IT Trends :: Thursday, July 27, 2006
New Technology
Podcasting New Option for Students at Calhoun
New technologies can enhance the educational experience of distance learning students. Calhoun Community College's vice-president for instruction and student services says the school "started with videotapes, then CD's, then the Internet, and now iPods and podcasting." Today, WebCT and Tegrity allow students to instantly access class schedules, syllabi, video lectures, and more… (enewscourier)
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Schools Save with 'Smart' Sprinklers
A school district in Colorado spent $180,500 on a new, Internet-controlled sprinkler system designed to save water and labor. The system is connected to Colorado State University's weather center and automatically shuts off when it rains. The district "hopes the new system, along with other cost-saving measures, will reduce the district's watering bill, which can total as much as $130,000 annually."… (The Daily Reporter-Herald)
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The Silicon Classroom
Some Navy ships don't have enough bandwidth to support full-scale online classes for student sailors, so they are thinking of new ways to study at sea. One experiment is loading courseware on a PDA. Sailors are sent the PDA, and work through it. Another initiative has courseware loaded onto laptops. In any case, the idea is to use CDs, DVDs, PDAs, and laptops so that troops can continue their education abroad… (StrategyPage)
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Round table: Smart Learning for the Future
Read the transcript of UK government representatives, educators, and industry experts as they discuss technology's impact on education and how to properly measure this impact. Participants discussed how much technology is a part of smart learning and how far we have gone toward smart assessment and recognition of the skills that it allows us to develop… (New Statesman)
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