BlackBerry Play Book beats iPad?

Image used with permission from www.flickr.com/photos/ilamont

Recently, a friend of mine told me about the new BlackBerry Play Book tablet coming out in 2011. Word on the street is that it is cheaper, quicker, and has better picture. So I did some research of my own.

According to digitaltrends.com, the iPad and the Play Book about tied. The Play Book wins in portability, processor and camera quality. On the other hand, the iPad wins in display, connectitivity, and applications. At the time the article was written, they were not sure which had a longer battery life or which was cheaper. More recent sources say that the Play Book is supposedly going on the market at a price lower that $499.

So what does this mean for the education field? The iPad and other tablets have great potential for the classroom. The tablet is a cheaper alternative to a 1:1 laptop for each student. Could the Play Book be an even cheaper, quicker option? With internet access, video conference capabilities, camera, and unlimited apps opportunities for educational learning are massive.

With the new, compacted version of the tablet pen pals could reach a new level with quicker video conferencing and with better picture quality. Research projects can be done with the touch of a tablet now, quicker. Computer Labs in schools will become extinct and keyboarding classes will be done on tablets. Lessons will become completely virtual and chalkboards will become memories of the past.

The BlackBerry apps are not as popular as the Apple Apps for now, but in a few months or years, they have potential to grow in popularity and become just as numerous. Not to mention that the size of the BlackBerry Play Book is smaller and more compact compared to the iPad, easier for storage.

Time will only tell if the Play Book meets and exceeds the iPad in a few short months...

Shoot 'n Share in the Classroom

Image used with permission from
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/vsharma5/

This morning I was watching the Ellen DeGeneres Show as I was getting ready for the day. She gave each member of her studio audience a  3M Camcorder Projector Shoot 'n Share.
I thought this tech gadget was unique from other camcorders like the flip camcorder because you can instantly project the video you created on any flat surface. I started to think about how this time saving feature could be especially useful in the classroom and I came up with  a few great ideas.

Image used with permission from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trainor/

The Shoot 'n Share could be great for lots of group work opportunities. Say you assign each group to come up with a skit in short amount of time over a broad history event you have been reading about. Assign each group a small part of the time period and send them off. I don't know about other kids, but I would have definitely been more comfortable acting out a skit without a large audience in front of me and instead have it play back in front of the class later. It also gives them a chance to see the skit for themselves! Assign each group to quite parts of the school and then have the whole group come back together for a video session of all the skits. I am confident students would come up with some great ideas while learning the material at the same time.

Image used with permission from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitkaphotogirl/

This tool would be awesome to use in science as well. When doing scientific experiments, observations are a large part of the process. Sometimes it can be difficult to write down everything that you are witnessing at once. If students could record their experiment and have a chance to look back at the video within seconds their observations would become more accurate. Another advantage would be if something exciting happened while doing their testing (explosion), the whole class could witness it later on! If you were working with insects or some other type of wild life the Shoot 'n Share would be great to record the creature and then later make observations instead of trying to rush and write observations with pen and paper.

Teachers could record their lessons if they knew a student was gone and students the next day could project the lesson on their own desk. The teacher would not have to deal with uploading the video to the internet from the device, saving him or her a few minutes out of their busy schedules.

During individual work time, the teacher could go around the classroom looking for students who came up with a new math strategy or thought of a great idea that should be shared with the class. Instead of putting the student on the spot in front of the whole class, the teacher could simply record the student, their work, and perhaps ask them a question or two about what they're doing. The teacher could then share the student's new thinking with the class instantly.

The possibilities are endless with the 3M Shoot 'n Share in the classroom.

Geocaching: A High Tech Treasure Hunt

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgoodwin/ 

This previous summer, my family and I got into Geocaching, a type of treasure hunt except instead of using a map to find the "treasure", you use your GPS. It was a great way for our family to bond and we had a lot of fun doing it. There are over a million Geocaches across the world and they increase everyday. Anyone can make a cache!

I started to think about how you could incorporate Geocaching into a classroom and realized the possibilities are endless! To begin with students would learn about geography, coordinates, longitude, and latitude. They also would gain experience working with technology as they use their GPS to track down their cache. Geocache allows you to use GoogleMaps to spot all the caches close in your area. Once you choose a cache to attack, you then must plug the coordinates into your GPS to begin your journey!

On another level, you could teach a history lesson using Geocaching. Say you want your students to be able to put themselves in the shoes of a famous explorer. Beforehand, you could create several Geocaches within a confined area, such as a park or even within the school boundaries, for the students to discover for themselves! Give the students the coordinates, and send them off. In each cache they find, could be historical information or an activity for them to complete before moving on to the next cache. You could even make it a competition, seeing which team could make it to all of the caches first!

Another option would be to have the students themselves come up with the caches for each other. They could decide what they wanted to leave inside their "treasure box" and even choose their location. Once again the students would be learning all about geography in a fun and interactive way.

No matter what you choose to do with Geocaching in your classroom, it is evident that building teamwork would be present. Whether students are creating their own caches or having to find all the caches first, they will have to work together to problem solve.
I would hope that my students would enjoy the experience as much as I enjoyed doing it with my family this past summer and maybe even pass it on to their own families, so they can be apart of the high tech treasure hunt as well!

Comics in the Classroom??

When it comes to the selection of reading material in a classroom, graphic novels, commonly known as comics, do not readily come to mind. Schools are now taking a step back and re-looking at the benefits of using graphic novels in the classroom and with this rise came a creative technological advancement called Comic Life by plasq.


First, take a look at this clip from the CBS Early Show in 2005.  A school in Maryland decided to give comic books a chance in the classroom and saw the benefits they provided for students reading and writing skills.
Comic Books in the Classroom


plasq decided to take this traditional idea of graphic novel and apply it to technology with their products, Comic Life and Comic Life Magiq.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/


Comic Life now makes it simple for students to create their own comics with a few clicks of a mouse using digital pictures and editing tools. It doesn't just stop at comics either, the possibilities are endless. I can only imagine how students could express their creativity given the freedom to interpret a class project using Comic Life.


Here is a quick tutorial about the basic principles to Comic Life and how to use it.



plasq.com also gives some helpful suggestions for how teachers can incorporate Comic Life in the curriculum of students learning and also for teacher use.
Some of the ideas and topics include:

• Creating class newsletters
• Coming up with class rules and policies
• "A day in the life of..."
• Math flashcards and puzzles
• Life Cycle Maps
• Scientific Method
• Yearbooks

You can find more inspiration from plasq here.