The classroom is making strides to keep up with the rest of world by becoming interactive and putting education back into the hands of the learner. Literally. We are in the midst of a new era in education, a movement that breaks away from the old agrarian calendars or even the classic classroom with the teacher as lead facilitator. Take a quick glimpse into Education 2.0, as education takes on the biggest transformation it’s seen since integration.
Check out Poll Everywhere. Its like American Idol for the classroom. With this web-based software, you simply use the website to post a question and participants use their cell phones to submit responses. Local carrier fees apply. With every poll comes a number and code to send your replies. Polls can be set up to be as simple as “yes or no”, or can be open ended responses. The magic in using this software is simple: real time responses, remote access, and anonymity. While not practical in traditional classroom/lecture hall settings, its great for informal settings.
Poll Everywhere creates stylish real-time experiences at events using mobile devices. Our service replaces expensive proprietary audience response hardware with standard web technology. It’s the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, tv, print — anywhere. It can help you to raise money by letting people pledge via text messaging. And because it works internationally with texting, web, or Twitter, its simplicity and flexibility are earning rave reviews. -Poll Everywhere.com
Clicker systems have been on college campuses for a few years, but are now finding their way into the K-12 classroom. A step up from cell phone system mentioned before, clicker systems come with standard response devices that interface with a USB reciever. Turning Point Software is a suite that works along with Microsoft PowerPoint to create interactive slides. It collects the data, and lets you display participant responses (or not) immediately. It also stores sessions for analysis later. Turning Point also has additional options ranging from mobile phone responses to more advanced clickers.
Engage students in active learning, conduct formative assessment and increase student learning with data driven strategies. TurningPoint provides instant assessment, universal screening, immediate feedback, data collection, assessment for learning and differentiated instruction using existing curriculum resources.
Enable every student in the class to participate and engage with your lessons. Using ResponseCard® keypads – classroom clickers – or computers, iPod touch devices or web-enabled cell phones with ResponseWare™, students simply select their response which is immediately transferred to TurningPoint. -Turning Technologies
The final frontier in taking education completely out of the box is an evolution of distance education institutions such as University of Phoenix and Walden University. Check out Supercool School. Supercool School gives you the freedom of choosing classes that interest you, but it also gives you the power to create them. Supercool School is a platform for building your own online school. It’s been really great to watch this project evolve, as I got to do some blogging with one of the school’s principals a few years ago. The purpose has always been to make school engaging for its students by giving them the freedom to make choices about what they would study. Taking this platform online is what makes this application killer.
Supercool School enables people to build their own school with 1 click. It’s a white label online school platform that uses demand based and real-time technologies to empower a next generation of schools to be created. Education entrepreneurs or edupreneurs get one simple environment to reach a global audience and get access to a platform that allows them to build scalable & branded education businesses without high technology cost. A platform that is changing the economics of education on a global scale.
Since its launch in January 2010 Supercool School has lead to the creation of over 100 next generation online schools in 13 countries and over 30 different markets generating revenue from the very first month. -SuperCool School.com
Donwill from Tanya Morgan knows how to move his product. Tanya Morgan perfected the model with the Brooklynati Survival Kit. If your an independent artist (or not) who has to compete with the download machine, here is how you do it. The formula is simple.
Step 1: Make good music. Don Cusack in Hi-Fidelity is real hip hop, period.
Step 2: Package your product. Subscribers to the Donwill bandcamp page earned you first dibs at the deluxe pack featuring the album, a Brooklynati fitted (pictured below), an unreleased track and a host of other free stuff that music nerds go for (translation: stickers, more free music, and flyers). All for the low price of $25. It’s this sort of packaging that would make one ask themselves why they wouldn’t pay for this album.
Lesson over. If you haven’t already, head over to Bandcamp, and check out Laura’s Tape. Head over to iTunes and buy the album. Better yet, buy the album and get a new fitted plus some stickers. The unreleased track is embedded below for your listening pleasure.
Nothing has ever left the Apple compound before Apple was ready. We didn’t even *see* the iPad until it hit stores. We had no idea what it would even be. That said, some guy who works for Apple was toting around Apple’s newest development and just happened to leave it at the bar after having a few drinks? I don’t think so. Either all of this is Apple crafted “buzz”, or Apple has a leg up on the secret service and there are Apple agents everywhere testing out gadgets in disguise a la 007. Check out the full story over at Gizmodo.
C2E2 is organized by the same people that do Comic Con and MIPCOM, so it’ll be done correctly. Come on down to McCormick Place April 16-18 for the good time. I’m sure to be there to document the coolness and bring a piece to the blog. I cannot guarantee that your experience here will be as good as mine at the expo, but I’ll do my best the capture the magic. A word about C2E2:
C2E2 – short for the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo – is a convention spanning the latest and greatest from the worlds of comics, movies, television, toys, anime, manga and video games. From a show floor packed with hundreds of exhibitors, to panels and autograph sessions giving fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators, to screening rooms featuring sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either the big or small screen, C2E2 brings the best of popular culture to downtown Chicago!- C2E2.com
Guests include keynote Alex Ross (who did the awesome opening credits for SpiderMan 2 among other great paintings), NFL player Lance Briggs and Chewy. That’s right. The Real Chewbacca.
They also have specific policies for weapons, harassment and bootlegs. Sounds like a blast.
No need for a late pass; I just left and came back. This is the lead single from the upcoming album “Special Kind of Fool” dropping on the April 19. A word about Ty:
A fool for all kinds of music, only the drum patterns give the instrumentation on this album away as being hip hop, as Ty and his long time co-producer Drew Horley play with a palette of classic funk, soul, two step, 80s synth pop, and glitchy electro samples and sounds. Tys lyricism is as insightful as ever; balancing thought provoking subject matter with uplifting messages (I Get Up, and Something Big which features Lovers Rock legend Carroll Thompson), and moving social observation (Heart Is Breaking featuring Sway and Roses Gabor). It also sees Ty exploring his emotional depths (Im Leaving featuring Anthony Mills, and Emotions featuring the legendary Shaun Escoffery and newcomer Sarina Leah), and of course telling some home truths (Special Kind of Fool and Me, featuring Erik Rico). Peppered throughout with shrewd and often hilarious cultural references, political issues, diverse stories, and an empathetic sensitivity to every day peoples experiences, Ty remains a unique and refreshing voice in hip hop. -Ty MySpace Page
To get even more of a feel for his music and his vibe, download the Something Big! Mixtape. Its definitely a change from the same old same and will add a little Euro spice to your iPod. Lastly, check out the teaser for the Emotions video below. Hip Hop isn’t dead, it just went back to the roots.
