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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pelette

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Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Singing across from me as always as senior writer Jonathan Strickland,

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Speaker 1: we don't need no education, we don't need no thought control,

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Speaker 1: says who exactly hit a wall with that one. All right,

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Speaker 1: so we're going to talk today about technology used in

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Speaker 1: the classroom and what the school classroom of the future

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Speaker 1: could look like. Uh. Technology in classrooms is kind of

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Speaker 1: a big deal. I mean, we've we've heard about a

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Speaker 1: lot of different initiatives to try and bring more technology

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Speaker 1: into the classroom, and about how the emphasis on the

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Speaker 1: importance of technology and daily life dictates that we have

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Speaker 1: to introduce students to technology earlier and uh and more effectively.

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Speaker 1: The more effectively, as it turns out, is the really

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Speaker 1: tricky part, because it's not to not to diminish how

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Speaker 1: difficult it is to raise the money and purchase the

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Speaker 1: the the materials and the equipment necessary to to allow

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Speaker 1: students to have access to technology, but it's way easier

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Speaker 1: to throw tools at someone than it is to teach

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Speaker 1: them how to use them. But we're really not focusing

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Speaker 1: on that in this episode. This is going to be

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Speaker 1: one of actually a series where we thought we'd do

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Speaker 1: it like an educational series of episodes, similar to our

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Speaker 1: movie making series. So in this one, let's just talk

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Speaker 1: about some of the tech you find in classrooms today

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Speaker 1: and what we might see I don't know, ten, fifteen,

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Speaker 1: twenty years in the future. It's really hard to protect

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing because technology is notoriously difficult to you,

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Speaker 1: you know, be clairvoyant and sit there and say this

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Speaker 1: is exactly what's going to happen in ten years. Not

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Speaker 1: to mention the fact that UM budgeting being what it

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Speaker 1: is right now in the current economic downturn, that's that's

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Speaker 1: slowing down some things like R and D plus you know,

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Speaker 1: the ability to add new technology to the classroom. UM

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Speaker 1: now the schools are strapped for cash to pay teachers with. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we really we're gonna try and focus on what the

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Speaker 1: ideal situation would be, you know, like, let's let's assume

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Speaker 1: that the schools have the funding necessary to implement the technology,

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Speaker 1: what would a classroom in the future look like. Um,

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Speaker 1: but yes, uh, you make a really good point. The

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Speaker 1: the classroom of the future relies just as much or

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Speaker 1: even more so upon political and economic uh factors than

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Speaker 1: technological factors. But let's we're gonna try and take a

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Speaker 1: shiny happy look and assue whom that that the schools

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Speaker 1: get the support system they need in order to implement

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Speaker 1: the classroom of the future. Well, there are all kinds

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Speaker 1: of things that that people can do, and they're already Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's already been a lot of development along those lines

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Speaker 1: with the technology in the classroom, things that that are

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Speaker 1: already in place today, um, that I think will be

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Speaker 1: refined in the next generation of technology and classrooms. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm coming at this at at a real disadvantage actually,

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Speaker 1: And the reason why I say that is because when

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Speaker 1: I attended school back in elementary school and high school

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Speaker 1: and even college, uh, technology was pretty much the same

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Speaker 1: as it had been from all the way back to

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Speaker 1: the fifties. I mean, you're talking about the fact that

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Speaker 1: the most technologically advanced thing that we had access to

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Speaker 1: in a general class was usually a television and VCR, which,

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Speaker 1: of course does you know that is after nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: obviously the VCR, But but that was about as far

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Speaker 1: as we got as far as advanced technolog was. We

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Speaker 1: did have computer classes where we had access to computers,

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Speaker 1: but that was not one of the tools that was

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Speaker 1: used throughout the school like that wasn't every classroom did

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Speaker 1: not even have a single computer, much less multiple computers

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Speaker 1: for students to use. And of course when Paulette went

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Speaker 1: to school, they had just recently discovered fire, so he

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Speaker 1: also is coming at this from a different Please put

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Speaker 1: down the hammer. Yeah, you'll get what's coming to you. Actually,

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Speaker 1: we we we do have, uh to give you all

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Speaker 1: the listeners perspective. We do have quite a few younger

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Speaker 1: listeners who are in school. UM. So you may laugh

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Speaker 1: at this, but you think about this, Um, Jonathan and

