The Timeline Ultra M3 continues Acer’s Ultrabook ambitions with a relatively low price point (starting at 799 euros) and strong specs that include an optical drive, Nvidia GeForce graphics and a promised 8 hours of battery life.
Organizational constructionism? Check the “writable” version of the OLPC deployment guide
Mar 15
2012
Resumen en español al final del artículo
As far as we understand it, constructionism is not something that you believe in, it is something that you do.
At the student’s level, constructionism is illustrated by what he does with his computer: writing, sharing, thinking. And back again.
At the teacher’s level, constructionism describes the way he creates a rich environment for learning: by providing students with new tools, by letting them find their way through their own mistakes, by indirectly supporting the transformation of information into knowledge.
As an OLPC grassroots, what do we do?
We explore the XO and Sugar. We translate software and pedagogical material. We test activities and we try to improve them. When we have this opportunity, we try to understand what it takes to “deploy” XOs. We gather experience and we document it. Moreover: we dare to do mistakes because we do our best. And because our goal is clear: it is not to directly fix education, it is to create a rich environment for other deployments.
As an example of such a “rich environment”, OLPC France is glad to share with you its own version of the OLPC deployment guide: the English version can be found here, and the French one here.
As a PDF, the original deployment guide is static: you can only read it. As a wiki page, this guide can potentially evolve, however the wiki version is not easy to read, and very few people will dare to update it. Our thinking has been this: let’s release a version that people can easily read and comment. Let’s pave the way for an updated version, one that will take feedback into account.
Let’s call this “organizational constructionism”. Help us – please read this version and comment freely on it. Tell us what is wrong, what is too general. Share your experience. Make it necessary to have a new version later on. A version that will reflect the experience of OLPC as a community, not as an organization that has the final word on how things should be. Participate!
(Thanks to Sean Daly for his careful proofreading.)
Bastien Guerry (Google+) is a volunteer with OLPC France. OLPC France recently refreshed their Web site, thanks to Soykje, so if you haven’t been there in a while make sure to check it out!
Resumen en español:
Tags: Check, constructionism, Deployment, Guide, OLPC, Organizational, Version, writable
Samsung just announced that the Galaxy S II will be the company’s first handset to make the leap from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich, with the upgrade starting in select European countries and Korea before rolling out in the U.S. Next on the list to get Android’s latest OS are the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy R and the Galaxy Tabs 7.0 Plus, 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1.
Older Samsung smartphones, including the Galaxy S, will not get an Ice Cream Sandwich fix; instead, they’ll soon run an enhanced version of Gingerbread, with added features such as Face Unlock, Snapshot and Photo Editor. While there’s no specific date for when these updates will happen stateside, at least we can rest easy knowing that an Android 4.0 Samsung line-up is on the horizon.
We’d always contended that fitness gadgets are blowing up in popularity, and now Nike is reaffirming this by taking a step that moves this trend forward. According to a report by The Next Web, the company is all set to open up its FuelBand API to developers at the impending SXSW Managers Hack event.
The FuelBand is Nike’s entrant into the fitness bracelet space—of which, most notably, Jawbone and Fitbit are pretty well-known. Nike has said that with their unveiling of the API, developers will finally be able to incorporate music with the Nike+ Fuelband. Since the eight-hour hackathon during which the announcement is expected to take place involves reps from Spotify, Pandora and SoundHound, it’s fitting that the company releases their first-ever API to developers then.
The music hackathon starts on Sunday, March 11, from 2 PM to 10 PM, and will be live streamed by R to Z Studios, Randi Zuckerberg’s new social media company. Backplane, the startup behind the music hackathon, will also be beaming the event from Austin onto Times Square’s NASDAQ screens.
via The Next Web and TechCrunch
- Tech to Watch 2012: Fitness Gadget Explosion
- 5 Reasons We’re Excited About SXSW 2012
- Samsung and Rovio Launch Angry Birds Into Space at SXSW 2012
Remember Clik, that cool little app that let you throw video onto any screen with a browser? Well, they’re here at SXSW, exclusively demoing three new apps for attendees — CrowdTube, Tracks and Ethershock — at their very own tent in downtown Austin. We were lucky enough to check them out with Ted Livingston, Founder and CEO of Clik, and get some hands-on time with each.
The first app, CrowdTube, is based on an already-familiar use of the app — crowdsourcing YouTube videos on a big screen. But now they’ve added a new twist: voting. “We wanted to let people DJ South by Southwest,” Livingston said.
