Educational Technology

By GALI WEINREB, Jerusalem Post

Scientists at TAU are working on a miniature electronic component that can read what happens in nerve cells and transmit it to a computer. The question of the interface between human beings and computers is one of the great dilemmas of the producers of entertainment technology. In recent years, touch screens have changed the field. The near future is likely to see the advent of non-touch screens: you think of a word, and it appears by itself on the screen in front of you via a wireless connection between the nerve cells in the brain and the computer. Sounds futuristic? It is, but it’s closer than you might imagine. In the laboratory of Prof. Yael Hanein, of the Department of Physical Electronics in Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering, scientists are currently working on a miniature electronic component that can read what happens in nerve cells and transmit it to a computer.

http://www.jpost.com/Business/Globes/Article.aspx?id=195464

by Natalie Wright, Seaholm High School Highlander

Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have previously been sanctuaries for high school students, giving them serenity away from the everyday stresses of homework and extracurricular activities.This year, however, Seaholm students have found that these havens have been invaded by classes attempting to adapt to today’s technology-engulfed environment. Though many students have been criticizing the “overuse” of digital mediums, some say that it is the teacher who makes or breaks the technological experience. “Some teachers know how to use [technology] better than others,” senior Margot Kriete said. “I think some teachers use it just for the sake of using it. They don’t really think about how it caters to the assignment.” Kriete has used various websites for multiple classes. Some, she says, use sites like Twitter and Wikispaces well. A few, however, do not utilize the advantages of the sites.

http://seaholmhighlander.com/lifestyles/student-life/897-technology-overload-are-students-sicki-of-wiki

By Matt Liebowitz, Security News Daily

The fingertip has long been the most effective way of identifying someone, but emerging research in biometrics could move the focus away from the hand to the outer ear. In a recently published paper first covered by Help Net Security, researchers from the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, England demonstrated an effective method of identifying people by scanning the contours of their outer ear. The study, which used a sample size of 252 images, proved to be 99.6 percent effective in providing an accurate identification by ear. Identification by ear worked so well for the researchers in part because the ear is “relatively immune to variation due to aging,” wrote the authors of the new paper, titled “A Novel Ray Analogy for Enrolment [sic] of Ear Biometrics.”

http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/the-future-of-id-ear-scanning-0289/

By Christopher Dawson, ZD Net Education

When the Adobe Education team demoed their Connect 8 online meeting software, I was, to put it mildly, impressed. A great business application also happened to be an awesome educational tool. Then, the folks at WizIQ gave me a demo the other day of their own virtual classroom software which shared many of the useful features in Connect but was highly competitive in terms of price and was specifically designed around the idea of classroom. I’ll be taking them head-to-head very soon, but suffice to say, both have some incredibly compelling use cases. However, until you actually see how they can change the student experience, it’s hard to appreciate just how powerful these tools really are.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/the-virtual-classroom-comes-of-age/4338

Barbara Jolie, Online Classes

No matter where a teacher holds his or her classes, a whirlwind of issues and setbacks and red tape comes prepackaged with the career. However, those working in major metropolitan areas — most especially the inner city — seem to attract the most media attention because of their own unique set of political, economic and social circumstances.

http://www.onlineclasses.org/2010/11/17/50-inspiring-blogs-for-urban-educators/

by Howard Feintuch, Diverse

Blackboard, which was founded in 1999, is scheduled to launch its newest product, Next Generation CourseSites by Blackboard, by early winter. The new software will be free to instructors, who can have up to five “available,” or live, courses at once and a storage limit on each of 500 megabytes. The only stipulation for access is that the instructor cannot directly charge fees to students for using CourseSites by Blackboard. The forthcoming product contains many enhancements from its predecessor, according to Jarl Jonas, senior product manager for Blackboard. Jonas says the product includes registration with open identification protocol through Web services such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Windows Live and Yahoo, as well as an instructor home page at a personalized URL that will contain the instructor’s course list. The product also can display blog feeds, enable expedited course development with course structure templates and theme choices to support a variety of teaching styles, and has a navigation ribbon to keep tools and support information easily available.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/14396/

by UKauthorITy

Most teachers believe textbooks will become obsolete due to the rise of the internet, a poll has revealed. A survey of more than 590 primary and secondary school teachers finds most believe more and more learning will be done online. And the majority think that information technology is now more important than traditional teaching methods. A majority of teachers (55%) believe children without internet access at home are being left behind according to a survey for the Times Educational Supplement and E-Learning Foundation. Currently, there are about two million children in the UK who are digitally disadvantaged at home and that affects their quality of homework according to 20% of the respondents. Almost 70% of teachers believe that having state of the art ICT equipment such as interactive whiteboards are more important than traditional textbooks and another 30% claim that textbooks would become obsolete in classrooms in the near future.

http://www.ukauthority.com/Headlines/tabid/36/NewsArticle/tabid/64/Default.aspx?id=2976

by Build-a-Bear

Cyberbullying is when one minor uses technology as a weapon to target another young person. According to StopCyberbullying.org, elementary and middle schools report cyberbullying as the most frequent problem they face. Most people think of cyberbullying as girl to girl. Girls become the more prevalent cyberbullies in middle school, harassing other girls and boys. Cyberbullying at the elementary school level is typically boy to boy due to the higher percentage of boys who play online games as opposed to girls.

Twenty percent of kids in the fourth through sixth grade have reported one type of cyberbullying when playing games, including:

— Password theft

— Accessing and stealing virtual items

— Mean messages

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Online-Safety-1353150.htm

by Larry Sampson, New Brunswick Business Journal

According to the Information and Communications Technology Council, even at the peak of the recent recession, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) unemployment in Canada got no higher than 4.5 per cent (it’s since fallen below three per cent). Finding talent is tougher for New Brunswick than other parts of the country. While we are blessed with some excellent post-secondary institutions, not enough high-school students are enrolling in computer science or engineering. This is compounded when many of our best and brightest go away to school and don’t return, and immigrants find locations such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver more attractive than Fredericton, Miramichi or Moncton. And if you think the talent squeeze only impacts the ICT sector, think again. More than half of the 8,100-plus people employed in ICT in New Brunswick don’t work for companies whose core business is technology – they work in forestry, energy, and mining, and in insurance, government and agriculture. So low numbers aren’t just an issue for the tech companies, they’re an issue for the entire economy. It tough to leverage technology to boost productivity, or convince company “X” to relocate high-paying tech jobs to New Brunswick when you can’t find the people.

http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/1308011