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Speaker 1: I are both in our thirties. Um, and it really,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you think about it, that's a really

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Speaker 1: short time for the advances in technology to have come

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Speaker 1: as far as they have. I mean before, you know,

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Speaker 1: when we were in grade school, we had you know,

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Speaker 1: film projectors in the classrooms. Still you know, I we

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Speaker 1: bird projectors, overhead projectors, you know, with the transparencies. Uh,

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Speaker 1: TVs in some cases VCRs. Um, you know, now everything

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Speaker 1: is completely different. There were there might have been a

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Speaker 1: computer or two in the media center, but I mean

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Speaker 1: just a few years before, you know, in in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and early seventies, that was that was really rare.

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Speaker 1: We didn't have electronic calculators in the classroom until probably

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Speaker 1: second or third grade for me. And you know, we

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Speaker 1: weren't really allowed to use them as part of our

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Speaker 1: studies until high school when we got into things like

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Speaker 1: chemistry and physics where you actually needed to do pretty

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Speaker 1: complex calculations quickly. So you know, now in in most

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Speaker 1: modern classrooms, I think, uh, at least in in schools

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Speaker 1: that are that can afford them, there are you know,

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Speaker 1: PCs pretty much you know, in most classrooms, I think,

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Speaker 1: and at least in the United States. Um. Of course,

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Speaker 1: it varies from school to school, school district, school district

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Speaker 1: money has a whole lot to do with that. Um.

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Speaker 1: But computers are pretty affordable now, so it's not nearly

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Speaker 1: as unusual to see them as it would have been

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Speaker 1: just a few years ago. Yeah, I mean, even even

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Speaker 1: some things that are are incredibly simple from a technological

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Speaker 1: point of view have made a big impact in the

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Speaker 1: way that uh that teachers teach and students learn. For example, again,

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Speaker 1: when I attended school, um, the chalkboard was still very

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Speaker 1: much the most common form of of display that you

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Speaker 1: would see in a classroom, and white boards really weren't

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Speaker 1: around at all until I think, I think when I

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Speaker 1: got to maybe my junior or senior year in high school,

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Speaker 1: our school started to switch over from chalkboards to white boards, which,

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Speaker 1: you know, of course, we're just easier to maintain and

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Speaker 1: much easier to write on. And you also didn't have

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Speaker 1: to worry about someone going crazy and doing the fingernails

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Speaker 1: down the white board thing because it just didn't didn't

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Speaker 1: have the same effect as the bone chilling sound you

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Speaker 1: would get from the chalkboard. Please, whoever is doing the

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Speaker 1: sound effects for this podcast, please do not include that,

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Speaker 1: because I personally can't stand it and I definitely don't

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Speaker 1: want to listener mail about it. Yeah. No, brief brief aside. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I had one my pre calculus teacher would be covered

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Speaker 1: from tip of finger to elbow in chalk dust. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the chalk dust in that room was pervasive. It was

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Speaker 1: it was very, very bad. I'm kind of glad to

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Speaker 1: see the chalkboard go away. Definitely, on the downside, you

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Speaker 1: can't You can no longer punish students by making the

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Speaker 1: bad ones go out and bang the erasers together to

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Speaker 1: get all the chalk dust out. We can make them

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Speaker 1: bang the eracers together. There's just not gonna get any

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Speaker 1: chalk dust test the racist racers together for no reason.

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Speaker 1: But there are classrooms today that have gone beyond even

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Speaker 1: the white whiteboards where you can have projectors and either

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Speaker 1: project against the screen or a wall or whatever UM

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Speaker 1: and use that as a display. And I've even seen

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Speaker 1: a few now granted this isn't a very few select

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Speaker 1: schools because it's clearly an expensive um UH investment, but

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Speaker 1: I've seen some some using UH flat panel displays or

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Speaker 1: or even multi touch sort of surfaces to UH to

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Speaker 1: display lessons and and show concepts and UH that's something

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Speaker 1: that I would expect to see more in the future

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Speaker 1: as a combination of factors converge. One, assuming that that

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Speaker 1: we get our our priority straight and we invest in

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Speaker 1: education to the extent that that's really necessary to that

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Speaker 1: that the prices continue to drop on the technology, so

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Speaker 1: things like multi touch UM displays end up going down

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Speaker 1: in price because right now, like let's say you wanted

