Notes from March 2010 Ed Tech Day at IC

Jim

• Overall impression was that there was surprisingly little in the way of mobile technologies on display.
• Microsoft--when I asked about mobile tech, the rep told me that Mobile 7 is coming out
• Optoma--projector people.  Were demoing a mini projector that hooks up to a smart phone.  Got a picture and registered to win one.  She admitted that this particular model was underpowered memory and lumens wise, but showed what was coming down the line. 
• Verizon--seemed like most mobile ready vendor, I guess not surprisingly.  Talked for a while with sales rep who said the next big thing was skype on the phone.  Audio was coming soon, and video would follow as soon as bandwidth expanded and they started designing mobile phones with two cameras (one for video in front).  Big word is "convergence"; I think he meant that the computer and the mobile phone were become integrated more into one. The other big thing coming was the 4g network.  He called it LTE.  A super broadband network (7-mb/second) which was coming out soon in select areas (Rochester is one).  He predicted this would mean the end of wireless hubs on college campuses and offer the possibility for staying on one network for all your wireless.
• Espon--ok, not mobile, but snapped a pic of the rep demoing a smart board projector that looked cool.

Camille

• Attended part of Hitachi Starboard interactive whiteboard demo with Greg: Has functions of most interactive whiteboards (ability to write on touchscreen, draw, display Office products, capture stills from webcam, play video, insert flash video, etc.) Looks more functional than Smart Technologies interactive whiteboard in that projector can be mounted on board which will avoid having to put a projector in front of screen. Can come on wheels but can also be mounted. Recalibration necessary if new computer hooked up so permanent computer would be best idea.
• Creating Elearning projects with Adobe Captive 4: New Captivate 4 can roundtrip PPT slides for transfer and editing of existing content into Flash format. Can create custom buttons and skins (templates) for common projects. Integration with PDF and other Adobe products. Can drop Camtasia videos into Captivate projects.
• Ebooks discussion: Not much new here, just speculation. Someone mentioned that standard formats like odf and SecurePDF are in teh works which will work across devices. Still a lot of uncertainty about devices, business models, content (textbooks in particular), and utility for academic libraries
•  1-to-1 mobile computing: Terry Kahner (Verizon) and Dr. Billie Baum (Watkins Glen SD-working think tank on STEM education)talking about ideas of Dr. Elliot Soloway (sp?), UMichigan head of doctoral program in ed tech.* New Federal Technology Plan: emphasizes broadband access and MLD (mobile learning devices) 
• In Watkins Glen 5^th and 7^th grade given smartphones (w/no cell or texting). Dr. Soloway's GoNo software allows teacher to serve lessons to students using differentiated instruction. GoNo manage software and server farm allow teachers to work on lesson plans and push them out to students and continually monitor students' work 

• Budget and Implementation: **** Savings on paper alone=$20K;
  • • • E-rate for monthly service for devices (or Model Schools)
      • Worked with BOCES in Watkins Glen
      • Hardware from Verizon
      • Some stimulus funding
  • Toolbox Pro-teachers can go to cache that they can update with sites they want student to see (filtered) and includes state assessments

• • Support issues: battery life, etc. Have an IT admin, IT support and 24/7  800 number help from Verizon and GoNo. Children are responsible for charging and bringing their handheld (if they forget they do paper and pencil). Watkins Glen identified number of devices and Verizon stockpiled 5% of devices as backup. Tier 1 support is Watkins Glen. Tier 2 tech support is Verizon
  • Startup-1 day training on MLD; 2 day prof dev training with GoNo; After Oct training for GoNo, they moved launch to December (1 month ahead of schedule at teachers' demand); 2 day training with students
  • Verizon-figured out stock, loaded up devices and property tagged them, customized the handhelds 
  • Watkins Glen has had a laptop per child program for 8-9 years and students prefer handheld. Each grade level has mobile lab as well
  • Shift in thinking for teachers
  • Other hardware and software: Celio (sp?) Red Flag dump terminal if they want to see things on a larger screen (in TX school district) but GoNo can also run on netbooks which is what Watkins uses; Can also project onscreen using MyMobilizer Apps come with GoNo like Sketchy for drawing and video/animation 

• Assessment: Looking at data from Math and ELA scores before and after (then segmented by gender and special ed or not and complexity of questions) 

• Q&A
  • Can access library's mobile resources 
  • Seminar in wireless communication-ethics and social and legal use (for parents and teachers) 
  • Filtering by age level (7, 13, 17)   

Gabriel Plaine

• AV Rover www.avrover.com  This line of products looked very interesting for the bissett space as well as for Mann events in non-AV spaces of Mann Library (like when book-talks are held in the deans room). This is a mobile AV station with projector (VGA), speakers, built-in DVD-VHS plus extra rack space to accommodate more devices. There are also some grants that could save us $ on the purchase.
• The Optoma Mini-hand-held projector looked interesting as well, patrons could check the out from circulation and use them in any quiet/dark corner or the library for group study.
• The Zoom q3 http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2020 a hand-held video/audio recorder could be a great tool for collaboration and student podcasting.
• the Mimio interactive http://www.mimio.com/products/mimio_interactive/index.asp would also be a nice addition to Bisset because it can mount on any wall or whiteboard and make it interactive. Check out the product and video.
• I was also impressed by the Hitachi StarBoard demo, until i realized that we already have this in our classrooms (SMART Panel), and to make it work in a collaborative environment would be difficult due the fact you need to use special software (which means providing and supporting a computer running the software), and documentation would need to be thorough or else support call will be frequent.