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Scottish authorities have begun other trials of ‘More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima’ on the Nintendo DS in 16 schools:

A 20-minute burst of the ‘brain training’ exercises on Nintendo’s DS console at the start of the day apparently improves performance in maths tests by as much as 10 per cent, according to a Scottish study.

The results of the completed 10 week study certainly are fascinating:

In a maths test at the end of the trial, their performance improved by an average 10 per cent, and the time to complete the test also dropped from 17 minutes to 13 minutes and nine seconds.

Pretty impressive results, although I don’t know what game they’re talking about, unless it happens to be Brain Age 2. Checking Amazon UK shows a DS game called More Brain Traing, which may just be a relabel Brain Age 2. I guess I’ll have to do some more checking. What a solid return on your investment though. It would cost a class of 25 $3,750 to outfit the entire class with a DS. Throw in the DS Browser and you have even more ways to integrate it into your classroom.

How long until a company comes out with a mobile version of Brain Age 2 that you can play from any mobile computing device?

Tags: 21st Century Skills, Hardware, Mobile Computing by Mr.Rcollins
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photo credit: Erin NealeyDesire2Learn is reporting that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has overturned all 44 of Blackboard’s patent claims:

On March 25, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued its Non-Final Action on the re-examination of the Blackboard Patent. We are studying the document, found here, but in short, the PTO has rejected all 44 of Blackboard’s claims. We caution that this is a NON-final action; both Blackboard and Desire2Learn will have an opportunity to comment before a final action will issue, and after that, the decision will be subject to appeals.

This is good news, especially not only for Desire2Learn, but also users of all online coursework delivery systems. Although I’m torn on the idea of software patents, the ones awarded to Blackboard in my opinion did not pass the obviousness test. Blackboard has gone on record that they were not going to go after open source implementations like Moodle, but I can’t help to think that just the idea that Blackboard could sue would put a damper on some new Moodle installations.

Tags: Legal by Mr.Rcollins
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photo credit: javYliz

In the technology world it seems we’re continually confronted with new products, services, software, hardware, etc. And for those of us who have a tough time focusing on one thing at a time, this dizzying array of choices can easily distract us or keep us from finishing previous tasks.

In The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz it describes why this is a problem:

“We normally assume in America that more options (”easy fit” or “relaxed fit”?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.”

As a technology coordinator, I’m constantly trying out new things, and it’s very hard to decide whether to actually implement something. Will this new product be easy enough for staff and students to use? Is the learning curve mild enough that my users will learn this product and use it?

When you ask others in the educational technology community what’s the best wiki, blogging software, operating system, etc. you’ll get a ton of choices. So many choices may ultimately lead you to either never be satisfied with your final choice, or worse, never make a decision.

In this blog I am going to try to only give one or two choices for solutions to specific problems. They may not be the best choice, but in the long run, they will be good enough to be of use (I hope).

Tags: Hardware, Op Ed, Software, Time Management by Mr.Rcollins
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Linux Terminal Lab (and test post )

Originally uploaded by mr.rcollins

This is an eight station computer setup in one of our middle school classrooms. Five of the machines are Linux terminals, booting over the network.

(* I’m also trying a test post of a picture sent from my phone to Flickr. *)

Tags: Good Sites by Mr.Rcollins
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Keeping track of inventory can be a difficult, and it seems like every four months someone is asking about what product to get to use for inventory control. I created a simple database in Filemaker Pro to keep track of our inventory. Why Filemaker Pro?

• We already had it.
• I didn’t need anything that fancy.
• We also had FMP Server and FMP Unlimited (version 5.5) so I could easily publish the database onto the web, that way it can be updated from anywhere with a web connection.

I’m not a big fan of using barcodes on our equipment. Our asset tag numbers are only 5 digits long, it doesn’t take time at all to easily type them. We do use a barcode reader when inventorying new equipment. It cuts down on errors when entering serial numbers or MAC addresses. The barcode reader can read the barcodes right off of the box.

To enter new equipment, we use a spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet is filled out, it is imported into the FMP database.

I don’t track help desk requests along with hardware. We have approximately 700 machines, and it’s very rare that a piece of equipment will have one hardware failure, let alone multiple failures that need to be tracked.

Tags: Hardware, RC Tips by Mr.Rcollins
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I was thinking about my blog post from last week, contemplating on how I should be more positive. People using technology in schools are already facing enough of an uphill battle without me picking on them.

Stealing Alvin’s Efficiency Tips idea, I want to post little tips, tricks, ideas to help the technology support staff in the education sector. Some of my ideas may seem to be esoteric (such as learning vi), but others should have more common appeal (imaging machings). There are conversations that happen on the Technology Coordinator’s listserv that also need to be condensed and posted.

