Welcome to EDTC 611

I will be using this space for my reflections through this fall 2007 semester as it relates to EDTC 611. I will be posting a weekly summary of an article that I have read from various sources that focus on "educational technologies" (in the widest sense of this term!). Feel free to add any comments that you would like to something that you read here or anything related to our Thursday gatherings in Memorial Hall.

Looking forward to this semester... actually I don't really know what to expect but it should be good!

Phone that is a projector

Evidently Texas Instruments is developing a cell phone with the capability to be a DLP projector and display DVD quality video on a screen or a whiteboard. Ok, now schools may need to think about providing cell phones to all their teachers and forget about purchasing digital projectors for the classroom. I am guessing however that the students may have this technology before the teachers! Well all locations can now be a theatre... have video will travel (and project)

Read more here.

automobile rental wireless hotspot

Now Avis is going to have an option that you can have wireless access to the internet in your car. This service is going to cost $10+ a day but touts that 95% of the country will be covered - all urban centers. So driving down the road, passengers will be able to use their laptops, PDAs, or other surfing devices and stay connected. ubiquitous connectivity keeps progressing...

Read more at Wired:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/01/wifi_kit_keeps_.html

iPods in vending machines

Seems like now we are incorporating iPod into daily living if we can purchase an iPod in a vending machine.
I am guessing that, PDAs, laptop computers, and other electronic equipment will be "consumables" that are learners in K-12 will continue to grow up with. The challenge will continue to be how best to incorporate these into our instructional environment.

Online Google applications

I was just reading about google's online word processing and spreadsheet applications. Seems like it could be a good tool for K-12 education (as long as everyone has internet access...). This caveat may be the biggest barrier to having this application mushroom to a level that is a competitor for MS Office.