GOOGLE CHROME WEB STORE: All sorts of apps, educational and more!

 I'll have to admit, I no longer consider myself an early adopter.  I put off exploring the Google Chrome Web Store until.... today.  Most of my recent explorations have centered on discovering great apps for my iDevices, but since I'm a cross-platform, cross-device, transmedia type of person, I could not neglect the world of interactive web apps!


Here is a screen shot of the educational web apps from the Google Chrome Web Store:


























After you select a few web apps, you can access them from your Chrome browser by selecting a new tab or new window.  The screen shot below shows the apps I've currently chosen to explore:

I have an HP TouchSmart, and I found that many of the web app worked out OK with touch interaction, even 3D  "rotate and pan".  My hunch is that many of the web apps will work fine on an interactive whiteboard. 


I took a quick look at the MeeGenius! Children's Books interactive web app and was pleasantly surprised.  This web app is a talking book that highlights each word as it is spoken. A human voice is used for the narration.

I'm looking forward to getting into work early on Monday to see what web apps work well on the SMARTboard!

RELATED and SOMEWHAT RELATED
Free Education Apps from Google's New Chrome Web Store
The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education, 2/9/11
Below is a list of educational Chrome apps recommended in the above linked post:

• Planetarium –an interactive star map for kids (or adults!) interested in astronomy
• Google Books – millions of free e-books in a plethora of subjects
• 3DTin – A realistic 3D model-maker
• MathBoard – a math learning tool appropriate for elementary and kindergarten students
• MeeGenuis! Children’s Books – personalized, “enhanced” web books for younger students
• LucidChart – a collaborative diagramming tool, not unlike Inspiration or MindManager
• Picnik Photo Editor – web-based photo manipulation a la Photoshop
• 20 Things I Learned about Browsers & the Web – a great introduction to how the internet works
• Springpad – note-taking tool that can incorporate assignments, photos, to-do lists, etc.
• Bomomo – an innovative illustration and drawing tool
• A variety of flashcard-based apps which can aid memory, vocabulary, math skills and more

Plinks and Tonecraft - two music tools for Chrome
Danny Nicholson, The Whiteboard Blog  10/11/11
Dinahmoe Labs  (creators of Plink and Tonecraft)
The Whiteboard Blog

The New Media Consortium Needs Examples of K-12 Tech. Innovations for the 2011 NMC Horizon Report

The following information was taken from the New Media Consortium website. The deadline is April 1st - sorry for the late notice - it came across my path just today:

"We are pleased to announce that the Advisory Board for the 2010 NMC Horizon Report: K12 Edition has selected the six topics for this year's report:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less  * Cloud Computing * Mobiles

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years * Game-Based Learning * Open Content

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years * Learning Analytics * Personal Learning Environments

Call for Examples
We are interested in learning about any kind of research, pilot programs, innovative projects, or faculty work happening at your school in any of the six areas listed above. (See the attached 2011 NMC Horizon Report: K12 Edition Preview of the topics for more details.) Our goal is to help readers understand the potential impact of these technologies and their applications on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry.

How to Participate
If you know of examples we could include, please use the brief web form at go.nmc.org/horizon-example-project  to tell us about them. We ask for a title, a URL, and a one- or two-sentence description; you also will need to select which of the six topics your example falls under. The process takes about two minutes. We hope to have your examples by Friday, April 1, but no matter what, we'd love to hear about what you are doing. The url above is always open to pointers to great projects."

For more information:
2011 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition - Preview of Topics (pdf)

Thanks to Liz Dorland for the link!

