Twitter in Classrooms

Last year, my High School teachers were required to get Twitter.  I did not understand the reasoning behind this, it seemed insane.  But after reading about the professional side of Twitter in the classrooms.  I was always a firm believer that social media in the classroom would create problems that aren't necessary.  But I'm slowly changing my mind.

When used professionally I now believe that social media sites can be used productively in the classroom by connecting with other teachers to use different materials in the classroom.  This can be useful to get instant answers from colleagues and get the information to students quickly.  As and Education major I can see where and ow this could be useful, but still think it should be used with some caution.

Microsoft Band

                 

As a runner, I am always in the market for a new watch.  Unfortunately, most running watches are as expensive and are only built for running only.  Recently, there has been a trend toward fitness bands that record information about a run.  More so than ever, these devices now have screens to display time which early models lacked.  This new breed of fitness bands has resulted in products like the Fitbit Surge which is priced at $249.99. This little device has a built-in GPS which many running watches only have via an uncomfortable armband with a GPS sensor.  Unlike many other fitness bands, this device also shows other health related information such as heart rate and workouts. It even displays text message and caller notifications.  This device comes very close to being a smart watch while still remaining a device intended for athletes.  What about an individual who wants a smart watch and a fitness band convergence device?

New Microsoft Band

On Thursday, October 30, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Band.  Much like the Fitbit Surge fitness band, it includes a built-in GPS, notifications, a heart rate monitor, activities and workouts.  However, this fitness band starts to migrate into smartwatch territory.  The device also users to communicate back to their phone, use Cortana voice searches, and even look at their email and calendar. More importantly, this band allows for additional functionalities such as a method to pay for coffee at starbucks.  Unlike every Fitbit band, the Microsoft Band has a beautiful color display and an easy to use touchscreen interface with the modern Windows design philosophy.  It successfully mixes the best aspects of sleek fitness bands and nearly provides all the standard functionality of a full-blown smartwatch.

Customized Microsoft Band

In addition to a plethora of features unmatched by the competition, the price of the device is only $199.99 which makes it a steal for athletes looking for a running watch.  The added bonus of the Microsoft Band practically being in the same functionality category as smartwatches like Android Wear and the Apple Watch almost make this an unbeatable bargain.

Additionally, I think many people need to reevaluate their preconceived notion of what a smartwatch should be.  Most people imagine a device just like the Apple Watch when in reality wearable watches may become more popular and useful oriented like fitness bands.  I certainly plan on trying one of these devices out at my local Microsoft Store to see if a runner like me can really have a convergence device that provides the accuracy and minimalism of a fitness band with the functionality of a smartwatch.  I might have to add this to my Christmas list, especially if it will motivate me to workout more.

Hacktivists

So by looking at the title of this your probably wondering why I have a picture of a TV show that plays on the CW. Well I just got done watching the most recent episode of this and surprising it related to my Computer Science class!

The show you see here is called Arrow. This show follows the story line of the DC comic book hero, The Green Arrow. In this show he is a "vigilantly/hero" and protects his city from super villains and other sorts of bad guys that terrorise his home of Starling City.

In the most recent episode (season 3, episode 5, The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak) the villains that are portrayed are called hacktivists. This instantly made me think of my computer science class, since this was a topic of discussion in the earlier part of the term. Without spoiling the hole entire episode for anyone reading this I won't go into too much detail but the one other part besides the "hacking" was when the super villain used Phishing. Now I've talked about this in my other blogs but throwout the episode there is a part where the villain uses phishing to gain information/ an upper hand on the arrow and his colleagues as you can guys this creates a pretty good twist within the show and makes it much more enjoyable than just the hero always winning at every point in the show.


Anyways going back to the reason for blogging about this, I found it was interesting how no matter what your doing things will always seem to make a full circle connection to something else in your life, even if the two seem completely unrelated.

Wacom Cintiq Companion

This right here is Wacom's most recent product they added to their line of drawing tablets. Wacom specializes in aiding graphic designers in the use of digital illustration and animation. They have the highest end drawing products on the market which are used by professionals in the field today. 

Their most recent product is the Cintiq Companion. This is a stand alone tablet with its own power supply and doesn't need to be connected to an already existing computer. It comes in two versions. The first one has a full Windows 8 operating system that can run anything your normal computer can such as any of the adobe suite products. The second version is a hybrid as Wacom calls it. It runs on the most recent 4.2 Jellybean Android software and can use any of the apps on the android market today. However because it is a "hybrid" it can be connected via HDMI to any computer and become a second display with full touch capability. With this you are then able to use any software your current computer has except with its fully touch capability. 

