Attention students: hate carrying around textbooks? Love using technology to learn? Well, think about moving to South Korea! South Korea, ranked 8th out of 176 on the United Nation’s 2008 Education Index (for a comparison: the United States ranks 20th), wants to create an environment in which students can study anywhere and anytime while using better and more interactive content. South Korea’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that it would invest 2.2 Trillion Korean Won (about 2 billion US Dollars) by 2015 in an effort to develop digital textbooks for all subjects and all schools. The Ministry has stated that these proposed digital textbooks will contain all of the information of the printed textbooks and will also include helpful multimedia and reference sources that would enhance the learning process for all students in South Korea. The South Korean government, perhaps taking a page out of Apple’s, Google’s, Amazon’s, Microsoft’s or any other major technology corporation’s playbook(s), also wants to create a cloud computing system so that students can access these digital textbooks from any computer at any time. Moreover, the Ministry plans to provide students of low-income families with Tablet PCs in addition to setting up wifi networks in all schools. The Ministry also plans to have these textbooks accessible by computer, tablet, and smartphone. Of course, all components of this proposed plan would require a huge server, but South Korea already seems to have plans to accommodate such a device.

In my opinion, these changes sound very cool. Students these days are becoming more and more accustomed to using technology to enhance their working and learning. Obviously there are many down-sides of this plan. Textbooks don’t run on batteries. Computers do. Textbooks are much easier than computers to replace when lost or stolen. The list goes on. Personally, I feel that having to use a Tablet PC for your work can actually be less productive than using a textbook because Tablet PCs have other features that may distract the user (such as internet and games). For this plan to work, students is South Korea would also have to become more computer literate. Textbooks are very simple to use and there is a “realness” aspect of them: writing in a textbook feels like writing; highlighting feels like highlighting. Computers/Tablet PCs on the other hand are not as innately understood. In any case, South Korea’s dedication to the development to digital textbooks is just another chapter in our “Information Age”, and I, for one, am excited to see how this plan evolves.

What do you think about this topic? Leave your questions, comments, and/or thoughts below!

The most aggravating part of the beginning of the school year is ordering textbooks. Each year, I navigate an unhelpful website and manage unpredictable shipping until my books finally arrive. Last year I thought they had found a solution when they had students come to school to buy their books. For me this worked out well as it allowed me to receive all my books quickly and in one place. This system did not work out for everyone, with some people not being able to make it to school in time to pick up their books, so it was scrapped. This annual aggravation makes me think of a way in which we could have the convenience of purchasing all books needed for the school year in one place combined with the accessibility to purchase the textbooks. What if the school could provide Ipads for its students, in place of textbooks?

As a technology junkie, there is nothing I’d rather see then members of our community running around the crowded halls of Tillinghast with Ipads under their arms. What must be remembered here is that getting the textbooks, while a tumultuous time of the year, passes. Eventually all the kinks are worked out and everyone, hopefully, will end up with the correct textbooks in their possession. While the iPad would allow for a quick start into the year the cons would quickly begin to outweigh the pros as quality of learning decreased.
At the Grade School level, four California school districts have teamed up to supply their middle schools with four hundred Ipads for math classes.[1] If these initiatives are successful in getting students more excited about classes, using the Ipad’s virtual and interactive educational apps and websites may very well expand to other schools across the country. So, should we follow the trend? The answer is no, we should not. The iPad is not yet ready to take on the role of a conventional textbook. The screen is not large enough and too confining. Math textbook pages are large enough to fit helpful hints and pictures along with the problems to engage you as you learn. The iPad’s 9×7 inch screen would make it difficult to fit more than a few problems. As for annotation, the application you used would have to support it, and who is to say how well they would come out when written with your finger.

As for note taking, the iPad both has weaknesses and strengths. As for strengths, it would be nice to have notes easily stored in one place, as people who use computers to take notes may agree with. Many members of this generation also type faster than they can write. The implementation of handheld note-taking devices could be more efficient, and allow students to be more productive in and out of the classroom.  Taking down notes on the iPad in Geometry or Physics could prove difficult, however, since drawing diagrams on your Ipad could prove more difficult then free hand.

Would an Ipad be just as effective to use for doing reading assignments and studying from as textbooks? Certainly you could have access to one in more places. Textbooks are large and heavy. The ipad, weighing in at about 1.5 pounds, has the advantage of transportation for study on the go. But, where the iPad loses major ground to textbooks, is late reading. I like to read before I go to bed, sometimes I will substitute that book with a reading assignment or a small review of material. Textbooks will allow me to read what I needed, help me feel tired, and then I will go to sleep. The light emitted by the iPad, however, has been found to inhibit the release of melatonin, the chemical that tells your body when it is time for sleep.[2] Most devices that emit unnatural light have this same effect but because of the proximity to your face the iPad is especially bad. This could be disastrous for a student who is just looking to catch a few hours of all important sleep before an exam or even just a regular school day the next morning. We have all gone to school tired in the morning, and we all know a good night’s rest is a key to having a successful day at school.