UPDATE: CALL FOR PAPERS: Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy, Child-Computer Interaction (in conjunction with CHI 2011, May)

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Child Computer Interaction: 

Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy

in conjunction with CHI 2011, Vancouver, Canada

May 8th 2011

Topic: Given the emergence of Child Computer Interaction and the ubiquitous application of interactive technology as an educational tool, there is a need to explore how next generation HCI will impact education in the future. Educators are depending on the interaction communities and to deliver technologies that will improve and adapt learning to an ever- changing world. In addition to novel UI concepts, the HCI community needs to examine how these concepts can be matched to contemporary paradigms in educational pedagogy. The classroom is a challenging environment for evaluation, thus new techniques need to be established to prove the value of new HCI interactions in the educational space. This workshop provides a forum to discuss key HCI issues facing next generation education.

We invite authors to present position papers about potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle the next generation of HCI in education. Topics of interest include:

1. • Gestural input, multitouch, large displays, multi-display interaction, response systems
   
   
2. • Mobile Devices/mobile & pervasive learning
   
   
3. • Tangible, VR, AR & MR, Multimodal interfaces, universal design, accessibility
   
   
4. • Console gaming, 3D input devices, 3D displays
   
   
5. • Co-located interaction, presentations, tele-presence, interactive video
   
   
6. • Child Computer Interaction, Educational Pedagogy, learner-centric, adaptive “smart” applications
   
   
7. • Empirical methods, case studies, linking of HCI research with educational research methodology
   
   
8. •Usable systems to support learning and teaching: Ecology of learning, any where, anytime, (UX of cloud computing to support teaching and learning)

Submission: The deadline for workshop paper submissions is January 14, 2011. Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI adjunct proceedings style to the workshop management system. Acceptance notifications will be sent out February 20, 2011. The workshop will be held May 7 or May 8, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Please note that at least one author of an accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI 2011conference.

Website: http://www.dfki.de/EducationCHI2011

Contact: Edward Tse, SMART Technologies, edwardtse@smarttech.com

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
Edward Tse, SMART Technologiess
Johannes Schöning, DFKI GmbH
Yvonne Rogers, Pervasive Computing Laboratory, The Open University
Jochen Huber, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Max Mühlhäuser, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Lynn Marentette, Union County Public Schools, Wolfe School
Richard Beckwith, Intel

Call for Papers - Child Computer Interaction: Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy, in conjunction with CHI 2011, Vancouver, May 7th or 8th

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Child Computer Interaction 

Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy

in conjunction with CHI 2011, Vancouver, Canada

May 7th or May 8th 2011

Topic: Given the emergence of Child Computer Interaction and the ubiquitous application of interactive technology as an educational tool, there is a need to explore how next generation HCI will impact education in the future. Educators are depending on the interaction communities and to deliver technologies that will improve and adapt learning to an ever- changing world. In addition to novel UI concepts, the HCI community needs to examine how these concepts can be matched to contemporary paradigms in educational pedagogy. The classroom is a challenging environment for evaluation, thus new techniques need to be established to prove the value of new HCI interactions in the educational space. This workshop provides a forum to discuss key HCI issues facing next generation education.

We invite authors to present position papers about potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle the next generation of HCI in education. Topics of interest include:

1. • Gestural input, multitouch, large displays, multi-display interaction, response systems
   
   
2. • Mobile Devices/mobile & pervasive learning
   
   
3. • Tangible, VR, AR & MR, Multimodal interfaces, universal design, accessibility
   
   
4. • Console gaming, 3D input devices, 3D displays
   
   
5. • Co-located interaction, presentations, tele-presence, interactive video
   
   
6. • Child Computer Interaction, Educational Pedagogy, learner-centric, adaptive “smart” applications
   
   
7. • Empirical methods, case studies, linking of HCI research with educational research methodology
   
   
8. •Usable systems to support learning and teaching: Ecology of learning, any where, anytime, (UX of cloud computing to support teaching and learning)

Submission: The deadline for workshop paper submissions is January 14, 2011. Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI adjunct proceedings style to the workshop management system. Acceptance notifications will be sent out February 20, 2011. The workshop will be held May 7 or May 8, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Please note that at least one author of an accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI 2011conference.

