While this is still several years away, and is still a long way from a saviour, it is a good indication of how close the world is to the land of sci-fi.

Laptop of 2015

I do enjoy a peek into the future, speculative though they may be.

While computer advancements have come light-years in the last decade in terms of speed, memory, data storage, processing power, connectivity, convergence, etc, the basics around them have not changed much at all. Daily use of a computer/laptop still maintains the mechanical keyboard and mouse, which, beyond the ergonomic and wireless advancements, have advanced very little. This prediction shows the advancements yet to come, but seemingly quite reasonable in projection.

2015 is only a few years away... check out what you'll be working on here.

"Industrial Schools"

Less than a minute long, have a look at this commentary by Stephen Heppel.




One idea in particular that I've grabbed on to is the idea that schools are still based on the industrial revolution model. While this is something I've been suggesting for a while now, I too am disappointed in the lack of progression and forward thinking our education system is giving to getting out of the industrial age, when the rest of the modernized world has long since moved on.

In our province of Alberta, we have established through public funds excellent, stable high-speed internet to every school, yet many of those schools have little computer access for the students. Most school networks are tightly locked down so even those few students who have computers of their own they could bring to school can't access the network. I'm interested to check out post-secondary campuses to see if they are following their American siblings in offering campus-wide WiFi for students to access.

In this day and age, why are not most of the students provided laptops and WiFi access in schools, starting in Div II?

Heppel predicts 10 years of 'lost' children. I hope and hope it's not that long, but I do not doubt his prediction. I'm disappointed by it.

Next Steps in Hand-helds

The LucidTouch is still in a very rudimentary, prototype phase, but you can quickly see the potential of who this style of technology may quickly change the hand-held device world. In an era of convergence, this style of interaction is only a few years/months away.

Our LucidTouch prototype allows users to interact with screen content by touching the back of the device. The device allows users to target accurately by providing visual feedback of the users hand. This effect of "pseudo translucency" is created by sensing the hand behind the device and rendering a translucent version onto the screen.

Crayon Physics

Not too sure what to say about this except it looks very cool!

Gravity Lamp for the Greener Good

A lamp lit by gravity? Patent pending...

Virginia Tech student Clay Moulton has created a lamp that produces the equivalent of a 40-watt bulb over a period of 4 hours, making use of LED lighting and gravity.

Using similar ideas found in the old-school grandfather clock, a user slides a weight approximately every 4 hours to produce a soft glow. Estimated to function for 200 years, this may be the next wave of green products.

Past innovations have been all about convenience, all about making things as easy as possible on the user (think about the innovation of the remote control). This is a step in the other direction, a manual-intervention device that is aimed at the 'greener good'.

The light, pictured at left, stands about 4' tall, and glows through the entire column, by diffusing 10 high-output LED lights.

This design was just awarded 2nd place at the Greener Gadget Conference.

Read Virginia Tech's press-release here.