Sunday, August 22, 2010

Multi-tasking? Not only for digital natives!



dot.Rory, BBC News

According to Ofcom, we spend nearly half our waking lives watching telly, texting, surfing the web, and generally using every form of media and communications technology.

That's the headline from the media regulator's annual chunky report on the communications market. And the reactions to the research have been interesting. Read more


G-Souto
22.08.10
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Mobile Apps for the Disabled











The interaction between the user and software is done via brainwaves and for this to happen the user needs the NeuroSky Mindset which reads the user’s brainwaves, uses an analog-to-digital converter and sends the digitalized information via Bluetooth to the phone. The byte sequence, called packet, sent by the headset is then translated into the user’s level of meditation and attention by using an algorithm provided by the headset’s company. Once all of this is done, the signal is passed on to the ThinkContacts app via bluetooth and it places the call.
To get an idea of how it works, I recommend that you check out the following video:






ThinkContacts is a new mobile application being developed by Nokia which would allow a disabled person to select a contact from a list and place a phone call to that person using only their mind. The app, which is designed for Nokia's N900 Maemo platform, works with an accompanying headset that reads the user's brainwaves to measure attention levels. If the attention level is higher than 70%, the software scrolls to the next contact in the list. If the attention level is higher than 80%, the software makes a phone call to the selected contact.

It's one of the latest developments in making accessible smartphone applications for the disabled, the blind and deaf.Read more


G-S
19.08.10
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

References:

The Next Web





New York Times/Technology

Monday, August 2, 2010

2010: Lisbon Innovation Forum



The 4th EFQUEL Innovation Forum will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in collaboration with the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) and the National Institute for Public Administration of Portugal (INA).

The annual assembly of eLearning and education professionals will debate how opening education can contribute to social inclusion agendas and promote economic wellfare through better equipping citizens with necessary skills.


Palácio Marqueses de Pombal (INA)
The conference takes place in the Instituto Nacional de Administração (INA), situated in the gardens of the old Palace de Marqueses de Pombal in Oeiras, close to Lisbon, in Portugal. 
The Forum will start on September 8th with a pre-conference day, followed by the main conference SEPT 9-10, 2010.
Contrary to a research based conference, the EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2010 is bridging the gap by opening debates between different educational stakeholders from Primary & Secondary Education, to Higher Education, Vocational Education & Training and Adult Learning. 


In line with the "European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Inclusion", the Lisbon Innovation Forum is commonly answering fundamental questions about the purpose of quality education for individual, organizational and society level.
Open educational resources (OER) are high on the agenda of social inclusion policies and supported by many stakeholders of the educational sphere. User Generated Content is more relevant than ever, and co- and peer-production increasingly at the heart of content development.

On September 8th you can take part in the Workshop 3: “Jogos Educativos e Recursos Educativos Digitais no Ensino: novos conceitos em contexto curricular para uma escola de sucesso…? “

Na era digital, os alunos vivem imersos em Tecnologias: Internet, redes sociais, telemóveis, ipods, smartphones, jogos de computador.

(...)
A Comunidade Europeia para o Desenvolvimento de Actividades baseadas em Jogos Educativos - Game-based learing (GBL) tem estudos que comprovam que os jogos de computador e os recursos educativos digitais (OER) podem aproximar a escola dos nativos digitais, de modo a cativar estes alunos para as suas aprendizagens e a empenhá-los no seu percurso escolar. 
A escola tem mais impacto quando a geração ‘wires’ pode relacioná-la com a sua vida e os seus interesses. 
Os facilitadores do Workshop trocarão experiências com os Professores participantes e debaterão com eles, os benefícios do uso inovador das Tecnologias e dos Media, baseados em diferentes métodos de ensino, novas ferramentas de aprendizagem, tais como jogos educativos (GBL) conteúdos educativos digitais (OER) Web 2.0, de modo a promover o sucesso educativo e a inclusão social no Ensino Primário, Básico e Secundário.
O workshop que será apresentado em Português e Inglês tem como objectivo motivar os Professores para uma pedagogia actual, colocando os alunos no centro da sua aprendizagem, com a utilização de ferramentas digitais e da aplicação da 'web interactiva' em contexto curricular.


Aos participantes será entregue um Certificado de presença.

Estamos certos que terá uma experiência enriquecedora! E que sairá mais convencido(a) que a Escola não pode continuar de costas voltadas para os NML!

Facilitadores: Mr. Rolf Reinhardt (EFQUEL), Mr. Sébastien Reinders (TechnoFuturTIC), Ms. Gina Souto (Independent Expert Educational Media)

O workshop é gratuito! Se está interessado(a), por favor envie um email para info@efquel.org

Please read the English version here

G-Souto
03.08.2010
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Friday, July 30, 2010

Why are we using Facebook, Twitter or Youtube?


