Posts Tagged ‘iPad’
MDL Technology, Kansas City IT Company, Reviews Technological Influence in Educational Settings
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology
Children of all ages can pick up an iPad and start playing games, drawing pictures and open programs. The iPad has now found its way into educational settings as early as kindergarten. With technology and technological devices becoming such an integrated part of life, it is more important than ever to integrate this type of hands-on technology into classrooms. The generation of tomorrow will soon be leading the world; this focus on integrating technology into educational settings will help move the generation of tomorrow forward.
A blog post by DigitalKindergarten profiles how one teacher has started to use iPads in her classroom.
Read the full article:
This is the first year of 1:1 iPads in my kindergarten classroom. In October 2010 I received one to use with my class of 26, and by the end of May 2011 I had 11 and my class had dropped down to 22 children. I absolutely loved that half the class could be working on the iPads completely independently, at various levels, while I worked with the other half of the kids. The ability level of the children in last years class was more varied than typical. The iPads were a life saver for me and allowed a greater level of differentiation than I could have done on my own- definitely to the benefit of the children.
Education Technology to Increase According to IT Directors: Schools Expected to Have Six Students Per iPad in Next Five Years
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC.
Mobile devices are becoming part of the standard classroom environment. If we continue to educate students on newer technology, classrooms will need to enhance their IT budget, support and even provide newer technologies. Here is an article from AppleInsider.com, written by Neil Hughes, that reviews IT directors’ thoughts on increased technology to educate.
Schools expect to have more iPads than computers in next 5 years
A new survey of technology directors in U.S. school districts found that all of them are testing or deploying the iPad in schools, and they expect tablets to outnumber computers in the next five years.
Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray revealed the results of the small survey of 25 educational technology directors at a conference on the integration of technology in the classroom. The poll found that all of them were utilizing Apple’s iPad in schools, while none were testing or deploying Android-based tablets.
“While this may be expected due to limited availability of Android tablets early in the tablet cycle, we also see it as evidence of Apple’s first mover advantage,” Munster said. “We also see a trend in education (which is mirrored in the enterprise) that familiarity with Apple devices among students (or employees) is causing a demand pull within institutions to also provide Apple devices.”
IT directors who spoke with Piper Jaffray indicated that within the next five years, they expect to have more tablets per student than they currently have computers. And since the iPad represents 100 percent of tablets seen in schools, Munster said the word “tablet” might as well be synonymous with “iPad.”
He noted that Ron Johnson, Apple’s outgoing head of retail operations, recently indicated that the current crop of students may be “the last generation with backpacks,” as students use iPads to replace their books. The 25 technology decision makers in education indicated that devices like the iPad allow for individualized learning better than a traditional computer.
White House Aimes at Using Innovative Technologies to Transform Education in the United States with Digital Promise
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
Posted by T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Tech, LLC.
Merging technology into education has become a hot topic as of late, with many people discussing the pro’s and con’s of the matter. This article from CIO.com discusses Digital Promise, the new nonprofit orginization created by the government in collaboration with private breakthrough technologies to transform and improve students’ education.
White House Targets Innovative Education Technologies
Digital Promise, a collaboration between the government and the private sector, will identify breakthrough technologies to improve student performance.
The White House has formed a nonprofit organization aimed at creating innovative learning technologies to transform education in the United States.
The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, aka Digital Promise, will engage exclusively in research and development (R&D) to use the most advanced technology to improve learning at all educational levels, according to the organization’s website.
The organization’s ultimate goal is to equip American students better to compete in the global economy, already a key focus of the Obama administration through the Educate to Innovate Campaign. That campaign–also a partnership between the federal government and private sector– is specifically aimed at increasing the competitiveness of American students in science and math.
“If America is going to continue to succeed in the global economy, it is vital that we transform the use of educational technology,” said U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan in a White House blog post. “With technology, we can more rapidly increase opportunities for excellence and equity, as well as provide a world-class education for America’s students. And that’s a promise we need to keep.”
