toontastic -- bring out the creativity in young ones!

Also see:

New: 10 of the best Apple apps for education in 2012 — from eschoolnews.com by Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor
New apps include student file sharing, special education, cyber bullying information

Excerpt:

Last year we presented “10 of the best apps for education,” which highlighted some of the best apps for iPhones and iPods. However, with new upgrades in touch technology, HD and 3D features, and the debut of the iPad, we’ve come up with a new list of the best Apple-based education apps for 2012.

This year’s list includes some of the most highly rated apps, both by teachers and by Apple, and features a range that spans from simple math games to a revolutionary special-education app, and from 3D imaging of the elements included in the periodic table to secure file sharing for students and teachers.

For every app we’ve listed, we’ve included a brief description, device compatibility, suggested use, features, price, and a link to a more in-depth summary with an option to purchase on iTunes.

Also mentioned in comments:

  • iAnnotate
  • My Big Campus
  • BeSeen
  • Futaba Classroom Games

 

The Future of TV  - special from CNBC which airs tonight - May 7, 2012

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Also see:

and…

 

Addendums on 5/8/12:

Double vision: TV gets interactive — from thetowntalk.com by Fraizer Moore

Piers Fawkes: The future of TV — from psfk.com by Piers Fawkes

A solid Q&A with such questions as:

  • The old hierarchical vertical order of: channel – series – episode, seems to be in danger, letting the horizontal disorder take its place. What do you think broadcasters can do to serve people during this shift?
  • The TV channel is being challenged, first by VOD and now by internet based services. How do you think the TV channels’ role will evolve in the next 5 years? Will the traditional push-based model maintain its centrality or will users be looking for search-only and pull-based alternatives?
  • A new form of TV means new revenue models. Who do you think will finance the next successful TV show in 10 years and how? Will the new channels’ role generate new business models? How you imagine them?
  • To protect our brain from information overload we need to filter and recommendations are a form of filtering. How do you think people’s recommendations will shape the future role of TV channels in the next years to come?
  • Artificial Intelligence, Smart Agents and algorithms are directing us into a world of Adaptive User Interfaces capable of recognizing different users and provide them with an anticipated, personalized experience. How do you think the future TV will shape around people’s habits and tastes?

Magic Plan - potentially useful and sharp tool for architecture and interior design students

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From DSC:
My thanks to Mr. Steven Chevalia at Calvin College for this resource.

The Google Drive review you’ve been waiting for — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell

Excerpt:

Google Drive, the long-awaited file storage and syncing service, launch[ed yesterday]. If you follow tech news closely, you’ve seen bits and pieces of the news leaking out over the past two weeks. We’ve tested it and we’ve talked to the team leaders. Forget all the speculation. Here’s what Google Drive actually is.

Full-sized screenshots of the Google Drive iPad app — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell

Excerpt:

Google Drive launched [yesterday], but the iOS version of the app was unexpectedly not ready. Google says it’s almost there, but it won’t launch for “a few weeks.” But Google provided ReadWriteWeb with a bunch of full-size screenshots of the app, so we could know what to expect.

Google’s Drive adds to a complicated cloud — from technologyreview.com by Tom Simonite

Excerpt:

A new cloud-storage service from the search giant steps on the toes of startups like Dropbox and opens a new front against Apple and Microsoft.

Addendum on 4/26:

  • Is Google’s onerous TOS designed to steal your stuff?– from PCMag.com by John C. Dvorak
    People are far too concerned about Google’s potential for abuse. (From DSC: I disagree; there is room for concern when you hold that much power/data in your hands. Think of political campaigns as but one example. What if someone — or some government or some terrorist organization or drug cartel — pays off some Google employee to nab Person ABC’s mailbox, documents, data? Call me skeptical…but I think anything’s possible these days given the moral fabric of our world.)
  • Google Drive terms of service: ‘A toxic brew’ — from cnet.com by Rafe Needleman
    Google isn’t about to make your private files public, but that doesn’t excuse its sloppy terms of service. Google has inadvertently stoked privacy concerns about files uploaded to its newly released Google Drive by issuing poorly written rules that are more apt to confuse than to clarify.
  • Hands on with Google Drive — from PCMag.com by Mark Hachman
    While Google has positioned its new Google Drive cloud-storage service as one that straddles the consumer and business space, those using it for collaboration will probably get the most out of it.

Also see:

Addendum on 4/27/12:

Adobe announces Creative Suite 6 and Adobe Creative Cloud on 4-23-12

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Adobe announces Creative Suite 6 and Adobe Creative Cloud on 4-23-12

 

.Also see:

From DSC:

  • This last piece from David Nagel addresses my fears and concerns with our current emphasis on standardized tests, common core standards, etc.  The emphasis is on STEM and can lead to a one-size-fits-all type of education that doesn’t allow each student to identify and pursue their own passions enough.

 

Addendum on 5/2/12:

 

 

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The evolution of a couch potato: How TV and viewers are changing — from hindustantimes.com by Abhishek Baxi

Section headings:

  • Remote controls are dead
  • Let’s bring social in
  • There’s an app for it
  • Viewer is the king

Excerpt:

The future of TV will be based on experiences to engage, entertain, and activate viewers stemming from creativity, imagination, and innovations in technology. While traditionally, TV has been a medium of consumption, the Web experience via PC, mobile, or stand-alone devices, has also brought in real-time engagement. While many call it the death of traditional TV industry, it might just be the factor which brings growth.
Addendum/also see:
  • Luminous Design – the Future of Smart TV — from  innovationexcellence.com
    What is the future of Smart TV? How to create a luminous design that will enlighten TV experience across devices, and make it really consistently Smart? Who could tell us the way better than Dale Herigstad? Dale is Chief Interaction Officer at Possible, and an internationally recognized designer and thought leader on the future of interactive and “many-screen” rich media interfaces.