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Speaker 1: to get a Microsoft Surface, which would be a useful

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Speaker 1: educational tool at least potentially could be Um, that's around

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Speaker 1: ten grand. You know, that's that's a pretty expensive interracy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and of course technology does break down over time,

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Speaker 1: so your make an investment that you know is not

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Speaker 1: a one time investment. It's going to be a continuing investment.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna have to maintain that upgrade and things of

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Speaker 1: that nature. So um, but let's assuming we get there,

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Speaker 1: that kind of of display would be something I would

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Speaker 1: expect to see in the classroom of the future. And

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Speaker 1: I can think of a dozen different ways to use

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Speaker 1: that technology to to help expand a lesson so that

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Speaker 1: it goes beyond the simple here's a fact and uh

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Speaker 1: and even here's the context of that fact. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: the whole skill and drill approach to teaching would not

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Speaker 1: necessarily even come into play, which is great because skill

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Speaker 1: and drill is really not that effective. I mean, it can,

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Speaker 1: it can teach you a very basic approach to do something,

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Speaker 1: but it's it's not the kind of thing that usually

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Speaker 1: lasts in a in a student's mind. Right. Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty well established that people learn by doing, which

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Speaker 1: is one of the things that I think makes touch

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Speaker 1: screens such a good The fact that they are becoming

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Speaker 1: more affordable. It makes it such a good thing because

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Speaker 1: it will allow you know, assuming that people are you know,

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Speaker 1: have the opportunity to purchase this for their schools. It's

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Speaker 1: going to give students the opportunity to get their hands

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Speaker 1: on the project and actually dig in a little bit. Um.

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Speaker 1: And the more pervasive technology gets in the classroom, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's that's gonna be a good thing too,

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Speaker 1: to have computers on desktops and things like that. Um.

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Speaker 1: Of course, those things can be distractions just as just

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Speaker 1: as easily, um, you know, speaking as uh. Well, actually,

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Speaker 1: by the time you're listening to this, I will no

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Speaker 1: longer be a college student and only a recent graduate.

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Speaker 1: But time of recording this, I have a couple of

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Speaker 1: days left. Um. Yeah, I mean people, I've heard stories

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Speaker 1: from professors. UM. Now this is primarily higher education, but

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Speaker 1: people bring their laptops to class and theoretically you could

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Speaker 1: be taking notes, you could be recording the lecture for

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Speaker 1: a later Um, you could be playing mind sweeper when

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Speaker 1: the when the professor is not looking, and I have

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Speaker 1: ends a lot. Yeah, if you're in you're in congress.

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Speaker 1: Solitaire is the game to play. Really you didn't hear

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Speaker 1: that story? No I didn't. Yeah, yeah, let's not go

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Speaker 1: into it. It's depressing. But yeah, I mean person having

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Speaker 1: personal technology on the desk UM can be a boon

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Speaker 1: and in a hindrance to the teacher as well. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have to be have to be careful about it

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Speaker 1: with regard to that as well. So really, the technology

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Speaker 1: I mainly focus on for things like that's currently in

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Speaker 1: schools and stuff that needs to be more pervasive, especially

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Speaker 1: once we're looking at things like the classroom of the future. UM.

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Speaker 1: Internet connectivity is definitely way up there. And uh and

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Speaker 1: ideally you should have both wired and wireless connectivity. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And either you're using you know, however you're getting the

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Speaker 1: Internet access, whether it's satellite or through cable or whatever. UM,

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Speaker 1: it needs to be reliable and fast so that you

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Speaker 1: can actually the access the tools that you're using to

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Speaker 1: to teach, or if you're a student, so that you

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Speaker 1: can access the tools you need to learn. Um. And

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Speaker 1: uh so that's that's pretty much a given. So we

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Speaker 1: need to make sure that that we have broadband connectivity

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Speaker 1: to the school systems so that they can take advantage

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Speaker 1: of the tools. I mean, when you think about it,

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Speaker 1: once you get past that initial investment, that's something that

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Speaker 1: that pays for itself very quickly. Because now when again,

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Speaker 1: when I went to school, my resources were limited to

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Speaker 1: whatever was in the school building. You know, I didn't

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Speaker 1: there was no internet for me to connect to if

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Speaker 1: I were to, if I needed to, They just not

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Speaker 1: for me to connect to. Right, Um, there was an