Electronic textbooks is an interesting idea. In a world that is moving towards computerizing learning it can’t be forgotten that the quality of education cannot be lost to instant gratification. The quick gain of replacing all textbooks with iPads, quicker and more efficient purchasing and the ability to bring them anywhere, is lost in decrease of educational quality that would follow. Realistically, the online resources for most textbooks are still in the developmental phase. While the utilization of Ipads and Ebooks may be cheaper, their effects on the student in the classroom may be too great a cost. And let’s not forget the another obvious problem: it’s an Ipad. Who will be able to study with “Doodle Jump” a few taps away? Perhaps, in the near future Ipad’s will be found in everyone’s bag. However, for now, I believe we are better off the old-fashioned way: pen, paper and notebooks.

[2] http://www.switched.com/2010/04/27/late-night-ipad-reading-could-keep-you-up-at-night/

Hello everyone. I know it has been a while since the last article, but that subject is for a different time. I want to tell you a little bit of news about Topeka, Kansas. Yes, something interesting is happening in Kansas. Topeka, as some of you may know from some history class, is the capital of Kansas, but is now in the news for other reasons. A plan to rename the town to Google?! Read on to learn more….

When you think of Kansas, fast internet is probably not one of the first thing that comes to mind (maybe potatoes?). That may change, according to a formal proclamation Monday The mayor of Topeka announced his city will be known as “Google” — Google, Kansas. The mayor wants the kids of Topeka and even many of adults to have the fast internet that they deserve. The mayor believes that faster internet would encourage people to stay in Topeka and would encourage business in Topeka.  Sounds like a cool young mayor right? Guess again. The Mayor of Topeka is Bill Bunten, a 79 year old man who admits to not using the internet much and having his assistants search the internet for him. Bunten had this to say about the temporary name switch: “It’s just fun. We’re having a good time of it,” he said of the unofficial name change, which will last through the end of March. “There’s a lot of good things that are going on in our city.” Could the switch last more than a month? Could the new capital of Kansas be Google? When Bunten was asked if the change could ever be permanent he said:

“”Oh, heavens no, Topeka?” “We are very proud of our city and Topeka is an Indian word which means ‘a good place to grow potatoes.’ We’re not going to change that.”

Potatoes. I knew it.

Google has declined to comment on the name switch and, of course, took no part in it.

Is there a reason for this crazy renaming besides the fun of (temporarily) living in a town named Google? Yes, there is. The unusual move comes as several U.S. cities elbow for a spot in Google’s new “Fiber for Communities” program. The Web giant is going to install new Internet connections in unannounced locations, giving those communities Internet speeds 100 times faster than those elsewhere, with data transfer rates faster than 1 gigabit per second.

As crazy as this may sound, this is not actually the first time the apparently tech-crazy town of Topeka changed its name.  In 1998, former mayor Joan Wagnon temporarily changed the name of the city to “ToPikachu, Kansas,” in reference to Pikachu from Pokemon. This change lasted one day. Why you ask? Not even Bunten knew why: “We did it for a day, I can’t remember why.”

So will this switch help Topeka win the “Fiber for Communities” contest? I can’t see how this would help, but maybe.

Keep on Googling Topekans.

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Blake Robbins and his family are suing the Lower Merion School District for something you wouldn’t expect a school to be sued for: spying on the kids using their laptops’ built-in cameras. But how?

The Lower Merion School District apparently gives many of its students school-provided laptops. Great thing to do right? Well maybe, if they are used by the school for the right reasons. According to the lawsuit, the Lower Merion School District are using the school-provided laptops for a wrong reason: using the webcam to spy on the students at home. The school administrator allegedly activated the webcams on the laptops remotely at recorded students activity AT HOME. The situation was first brought to attention by the Robbins family, whose kid was disciplined by the school by what the school called “improper behavior at home.” The school’s evidence? Pictures taken by the school-provided laptop without the consent or knowledge of the laptop’s user.

Some students from the same school district have come forward saying they also noticed suspicious activity with their webcams, such as the green light next to the camera on their Macbooks turning on seemingly by itself. For those who do not know, the green light being on usually means the camera itself is also on. According to the same students, when they went to the IT guy at the school to see what was wrong, he gave them excuses.

