Jun 25
Jun 25
Jun 25
The Engadget Show 44: Education with Google, OLPC, Code.org, LeapFrog, SparkFun, Adafruit and more
Posted in: Today's Chili
It’s time to rethink the way our children learn. It’s all a bit overwhelming, attempting to restructure the age-old classroom model, particularly in a system as bogged down in bureaucratic red tape as education. This month, however, we packed up our things and toured the country to find out how educational institutions are adopting new models to help reinvent the learning process — rather than sitting idly by, waiting for the system to change around them. Naturally, technology is playing a huge role in that shift, moving from models of teaching to models of learning, where students can explore, express themselves and learn at their own speed.
We kick things off in Chicago, where Jackie Moore, a former systems programmer, is teaching inner city students how to build robots in a shopping mall basement at LevelUP. Next up, we head Miami and California, to see how technologies like the iPad, Google Chromebook and One Laptop Per Child’s XO laptop are being implemented in three schools, including interviews with educators, students, OLPC CEO Rodrigo Halaby and Google director of product management, Rajen Sheth. We’ll also talk to component retailers SparkFun and Adafruit about the initiatives those companies have implemented to help kids learn electronics at an early age, and then we sit down with American Museum of Natural History president, Ellen Futter, to discuss the ways the New York City institution is redefining itself for the 21st century.
We’ve also got an interview with Ali Partovi, a serial entrepreneur, who is working to make computer science an essential part of the elementary-level STEM program, through Code.org. Richard Culatta, the acting director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology discusses how devices can help target the learning process for individual students and LeapFrog CEO John Barbour tells us how his company is rethinking the educational toy. All that plus prognostications from John Roderick and some really sweet moose dioramas can be yours to enjoy after the break.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Laptops, Robots, Tablets, Science, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Alt, Google, Acer
Jun 25
Earlier this year we saw AirHarp, a virtual harp that uses the Leap gesture controller, letting the user make music by playing an imaginary harp. The developer behind the AirHarp recently introduced a similar program but for a more popular instrument. The AirBeats will actually make air drummers productive. Or at least expose them for the frauds they are.
The AirBeats is very intuitive to use. The instruments you’ve chosen are displayed on the screen. All you have to do is tap in midair as if those instruments were arranged in front of you. You can also record and replace instruments just by pointing and swiping in midair. It is incredibly responsive, whether you use your hands or a pair of drumsticks or even pencils.
Developer Handwavy said AirBeats will be available on Airspace – that’s Leap’s app store – on July 22, 2013. I love how it’s a more physical way of making digital music. Maybe artists can even use it live so their audience can “play” along with them.
[via UniqueDaily]
Jun 25
Here’s a 1TB, USB 3.0 capable portable hard drive for $60 shipped from Amazon. That’s a good price! And it’s another reminder to back your data up.
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Jun 25
Earlier this month, Quantic Dream unveiled a tech demo teasing to fans what the PS4 is really capable of. It was called The Dark Sorcerer, and it may be one of the funniest videos to come out of this year’s E3. This week, we got a bit more insight on its technical underpinnings. Somehow, that makes it even more exciting.
Jun 25
This is one time when it's polite to stare.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)
Most dresses are made by fashion designers. It takes a special dress to also require the efforts of a robotic designer. Fashion designer Ying Gao brought in robotics designer Simon Laroche to help create (No)where (Now)here, two dresses that activate when someone looks at them.
The gaze-activated dresses incorporate eye-tracking technology. When the dress detects a person’s gaze, it moves and lights up in the dark. The undulating dresses are mesmerizing to look at. The fabric moves like gentle waves, making them look alive, like some strange ocean denizens.
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The interactive dresses’ movements come from tiny motors. The lighting effect is generated by photoluminescent thread.
The artist’s statement reads, “A photograph is said to be ‘spoiled’ by blinking eyes — here however, the concept of presenc… [Read more]
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Jun 25
So you’re on the Google and you want to see what a road in Turkey looks like. You click on the map, and, holy crap, there’s a photo of it at street level. That’s thanks to Google Street View, where they use cars and bikes to take pictures of the world. And now one of the drivers is here to answer your questions.
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Jun 25
Jun 25
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