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Speaker 1: Internet that I could not connect to, or at least

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Speaker 1: there was a network at the time when I first

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Speaker 1: going started going to school, there was Urbanette. But at

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Speaker 1: any rate, the the idea here being that that you

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Speaker 1: were limited to whatever it was in the school library

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Speaker 1: and your textbooks, that kind of thing. So if you

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Speaker 1: were doing a project, you might make a trip all

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Speaker 1: the way out to the nearest public library, which would

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Speaker 1: expand your your resources a little bit. Or if you're

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Speaker 1: lucky to live near a college, you might go to

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Speaker 1: the college library, which expanded it extensively, but it still

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Speaker 1: was you were still limited geographically by you know, how

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Speaker 1: much information you could access. Now with the Internet, that's

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Speaker 1: no longer an issue. A lot of schools have agreements

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Speaker 1: or even a database where students can use it to

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Speaker 1: research scholarly articles and uh and journals and things of

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Speaker 1: that nature that you physically could not store within the

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Speaker 1: school's building. So uh so, obviously internet connectivity is of

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Speaker 1: vital importance if if a student is to have the

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Speaker 1: same advantages in one district as a student and another. Now, um,

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Speaker 1: we are our headquarters are in Atlanta, so we've got

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Speaker 1: kind of accustomed to the whole city life lifestyle, right,

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Speaker 1: so we have we're used to having lots of resources

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Speaker 1: at our disposal. Now, I grew up in a more

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Speaker 1: much more rural part of Georgia where those resources were

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Speaker 1: not as close at hand. So it's also important to

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Speaker 1: make sure that the connectivity extends out to the school

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Speaker 1: districts that aren't in cities that you know. Those are

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Speaker 1: just as important. You never know where the next you know,

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Speaker 1: brilliant mind's gonna come from. It's not necessarily going to

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Speaker 1: be the heart of the metropolis. It may come out

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Speaker 1: of the middle of nowhere. But unless you give that

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Speaker 1: person access to the right tools, he or she may

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Speaker 1: not be able to reach full potential. So Internet connectivity.

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Speaker 1: We're talking, so we need devices for students to to

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Speaker 1: access the Internet. We need the Internet connect connectivity or

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Speaker 1: else the devices are pretty much, you know, just a

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Speaker 1: dead weight. Um. Theoretically, you can then move to a

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Speaker 1: paperless school classroom, although we've seen how difficult it's been

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Speaker 1: to do that in business. But you know, you could,

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Speaker 1: in theory move to an environment where you no longer

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Speaker 1: needed to turn in paper assignments or hand out paper tests.

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Speaker 1: Everything could be done over a computer. UM, I know that. There.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I was going to say that that that

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Speaker 1: might raise questions in some people's minds about cheating, which granted,

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Speaker 1: happens whether you're using a hard copy or soft copy

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Speaker 1: of anything. Uh. My argument is that I think I

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Speaker 1: think a lot of kids know how to use technology

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Speaker 1: and very specific niche ways, without really understanding how it

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Speaker 1: works and how to take advantage of it. No, that

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean they can't learn it, but uh, there seems

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Speaker 1: to be this perception, at least among adults, that kids

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Speaker 1: are technology iCal whizzes, and because they've grown up in

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Speaker 1: the era of the Internet, they are Internet savvy and

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Speaker 1: capable of navigating it in ways that we can't imagine, right, right,

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Speaker 1: I'm not convinced that's reality. Well no, um, I think

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Speaker 1: what Jonathan is speaking of is I sent him an

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Speaker 1: article that was in dirsh Bagel, the German news magazine,

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Speaker 1: about in which they had done a study on on

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Speaker 1: German kids, and they said, oh, well, you know, these

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Speaker 1: German kids, they've grown up with the Internet. They're familiar

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Speaker 1: with it, they know how to find the best information,

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Speaker 1: they know how their way around. As it turns out,

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Speaker 1: they pretty much chat and watch video and listen to

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Speaker 1: music and really other than that, they really aren't all

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Speaker 1: that interested in it, nor are they comfortable, you know,

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Speaker 1: digging around for information. They don't they can't maximize the Internet.