The school most likely used Apple Remote Desktop to turn on the cameras on the laptops. According to a Washington Post report from early yesterday morning, the school district has admitted to remotely activating its laptops’ webcams forty-two times over the last 2 years. Now the FBI is involved, determining if the school district violated any wiretapping or computer-privacy laws in the process. Dr. Christopher W. McGinley, Superintendent of the Lower Merion School District, sent an email out addressing the matter, saying , among other things, that the webcams were only accessed in efforts to retrieve stolen or lost laptops and that the webcams were only being accessed for security reason. The real reason stems from the fact that the school took unauthorized pictures of a student at home and used the pictures as evidence for discipline.

To me, this whole situation is crazy. Did the school really spying on thier students using school-provided laptops? I guess only time and a lawsuit will tell. Obviously I do not attend the Lower Merion School District, so I am in no way an expert in the matter.

Here is the lawsuit if you want to read it.

Leave any questions, comments, or thoughts below!

0101 GadgetGuy

I am sure anyone reading this now has read or heard about Apple’s new iPad, either through Ross’s great review or by some other means. So I am not going to just write another review.  I am going to discuss another part of the new iPad—its name.

To be honest with all of you, when I first saw the name of the iPad (while reading Engadget’s and Gizmodo’s live blogs simultaneously), my heart sank a little bit.

Maybe we didn’t start out on the right foot.  The device? It looks great.  Now I have my pro’s and con’s, but that is for another time.  I just can’t bring myself to accept the name “iPad.”

You could be thinking, oh GadgetGuy (James) do you actually have a reason for not liking the name or are you just rambling?  Answer: I do have my reasons. Here they are:

1.  Cool Factor.  Over the years, Apple’s product names have become less creative and more blunt.  For example, the last tablet-like device created (almost 2 decades ago) by Apple was called “Newton.”  Now that’s cool! I want something mysterious, something interesting.  I want someone to ask me what I am using and I want my response to sound cool.

2.  Clarity/Accuracy.  This brings me to my second reason.  If the blunt names must continue, the name should be something a little more….clear.  For example, the iPhone. Simple name. Apple’s signature “i” followed by what the device is supposed to be a “Phone.”  So let’s try this method with the iPad. Signature “i”?  Check. But here is where we run into trouble.  “Pad”?  Really?  This is definitely not a pad.   Another rumored name was the iSlate.  Even “Slate” I understand more that “Pad.”  The actual object is a Slate. So that is fitting.  The iPad, however, is in no shape or form a Pad. (Besides, doesn’t “Slate” sound so much cooler than “Pad”?  I guess that brings us back to reason 1.)

3.  It could be much better.  I won’t lie, these people at Apple are among the most creative people I have ever read about.  The things they come up with and create are beyond me.  So why couldn’t they take about 2 hours out of one day, sit together in a boardroom, and come up with a name that is not only fitting but also sounds really really cool?

Other rumored named included, Tablet, iTablet, Apple Tablet, Slate, and iSlate.

Since none of these names really fit for me, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. Here are a few examples of some decent names:

1.  TheMagicMaker

2.  The MagicTouch

3.  the iMagicTouch

4.  iEvenIfYouDon’tLikeItYouWillBuyItBecauseAppleMakesIt

5.  iBlock

6.  AppleBlock

7 . iBrick

8 . The iPhone on Steriods

9.  The iTouch (oh wait…)

10.  The Big Sexy Touch Computer

And that’s it for my suggestions.  Vote in the poll below and be sure to comment with your thoughts. In closing, though, not matter the name, I will be getting an iPad.  (It pains me even to type the name.)

The software is also pretty impressive. It runs a beefed up version of the iPhone OS that is capable of running any current iPhone apps in addition to soon to be released tablet only apps. It comes with the standard iPhone house applications with some exceptions, but it adds a new one–iBooks. iBooks is an e-reader app that has its own store and a plethora of new book titles for purchase.

Apple is releasing three new accessories as well. Two docks and one case. One dock props it up and makes it look suspiciously like a digital picture frame. The other dock is identical but has a KEYBOARD attached to it. I’m sure more third party accessories will rush in soon.

Pricing and availability. It costs $499, $599, and $699 without 3G chips and an extra $120 each with 3G. 3G data from AT&T costs 14.99 for 250mb per month or 30 for unlimited data. The non 3G model will ship in 60 days and the 3G models will ship 30 days later.

I’ll do a full review once I can get my hands on one in April.

Ross Isdaner

With a modern smart phone you can do so much more than just text, call, and play games.  I can check my school email(we’re allowed to on our computers?), I can use it as a comparable calculator or I can look up information much more quickly than ever before.  Plus with Apple’s app store there are literally thousands of productivity applications that can do even more.

We want to know what you think so leave a comment letting us know what YOU think the rules should be. And, of course, answer the poll!