MDL Technology, LLC Reviews: 10 New Technologies That Will Impact Education
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC
Technology has changed the way students of all ages have gathered and shared information, so it is important for educators and parents alike to be familiar with these new methods. Here is an article from www.emergingedtech.com about 10 new technologies that educators should be aware of.
10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About – 2011 Update
It’s been nearly two and half years since the publication of the first “10 internet technologies that educators should be informed about” article on this site and given the fast paced evolution of technology it’s time for an update. The start of new school year is the perfect time to refresh this list!
Below you will find updated information for 5 of the technologies from the original posting, and 5 new technologies that have earned their rightful place in the list (displacing 5 other types of tech, that while still worthy, are not quite as relevant today, IMHO). This is not intended to be a definitive listing, but rather an informed resource that provides insights and raises awareness. Lots of links to example apps and articles have been provided, so readers can learn more about each application category.
1. Video and Podcasting Resources – One of the most widely adopted internet technologies for use in instructional settings is video streaming. In addition to the ubiquitous YouTube, there are several education-specific video hosting sites, including TeacherTube, EduTube, and SchoolTube. There is an abundance of lectures, how-to videos, and similar materials available on the web. The Khan Academy is one such resource that has garnered a lot of press, but it’s just one of many web-based free lecture and tutoring resources available today. Check out “A Dozen Great Free Online Video Lecture Sites” for a wide selection of lecture content, and our Tutoring Category for more tutoring resources. Podcasting has also been used to provide similar offerings of audio materials through popular sites like iTunes U (learn more about Podcasting here).
2. Digital Presentation Tools – There are dozens of tools on the Internet that can be used to create and share presentations. This summer’s post, “8 Great Free Digital Presentation Tools For Teachers To Try This Summer” provides a good starter set of tools to try if you wish to learn more about these fun applications. These tools can be used to support classroom teaching or distance learning, and provide engaging ways for students to create and deliver reports and presentations.
MDL Technology, LLC Reviews nytimes.com Article: Amazon’s and Google’s Cloud Services Compared
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Posted By: T.J. Bloom
According to an article from nytimes.com, ”Monday, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to announce a new product that allows iPhone owners to stream music from their personal iTunes collections to their phones.”
Amazon’s and Google’s Cloud Services Compared
Rumormongers say the music will be stored “in the cloud” — tech jargon for “on Apple’s servers” – although the CultOfMac blog claims inside knowledge that Jobs will instead sell customers a personal storage drive that holds the music and does the streaming from home.
Whatever Apple announces, it follows recent offerings from Google and Amazon that offer cloud-based personal music streaming for Android phone users. Both work similarly: You sign up, then download an application to your Mac or PC that uploads your music collection to Google or Amazon’s servers, and keeps it in sync. To play your music on your phone, you install an Android app that’s a music player that connects to your cloud-stored collection to stream it to your phone.
Google Music is the more impressive of the two: It will automatically upload your personal iTunes collection, including any playlists you’ve created, and keep it in sync. It offers free storage for 20,000 songs, about twenty times Amazon’s free capacity. It stores your recently-played songs on your phone, so you don’t have to stream them again. You can also tell it which tracks from your collection to keep permanently cached on your phone.
Amazon Cloud Player has one advantage over Google: The company will sell you music to store on your cloud account. Google only lets you upload music you’ve bought (or bootlegged) somewhere else. Like Apple, Amazon sells a vast catalog of music for around a dollar per track. If you buy one digital album from Amazon, they’ll give you 20 gigabytes of free storage for a year—Amazon’s pricing is usually $1 per gigabyte per year beyond the free 5 gigs.
Like Apple, Amazon years ago stopped wrapping its downloads in copyright-protection software that keeps you from playing it outside of the computer on which you bought it. But neither Google nor Amazon will play older iTunes tracks wrapped in Apple’s digital rights management software, nor will they play the bigger “lossless” high-definition audio downloads Apple sells.