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Speaker 1: They just sort of use it for recreational use and

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Speaker 1: only when it's convenient for them. So it's not the

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Speaker 1: indispensable tool for uh that it is for people who

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Speaker 1: are you know, thirties, forties. You know, we are all going, wow,

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Speaker 1: this is really neat, and the kids are like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so it's been around, Yeah, it's it was here when

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Speaker 1: I got here, So therefore it's just normal that to us,

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Speaker 1: it's still new to them, it's what has always been

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Speaker 1: there because their their age so, so part of the

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Speaker 1: classroom of the future isn't just that you know, you

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Speaker 1: have all these technological advances. It's also adjusting your your

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Speaker 1: teaching methods so that you take full advantage of them.

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Speaker 1: But uh, let's let's talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: some of the other elements we might see in the

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Speaker 1: classroom of the future. Okay. Um. One of the things

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Speaker 1: that that I was going to mention just a minute

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Speaker 1: ago was, um, the virtual classroom tools that I've been

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Speaker 1: personally that I've been using over the past two years,

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Speaker 1: UM and pursuing my master's degree. And uh, you know

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Speaker 1: those are tools like uh, those of you are college

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Speaker 1: students probably may WinCE when I say the following word

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Speaker 1: blackboard or web ct Uh. Those two merged actually a

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Speaker 1: few years ago. UM. There's an open source competitor, which

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Speaker 1: I understand is really excellent called moodle. UM. Even those

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Speaker 1: those have been used in higher education for several years now. Basically,

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Speaker 1: for those of you who have been out of academia

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Speaker 1: for a while or aren't an academia nut Okay, maybe not, um,

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Speaker 1: you you may not necessarily be familiar with this. Um

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Speaker 1: damn man nut. Um. Basically, what what this is is.

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Speaker 1: It gives UH people an opportunity to pursue distance education.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't even necessarily have to be at a distance,

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Speaker 1: but it does give you an opportunity to. It's sort

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Speaker 1: of like an intra net for students because you can

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Speaker 1: gather together participate in a lecture where the the professor

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Speaker 1: or teacher can put up slides like a PowerPoint presentation

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Speaker 1: for example. UM, he or she can show you the

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Speaker 1: desktop on the computer so they can walk you through

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Speaker 1: what it is that they're doing. UM. You can share assignments,

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Speaker 1: post discussion board postings, and basically start an online discussion. UM.

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Speaker 1: You can see your grades. UH should the teacher UM

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Speaker 1: be willing to post them? But you know it's it's

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Speaker 1: kind of UM. I used to lose my assignment book

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Speaker 1: all the time when I was a kid. And tools

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Speaker 1: like this, you know, everything's posted on there. You don't

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Speaker 1: have an excuse if you're out sick. You know what

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Speaker 1: the day's assignment is, you know where you're supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: You can see what other people are doing that the

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Speaker 1: teacher can track your progress through the course. I mean,

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Speaker 1: these kinds of tools there, I would I would say

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Speaker 1: they're probably still in their first maybe second generation, but

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Speaker 1: I think in the future there'll be a lot more refined. There.

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Speaker 1: The reason I said people might WinCE when they hear

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Speaker 1: blackboard is um. As good as blackboard is, a lot

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Speaker 1: of people complain about its stability and reliability. Um. And

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Speaker 1: I think as as time goes on, it's like any

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Speaker 1: technology product, it's going to get more refined. It's going

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Speaker 1: to get more sophisticated, and there will be more technology

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Speaker 1: that you can more things that you can do with it,

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Speaker 1: video chat and other functions. Yeah, that's that was the

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Speaker 1: word I is looking for and trying not to look

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Speaker 1: like I was looking for a ward um. But you know,

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Speaker 1: the moodle thing actually brings up a good point because

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Speaker 1: I think open source technology is going to make a

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Speaker 1: big difference because open source, you know, may offer more

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Speaker 1: cost effective alternatives and get technology into classrooms. Right. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Some of the things that that I looked into when

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Speaker 1: I was really looking at the classroom of the future

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Speaker 1: have very little to do with technology directly, um, and

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Speaker 1: more to do with adjusting the the whole paradigm, if

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Speaker 1: you if you will, Yeah, the paradigm of how we

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Speaker 1: go about educating students. So again, when I mentioned that

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Speaker 1: you know, the technology hadn't really changed much. If you

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Speaker 1: look at the method of teaching, the just the average

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Speaker 1: method of teaching in schools across the world really um,

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Speaker 1: I think more often than not, you're going to find

