Testing an embed!

Please Oh Please work.

Untitled


SCIENCE

Cloud Compudin'

Johnson, Doug. (2009). Computing in the clouds. Learning and Leading With Technology, 37(4), Retrieved from here. 




I've been fiddling with this stuff for forever, and feel it would be a GIGANTIC benefit for a school, especially with so many tools for it ready-made and free. 




What I'd love to see, and I'm VERY SERIOUSLY considering taking some sort of stab at it myself is bringing something even cheaper and more accessible to classes. 
While $300 netbooks are cheap, What's amazing is this computer, which, while nobody has picked it up to mass-sell yet, could be sold at around a $100 price tag.  The difference is that this machine doesn't sport a "REAL" operating system, like Windows or Mac. It runs a system called Android instead, which has two major perks. Since Android was originally done for cell phones, it can run fine on a VERY wimpy computer. Furthermore, Windows costs money, whether Dell bought it and put it on the computer you bought, or you bought it yourself. Android is free.


However, that little laptop has "real" abilities. all those cloud-computing skills, like Google Docs, Wave, you-name-it...most ALREADY work. Imagine being able to give a student a small, convienent laptop for $100, and it comes with the ability to do almost all of the modern computer tricks they and teachers need. 


I mean, you'd need a few more tricks to make schools consider these a really viable option, things like "automatically block YouTube and Facebook access during class" and giving teachers and faculty the ability to easily get submitted documents and such, so new computers doesn't mean a new workload. I really want to take a stab at a good system for this, it's something that I've been thinking on all week. Hmm. 


Teachers (I know we've got a lot.) What would YOU wanna see tiny computers in your classroom do? What would 'sell' you on the idea of these gizmos hanging around?

Introducing: THIS GUY

Mah name's Brett Berish. My parents adore alliteration, clearly. 'Neways, I'm originally from New Jersey, grew up there, went to high school at a tiny private school that closed my graduating year. Then, I went to art school in Columbus Ohio, studying "Industrial Design" (you'd know it as Product Design.) I never fell in love with it, which turned out to be okay, because my father moved the entire family to San Diego for work reasons. Best place ever. Don't leave. I've been to Palomar (to do high-school courses not required in NJ, but required here), CSUSM undergrad, and even with going to three different colleges, STILL managed to get my degree in 4 years. BOOYAH.


For technology experience...jeez Louise I've toyed with 'em all.  They slung one into my room when I was a wee one, and I've been toying with them ever since. PC, Mac, Linux, BSD, and cell phone OS's. Webside I've diddled with Apache server and some basic PHP, plus the Adobe CS3 suite like crazy. I've actually got a Saturday job teaching the Adobe suite to 7-11 year olds. It's a hoot. (oh, and I'm using Office '08 Mac.)


Looking at the COE mission statement, it's a buzzword bomb. It's a ~GOAL~, it's lofty and ick ick ick ick. In my grad major, Educational Technology down at SDSU, we actually devote a large amount of time in how-to convert totally ridiculous things like the COE mission statement into measureable things. Nobody can measure that "we're commited to ongoing service," but we could measure things like, say, 'do teachers email students to find out how they're doing once they're out of that class.' As goals go, COE's is a good one, but like all goals, it's very smushy and not-concrete.