I don't think this came through clearly enough, and it's worth stating again: the project is cool not because it creates $60 white boards. It's cool because of the openness and the sharing. A state-wide rollout of Wii-mote powered whiteboards is a pipe-dream that's never going to work. We have a hard enough time deploying technology that has been tested and has training, support, and content. Giving people the ability to interact with their computer using a home-built pen doesn't add much to a lesson. With most whiteboards (Promethean, Smart, etc.), it's the additional software and functionality that's the real draw.
Another issue is that tech administrators aren't going to jump at soldering infrared emitter pens together, mounting Wii-motes to the wall, or compiling C# drivers and programs together for deployment. If you click through some of the documentation Lee posted, you'll see a note from the developer of one of the APIs saying that your bluetooth adapter may or may not work with the wii-mote. Some work, some don't. If your adapter doesn't work, get a new one. That's not the type of technology most teachers want in their classroom. It's certainly not the type of technology administrators want to deploy.
The whole project is fantastically cool. You won't hear me deny that. What's cool about it isn't that it's cheap, hard to deploy technology though. It's creative thinking, freedom of ideas, and sharing of work. It's the "maker meme" that Tom mentions. We need to be clear that this is the type of thinking we want from our students.
]]>For off-line play, parents can change some settings such as what ESRB rated games or MPAA rated games can be played on the 360, and then they set a password.
Anyone trying to play a game or movie rated higher than the allowed rating must know the password to proceed. These settings protect your children from offline content on their 360 console. More information can be found at Microsoft's Console Family Settings page.
The second way parents can protect their children is by configuring their XBox Live settings. I did some testing of this on my own console.
When you create a new XBox Live account, you are asked for your date of birth. If you are younger than 18, you must have a parent or guardian complete your account creation. That person must enter their credit card information, and must create a Windows Live Account (formerly known as a Passport account). That account is then used to configure the parental controls for online play.
If you want to configure parental controls for XBox Live after creating an account, navigate to the System Blade of the 360 dashboard. You then choose XBox Live Controls. The 360 will check for any child accounts on the console (accounts where the date of birth makes the account owner younger than 18). If you have such an account, you can then configure the options for it. You need to know your Windows Live information to do this. The things you can configure include the following:
Microsoft provides a lot of information about configuring Parental controls on their website at http://www.xbox.com. Using these controls can make gaming a safer experience for children.
]]>This is interesting because I recently attended a seminar on social software in business sponsored by Six Apart and Forrester. During the session someone asked dealing with people who say inappropriate things in their blogs. The response was that corporate blogs allow you to more closely monitor things that are said in a place where you can respond quickly and manage the situation better. One of the presenters quipped that we don't always know what people are doing with the technology they have access to already. Many employees use instant messenger, email, and more; all of these technologies are difficult to monitor. Schools go through the same thing.
However, when you provide a central space, you can allow for monitoring, governance, etc. Instead of searching for things across multiple other public services, you create an environment where things are more manageable.
Also of interest in the Stanford directory are the many academically oriented blogs. They're certainly something to keep an eye on as we all try to learn from each other how this technology will best work in education.
]]>This is interesting, as many educational thought leaders, business people, and public officials claim the opposite. I remain fascinated by the complex web that binds our country's economic and educational systems.
]]>]]>What is GeoGebra?
GeoGebra is a dynamic mathematics software for education in secondary schools that joins geometry, algebra and calculus.
On the one hand, GeoGebra is a dynamic geometry system. You can do constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards.
On the other hand, equations and coordinates can be entered directly. Thus, GeoGebra has the ability to deal with variables for numbers, vectors and points, finds derivatives and integrals of functions and offers commands like Root or Extremum.
These two views are characteristic of GeoGebra: an expression in the algebra window corresponds to an object in the geometry window and vice versa.