Technology: In Plain English טכנולוגיה: באנגלית פשוטה: January 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

Turn existing Big Screen TV's into Interactive TV - yep, we can do that!!

An interesting question came up during one of my weekly meetings with one of our member schools. (shout-out to Yonah and Michael at Harkham Hillel) Is there any EASY way for a stock, consumer rated, flat panel TV to be turned into touch screen TV?

Now, many of you have most likely heard about some sort of device that goes over a consumer flat panel TV, or a film that can be place on the screen, but these items end up costing significant dollars. The cost of an interactive flat panel TV, while costing less than last year, is still prohibitive for most.

In comes the "eBeam Edge" device. I remember playing with an eBeam product for whiteboards a few year ago at an ISTE conference. I worked great and guess what? eBeam also works on Flat Panel TV's as well.

All in all - a great solution.... Here is a video from YouTube showing the device working on a regular LCD Big Screen TV.

Click Link to view YouTube

Do you know of any ways to turn a consumer TV into an Interactive Device? Tell us about it in the comments section of the Blog.

Regards....

Yossie

Yossie Frankel
Director - Consortium for Information and Academic Technologies
Member Schools:
Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy - yfrankel@hillelhebrew.org
Oakland Hebrew Day School - y.frankel@ohds.org
Shalhevet High School - y.frankel@shalhevet.org
Yeshivat Yavneh - www.yha.org
Arete Preparatory Academy - yfrankel@areteprep.org

Midreshet Emunah V'Omanut - Jerusalem - yfrankel@emunahvomanut.org
Checkout my blog @ technorebbe.blogspot.com
Twitter @yossiefrankel
YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Virtual VS Augmented Reality

Hold on to your chairs for this one.... No, I really mean it... HOLD ON TO YOUR CHAIRS!!!

I just received my Virtual Reality headset (Oculus Rift DK2) that lets me fully immerse myself into virtual words. I loaded the software onto my Mac Mini, put the headset on and BANG! I was really transported into another world. So much so, that I literally fell off my chair!

Yossie with his Oculus Rift DK2

The headset may look large in this "selfie," (selfies distort close up images...) but it is surprisingly lightweight - like a pair of ski goggles. With this device, I can go on virtual tours of museums, perform virtual dissections and actually live in ancient Egypt! (Hey... AMIT schools - you could create virtual tours of Israel) This device, added with my Leap Motion, allows me to use my hands to fully manipulate my virtual world. It is AMAZING!! (Yes, I will set up demos for all of my schools for sometime next month.)

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE!!!!!!!!! Microsoft just announced in on Wednesday.......

While I was "deep diving" into virtual worlds, Microsoft was bringing the virtual world to us with a new device called HoloLens. YES, this is for real..... Daqri and Aurasma have been doing virtual reality with our smart phones and tablet devices for a couple of years now (I reported on this in an earlier post and we have used this technology in some of our schools) and Daqri has made a helmet (also posted on my blog), but what Microsoft has done will (Yes, I am making a prediction here folks... Yossie "haNavi" is predicting....and I have been pretty accurate over the last 15 years!) CHANGE THE WAY WE TEACH!!!!!!!

Early versions of this device have been used by some of the most reliable industry testers (Ben Gilbert for one.... http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/microsoft-hololens-hands-on WARNING... the picture of the open circuit boards that Ben shows is NOT the HoloLens.) and while these test Hololens headsets are cumbersome, The final version (displayed in the video) promises to be very usable. (By way of example, the original Oculus headset was huge and now they just keep on getting smaller!!) Tell you what.... YOU watch the (latest) video from the link below and you tell me what you think. Remember to post your comments to the blog page please!

click this link to view video

Here is a video from YouTube that shows
some of the earlier versions
(that Ben mentions in his article)

I made sure that my next PC will run Windows 10 (with the built in API holographic interface for the Hololens) and as soon as a production version of this headset is out (no release date yet but it could be soon), I will be buying one..... ah, that is, if my wife will let me.

Regards to all.

Yossie

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Flipped Learning: a new idea... or is it??

Hi again....

I am sorry for sending out two posts in one day, but the below article on some "flipped learning" history really caught my fancy.

You see, way way waaaay back, during the last century,(Ahem, that would be in 1998.....) after successfully experimenting with "distance learning" at the school I was working at, I tried to get other Yeshivot and Jewish Day Schools to think about running classes like this and... well... proposing school-wide electro shock therapy would have been easier!

Read the below article - it is soooo good. To this day, I have troubles convincing teachers and HOS's that "Flipped Learning" (when done well) is a mighty tool that needs to be added to the modern teachers' tool box. It DOES take time and patience to do well but the results can be amazing.

http://chronicle.com/article/When-a-Flipped-Classroom/151031/

So, what do you think? Any anecdotes that you can add? Post them to the blog please!

Regards....

Yossie

More from CES.... Robotic Hands!!

Hi All....

In this post, I am going to tickle the imagination of all you 3D printing people out there.... (Yes Reb Lev at Yavneh - I mean YOU!!)

3D printed Robotic hands! Fully automated using "off the shelf" parts and 3D printed parts. Amazing.... (click picture below for link)

Now, if your school wants to get on the 3D prosthetic band wagon, go to this website for low cost, 3D printable hands that YOUR students can make for people in the community who can't afford them!! If you do this, please let me know as I would love to publicize your efforts.

Here is the link to the group that supplies the instructions...

The Open Hand Project

Regards....

Yossie

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Cool stuff coming out of the CES show - for educators

OK, so I admit it.... I am a tech junkie. If I had a lot of money, I would buy all sorts of things: smart watches, the "Ring" interface, home automation and so on!

This one really grabbed my attention for elementary schools. I have been a HUGE proponent in using physical manipulatives over digital manipulatives in the lower grades. There are so many studies showing how working in the physical realm creates pathways in the brain and encourages neuron growth in small children. So when I saw this interesting concept from Hewlett Packard, I just had to share it with all of you.

click picture to view the video

So, what do you think? Is this a good synergy between digital and physical?

Please post your comments on the blog

Yossie

Technology: In Plain English טכנולוגיה: באנגלית פשוטה

Translation Available תרגום זמין Traduction Disponible

Friday, January 30, 2015

Turn existing Big Screen TV's into Interactive TV - yep, we can do that!!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Virtual VS Augmented Reality

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Flipped Learning: a new idea... or is it??

More from CES.... Robotic Hands!!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Cool stuff coming out of the CES show - for educators

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