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Speaker 1: the classic teacher behind a big desk, maybe there's a

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Speaker 1: whiteboard or chalkboard or something behind him or her, and

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Speaker 1: then the students are seated at desks that are in

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Speaker 1: rows that go to the back of the room, and

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Speaker 1: so you have the teacher as a lecturer in front

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Speaker 1: of everybody presenting information. This is not necessarily the most

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Speaker 1: conducive environment if you're especially if you're trying to incorporate

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Speaker 1: things like technology, especially and particularly if you want to

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Speaker 1: try and foster a sense of collaboration among students. I mean,

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Speaker 1: collaborative software is becoming more and more important. Things like

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Speaker 1: you know, you just to throw out an example, Google Docs,

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Speaker 1: you know, having a program like Google Docs where you

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Speaker 1: can or service I should say, a service like Google

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Speaker 1: Docs where you can go and collaborate with other authors

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Speaker 1: and create a document. Um. That's becoming more and more important.

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Speaker 1: So clearly that's something that needs to be taught as

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Speaker 1: well in school. So you have to you have to

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Speaker 1: teach how to collaborate. Well, that traditional teacher the front

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Speaker 1: students in rows is not really conducive to that. So

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Speaker 1: a lot of the sources I was looking at focused

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Speaker 1: not on on, you know, what technological advances should be there,

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Speaker 1: although that was did play a part. It focused on

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Speaker 1: things like breaking that up a bit and changing that.

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Speaker 1: So it's no longer what we think of when you

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Speaker 1: think of classroom, you don't think big teacher's desk at

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Speaker 1: the front and students in rows. So one of the

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Speaker 1: suggestions was that you create little workstations, um where you

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Speaker 1: see maybe four students at a station together, and those

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Speaker 1: four become a work group, and you do you could

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Speaker 1: have a docking station for each whatever device you want

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Speaker 1: to use, whether it's a tablet kind of device or

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Speaker 1: a laptop, something like that, UM, and that these workstations

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Speaker 1: would be scattered throughout the room, uh, preferably using furniture

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Speaker 1: that's easy enough to to move if you want to

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Speaker 1: change the setup, and the teacher, instead of being behind

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Speaker 1: a big desk, would have a mobile workstation, so the

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Speaker 1: workstation itself would be easy enough to move throughout the room,

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Speaker 1: and the teacher would be more more like someone who

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Speaker 1: would walk through the classroom and help guide discussions and

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Speaker 1: answer questions and lend assistance and and uh would wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be so much standing in the front of the room

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Speaker 1: and reciting facts and figures. Uh personally, Now, when I

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Speaker 1: think about how that would have affected me back when

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Speaker 1: I was a kid, uh, I think that maybe I'd

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Speaker 1: be a multimillionaire by now because I'd be way smarter. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm smart despite the way. I had great teachers, but

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Speaker 1: these were teachers who were all following the very traditional

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Speaker 1: method of teaching, standing up at the front and giving

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Speaker 1: out lessons. Some of them were really good at engaging

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Speaker 1: students despite that. But um that yeah, that definitely does

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Speaker 1: put up a wall. So a lot of the focus

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Speaker 1: on the classroom of the future, or isn't necessarily you know,

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Speaker 1: what kind of cool gadgets should students be using? Should

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Speaker 1: we be giving them all? You know, MP three players

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Speaker 1: and laptops? It was more about how can we create

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Speaker 1: an environment that both supports that technology but also makes

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Speaker 1: it an effective teaching tool? Right right? Well, I mean

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Speaker 1: that that is the the procedure that some of them are,

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Speaker 1: some of the higher education UM organizations. I should say

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Speaker 1: are are approaching because um, a lot of them have

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Speaker 1: been giving out an MP three player to their students,

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Speaker 1: to incoming freshmen for years or sorry, first year students. UM,

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Speaker 1: but uh, you know in other cases, you know, and UM,

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Speaker 1: I read of one university that's giving out iPads, And

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Speaker 1: I do think tablets might have an effect, assuming that

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Speaker 1: there are more people going to adopt the tablet metaphor um,

429
00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: you know or yeah, so there are there other options.