AutisMate by SpecialNeedsWare

Description of app:

AutisMate is an autism communication, therapy, and learning tool that promotes communication, functional skills, generalization, task analysis, independence, and social skills in people with Autism. AutisMate allows those with autism to communicate through familiar scenes, large images of their environment that can include video, symbols, and social stories as well. Parents and therapists can easily add their own videos and images, symbols (over 12,000 included), custom voice recordings, and synthesized voices to fully and easily customize the app for its user’s current and future needs. The app was designed specifically for the language, speech, generalization, and categorization challenges that individuals with autism often face. GPS reduces navigation by presenting users with scenes from their current location. Making custom word boards for different categories with symbols or your own images is made very simple, and users can get to them with just a click. There’s no difficult navigation, which children with autism often struggle with, as found in many other speech apps out there today.

I originally saw this at:

  • Labor of love: Developer creates iPad app to help his autistic brother — from techcrunch.com by Chris Velazco
    When Jonathan Izak graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, he decided to put his new degree in Computer Science to very good use. In an effort to help his 10-year old autistic brother Oriel communicate and learn new tasks, he developed a new iPad app called Autismate to try and simplify the process.

Comments (emphasis DSC)

  • If you ever wanted to know what four dimensional geometry could be like, install this app. For the low, low price of $2.99, you’ll take an exciting journey into the Fourth Dimension. “Textbook” doesn’t do this app justice, virtually every page is interactive.  — Nicholas Nguyen March 19, 2012
  • “The app is very cool, and it’s unlike pretty much anything we’ve seen in the App Store.” — Sam Byford, The Verge
  • “This is one of my most favorite iOS apps ever.” — George Musser, senior editor at Scientific American and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory
  • “Fantastic! This is what someone really smart, and who really knows how to teach well, can do with a tablet. And the authors are funny, too, which is a neat bonus.” — DNY
  • “Blew my mind. I generally don’t use ‘learning’ apps as they’re mostly gimmicks. This one, though, truly made me think. I hope this developer comes out with more outstanding apps such as this one. Bravo!” — Iceitic
  • “Fantastic app. I work at a leading UK university. If only all our material was this well written and presented. Definitely worth buying and then spending a bit of time with over a day or two to get your head around the fourth dimension. Great app!” — JulesFM

Also see:

  • fourthdimensionapp.com
  • ‘The Fourth Dimension’ for iOS: learn to see in 4D (hands-on) — from the Verge.com by Sam Byford
    It’s priced fairly low ($2.99 for a universal iPhone/iPad app) and uses innovative design to explore a single, focused concept, and while you’ll be done with it after twenty minutes or so that actually adds to the appeal. It’s a bite-sized chunk of brain training that’s a lot of fun to wrap your head around, and it probably couldn’t have been produced any other way. That’s about the most you can ask for in an app these days.

 

Are apps the future of book publishing? — from forbes.com by Alex Knapp

Excerpt:

It’s no surprise, then, that publishers are turning to the app as a possible product for books moving forward.  This has led to another movement towards enhanced books, particularly as apps for iPhone, Android, and other tablets. Are tablet apps the book of the future? In order to find out, I talked to authors, publishers, and app programmers, and read more than a few book apps.

Animator creates incredible musical painting with $5 iPad app [VIDEO] — from Mashable by Christine Erickson

Excerpt:

“I really recommend it to anyone who does storyboards, concept art and animators, filmmakers, producers, whatever — this is the future,” says the video’s lead animator and director, Whitney Alexander. (You can see the full making-of here.)

Also see:

New IBM app presents nearly 1,000 years of math history — from wired.com by Alexandra Chang

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Minds of Modern Mathematics interactive timeline.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Items re: the connected living room; relates to what I call a future “learning from the living room” environment

The human voice, as game changer — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer


Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times

Vlad Sejnoha demonstrated Nuance’s Dragon TV system, which obeys spoken commands to
flip channels, for example, or shop on screen on Amazon.com.

Apple’s iCloud will teach Apple’s Smart TV remote new tricks — from patentlyapple.com

6 answers about your next TV, with or without Apple — from forbes.com by Michael Humphrey

10 tech commandments for the TV industry — from thenextweb.com by Martin Bryant

Smart TVs are growing in popularity — from business-news.thestreet.com by Steve Adams

smartTV Quincy gh 032112-284-wihr.jpg

Image from Gary Higgins/The Patriot Ledger

Paul Berrini, a salesman at Hancock T.V.& Appliance in Quincy, demonstrates
some of the new features of “smart” televisions, Wednesday, March 21.

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10 AirPlay-ready iPad apps that make Apple TV worth it — from  readwriteweb.com by John Paul Titlow

Entertainment and Streaming Media – The Recent Past and the Future — from homesystemintegration.com by Alan Ruby

Connected Living Room 1

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TVs may soon be used to spy on youfrom smartplanet.com by Tuan C. Nguyen

 

 
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