Both Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player work fairly well, although Google’s system is smarter about finding, say, an iTunes library stored on a removable drive. You can read longer reviews of Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player to get the finer details. Be warned that uploading your entire music collection to the cloud will take hours, possibly days, although you can play tracks as soon as they’re uploaded.
But both Google and Amazon point out a potential big shortcoming of Apple’s forthcoming cloud music. Neither Google nor Amazon offers an iPhone app, and that locks out a lot of potential customers. Likewise, if Apple’s cloud player only works on the company’s iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, that would lock out Android users, who nowadays outnumber iPhone owners and have more choices in phones, wireless carriers and data plans to cover all that streaming. When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, the iTunes Music Store in 2003, and the iPhone in 2006, there was nothing like them. On Monday, unless Jobs pulls another magic trick out of his jeans pocket, you’ll have alternatives.
MDL Technology, LLC, a Managed Services Company in Kansas City Reviews Mashable Article: 5 of Our Favorite Gadgets So Far This Year
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Posted By, T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC
This year has brought many new tech gadgets including the iPad 2 and the World’s Quietest PC. I want to share this article from Mashable.com , written by Charlie White, that discusses five of the top tech gadgets right now.
5 of Our Favorite Gadgets So Far This Year
I’ve reviewed a lot of gadgets and technology here at Mashable since the beginning of the year, and now it’s time to figure out which ones I liked the best. I’ve narrowed it down to the top five.
Which devices would I actually go out and buy for myself? Here’s the all-star list, and each of the items proved itself in extensive testing to be superior and unique. There’s not a stinker in the bunch.
World’s Quietest PC: I went on a worldwide search for the quietest computer on the planet, but it couldn’t just be quiet. It had to be enormously powerful too. Enter the Puget Systems Serenity PC, equipped with the latest Core 2 quad-core processor. It’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s so quiet that you can’t even hear a peep out of it — even if you put your ear right next to it. I liked it so much I ordered one for myself. It’s completely deserving of the network name I gave it: ChurchMouse — but it’s the church mouse that roared. Quietly.
Fanny Wang On Ear Wangs: Would it bother you to wear a pair of headphones called Fanny Wang? Never mind the name — as soon as you clap these cans on your noggin and crank up the volume, your jaw will drop. They bring along an incidental benefit: an extra jack on the cable, making it easy to connect an additional pair of headphones, making the experience a lot less solitary. When I buy these for myself, I think I’m choosing the black color (with red trim) rather than this candy-apple red, but one thing’s for sure, for $170, you get a decent value with these great-sounding cans.
Chumby8: What the heck is a Chumby? It’s a network-attached app player with its own library of more than 1500 applications. This new Chumby8‘s 8-inch screen is much larger than its brandmates, and serves either as a huge and sophisticated alarm clock, or a screen you can place in your living room and display all manner of crazy clocks, weather reports, Flickr pictures, and a whole lot more. Nope, it’s not an iPad, but this $199 touchscreen quickly endears itself to you. This was one of the hardest review units to send back.
iPad 2: What gushing prose hasn’t been written about the iPad 2? It’s thinner, lighter and more beautiful than its predecessor, and it does everything faster. One thing I haven’t seen anyone write about it yet is that its brushed aluminum back is improved over last year’s iPad, to the point where it’s so smooth and silky it almost feels like human skin. I’m no Apple fanboy, but I was eager to plunk down a few of my own C-notes for this baby, and I’m glad I did.
Altec Lansing inMotion Air Wireless Audio System: The iPad 2 is not quite magical, but when you connect it to this wireless audio system, suddenly you’re holding onto some serious magic. There’s something wonderful about playing music through an iPad or iPhone into a wireless speaker, particularly when it sounds as great is the inMotion Air. It’s small enough to be compact, yet large enough to drive some punchy bass, mellifluous midrange and crispy highs. And its modern asymmetrical design fits right in with our quirky decor.
