Idea Rated: Google Earth 6.2

Posted by Danyelle 

The Idea
It’s Google Earth only better and more beautiful!  Google Earth 6.2  transforms the patchwork quilt of satellite images and aerial photographs we’re accustomed to viewing into one seamless image, from the widest angle down to the tightest zoom.  There’s an updated search interface, a new share feature, mobile and desktop versions and options for biking, transit and walking directions. 


Why We Like It
Well, it’s pretty, and that’s almost enough reason to love the new Google Earth. In addition to awe-inspiring visuals, we appreciate the updated search experience including autocomplete feature.  Kudos to Google for offering earth friendly transportation routes as a part of the package.  Download Google Earth 6.2.


Thesys' Rating? 
Nice!

Photo via Google Blog

TED Talks: Technology Review - 50 Most Innovative Companies

Posted by Leslie


Looking for inspiration to innovate? The TR50 at technologyreview.com is a great place to start. Published by MIT, Technology Review selects the 50 businesses each year whose innovations are so important that they force competitors to alter their own strategic courses. Technology Review’s editors nominate companies that have demonstrated original and valuable technology, are bring that technology to market at a significant scale and are clearly influencing competitors.


Here are some of our favorites from the 2012 list of the most innovative companies. Review these innovations and the rest on the list. Which innovations stand out to you? How can you apply them to what you’re doing in the classroom? 


Company: Apple
Industry: Computing
Why: In the latest generation of the iPhone–the iPhone 4S–Apple added the Siri virtual assistant.
Key Innovation: Software that can interpret ambiguous sentences allows Siri to understand even casual commands.


Company: First Solar
Industry: Energy
Why: It’s reducing the cost of utility-scale photovoltaic installations.
Key Innovation: First Solar constrains costs with vertical integration of everything from plant construction to the manufacture of high-efficiency cadmium telluride cells.


Company: PatientsLikeMe
Industry: Biomedicine
Why: Online social connections and shared data offer a new way to improve the understanding and treatment of disease.
Key Innovation: Published a peer-reviewed study, based on data volunteered by site users, that countered the results of a clinical trial assessing the effects of lithium on ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.


Company: SpaceX
Industry: Transportation
Why: Its spacecraft and rockets could replace expensive government vehicles as a way into orbit.
Key Innovation: The reusable Dragon cargo capsule is set to become the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.


Company: Dropbox
Industry: Web & digital media
Why: Its technology makes it easier for users to sync and share files on smart phones, laptops and desktops.
Key Innovation: Cloud-based systems are the basis for a consumer-focused service that works across multiple platforms.


Visit http://www.technologyreview.com/tr50/2012/ to explore the entire TR50 list for 2012.

Guest Post: Kelly Robinette

To gain a broader perspective on the topic of innovation, we've asked some experts in the education field to share their thoughts. Our next guest post was contributed by Kelly Robinette, Senior Education Coordinator at Fairmont Private Schools.

Kelly started at Fairmont in January of 2008, and currently serves as the senior education coordinator and Blackboard administrator. Prior to this role, Kelly taught high school English for 12 years, both in the United States and England. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

Big Changes in Small Ways

Most educators today are keenly aware of the pressures of teaching in a 21st century environment. We all know that it is our responsibility to prepare our students for careers that haven’t even been created yet! This task can seem so daunting that we are tempted to just shut down and continue teaching, not only as we have always taught, but even as we were taught ourselves. While this is understandable, it will not make this imperative go away, nor will it give our students the competitive edge when entering college and the workforce.

So, what’s a teacher to do? Is it possible to make only a few, strategic (and possibly painless) changes to your current repertoire of teaching activities and strategies, yet still move forward in terms of 21st century relevancy? You bet! Heidi Hayes Jacobs, founder and director of Curriculum Designers, Inc., states the importance of upgrading the content you teach (and the methods with which you teach it) in small, manageable pieces, rather than in a radical, overnight change (which, like crash dieting, is rarely, if ever, successful).

