The 10 Coolest Things from NYSCATE

Without a doubt, the biggest buzz around a new technology at NYSCATE was when David Jakes demonstrated GE's augmented reality. Watch the YouTube Demo or why not print your own marker and see for yourself.



Google just keeps adding things like Image Swirl, which is like Wonder Wheel, but for images. Fast Flip is pretty cool too. If you need a quote then navigate to In Quotes. And if you need to make comparisons, try Google Squared.

Creating animations becomes easier with Animationish, a product that attempts to maintain simplicity and includes 3 levels to progress through. Here is my first attempt:




I could export the animation into iMovie or Movie Maker and add a sound track or narration as well.

Stupeflix.com provides another tool to take images, video, text, and audio and package them into a video. More customizable than Animoto, this video took me about 5 minutes to create from start to finish (pics were already on Flickr).



If you are looking to write your own iPhone or iTouch app, you might want to check out Swebapps or Appincubator. Swebapps allows you to build your app using their template and Appincubator asks for app ideas and then they will write the app and take a cut if it sells on iTunes.

And finally, this student Balloon Project is very cool.

Honorable Mention: Kiss YouTube, Today's Front Pages, BeFunky (create then import into Animationish), and Quiet Tube (strips all those nasty comments from youtube).

NYSCATE Keynotes-Sir Ken Robinson & David Jakes

Today's NYSCATE keynote addresses were troublesome. I walked out of these keynotes wanting to take my kids out of school. I walked out wanting to encourage policy makers and administrators to blow up the current educational system and start from scratch. I walked out engaged in discussions about new education models. It's difficult having these thoughts and emotions knowing that I work in this system and my kids go to school (with success but not much love) in a broken system. So what was said today to inspire these emotions?

An interesting spectrum of ideas were presented today by Sir Ken Robinson and David Jakes. Robinson's view was systemic and global. In many ways, Jakes was saying the same things but came at us in a much more pragmatic approach that reflected his current work.

Sir Ken Robinson:
You can't let Robinson's humor take away from the seriousness of his message. This is sometimes a difficult task. The best thing to come out of Liverpool since The Beatles, Robinson knows just when to digress into native bashing. Clearly ticked off that we are still celebrating the British going home every July 4th, he still found reason to move his family to California nearly a decade ago.

Robinson makes bold statements. We are in a revolution. A revolution in infancy. Robinson explains that currently the world's fastest computer has the processing power of a cricket brain (at least that's what someone at Apple said). Computers will soon match the power of a 6-month old and exponential increases in power will match the global population in my lifetime. Imagine where this will take us. Actually, that is almost impossible.

Robinson concludes that the current system is broken. The evidence? An average national dropout rate of over 30%, 50-60% in Detroit and other urban areas . In America. Is that all the evidence we need? Robinson added the heavy use of drugs & alcohol and the ADHD epidemic. He referred to ADHD as this generation's tonsillitis. If kids aren't taking drugs themselves, the parents are drugging them anyway. So what is the answer?

Sir Ken Robinson believes that since parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians all want the same thing for our kids and it's not happening then the problem is systemic. What do you do with a broken system? There are so many obstacles and push-backs. You change one thing and it effects 2o other things and the most passionate, energized movement stalls. Some believe the change will come from the students, they will demand it. Others think change will happen one school at a time, one teacher at a time. Whatever the model, Robinson believes it takes on 3 characteristics: learning is organic, personal, and customizable. Education 1.0 was philosophical, religious, survival of the fittest. Education 2.0 was and still is an industrial model. Education 3.0 is on the verge of reaching those characteristics of being organic, personal, and customizable. I agree learning is best when these qualities are captured. I get excited from learning that grows out of my own motivations and interests and is met by custom instruction that answers my specific inquiries. This type of learning inevitably leads to more questions and more learning. Technology can make this type of learning happen, in ways it couldn't before. Getting there will not be easy.