So Clik set up a ridiculous 10 x 17-foot screen on the street right outside the convention center. Users (and would-be DJs) can scan in and vote their favorite videos up or down to choose the next clip that plays on the massive display. Once the song that’s currently on finishes playing, the video with the highest number of votes starts up and the queue resets. We tried it ourselves, and it’s awesomely fun. (Plus we can’t wait to see people enjoying CrowdTube after it gets dark!) Check out our video at the end of our post to see the app in action.
The next app, rightly called Tracks, leverages 8tracks.com’s deep database of tunes to let Clik users control song mixes right on their phones. Clik in to a display using your smartphone, browse to a playlist you like (it’s prepopulated from the 8tracks app for now) and tap to start it up. Then walk away, start cooking, do whatever you like. Imagine: Tracks now makes it unnecessary to bring along your speakers on a trip. You can just throw the app onto that screen in your hotel room and enjoy your custom playlist from there.
Finally Ethershock, which enjoys the stature of being the first game for the Clik platform, runs just like the classic Space Invaders. But now you control things with your smartphone, while gameplay is on the big screen—no separate console and controller needed.
Though originally touted as an app itself, it’s worth remembering that Clik is actually first and foremost a platform for smaller programs. It’s a technology that enables unlimited users to “Clik in” and share in the fun of an activity — whether that’s crowdsourcing the next video that comes up on the big screen at a party, or jumping in on a multiplayer game that’s set up with the app. Livingston says it’s incredibly easy to develop for Clik, too—in fact, he says, the three concept apps they brought along to SXSW were each cobbled together by his developers in a matter of days.
The beauty of it all is that the only thing you need is a smartphone with a data plan. And really—who doesn’t have that by now? Clik only pushes commands to your browser while all the heavy lifting is done using your Internet connection, so the action is almost instantaneous—and the app’s potential, almost endless.
“We like to think of Clik as the remote of the future,” Livingston said to me. “Imagine walking into a party with your smartphone—something you have on you, anyway—and being able to control everything with it. It’s great.”
Clik is available on iOS and Android right now. There’s also more information on the project at their official website.
- 5 Reasons We’re Excited about SXSW 2012
- Hands-on with Angry Birds Space
- Meexo is the Uncreepy Dating App You Might Actually Consider Using
LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology
Tags: 2012, Apps, Clik, CrowdTube, Ethershock, Shows, SXSW, Tracks, Video
There’s no shortage of Angry Birds merchandise around — we know this from an abundance of stuffed plush toys, a Mattel board game and even an upcoming film featuring these irked winged heroes. But now apparently, our favorite feathered creatures can’t even be contained by gravity. This afternoon at SXSW, in the Samsung Blogger Lounge, Samsung and Rovio officially launched the angry birds into space while unveiling, well, Angry Birds Space, which they (fittingly) demoed on a Samsung Galaxy Note.
Samsung chose well when it came to the device onto which to fling our avian friends. The Samsung Galaxy Note, with its dual-core processor and super-sharp 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display handled the classic game adroitly. Most impressive of all, the physics of the app were downright believable and made the game completely captivating—for instance, we saw in a video how the planets onscreen actually had the gravity to pull the birds in, and affected their trajectory.
Samsung also stated that some content would be available only to Galaxy users, including the Lazer Bird, an exclusive Samsung character and Danger Zone, an exclusive Angry Birds level. Samsung took the wraps off the game at the event with representatives from the company, Rovio and NASA. (Yes, they got a real astronaut to go onstage.)
The out-of-this-world version hits iOS, Android, PC, and Mac platforms on March 22nd. It’s been a while since we’ve grabbed a new episode of the outplayed game ourselves, but Angry Birds Space looks like such fun that we probably will snatch a copy out of orbit after it blasts off.
LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology
Tags: 2012, Angry, Birds, HandsOn, Into, Launch, Rovio, Samsung, Space, SXSW, Video
Resumen en español al final del artículo
In January OLPC made a big splash when it demonstrated the first prototypes of the XO 3.0 tablet at the CES 2012 tradeshow. Now Archos – a well known player in the MP3 / video player and lately increasingly also tablet arena – has beat OLPC to the market with its own take on an inexpensive and child-focused tablet:
The 7” Child Pad features a compact light weight design, the latest Android version, 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich”, a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. The Child Pad will be available at the end of March for 9 SRP.