Six Technology Trends in the Workplace for 2011
Monday, January 10th, 2011
Posted by: Mark Dryer, president of MDL Technology, LLC
Every year, technology advances the workplace. It makes tasks easy for employees, CEO’s and managers. In 2011, there will more technology trends that will make meetings and business transactions even easier. According to an article from http://www.cio.com, written by Shane O’Neill, each year, communication technology keeps improving, making it easier and more efficient for employees to work remotely. In 2011, tools like shared digital workrooms, real-time collaboration, telepresence and online employment platforms to hire employees will make working online not only easier, but also necessary to do business.
More Workplace Technology Trends for 2011 -
The HTML5/Flash War: Programmers Needed
The increasingly popular Web content standard HTML5 may someday topple rival Flash as the leading platform for rich media Web content. But that day has not yet arrived, according to companies posting Flash jobs on Elance.
While demand for HTML5 is indeed growing, Flash is still the leader in rich media content due to the popularity of casual gaming on the Web and the loosening of Apples App Store restrictions.
But no matter who wins, this is an ongoing war for now, one which offers job opportunities for programmers skilled in both worlds, according to Elance.
Businesses Will Get Even More Social
Google’s attempt to purchase deal-of-the-day Web site Groupon for $6 billion may have been a bust, but it’s a sign that big business is eager to invest in social media.
This manifests itself in a few ways, according to Elance CEO Fabio Rosati: Companies will invest in more social networking tools; companies will look more to digital profiles and social media footprints when assessing potential employees; and companies will be more social networking-minded when selling and marketing their products, utilizing the digital word-of-mouth aspect of Facebook, Twitter and Groupon.
No matter how you cut it, employees must understand the value of social media, says Rosati, adding that that demand for job candidates with social media skills grew significantly throughout 2010.
The Death of Traditional Marketing
In 2011, according to Elance job listings, businesses will continue to shift investments away from strategies like direct mail and telemarketing, and focus on Web-based promotion and customer acquisition techniques like search engine marketing, search engine optimization and social media marketing.
New York Times reveals the Top 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of your Technology
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Posted By: Mark Dryer, president of MDL Technology, LLC
A recent New York Times article, written by Sam Grobart, provides the top 10 ways to get the most out of your technology.
10 Ways to Get the Most Out of your Technology
Your gadgets and computers, your software and sites — they are not working as well as they should. You need to make some tweaks.
But the tech industry has given you the impression that making adjustments is difficult and time-consuming. It is not.
And so below are 10 things to do to improve your technological life. They are easy and (mostly) free. Altogether, they should take about two hours; one involves calling your cable or phone company, so that figure is elastic. If you do them, those two hours will pay off handsomely in both increased free time and diminished anxiety and frustration. You can do it.
GET A SMARTPHONE Why: Because having immediate access to your e-mail, photos, calendars and address books, not to mention vast swaths of the Internet, makes life a little easier.
How: This does not have to be complicated. Upgrade your phone with your existing carrier; later, when you are an advanced beginner, you can start weighing the pluses and minuses of your carrier versus another. Using AT&T? Get a refurbished iPhone 3GS for $29. Verizon? Depending on what’s announced next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, get its version of the iPhone, or a refurbished Droid Incredible for $100. Sprint? Either the LG Optimus S or the Samsung Transform are decent Android phones that cost $50. T-Mobile users can get the free LG Optimus T.
STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER Why: Because, while the latest version has some real improvements, Internet Explorer is large, bloated with features and an example of old-style Microsoft excess.
How: Switch to either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Both are first-rate, speedy browsers, and both are free. It remains a tight race between the two, but Chrome has had the lead lately in features and performance. Both browsers include useful things like bookmark syncing. That means that your bookmarks folder will be the same on every computer using Chrome or Firefox, and will update if you change anything.
UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS TO THE CLOUD Why: Because you’ll be really sorry if an errant cup of coffee makes its way onto your PC, wiping away years of photographic memories. Creating copies of your digital photos on an online service is a painless way to ensure they’ll be around no matter what happens to your PC. It is also an easy way to share the photos with friends and family.
How: There are many good, free choices. To keep things simple, use Picasa, Google’s service. After your initial upload — which may take a while, so set it up before you go to sleep — you will have a full backup of your photo library. And by inviting people to view it, privately, with passwords, you will not have to e-mail photos anymore. Anytime you have new pictures, upload them to Picasa, send a message to your subscribers, and they can view your gallery at their leisure.
GET MUSIC OFF YOUR COMPUTER Why: Because music bought digitally wants to be freed, not imprisoned in your portable player or laptop. It wants to be sent around the home, filling rooms like good old-fashioned hi-fi.
How: Using iTunes for your digital music? Buy Apple’s Airport Express for $99 and connect it to your stereo. When you play music on your computer, you can stream it to the Express and, therefore, your stereo’s speakers. Have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad? Download Apple’s free Remote app and you will be able to control your music from anywhere in the house.
BACK UP YOUR DATA Why: Because photos are not the only important things on your computer. With online backup services, you do not have to buy any equipment; you just install software, which sits on secure servers and runs in the background, regularly updating a mirror image of all your files while you spend time on more important things, like confirming that Ben Gazzara really was the bad guy in “Road House” (he was).
How: Go to sosonlinebackup.com. Pay $80 a year. Install the software. Sleep easy.
SET UP A FREE FILE-SHARING SERVICE Why: Because while e-mailing yourself files is a perfectly decent workaround, there are easier, more elegant ways to move files around — and they do not cost anything, either.
How: Go to dropbox.com and set up a free account. You will then get an icon that sits on your desktop. Drag and drop files onto that icon, and they are immediately copied to the cloud. The free account gives you up to two gigabytes of disk space; 50- and 100-gigabyte are also available, but they cost $10 or $20 a month.
Set up your account on all your other computers, and they all have the access to the same files. You can set up shared, private and public folders, and apps for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android mean you can gain access to shared files from anywhere.
GET FREE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE Why: Because attacks on unwitting users are more widespread and tactics are growing more advanced.
How: Windows users should download Avast Free Antivirus. Mac users can downloadiAntiVirus Free Edition. Both applications will provide a basic level of security against a variety of so-called malware. And they cost zero.
GET A BETTER DEAL FROM YOUR CABLE, PHONE AND INTERNET PROVIDER Why: Because it does not take much to get them to give you free (or cheaper) services. These companies are generally indifferent to customer needs, but they are quick to cough up discounts — if you ask.
How: Just call and ask — they will probably give you something. Other tactics: Measure your Internet speed, using dslreports.com/speedtest; if it is less than what you are paying for, ask for a free upgrade. Or ask to speak to the cancellation department. That usually scares them.
BUY A LOT OF CHARGING CABLES Why: Because you should never have a gadget’s battery die on you, and they are cheap. Smartphone user? Have a charging cable at the office, one in the car, and a couple at home. Laptops? Have enough chargers in the house, so you are not tethered to the den when the power runs low.
How: eBay. Search for what you need with terms like “original” or “oem” (original equipment manufacturer). You will often see accessories for as little as one-tenth their normal retail price. Buy them by the gross.
CALIBRATE YOUR HDTV Why: Because that awesome 1080p plasma or LCD TV you bought has factory settings for color, brightness, contrast and so forth that are likely to be out of whack. They need to be adjusted.
How: Order Spears and Munsil High Definition Benchmark: Blu-ray Edition, a DVD, for $25. Its regimen of tests and patterns will help you adjust your TV’s settings to more natural levels. After you use it, you may want to fine-tune the TV some more, but you can do so knowing you are getting the most out of your display.