Merry Christmas.
Here’s hoping you get all the gadgets and tech stuff you put on your letter to Santa.
Have a great time and all the best for 2009.
Category Archives: stuff
Smart mobile can turn on heating
BBC reports on how you wil be able to use your mobile phone to control your house.
A system that could eventually control heating, home security cameras and draw curtains has been demonstrated by phone maker Nokia.
The Nokia Home Control Center is a wireless router which can interface with equipment around the home.
Read more.
Ubuntu set to debut on netbooks
In an interesting move for Ubuntu, the BBC reports on the development of the Linux based OS to enable it to be used on the small netbooks and smartphones.
Mobile phone chip designer Arm has announced an alliance with the makers of the Ubuntu open source software.
The deal will produce a version of the operating system for small net-browsing computers known as netbooks.
It marks a departure for Arm, which before now has been best known for designing the chips inside smartphones and feature phones.
The new operating system for Arm-powered machines looks set to be available in April 2009.
Ubuntu has certainly for many people allowed them to experience Linux in a way which is friendly and comfortable. Likewise the Linux distribution on the Asus EeePC has also introduced Linux to a new audience and I suspect that it is this distro that has motivated Arm and Ubuntu to form an alliance.
As can be heard in our podcast on the netbook these small low powered wireless laptops are proving very popular (often as a second computer) and are now cost so little that they are starting to be a real option for many learners.
Unbuntu is a very user-friendly Linux distribution and unlike the EeePC distro is much easier to install different applications with it. Will be interesting to see how this works.
Full list of MoLeNET 2 Projects
The LSN have released the full list of MoLeNET 2 projects.
In the end they have selected 30 projects for phase 2 and the lead colleges are:
Accrington and Rossendale College
Ashton Sixth Form College
Aylesbury College
Bolton Community College
Bridgewater College
Capel Manor College
Chichester College
College of West Anglia
Cornwall College
Ealing Hammersmith and West London College
Exeter College
Gloucestershire College
Grimsby Institute of FHE
Hastings College
Joseph Priestley College
Leeds College of Art & Design
Ludlow College
Manchester College
Moulton College
Redbridge College
Reigate Sixth Form College
Sheffield College
South Thames College
St Helens College
Stoke on Trent College
Tower Hamlets College
Trafford College
Truro College
Walsall College
Wirral Metropolitan College
Windows in the clouds
Microsoft have launched a preview of their new cloud computing service, Azure.
Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers.
On demand computing means that you don’t need to download applications to your computer, you can just use them from any computer.
Some of the key features of Azure include:
- Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources.
- Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises.
- Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively.
- Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources.
Well does this mean that now Microsoft has gone into the clouds, that cloud computing is mainstream?
Can I show a pre-recorded DVD in the classroom?
Disclaimer: ALL information containing in my post is for informational purposes only and should never be construed as legal advice. For proper legal advice you should consult a lawyer.
So here is a question which staff often ask. Can I show a pre-recorded DVD in the classroom? In other words a DVD which has been rented from a video store, or a DVD purchased from a retail store? In the olden days we would have called this a video cassette.
Under the Copyright Act, you can show a DVD in a classroom for the purposes of instruction without needing an additional licence.
If it is for entertainment purposes then you do need a public performance licence.
From the Government Intellectual Property Office.
“Performing, playing or showing copyright works in a school, university or other educational establishment for educational purposes. However, only teachers, pupils and others directly connected with the activities (does not generally include parents) of the establishment are in the audience. Examples of this are showing a video for English or drama lessons and the teaching of music. It is unlikely to include the playing of a video during a wet playtime purely to amuse the children.”
From Filmbank.
“A copyright licence is required to screen films in educational institutions under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK), if the film is being screened for entertainment purposes rather than for the purposes of instruction or as part of the lesson.”
Not a lot of people know this.
Part of the misunderstanding arises as generally when you play a DVD you get this huge legal message indicating that your DVD is for personal use only and can not be played on oil rigs, in prisons, schools and colleges.
That is partly true for the purposes of entertainment and you would need to purchase a licence to show a DVD for that purpose.
However for informational and instruction (ie for educational reasons) it is possible to show that DVD in a classroom. Teachers and lecturers have a statuory right (it is enshrined in law, the Copyright Act to be precise).
So could you rip that DVD and put it on a laptop or on the VLE?
Ah no.
Ripping a DVD would be in breach of the EU Copyright Directive which “prohibits circumvention of copy protection measures“. So ripping the DVD is a criminal offence.
Photo source.
Have you got an Innovation Prevention Department?
Here it is day three of Handheld Learning 2008.
It has been a very good conference and a good chance to see what is happening in the world of mobile and handheld learning.
Some really good stuff out there, but some sessions no more than a showcase of a product rather than how it impacts on learning.
This is not a research based conference (unlike mLearn) so there are lots of practitioners here talking about what they do, but there are also suppliers talking (or is that selling) their wares.
First presentation I have seen today was Lt Alex Smith who is using PSPs with Royal Navy personnel for learning. Quite interesting in what they are doing in what seems to be a very traditional teaching environment.
The second session was not really my cup of tea, very much about selling a product to schools.
Third session was presented by Jon Trinder who was presenting about connecting the physical to the virtual.
Best quote of the conference so far came from Jon, “Have you got an Innovation Prevention Department?”.
Reflections on Handheld Learning 2008
Some initial reflections on Handheld Learning 2008.
Download the iPod version.
Quick interview with Steve and Mark
A very short and quick conversation with Mark Kramer and Steve Wheeler.
Wanted it to be longer, but was interrupted by the start of the second plenary session.
mLearn 2008
So it’s mLearn 2008 time. Two years ago it was in Banff in Canada, last year it was in Melbourne. This year it’s in that exotic of places… Telford.
Well it’s the conference content and the people why you go to mLearn not the location.
Looking forward to the conference, should be very informative and interesting.
So first it was off to the reception. Now I was expecting a buffet, alas I was mistaken. There were some crisps and pickled cauliflower which I am guessing is some kind of local Telford delicacy. So now I am very hungry.