It is important to be connected? Well, consider this: If Facebook were a country, it would have sixth largest population in the world.

Mitch Joel, the author of the book “Six Degrees of Separation” is one of the finest thinker of our time. He unravels the fascinating world of new media.
Strategic focus, awesome write-up and presentation yet simple, and easy to understand. 
Now, watch the video (September 2009) and ask yourself: Why are you on Twitter? Why are you making a video in Youtube? Why are you on Facebook?



This is what Joel Mitch is famous for. Excellent thought! So what do you think? Agree with Joel’s “Why”? 

G-Souto
30.07.10
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Monday, July 19, 2010

The Social Network, the film



The new trailer for the movie The Social Network about the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is already known.

The film, by David Fincher (Fight Club, Panic Room, Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, among others) is based on Ben Mezrich' book "The Accidental Billionaires", and tells the story about the founding of Facebook in a dormitory at Harvard.

"Mezrich's prose has a cinematic flavor." 
-The Boston Globe





The movie shows the evolving relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg in the film) and friends as social networking is gaining shape, strength and fame.

The Social Network will be released in the United States in next October. The soundtrack will be conducted by Trent Reznor, ex-Nine Inch Nails. "Creep" the famous song by Radiohead  is the trailer's theme in a different cover. 



"You don't get 500 million friends without making some few enemies"

I wonder... can we ignore the incredible creativity of some of our students?  Sir Ken Robinson said that school kills creativity. 

Do you agree?! We know that's not true! It depends on each one of us!

Let's pay attention to the creativity of our students! Some are amazing!

G-Souto
19.07.2010
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®




Friday, July 16, 2010

Exit Camp for Girls in Portugal








During five days ending on 6 July 2010 Exit Camp promoted by IBM in Portugal joined 30 young girls 11-13 years old, among daughters of IBM employees and students from a public school.This year Escola Eugénio dos Santos, Lisbon, ensured the participation of 16 young girls.

Among the activities proposed in the EXIT Camp there was the programming of robots where the young Portuguese girls showed their talent against the British team that were participating in an equivalent program that runned on IBM in the UK.


The video made by Tek explains (Portuguese language) the initiative and its impact. The victory of the Portuguese robots against the British team is a very interesting point.

The aim is to promote Technology among young girls to increase gender equality in their future career.

Equality between women and men is a fundamental right, a common value of the EU, and a necessary condition for the achievement of the EU objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion.


This week will be continued during the school time by an IBM web tool directly linked to the school.

G-Souto
16.07.2010
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

References:

Tek



Friday, July 9, 2010

Ipad features & Education ?






Ipad is not for sale in Portugal... not yet.
But when we see this video we are looking forward to experiment this amazing media device! Don't you think? It's like love at first site!

But people who know it well say that tablet Apple is heavier than Kindle. It's necessary to hold iPad with both hands. And it slides easily on our knees.
When we write on Ipad is a bit boring because finger touches stay on screen and the reflexs too.  






The keyboard is strait, the accents and punctuation are very hard to do, even with auto-correction! But browsing is so fast! Image and sound so marvelous!


Tired, they say, but fascinated!

Steve Jobs said that more than a million of Ipad tablet was sold in 28 days! Wow! And more than 5 millions of e-books to the tablet were download in the first 65 days from iBookstore that is dedicated to e-books from Apple.


iBooks App


Reading children's literature, that's amazing. Yet even with all the extras, reading is so natural on iPad, the technology seems to disappear.



Alice for iPad

Do you remember "Alice in Wonderland" here? It was so fun and so beautiful! I was fascinated! I'm not a digital native, but I'm a digital pioneer... and love to be and to follow this amazing evolution of multimedia 

On Youtube you can see some videos with 2 years old children interacting easily ing wit iPad! That's not amazing! Children are born on digital era.






Marvel Comic (demonstration)

For example, reading comics with Marvel application is like to enter in another dimension. True, right?


The application iBooks, as well as being available on iPad, is available on iPhone since April as a free download through the App Store.

The application includes iBookstore (interesting!) wich allows to browse, buy and read on a mobile device, wich has over 60,000 titles available.

When users are reading a book, they may to do marks, highlights and notes. The users of iBooks can also read and right PDF directly in the application. 

And they will be able to read the same book on their iPad, on iPhone or iPod touch!

A new and wonderful media world to use on Education! I 'm sure that young people would like this kind of reading! Exciting!


Education: 


You can use iPad for reading in classroom. Students will be delighted!


G-Souto
10.07.2010
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®