On the software side of things Archos isn’t using the regular Android Market but has rather partnered with the AppsLib market:
Kid friendly features of the Child Pad include access to the Kids App Store powered by AppsLib which is filtered down to 14-friendly categories and 10,000 apps including games, entertainment, communication, multimedia, books, comics, sports and more.
Last but not least the Child Pad also comes with parental control and Internet filtering software:
ARCHOS has also designed the Child Pad to comply with both CIPA and COPPA regulations, ensuring a safe tablet environment for kids and peace of mind for parents. The parental controls and safe web browsing is powered by Editions Profil, whose “Mobile Parental Filter” is ranked as the most efficient parental control software in worldwide benchmarks.
When reading these details it’s hard not to think of the Child Pad as a competitor to OLPC’s XO 3.0 tablet. While the Child Pad seems more catered towards children in so-called “developed countries” I see few reasons why this tablet couldn’t be used in schools in “developing nations”.
Yes, the Archos Child Pad might not have all the features that the XO 3.0 can boast with such as the versatile charging circuitry which facilitates using alternative power sources, the microphone jack which doubles as an input-port for sensors, the (optional) sunlight-readable Pixel Qi display or the (also optional) covers with built-in solar panels. However the Child Pad will be available for purchase in late March and potential buyers won’t have to deal with limitations such as OLPC’s minimum order quantity.
Having said all of that I personally continue to be somewhat skeptical of using tablets in education. Especially the lack of good educational software and materials for Android and iOS still remains a major hurdle in my opinion. This is particularly true once you start looking for apps or materials in a language other than English. At the same time both Apple (iBooks 2) and Android-tablet makers such as Samsung (e.g. Samsung Learning Hub) are certainly working hard to develop software and service solutions catered towards the educational use of their products.
I can’t help but think that these developments are going to make it much harder for OLPC to sell XO 3.0s. After all neither OLPC itself nor Sugar Labs have the resources to really compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung. Plus I’d be surprised if Intel didn’t have a Classmate tablet up their sleeve as well, especially since they did already show a non-working proof of concept of one last year.
In the end it’s fair to say that the introduction of the Child Pad is certainly an interesting and significant development and it will be worthwhile watching how it’s received in the market.
Resumen en español: La semana pasada Archos presentó su Child Pad, un tablet de 7″ adaptado para niños que estará disponible al fin del mes a un precio de 9. Mientras que el Child Pad no tiene todas las características especiales del XO 3.0 para mi no es posible no verlo como competencia para OLPC. Al mismo tiempo yo sigo siendo escéptico en cuanto al uso de tablets dentro de la educación porque todavía veo una falte de software y contenidos adaptados, en particular si uno buscalos en una idioma que no sea el ingles. En todo caso el anuncio de Archos es interesante y significativo y vale la pena ver cómo es recibido en el mercado.
CeBIT 2012′s 10 Most Interesting Gadgets
Mar 8
2012
It’s been a wild few days at the CeBIT conference in Germany, where we’ve seen everything from a pink Samsung Galaxy Note to extra slim ultrabooks to robots dancing suggestively. Below are the most interesting notebooks, tablets, technologies and, yes, robots that we got our hands on at this year’s conference.
Acer Timeline Ultra M3 Ultrabook
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LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology
Tags: 2012′s, CeBIT, Gadgets, Interesting, Most
Alright folks, that’s a wrap on CeBIT 2012 Day Two. Here’s a look back at the new tech we uncovered from the yearly tech show. Like yesterday, there’s news on ultrabooks, namely Fujitsu’s first entrant to the category but also a demo with a thin-and-light that includes a multitouch-sensitive display. Unlike yesterday, we also went hands-on with a Audi’s in-dash infotainment system and a sensor that’ll make you a better gardener.
Ultrabooks Get Touch-Friendly
How about an ultrabook that lets you pinch-to-zoom and scroll by touching the display and not the trackpad? Intel demo’ed just such a thing today, and it could be coming soon to a PC near you.
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LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology
Tags: 2012, CeBIT, Display, Touchfriendly, Ultrabooks, WrapUp
Jamaican Parents Take Action
Mar 7
2012
Resumen en español al final del artículo
For the one-year anniversary of the Jamaican OLPC deployment, the Alearning Gang enthusiastically went to work and learn in Kingston.
One moment particularly hit us during this week: talking with the parents of August Town Primary School was a surprising and memorable meeting.