430
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: I think that you could use UM to do that,

431
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 1: but I think that having a device of that size

432
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,919
Speaker 1: gives you a different set of options because it's not

433
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 1: just listening to and watching podcasts, although you know many

434
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:18,360
Speaker 1: universities are offering that to their students now. UM. There

435
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: are also there's also the ability to use electronic books

436
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 1: UM in that form factor, which would save a lot

437
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: of wear and tear on the spine when you're trying

438
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 1: to carry all that stuff around, especially again when when

439
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: you have big, thick, heavy textbooks in high school and college. Yeah,

440
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: we did point out one distinct disadvantage to the electronic

441
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,439
Speaker 1: book format, which is you cannot sell your book back

442
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 1: to these bookstore at the end of whatever class you've taken.

443
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: That's true, and considering that electronic books, especially textbooks, tend

444
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: to be the same cost or sometimes even more expensive

445
00:25:55,680 --> 00:26:01,200
Speaker 1: than the physical books. UM, that is a bummer. You know,

446
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,679
Speaker 1: if you're one of those college students who you know,

447
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: you're really you're really stretching it to be able to

448
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:09,880
Speaker 1: pay for your education. First of all, my hats off

449
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 1: to you, keep up the good work. You know we

450
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: need you. But second of all, it is it's it's

451
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:18,439
Speaker 1: one of those things that really you have to take

452
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: into consideration. Assuming that the school does not issue you

453
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 1: the device upon which you will read e books, you

454
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: have to invest in that. You have to invest in

455
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: the device, um, and then you have to purchase the

456
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,439
Speaker 1: electronic books knowing that you will not get any of

457
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: that money back at the end of the term. I

458
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: should also go ahead and add for those of you

459
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:43,440
Speaker 1: who are not familiar, for those of you in middle

460
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 1: school or high school or even younger, um, in college,

461
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: when you do purchase a book, it is really really

462
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,360
Speaker 1: expensive and when you sell it back, you get a

463
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: fraction of what you paid, like a sometimes like one

464
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: around there, of what you paid for it. So it

465
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: might be an eighty dollar book when you bought it,

466
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: and you might get eight dollars back when you sell

467
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: it back, but that's eight dollars more than you would

468
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: get if you've got the electronic version. Yeah, these books

469
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: have a tendency, of course. You know, professors are encouraged

470
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: to write new versions of their old books with updated

471
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 1: information in them. So invariably when I bought my textbooks,

472
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,639
Speaker 1: I would buy them used and by the time it

473
00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:26,119
Speaker 1: was time to sell it back at the end of

474
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: the semester, there was a brand new version which completely

475
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 1: which meant that mine useless, meant that you couldn't sell

476
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: your spec anyway because there was Yeah, um, yes, that

477
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: is also a possibility. And it would have been worse

478
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: if you had bought those books new, because you would

479
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,680
Speaker 1: have spent even more money. Well, E book readers dedicatide

480
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: book readers, of course, have come down in price considerably.

481
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 1: There's been a price war recently that's driven the cost

482
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: of nook or a kindle um. And there are schools

483
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: that have toyed with the idea of of a special

484
00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 1: universities and colleges mainly, but I toyed with the idea

485
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,680
Speaker 1: of purchasing them and giving them to students and their

486
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: affordable Yeah, I'm sorry, um, but they you know, they

487
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: live about you know, the dollar price point. Now, Um,

488
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: tablets have an advantage though, because the e ink and

489
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: those dedicated readers only shows you black and white. A

490
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 1: tablet device, you know, assuming it's running Windows or Android

491
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: or the iOS um, you'd be able to look at

492
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 1: the book in color, so you can see charts and graphs, uh,

493
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: photos in full color movies. That's the neat thing about

494
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,719
Speaker 1: the electronic book format, as you could embed and some

495
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 1: of them are already doing, is embedding rich media in

496
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,520
Speaker 1: their audio files, video files, um, you know, things that

497
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: you can't do with a traditional textbook. So that's sort

498
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 1: of the thing. You have the cost in the factor

499
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: where you can't sell your books back versus you know, Well,

500
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: this is a pretty neat and immersive experience, more so

501
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 1: than reading black and white words on a page. Well,

502
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: we're coming up on the half hour mark here, so

503
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: let's just kind of sum up what we think of

504
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: as the classroom of the future. We think of it

505
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 1: as having access to devices, computational devices, whether that's a

506
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: computer or a tablet or some other form factor that

507
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 1: we don't even we can't even conceive of right now. UM.

