E-readers Not Suitable For Education

Posted on March 16, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

After several years of looking at e-readers with curiosity and some envy, I finally ordered a Kindle from Amazon.

Since I only wanted the device for reading books and avoiding printing research material, I decided to get the basic model of e-reader. I enjoy the simple interface, the size, and the design of the device, along with how easy it is to read and manage books and magazine subscriptions. I also found it easy to borrow e-books from the library.

But studying using an e-reader is a completely different game. It’s one thing to read a book continuously, browse a magazine, or read a newspaper article. It’s another to use an e-reader as a textbook replacement for serious research. That’s why, despite the hope that they could be used in education to save money by replacing text books, e-readers probably aren’t ready for schools.

According to the first findings of an ongoing study by the University of Washington, using the Kindle DX model (the large version that is optimized to view PDFs and academic texts), e-readers are not suitable for education (yet) to be used as book replacements for research and annotation.

“Most e-readers were designed for leisure reading –- think romance novels on the beach,” said co-author Charlotte Lee, a UW assistant professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering. “We found that reading is just a small part of what students are doing. And when we realize how dynamic and complicated a process this is, it kind of redefines what it means to design an e-reader.”

The problem is even bigger with smaller e-readers. The Kindle DX features a 9.7” display, making it the closest to a full letter page, while most e-readers feature a 6” display. I tried reading a full letter page in PDF format on my Kindle, and I found it completely annoying. E-readers are only suitable for text and publications adapted to them.

Another problem is the need for additional devices to take notes and conduct online research. While most tablets and large e-readers feature an integrated browser, students are not used to switching back and forth between the text and browser to look up definitions or check additional sources of information. The UW study found that most students kept a sheet of paper with the e-reader so that they could take notes. Also, while using the Kindle, they used a computer so they could look up references or do other tasks.

Another issue is text and image skimming. It is very difficult to switch between reading techniques when using an e-reader. Most students browse pictures, charts, and diagrams before they read the text in an article, and e-readers are not suitable (yet) for that way of reading.

Tablets such as the iPad overcome some of the issues, but then there is the digital distraction. According to this New York Times article, “A tablet offers a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks.”

“E-readers are not where they need to be in order to support academic reading,” Lee concludes. But asked when e-readers will reach that point, she predicts: “It’s going to be sooner than we think.”

Gadgets Reviews, New Gadgets ,

How To Choose GPS Navigation System You’ll Love

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

If you don’t already have a GPS navigation system or you are looking to buy a second or third GPS, now is a great time to do so. GPS gadgets are dropping in price, with good models going for about $100.

Another option: you can now use virtually any cell phone as  GPS device. Our testers say that the navigation apps on some smart phones work as well as dedicated GPS system units, but there are downsides.

Read this blog post for info on using your phone for directions.

Below are the tips on how to choose a gps navigation system you’ll love.

GPS Navigation Features To Look For

The newest portable GPS gadgets come loaded with features. But some add-ons can cost you extra and they are not always worth it. All GPS navigators show your car location on a map and often often spoken turn-by-turn directions to an address or point of interest.

What other features are must-haves and which ones are iffy? Here’s a list from our auto experts:

Good To Have GPS Features:

Spoken Street Names (Text-To-Speech) – Also called text-to-speech, this GPS feature provides more precise directions by calling our roads by name, rather than simply saying “turn left”

Help feature – Called “HelpMe” by TomTom and “Where am I” by Garmin, this shows your exact street address and GPS coordinates to help emergency aid find you fast. It can also route you to the nearest police station, hospital or gas station.

Reality view / lane assist – Often packaged together, these can make confusing highway intersections easier to handle. Reality view shows you a 3-D view of exits, intersections, and overhead signs as you approach. Lane assist shows the best lane to be in for an upcoming turn.

Worth a Look

Traffic info – This feature tells you how traffic is flowing onmajor highways and can alert you to congestion along your route. It can be helpful but also limited and inaccurate. Steer clear of subscription plans, which cost about $60 per year. Many newer GPS system models provide free traffic information (sometimes listed as “lifetime traffic”), supported by onscreen ads.

Historic traffic info – This helps give you better routes and travel-time estimates by factoring known slow-downs into the route selection.

Bluetooth connectivity – It links the GPS unit to a compatible cell phone to let you make calls using the unit’s speaker, microphone, and screen.

Pedestrian mode – When you are navigating on foot, this adjusts travel times to a walking pace and lets you go against traffic on one-way streets.

Lifetime map updates – Unless you are in the area with a lot of road construction, you will probably need to update your maps every few years. But paying extra up front for a lifetime supply might be worth it.

GPS features To Think Twice About

Connected services – you can get weather info, fuel prices, and movie times, or do a Google search. But you will pay from $60 to $120 a year for these GPS features, and they only work where there is a cell phone connection.

Voice recognition – You can speak commands to your GPS navigation system, but this feature doesn’t always work well, and it is usually only on pricey models.

Music and Video Players – GPS units typically deliver poor sound quality.