The goal of this meeting was to involve the parents, cultivating their insights and attention around their kids’ OLPC program. So we are all sat in a small circle, volunteers and parents and we started talking about the way kids use the laptops today at August Town Primary, and the circle just kept growing.
One mother, particularly confident, kept on talking for the others, speaking up saying that not having chargers at home is not very useful. Mark Battley from Ntugi Group talked about the way they do it in Kenya, but at some point, some magical moment… Mark asks “Dear Parents, what would YOU do if you were the teachers?”
And guess what? Every single parent in this room then jumped in to talk, not just the Parent Teachers Association who got the meeting started – each saying out loud what they want for their kids. And then spontaneously starting to organize among each other. We became invisible as they started to talk through their OLPC dreams, stating the obvious as well as discovering certain matters that no one had dared to mention before.
So they agreed together that: the laptops should be used in a safe place (which in this case is the library) and that an adult should be in the room to help – they do not want their kids unwatched.
Then one parent asked about the way to handle after-school hours with the laptops… How to share the laptop between three kids and three different homes? Last year, some parents had troubles with sharing of the XO as they would sometimes find broken laptops in their kid’s hands and as they say “It was not comfortable”. So what must change we ask? After long discussions, parents came up with the following:
- Each family should buy their own charger, after all it’s little, if the school buys the laptop the least we can do is to buy the chargers for our child! YES! Unanimous agreement!
- Parents are responsible for the sharing of the laptop among the kids. XO laptops will go home with 3 different families every week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
- Several families and children volunteered to arrive at school 15 min early and remain 15 min after the school day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, to ease the school’s burden of inspecting the laptops for problems before handingthem out to the next kid.
- Parents are going to learn how to use the laptop. “Because how can we control what they do if we don’t know how to use the machine?” “Last year my son told me there was inappropriate content on the laptop from another family, but I could not do anything, cause I don’t know how it works.” “What if the kids teach us how to use it?” “Let’s ask the children to volunteer and teach the parents after class!”
August Town Primary School pupils
I find it mind-blowing when most people would complain and blame the teachers or the program itself for finding inappropriate content on the laptop, these parents instead say that they want to learn how to use it — so that they can use their parenting skills when their 8 year-old is using the computer!
Isn’t this extremely positive? The kid is becoming the teacher for their own family, skillsharing with their own parents. While parents and students are volunteering together for this project, and parents spending their own money on chargers to extend the use of the machine at home: because they believe like us that this XO could change their child’s life! THEY BELIEVE! This means that if the teachers don’t trigger kids’ learning on the laptop at school, parents are going to speak up again… They now are part of the OLPC dream!
At the heart of this story, as in the story of Simon in Kenya, as in the story of Justin in the Philippines, and many other children around the world, is the story of “Empowering the Community” taking its meaning.
It is not superfluous glitter on a well-run deployment, but real bits of leverage for action…
Laura de Reynal (Flickr, Twitter) is a volunteer with OLPC France and works with the OLPC project on Nosy Komba, Madagascar.
Resumen en español: En enero un grupo de voluntarios de la comunidad de OLPC viajó a Jamaica para visitar el proyecto de OLPC allí. Uno evento memorable para ellos fue la reunión con padres de alumnos del colegio August Town Primary School. Los padres desarrollaron soluciones para desafíos que ellos y sus hijos habían encontrado en cuanto al proyecto en su escuela. Fue un ejemplo del empoderamiento de la comunidad que representa un importante apalancamiento para la acción.
10 Best Entertainment Tablet Apps
Mar 6
2012
Your tablet works for finding urgent info online and responding to priority emails, but you should use it to de-compress too. And not just with our list of to-die-for tablet games. Each of these entertainment apps helps you relax with your slate in-hand, from watching Futurama and Breaking Bad with Netflix to using Planetary to navigate your galaxy of soothing songs by swiping from one celestial cluster to the next. Here are 8 more ways to turn your tablet into a digital lazy-boy.
dJay (.99)
Aspiring DJs will appreciate the impressive functionality offered by djay. The iPad-optimized design lays two turntables and a mixer right at your fingertips, letting you masterfully manipulate songs. Just load a couple of tracks directly from your music library for each virtual deck, and you’re off. The app can automatically detect and match the songs’ speeds (BPMs), crossfade, adjust the tempo and tweak EQ — there’s even an Automix function that lets you sit back and have the app do all the work.
Platform: iPad
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LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology
Tags: Apps, best, entertainment, Tablet
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