The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
There has been plenty of news over the last few weeks about technology and education, so this is a roundup of some of these stories. First up is the fact that the One Laptop Per Child's Give One, Get One promotion is on right now. I wrote about it a few weeks ago, but it is actually happening now, and only for one more week. Go to the xogiving.org website, where for $399 you can purchase one of these amazing little machines for yourself and give one to a child in a developing nation. This is one of the most important initiatives that has been around for a long time, so I think it is well worth your time to check out. Along these same lines is all of the educational content that has seemed to reach a critical mass this fall. MIT University's OCW (Open Course Ware) project has been online for a few years, but it constantly has expanded and this fall is no different. The purpose of this program is to place all of the information possible from any course offered at MIT online so that it can be accessed by anyone who has an Internet connection. From readings and links, to video and audio lectures, while you won't get a degree from MIT by going this route, it is perfect material for anyone who wants to expand their mind, and the university itself is hoping that people living in areas who have not had access to this kind of information in the past, will benefit from it. Along these same lines is iTunesU. The huge database of music, audio novels, and podcasts hosted by Apple at their online music store has also grown this fall with the true beginning of iTunes University. Institutions around the world are hooking up with Apple to host special channels for their students to use as learning portals. Once you find the specific institution you are looking for, you can go through all of the class lectures they are hosting and download any of them onto your iPod for free. While this did start last winter (and I listened to an entire series of lectures from two different astronomy classes while I renovated my house), this year things are much fuller and classes in a lot of different areas can be found. Something a little farther out there has begun as an experiment in some schools in the UK. In many places in that nation, students are required to wear uniforms to class and the schools are capitalizing on this by implanting an RFID chip in each piece of clothing. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification Device. These chips are tiny, about the size of a grain of rice, and currently cost about a dime each. They are big news in many stores right now as places like Wal-Mart have demanded that all stock moving into their stores be tagged with these chips, allowing them to look after their inventory more easily. That makes sense, but now some schools are experimenting with RFID as a way to tag their students. Each classroom door will have a scanner and as students pass through, they will be scanned and the teacher will be able to pull up a full and complete data report on the student, including not only all of their marks and attendance, but also comments about them from other teachers, personal data, etc. It is being "sold" to the public as a tracking and safety device in large schools, as a way to tell who belongs in the building and who doesn't, but it is controversial because of the amount of information that is being stored on the system and how it is being used. Substitute teachers apparently believe the system is great as it lets them identify troubled students as soon as they walk through the door, but parent and privacy groups aren't so certain of its benefits. Something new all the time. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