Here are a few key places to start:

• Consider 21st century themes: According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, students need to be exposed to more relevant themes in school that will prepare them to thrive in this complex and ever-changing world. These themes include: global awareness, financial literacy, and personal health. While studying economics, for example, consider putting the link to The Mint in your LMS, and ask your students to complete some of the very cool activities you can find there. Giving your students the opportunity to explore wise ways of dealing with money is perhaps one of the most valuable things you will do for them.
• Replace outdated assignments with more modern ones: Most of us can remember having to write a short story in language arts classes when we were young. There is a good chance that if you are an English or language arts teacher, you have asked your students to do the same thing. Is there anything inherently wrong with that? Of course not—students learn a lot of valuable skills in character development, plot-setting, and so forth. But in reality, not many short story writers are making it in today’s economy. Consider updating this type of assignment with one that teaches the same skills, but in a more relevant way. Instead of a short story, have students create a screen play, or write a dialogue and build it into an online application like Xtranormal or Go!Animate. If you find that idea intriguing, yet daunting, click here to check out what one teacher did to make it a manageable and enjoyable experience with his students. The key here is to start small—perhaps only replacing one activity per trimester or semester. And don’t underestimate the power of collaboration—ask your students or other colleagues for ideas on how to innovate what you currently do.
• Create authentic learning situations: Learners also have a need to interact with new material in the most authentic fashion possible. While direct instruction may afford the possibility of getting across large amounts of information in a short span of time, it does not necessarily allow students to gain deep conceptual understanding of the material. Project- and problem-based learning, however, provides students with the opportunity to solve a real-world problem in an authentic manner. For example, a science teacher may present a particular ecological disaster to a group of students, and ask them to investigate why it may have happened, and what can be done to ensure that the problem doesn’t continue. She could also provide clues as part of the evidence, such as pond water samples and autopsy results of animals that have died in the nearby region. Students would then be able to use authentic tools, such as running tests on the water samples, searching the internet, calling a local chapter of the EPA and conducting an interview, etc., to determine the cause of the disaster. The simulation not only engages students, but also requires them to think critically and draw conclusions, much like they will be required to do in the real world.

So while preparing students for life in the real world has never been an easy task for educators, it is all the more imperative that in this highly technological, fast-paced world we stay on top of current research and best practices. While it may be hard to do away with some of our favorite (albeit outdated) activities, we must keep in mind the needs of today’s learners, and do all we can to ensure they have a promising tomorrow.

Idea Rated: Instagram

Posted by Danyelle

The Idea

Take a photo with your smart phone, “develop” it using Instagram’s custom filters and share your transformed shot instantly on social media sites. Instagram’s nifty filters are easy to apply and add a certain je ne sais quoi to even the most mundane pix.

Why We Like It

A picture tells a thousand words, right? But, these days we need our photos to speak volumes and still be easy to take, transform and share. With Instagram, you capture a moment, enhance it as you will and, suddenly, you’re a photo journalist. Just acquired by Facebook, we’re guessing Instagram becomes as ubiquitous for today’s shutterbugs as Polaroids were for their parents.

Thesys' Rating?

Nice!

TED Talk: Richard Resnick - Welcome to the Genomic Revolution

Posted by Alan

In his TED Talk Welcome to the Genomic Revolution, Richard Resnick explains how genomic testing will likely become standard in the near future for medical diagnosing due to the rapidly increasing availability and affordability of the technology. Genomic charting is a significant innovation in the medical field that is already leading to profound patient results. While this innovation does not directly impact the education field, it is important to study innovations in a variety of industries to better understand innovation as a whole.

Here are some things we can learn from the genomic case study and apply to education innovation:

• Gain awareness of a general model to develop technology and remember the importance of assessing where our industry is in the technology adoption process. Resnick points out two key steps about how transformative technology begins to accelerate in society: 1) the discovery starts with many years of research and development 2) then the discovery begins to accelerate rapidly once the quality of the solution improves and the cost comes down. Is this happening today with the application of technology to learning? We think so.

• Explore solutions being developed globally. Resnick points out how technology development of the human genome is now global and that there is a great deal to learn from others (e.g., the Beijing Genomics Institute). Educators can think globally and act locally. Why are countries like Finland and Singapore producing students at the top of the Program for International Assessment (PISA) charts on a consistent basis? What could we apply, and not apply, from their models?