David Jakes:
It was refreshing to see Jakes put some big ideas into some reasonable context. A context that didn't seem as overwhelming. Change that was clearly difficult and hard but not impossible.

Jakes shared some of the newest ideas like augmented realities, which in the future would be created by users, not programmers (just like web page design used to be only available to programmers). I think the point Jakes was trying to make here is that technology is a moving target. It's not about adopting the newest cool gadget (although that can be fun). It's more about blending the physical space with the digital space.

What does it mean that our elementary students are already social networking in digital spaces like Webkinz and Hot Wheels? It means businesses already understand how the physical can be enhanced by the digital experience. How does this apply to the classroom? The physical space of the classroom (and the school) is very important. Jakes showed us simple ideas like tables on wheels, common areas that students had impromptu coffeehouse jams, and whiteboard walls where students worked out physics problems together. However, a digital world surrounds this physical space. A digital space. A digital learning space. The question is how do we fill this space so that it blends with the physical space into what is perceived by the student as just a learning space. To me, this context seemed more manageable, more possible. A teacher asks themselves how can I blend my physical space with digital space. The answer is deliberately & purposefully, and we need to start tomorrow.

NYSCATE Report #1-Gary Marx

The first keynote address was given by Gary Marx, author of 16 Trends, Their Profound Impact on the Future. A lot of this speech was of the World is Flat variety, however, there is plenty of food for thought. Marx tried to extend the discussion to the implications were for each of these trends but in this time frame he was unable to develop these ideas (even though he was speaking very, very fast). His time frame for the these trends were usually looking at now till 1950. I will be either dead or 87 years old in 1950 so I was interested in the implications of these trends for my children. Somehow, I missed 2 trends in my notes...I only have 14. If you want the other 2, I guess you will have to buy the book (or download this ASCD document that gives a better summary than what follows).

• The old outnumber the young (2030: only 2 workers for every SS beneficiary)
• Majorities will become minorities
• Social and intellectual capital will become an economic force (rise & flight of the creative class)
• Continuous Improvement trend (collaboration to build on ideas)
• Generation E (equilibrium), born after 2004 will look to fight injustices and call for equilibrium
• Increased speed of communication (nanotechnology)-implications for materials, conductors, medications, energy
• Education will become personalized and lifelong
  
• Release of human ingenuity across disciplines
• Widespread ethical issues
• Planetary security issues-natural resources, weapons
• We are responsible for other people (globally)
• Narrowness vs. Openmindedness (polarization vs. civility)
• Diplomacy and interdependence focus
• Work/Life balance-seeking personal meaning vs. personal accomplishment

Marx concluded by asking educators the following in regard to our educational system, "Do we defend what we have or create what we need?"

NYSCATE DAY 2

Reporting from Day 2 at NYSCATE Conference. David Jakes, presenting on digital storytelling. One of the new tools of this trade is an online movie editing tool called Jumpcut. I also attended a Smart Tech (makers of SmartBoard) session on the Senteo personal response system. These are the "clickers" that students can use to answer quick polls, test and quiz questions then immediately graph, chart the data. Students can be tracked and you can immediately see how well your lesson went. Checking for understanding never became more meaningful because now you have actual data from ALL your students.

NYSCATE

Ok...what am I doing with these last 3 posts? Well, it's called mobile blogging. These posts (not this explanation) were done using my cell phone. First, I snapped the picture on my cell phone, added a subject line and a txt message. Next, I sent the pix/txt message to Blogger (stored as a contact on my phone). Automatically the picture and txt message is added to this blog. I don't have to be anywhere near a computer to update my blog website. This can be used for some on the scene reporting when you know that others have a need to see live updates. It is very easy to set up. If you have multiple contributors to your blog, then you could have multiple remote reports for one event. Something tells me you could do this with video/audio as well, I just haven't figured out how to do it....yet.

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First session

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Arrived at the conference