Does this seem like a good idea? What about also creating handout sheets to help with professional development?

Tags: RCTips

Tags: Professional Development, RC Tips by Mr.Rcollins
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I’ve been playing around with Twitter for a little while (and if you’re really bored, you can follow me). A very cool feature is tracking. It works when you link your Twitter account with your instant messenger of choice. I’m currently tracking the following terms:

• education
• ed tech
• ipod touch
• educational technology

I then see any tweet posted with those terms. It’s a great way to find sites that you didn’t even know you needed. Just this week I found Glossy - MoLeNet:

“The Glossy project will undertake a large-scale development and implementation of mobile learning across Gloucestershire College utilising the mobile devices that learners already own. A comparative study will be made by providing a range of mobile devices for learners in excluded groups at Gloucestershire College and learners with learning difficulties and disabilities at National Star College. The project will put in place an infrastructure that will allow learners using devices which they already own to access learning activities and content through a mobile learning portal in conjunction with the college VLE.”

This is a very interesting project, to utilize mobile devices that students already have. I plan on following their blog and am very interested in their findings.

Tags: twitter, mobile devices, education

Tags: Web 2.0 by Mr.Rcollins
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Will Richardson sums it up so eloquently for me:

…which is how in god’s name can we talk seriously about 21st Century skills for kids if we’re not talking 21st Century skills for educators first? The more I listened, the less I heard in terms of how we make the teaching profession as a whole even capable of teaching these “skills” to kids. Sure, there were mentions of upgrading teacher preparation programs and giving teachers additional time in the school day to collaborate, etc. But the URGENCY was all around the kids. Shouldn’t the URGENCY be all about the teachers right now?

I am absolutely shocked at the lack of technology use by teachers and technology coordinators. I’ve been to several technology coordinator meetings, there will usually be 30 or 40 tech coordinators in the room, and as I scan the audience, there are only a handful taking notes into their computer. Most are writing on yellow legal pads! Maybe I’m using technology for technology’s sake, but I respectfully disagree in this example. By putting my notes in electronic format I’m already going to be able to easily file and more importantly find this information at a later date.

This extends to the eTech Ohio Conference this past February. It seems that most teachers and technology staff, while promoting the virtues of technology integration, don’t use it themselves. When you start mentioning RSS, Twitter, Wikis, a lot don’t have any clue what you’re talking about. At least most know what blogging is now.

What’s the solution? Teachers need to be shown how, at the very least, technology can save them time. If technology can save a teacher 10 minutes a day, that 1,830 minutes of the course of the school year, or 30.5 hours. Even if they need a 4 hour training on how to save those ten minutes, they still come out ahead! I believe that once they see that the computer is supposed to save them time as opposed to taking more time, it will ease further staff development.

Technology Coordinators, you need to be guiding the administrators and teachers in your district. If you don’t use technology, then there is less incentive for anyone else to use it. Automate repetitive tasks. Use RSS. Setup a blog. Subscribe to a podcast.

You need to lead.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: 21stcentury skills, professional development

Tags: 21st Century Skills, Professional Development by Mr.Rcollins
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At the eTech Ohio Technology Conference this past February I presented on different ways a person can communicate. Some ways were very low tech (writing a letter, using the phone), and some ways very high tech (using Grand Central to control incoming calls, social networking with del.icio.us or Twitter). I’ve finally gotten around to tagging the sites in del.icio.us (thanks Alvin!). I used the tag etechohio08.
photo credit: steveyb

Tags: 21st Century Skills, Professional Development, Web 2.0, eTech Ohio Conference by Mr.Rcollins
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I’ve ordered three iPod Touches to be used in a trial at the high school, middle school, and elementary level. Stealing some ideas from John Schinker, I’m putting forth the following questions for the participants to answer:

Does this device work well enough to have a place in our schools?

How could this be used effectively with students?

What limitations are there that would affect its usefulness?

Are there solutions to overcome those limitations?

What technical hurdles would have to be overcome to make the use of these devices successful?

If we were to start using these computers, what could they replace? What could we buy fewer of to make this cost effective?

Are these durable enough for student use?

Is the iPod Touch too complicated / different / cumbersome / annoying to be used in this environment?

I’ve started to come up with some ideas on how they can be used. My main goal to start is to focus mainly on communication. I’ve setup the Prologue theme for Wordpress, and am currently recruiting teachers to try it out. I’ve also installed the Elgg.org Open Source social network software at the HS and am investigating ways that it can be used in the classroom.

What are some of the important aspects that you can see implementing with a 1-to-1 program?

p.s. I’m trying out publishing from Google Docs, let’s see how well that works!

Tags: 21st Century Skills, Hardware, Mobile Computing by Mr.Rcollins
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