Electric Chalk

Have just read this article from the UK Independent paper.

KEEP UP!!

To claim that PDA’s are about to transform education is something that could have come from an article 3 years ago. I had to double check the year on the article.

They quite obviously haven’t for a number of reasons but PDA’s as a technology are dying a long, slow agonising death. Who would buy a PDA now, anyway? It’s all about smartphones and iPhones. PDA’s are expensive, difficult to use (thanks to Windows Mobile) and decidedly not sexy. Why should a school forkout  thousands of pounds to equip their students with soon-to-be-obsolete technology?

I can forgive the Indie this one discretion - probably wooed (as my boss pointed out) by a well timed press release from Wolverhampton. 

What is more disappointing is that I found it through a link from the BETT show website, THE premiere education technology show in the UK.

Come on, chaps. You’re supposed to be showcasing the future!

 (NOTE: Damn, can’t find the seminar page that linked to it now but it definitely was there!!)

One of our main strategic goals this year at our CLC is embedding learning platforms in the curriculum. So far, so good. A few departments are really running with them as tools for managing resources and running activities in the classroom and at home.

A question that comes up a lot is accessing the platform. It’s not always easy to book IT rooms for non IT lessons and what happens when the students get home and they have no access to a computer or broadband.

The latter problem may be sorted out by Gordon’s latest education initiative.

As for computers at home and in the classroom what about something like this?

Advent Netbook (pingpong ball for scale)

Things like them have been out for a while and are selling like hot cakes - big advertising push for the ASUS version this Xmas. To keep costs down they usually come with open source operating systems like Linux which makes running Windows apps a problem but they will run XP.

Down sides are that there is not a lot of storage once you have installed all the software and battery life won’t quite make it through the school day if you’re always on wireless. Also, they’ll struggle with memory heavy apps like video editing.

But is that really a problem?

• Storage problems? If you’re using a learning platform for activities, use that as the storage medium.
• Lack of sufficient memory? The majority of the stuff students do in the classroom does not require bags of memory anyway.
• Battery life? OK, not so easy to solve but you aren’t going to use these constantly though the day and wifi connection can be toggled on and off when needed.

Plus the main bonus is that kids LOVE them! We’ve had dozens of classes though this half-term using our set of  35 Advent Netbooks (pictured) and the buzz is amazing. Nearly all of them say they want them for Christmas. The really powerful, monster quad core machines we’ve got round the walls for video editing are soundly ignored!

Picture a school where each student has their own mini laptop as part of their kit. Either bought by the school or paid for in part or full by parents through a subscription they could transform lessons into ICT-rich activities on the spot without having to book time in the IT suites. 

A few models are available. Check out:

• Asus EeePC
• Acer Aspire

Avoid the Sony models, by the way. Over priced and over designed.

Mobile and handheld learning has been a hot topic of conversation at coffee time of late. We really love the Mediascape application that’s been around for a while now and have run several very successful projects with it in the classroom.

The basic idea is that students create a living map which is then downloaded onto a mobile device running windows and GPS. When the user walks around the location of the map they enter hotspots defined in the classroom which trigger simple bits of media to show on the mobile devices screen. Check the website for a better description.

With a bit of imagination the possibilities are endless.

The disappointment we’ve had is finding a mobile device that will work reliably in the field. We had bought a batch of Siemens Fujitsu EDA’s which were supposed to be the business but actually turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The GPS was unreliable and setting the devices up was time-consuming and erratic. Camera and sound quality are poor too. They were discontinued not long after release.

So, we’ve been searching for a decent device for a while now withe the basic spec of:

• reliable GPS (gets a quick, accurate fix and holds it for more than a gnat’s breath)
• reasonably tough
• bright, biggish screen
• wireless
• decent camera for taking stills and video