Website: http://www.dfki.de/EducationCHI2011

Contact: Edward Tse, SMART Technologies, edwardtse@smarttech.com

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
Edward Tse, SMART Technologiess
Johannes Schöning, DFKI GmbH
Yvonne Rogers, Pervasive Computing Laboratory, The Open University
Jochen Huber, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Max Mühlhäuser, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Lynn Marentette, Union County Public Schools, Wolfe School
Richard Beckwith, Intel

RockMelt? Watch the video interview of the co-founders to learn more about the worlds newest web browser!

A quick glance at my morning newspaper- yes, the kind that involves paper and ink- brought to my attention that today is the first day that the RockMelt browser meets the world.


So what is special about RockMelt?  According to the RockMelt blog, the browser is built on Chromium, the same source code that fuels Google's Chrome. The biggest investment in RockMelt was $10  million dollars, from Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm.  Andreessen is also one of RockMelt's board of directors.  RockMelt is tightly integrated with Facebook, which is understandable, since Marc Andreessen is also on that company's board of directors.  (Marc Andreessen is the guy behind Netscape, one of the first popular browsers in the mid 1990's.)


Below is a video of an interview of the co-founders of RockMelt, who explain the reasons why browsers need to be re-invented to address social networking, "the cloud", and more.  





"Wherever you go on the Internet, RockMelt makes the Web a personal experience. Because RockMelt is the first browser you log into, it unlocks  your Web experience with your Facebook friends, your feeds, your favorite services, even your bookmarks and preferences. RockMelt is also the first browser to be fully backed by the cloud. This means you can access your personal browsing experience from anywhere, and you get quick updates from the people and sites that are important to you."  -RockMelt Blog


Promo Video:  RockMelt- Your Browser. Re-Imagined







For more information, visit the RockMelt website.  You can also sign up to get the browser at the website. The browser might be a little buggy, as it is a Beta version, and is still in development.

Oracle's Cloud Interoperability API, Intel's Cloud 2015 vision, Open Data Alliance, "Cloud Builders" (videos and links, just in case you wanted to know)

Oracle submits cloud interoperability API Larry Dignan, ZDNet, 11/3/10
Oracle Announces Oracle Cloud Resource Model Application Programming Interface
Oracle Press Release 11/3/10
Oracle Cloud Computing Strategy (Oracle Site)
Oracle Cloud Computing FAQ's


An IT Cloud Computing Roadmap from Intel IT

Intel, Other Top Companies Unveil New Cloud Mission:  Open Data Centers (Intel Newsroom)
Intel plays ringleader as Open Data Center Alliance launches ZDNet, 10/27/10
Intel's Cloud Computing Solutions

Open Data Center Alliance Members
Open Data Center Usage Roadmap

Lots of things have changed since I took a database class!


RELATED
Microsoft Research: CloudFaster 

Cisco's Cius, An Ultra-Portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet: Supports Real-time, HD Videoconferencing, and the "Cloud"

Here is a link to the post on The World Is My Interactive Interface blog - the post includes video clips and links to additional information from Cisco:

Cisco's Cius and Ultra-portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet:  Supports Real-time HD Videoconferencing and the "Cloud"

The following pictures were taking from Jason Hiner's blog at Tech Republic:

Apparently the Cius has a docking station.


A nice, Facebook-like interface is OK with me.

I wonder if it comes with a make-up kit.  Everyone should look presentable viewed in "HD TV".

Quick Links: Google Edu (K-16), Cloud Computing

Google and Education  (TechPsych)


The Economics of Cloud Computing:  Live Webcast on ZDNet Highlights Microsoft's Approach -Includes video of Google's Cloud Computing Faculty Summit Tech Talk (The World Is My Interactive Interface)

Link to Post: "Will NoSQL Rescue the World of Data in the Cloud?" (links to more info)

"Will NoSQL Rescue the World of Data in the Cloud?"

(The World Is My Interface)