3D view – this GPS feature shows landscape contours or images of actual buildings, which is cool but not worth the extra money.

 

Gadgets Reviews, Navigation Systems, New Gadgets , , ,

Science Apps Help With Research-On-The-Go

Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin | Permalink 1

Scientists are developing IPhone apps that aid in scientific research and appeal to “citizen scientists” as well.

We have selected 6 science iPhone applications to share with our technology blog readers.

  1. BirdsEye
  2. Molecules
  3. Geology
  4. TimeTree
  5. Ivegot1
  6. Chemjuice

BirdsEye -

Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornitology, BirdsEye has entries on hundreds of the most frequently seen North American bird species and includes images and bird sounds. It helps to guide avid watchers to birds in the area, based on sightings submitted online to eBird.org, a project of Cornell University and the National Audubon Society. Scientists use these observations to figure out the bird’s range, movements and abundance.

Molecules -

This iPhone app depicts 3D models of compounds that users can manipulate with their fingers via touch screen. These are more than just pretty pictures – the 3-D structure of a molecule is often crucial to its function, so these models help researchers and amateurs see how they work. “You can show collegues the structure of a protein wherever you want, such as over lunch,” says Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello.

Geology -

This line of apps from Integrity Logic covering 26 US states provides maps with as many as 50 layers of information, including rock types and ages, the locations of past seismic faults and past eathquakes. Nonscientists find them helpful, too. Mushroom hunters have used the data on forest fires, as some types grow better after fires, says Integrity Logic founder Max Tardiveau.

TimeTree -

When did humans and chimps last share a common ancestor? Scan the tree of life to find using TimeTree. The app, from scientists at the Arizone and Pennsylvania State Universities, searches the massive databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which hold information on more than 160,000 organisms. TimeTree returns answers on divergence times within seconds, including citations of scientific papers.

IveGot1 -

Do you want to spot alien invaders? Exotic wildlife such as Burmese pythons and Nile monitors are invading Florida and destroying the ecosystem. To help identify reptiles there, professionals and volunteers can rely on this app, which has photographs of species and data on their features, location, and status as native and exotic.

Chemjuice -

Want to create your own database of molecules on the fly? With Chemjuice, just drag your finger across  the touch screen to delete an atom or bond, or change its type. The app can also calculate molecular weight, formula and percent composition by element and e-mail the structure wherever you wish – handy for students and professionals.

 

IPhone Apps, Science and Technology , , ,

How To Turn Energy Into Efficiency

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin | Permalink 0

As the amount of data continues to grow, so has the need for efficient storage that saves energy and reduces companies’ carbon footprints.

Data centers can generate huge amounts of heat and require cooling systems, which can be expensive to run, to bring down high temperatures. But every dollar a company spends on things like energy costs is a dollar not spent on innovation.

One approach

Social networking giant Facebook made news in late 2011 when it announced it had chosen Lulea, Sweden, as the location of its new 5-acre datacenter. The city — about 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle — was selected for its cold climate, which would be used to chill the company’s servers for eight months out of the year.

And Facebook isn’t the only major Web company that’s storing servers in Nordic countries; Google put a datacenter in a former paper mill in Finland.

Another solution
But, rather than relocating or building datacenters in colder climates, there’s a simpler solution.

A recent column in Tech Week Europe argued that turning off the cooling systems and allowing temperatures to rise is the best way to save energy.

More efficient servers that can run at higher temperatures can save money as well as reduce a company’s environmental impact. And as companies cut how much they spend on energy costs, they’ll also see their operational costs drop, freeing money to invest back into the business.

Advanced Technology, Technology News ,

Hi Tech Desks For College Students

Posted on November 4, 2011 by admin | Permalink 0

Don’t try carving your name into the desks that some media schools are implementing. When Orlando-area media arts academy Full Sail University adds or renovates space for new classrooms, it now installs KI Datalink desks, which are essentially a workstation for 2 students. College students can plug into one of the two pop-topped cable cubbies located on each desk. These offer 110V power outlets and Cat-5 Ethernet jacks for the laptop computers that students acquire through the university at a discounted institutional fee, a tactic employed by a growing number of media technology academies.

“Basically, what the switch to laptops does is allow us to make some of the classrooms into hybrid rooms that can be lecture rooms or labs, depending on the scheduling and teacher needs,” explains Scott Dansby, industry relations director at Full Sail.

Each new classroom has cable troughs in the floor with a port for the approximately 20 desks in each room. The instructor’s desks have the same cabling along with a VGA port for video. Teachers use an Extron MediaLink control system hard-wired to the room to choose video and audio sources.

One of the most recent classroom renovations also has Wacom Cintiq 21 UX tablets at each student station and at the instructor’s desk, creating an interactive loop between students and a teacher. Combined with campus-wide Wi-Fi, each student desk is now essentially a node on a LAN. “Going forward, this is how we are specifying all of our classrooms,” Dansby says.

 

Media Technology, New Gadgets, Technology In Education, Technology News