The first image you have here is the hybrid version that is running the android hybrid version of the Wacom Cintiq Companion tablet.

The second image here is the Windows 8 version of the Wacom Cintiq Companion tablet. This is a stand alone table with the full capability of being an ultra book all in itself. This one however can't be connected to your computer as an extra screen, although it can run anything a normal computer can.

Between these two products I have been up all night doing research trying to decide if I want to spend the money on them. This has always been something that I have been looking for. Before this they have always had Cintiqs which were screens just like this but were not portable what so ever and always had to be plugged into a computer such as any normal monitor. Being a graphic designer myself and loving to illustrate since I could remember really makes me what to take the risk and get one of these to try out for myself. I have had other drawing tablets that hook up to the computer but never one quite like this. This is truly remarkable and ingenuity at its finest.  

If you would like to see more I would highly recommend watching this video.

Source: http://www.wacom.com/en/us/

iRing

While scrolling through Pinterest, because where else do I find my news other than social media, I found an article One iRing to Control All Your Apple Media Devices.  What made this article catch my eye, was the fact that I had just went through the process of searching for various wearable technologies for our presentation.

Basically, this ring would be able to link to any of your Apple devices to play, pause, or control the volume of your music.  The only catch is that this is only a concept and has been since around 2007.  If it was developed further, I'm sure there could be more possibilities than just simple music control, since technology and Apple have developed so much in the past 7 years.

Valve's Virtual Reality Headset

Valve's virtual reality headset is the one that I found to be one of the more interesting ones. Even though they were very mysterious with the information they were willing to share they still gave out some good information about their device, plus with there companies background we can get a good guess on how this will turn out, not to mention what we hope for in the future from valve with the virtual reality headsets.

Valve's virtual reality headsets seems to be similar to oculus' with the 7 inch LCD dual lens display. Of course with the dual lens display it will be creating a 3D perspective for the viewer. Now although the product is still deep within the development stage there is still hope for what is to come with the invention of the virtual reality headsets.

Since were talking about Valve here, its safe to assume this will be working with their cloud gaming universe, Steam. With all of the games that are on the market today and sold in steam I'm sure valve will be trying to make deals with game developers to incorporate virtual reality into their games. Such as in my presentation when I talked about the Dota 2 demo.

When Valve created Dota 2, they decided to make it a MOBA, or better defined as a multiplayer online battle arena. It was a huge game and very popular running against other MOBA games such as League of Legends and Heros of Newerth. With this valve had a demo put up of it to work with their virtual reality headset which let you have your own personal world with the game being within a map on a computer generated table. With this you could walk up to the map and control more of what your surroundings are instead of just a flat image that shows only the game itself. Now some may say that that is all you need and the extra stuff is just....well extra. I think its interesting they are

trying go in a direction that is constantly pushing the boundaries. Valve has many other game titles

such as Left 4 dead one and two, Half-Life, Portal, and Team fortress that could all benefit from a product such as this. Also with all of the other products on steam and with the PS4 and Oculus I think gaming and virtual reality will definitely have a spot in the gaming world and even if it might be hard for people to accept at first I think it will grow on people and become the new generation of gaming.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/3/5775220/valve-vr-headset-pictures-concept-features

A Coding Curriculum

For ages, english, math, history, and science have been required in grammar schools and in the secondary education curriculum across the United States.  Recently, the city of Chicago has modified its public school curriculum to include code writing. According to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in three years "you can't graduate from high school if you didn't take code writing and computer science."  This is a massive change to the default curriculums of most public schools.  This is all apart of Rahm Emanuel's five-year plan to improve computer science education in Chicago schools.  Unfortunately, many school do not offer a comprehensive coding or computer science curriculum.

The importance of a quality computer science curriculum cannot be understated due to globalized economies and the increasing reliance on computer system to control nearly every aspect of our lives. Computer science is a top paying college degree and one that will become only increasingly valued.

Rahm Emanuel is far from the only person advocating for an increased focus on computer science education.  Numerous high profile members of the tech community such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg support Code.org which is dedicated to teaching young students how to code.  This is a part of the Hour of Code which is a global movement to teach one hour of coding education to as many people across the globe as possible.

It will be interesting to see how much the curriculum in schools will focus on computer science in the future.  Will every student be able to code?  This is certainly a desirable goal for tech companies like Google and Microsoft.  Not matter what, computing will become only more important in the future and candidates with computer experience will stand far better in the job market than those who lack such skills.  This is why it is vital that more schools teach coding and focus more attention on computer science education.  And if that is not convincing enough, the late Steve Jobs once said, "Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think." This is advice the American education system should not dismiss.