Class in a Dorm Room?

I got to thinking today when Dr. Zeitz was talking about being a change agent in your classroom.  I got to thinking that a teacher always wants there students to be happy.  But for some students they can dread going to class.  So what if they didnt need to come to class.  Some books for classes cost upwards of $100 and today Dr Zeitz said tablets were only going for little over $100 at Walgreens.  Are you putting things together yet?  How about UNI goes 1:1 learning to a new level.  Have students in Ed Tech and Design purchase tablets and have them as learning resource.  Although I dont know for sure but I think tablets can have internet.  Lots of times students have to miss class and in many classes get points taken off for missing that class.  What if the teacher for ETD taught the class in regular lab for students who could come and then for students that could not come due to illness or other reasons the class was on something similar to the ICN.  Students could follow what was going along live in the class from the freedom of their dorm room through their tablet.  The teacher could have it so that the ill student had to sign in to a back channel/live chat room so that would be their attendance of signing in.  Athletes who have to miss class for road trips could still stay up on class by watching and listening to class while being on the road.  And if students stop coming to the lab all together the teacher could simply decide to teach the class from his office and have a class lesson from dorm rooms and an office!  The fine details are not smoothed out but I think I am on to something! I will be sure to give credit to ETD when I make this idea a real thing and become famous!

 

picture rights to Apple

Fantasy Football In Class?!

As a Sunday morning ritual before church after showering but before I head out to church guess what I do?  I make sure my Fantasy Football Teams are all ready to go for domination of my opponents for the day.  I take great pride in my teams doing well even though out of the three leagues I am in I dont know anyone else in the leagues and have no money involved what so ever.  But Fantasy Football is very mainstream today and if you dont participate in it you at least know what it is.  So I got to thinking, as a PE teacher wouldnt it be a good idea to have students in my class compete in fantasy football for an out class assignment.  It would connect what were doing in class to modern culture and would also integrate technology into a PE class.  Right now its just a thought and don't have all the kinks of grading it worked out but I personally like the idea alot.

Here is a link to get started on fantasy football!: Fantasy Sports on ESPN




Picture rights to EA Sports

A New Idea for Cell Phones

Good Afternoon Everyone!

This morning while I was at church towards the end of the service someones cell phone went off/ made a noise.  It got me thinking how many times a cell phones go off unexpectedly albeit in class, church, movie etc.  So it got me thinking that with all the new technology in phones today how can we fix that problem.  What if phones could be programmed to know where they are at and sense what type of building they are in.  For Example, by having some kinda GPS in a phone or something the phone would know it was entering a church and put itself into silent mood or atleast vibrate if the owner of the phone has not put it in that mode already.  The same thing could work for kids at movies and in classrooms so that these untimely disturbances dont happen.

I think this pastor would like this idea to go into effect.  Read the description and you will understand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxMrir3fUxo 

Picture rights to Garmin and HP

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New Technology!

The other week Jason Vetter talked to us about the 1:1 learning and mobile learning.  What I found fascinating is the huge tablet like pad that was much like a coffee table.  The way everything can be touch screen boggles my mind and how it is smart enough to recognize other technologies like cell phones and cameras.  The way the demonstrator just touched the picture and slid it into the camera was amazing.  Pretty soon they will have entire touch screen houses or a house like the Disney movie "Smart House"!

Here is a link to the apple store to check out some of their new gadgets!: Apple Store




Here is a video of a new computer from Apple with no keyboard!