• Turn studying unrelated innovations into an opportunity for teachers and students to develop critical thinking skills. At the end of his talk, Resnick makes an important conclusion but offers no ideas. He says, "We need to wield technologies for the betterment of mankind". As educators, we can ask students to wrestle with such a point using critical thinking questions, thus integrating innovation study into the curriculum.

But can an unrelated innovation like this directly lead to our own innovations in education? Perhaps yes. Notice how the genome was not only mapped (the discovery that took many years), but is now requiring the development of additional technologies to enable it to reach its full value with the mass of consumers (i.e., computer software). This phenomenon is also happening today in education. We know how to teach, but now there is new value being created from the development of technology tools (though there is still plenty of room for educators to create ideas for the application of technology). For example, at Thesys, we are exploring the application of data analytics to measure learning behavior--that is, the student engagement and effort needed to achieve high outcomes, which are different than measures of outcomes themselves.

Image via Ted Talks

TED Talk: Six Ways to Save the Internet

Posted by Leslie

Leaders and innovators don’t wait for change to force their hands; they look down the road and anticipate how they can meet the future half-way.

In a recent lecture called “Six Ways to Save the Internet” at TEDxSantaCruz, tech investor Roger McNamee forecasted the coming of a new technology cycle and enumerated the six changes that he says are already transforming the ways people consume and create content.

Change #1: Windows Is Dying.

Smartphones are transforming the way people access content, and that has driven Windows down from a 96% share to less than 50%. It will likely dip to less than 30% in the next year and a half. That accounts for hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue—revenue that will make room for new industries.

Change #2: Index Search Has Peaked.

Google filled a desperate need when it burst on the scene with index search in 1998. It was so successful, in fact, that the index is now full of garbage. McNamee describes index search as a “digital Detroit” where you can find some very interesting things—or you can get mugged. Change is occurring quickly, because the rate of index search is much lower on smartphones. Specialized search is replacing the general index search, with niches filled by Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Match.com, TripAdvisor, Yelp and more.

Change #3: Apps Beat Web.

Apple has gone from being a small player in computers to shipping nearly 100 million Internet devices in 2012. The iPad has changed everything, and Apple is poised to own a majority of this market. The incredible new devices that are available now allow users to utilize apps with very specific functions instead of the generalized content they’re leaving behind on the Web.

Change #4: HTML 5 Changes It All.

HTML 5 is a profound programming language that allows users to construct entirely interactive Web pages. Flash boxes are gone. Anyone can use this technology to build highly differentiated content for WordPress, to promote bands… for just about anything. It’s highly compelling and simple to use. The days of hyper-commoditization are behind us, and the younger generation is ready to embrace the newest capabilities.

Change #5: Tablets Win Big.

iPads are the foundation of every important thing going on right now. This is the other side of why Windows is dead. The other players have made no impact in this market. Without a challenger, Apple could soon own 70% to 80% of the market and become $50 billion to $100 billion bigger than they are today.

Change #6: Social Platforms Set.

Facebook has won; it is the new Windows. There are certainly companies out there building successful platforms, but they’re much smaller. Social is now a feature, not a platform. Smart innovators are building systems that interface with Facebook rather than trying to compete with it.

The Future

The future will be different. Creativity is making a comeback, and technology is finally delivering the tools to make people independent. Imagine a world in which everything is an app. Envision an ad that is also a store. Companies can both create demand and satisfy it at the same time. Instead of a model in which users reach out for content, taking an elevator to different levels and wandering off, it’s becoming a control-panel model where everything is central and immediately accessible.

Can’t imagine it? There isn’t long to wait.

Image via 5 Magazine

Idea Rated: Evernote

Posted by Danyelle

The Idea

Imagine a digital “sticky note” library filled with everything you’ve ever wanted to remember—hardcopy articles, clips of webpages, videos, images…then make it all searchable and you’ll almost have Evernote in a nutshell. Using your computer, tablet or smart phone, you can easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience and bring it all into one database.

Why We Like It

Aside from being a nifty tool for personal uses—everything from organizing tax receipts to planning your next vacation—Evernote is changing the way kids study and teachers teach. Students and teachers can create and share digital notebooks filled with lecture notes, study guides, presentations, videos, websites, photos, etc.; all searchable and easy to access, 24-7.

Thesys' Rating?

Finally!

Image via Keepin' Up with the Jones