508
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: We think of it as having internet connectivity being very

509
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: important so that you can have access to the wealth

510
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: of information that's out there. Uh. We think of it

511
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 1: as having some sort of large display, whether it's a

512
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: projected display or a panel display, where a teacher can

513
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: show lesson plans, can show videos to the class, uh,

514
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: and demonstrate principles in a in a visual medium. And UH,

515
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: really it's it. It comes down to building the techniques

516
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: that make this technology effective. That's that's what really will

517
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 1: have to focus on. Because the technology is going to

518
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: get there. I mean, there there are enough consumer demands

519
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 1: and industrial demands for this technology for for it to exist. UM.

520
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: The question is can can education leverage that and use

521
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 1: it effectively to teach students right now? UM, just to uh,

522
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: just to sort of put that all together in one place. UM.

523
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: One one effort I think that is going sort of

524
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: in that direction, UM is the one Laptop per Child initiative,

525
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: which is there to provide low cost laptops two kids

526
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 1: in countries where you wouldn't necessarily be able to get

527
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: this kind of technology because it's so you know, price,

528
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: so far out of their reach. That they can't even

529
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: have it. And these are you know, basically an inexpensive,

530
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: low powered laptop that's very very rugged to withstand being

531
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: used outside. Many of those students in those conditions, their

532
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: classroom isn't a room they go outside to to study. UM.

533
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: But it's got Internet connectivity, it's got speakers, it's got

534
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: a game controller so the kids can play on it, UM,

535
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: and a camera and it runs on an open source

536
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: operating system UM called the Sugar System. UM. I just

537
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: mangled that, but I can't find it in my notes

538
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: fast enough. UM. But yeah, it's uh, it's oh, the

539
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: Sugar Learning Platform and it's basically the Fedora Lennox UM

540
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: it's a version of that. And the thing is, I mean,

541
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: these are very very inexpensive. They're working on the one

542
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 1: laptop per child. Initiative is also working on a fold

543
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: out that's sort of like the Microsoft Carrier. The next

544
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 1: version is going to open up so it has two

545
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 1: touch screens UM, sort of like a book. And then

546
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: they're also working on tablet that's supposed to be out

547
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 1: in UM, which has many of the same types of functionality,

548
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: but it is supposed to be you know, lower cost

549
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:33,479
Speaker 1: of course that has to be subsidized by a lot

550
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: of people, so they take donations and and uh you know,

551
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: request help from other people to help bring this to

552
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:45,200
Speaker 1: other to some of these underdeveloped uh school systems in

553
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: in many countries. But it's kind of a neat idea

554
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: and it and it does bring down the cost, which

555
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: may you know, in turn help other people in other

556
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: parts of the world where they do have a little

557
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 1: bit more money if they can get the power in

558
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: the hands of the kids. That actually brings up another

559
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: concern of mine, which is the classroom of the future

560
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: might have lots of logos in it. It is entirely possible.

561
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 1: The cameras yeah, well yeah, the cameras are another issue.

562
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:10,959
Speaker 1: But really the logos thing bothers me because it's the

563
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 1: idea of making sure that whatever you're teaching the students

564
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: isn't biased toward a particular sponsor. Um, that's we have

565
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: to worry about. Well, we'll just have to wait and

566
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: see what the classroom of the future looks like, I guess,

567
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: because you know, again, it's always fun to try and

568
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 1: be a prognosticator, but it we're almost always way wrong.

569
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: We'll see more about that when we do our wrap

570
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 1: up of our two thousand ten predictions podcast later this year.

571
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: Not looking forward to that. I already know at least

572
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: two of mine that I got totally and completely wrong,

573
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: and I will be eating a lot of crow during

574
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 1: that episode. But I'll still get a check mark because

575
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: I'm the one who does that. So you, guys, if

576
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: you have any questions or comments or topic suggestions, you

577
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: can email us. Our address is tech stuff at how

578
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,000
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, and Chris and I will talk

579
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 1: to you again really soon if you're a tech stuff

580
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: and be sure to check us out on Twitter text

581
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: stuff hs WSR handle, and you can also find us

582
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,719
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash tech Stuff h

583
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: s W for moral this and thousands of other topics.

584
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: Visit how stuff works dot com and be sure to

585
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: check out the new tech stuff blog now on the

586
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works homepage. Brought to you by the reinvented

587
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you