Technology For Students

Lighten That Load: Tablet Textbooks

Textbooks can be a drag. Literally. They've been weighing down backpacks for years. While the ability to be free of them has been around for a long time, the idea is just starting to gain traction. A few years back, Kno unveiled a textbook-sized tablet device with dual screens. The tablet itself didn't take off but company co-founder Osman Rashid went on to foundChegg, an e-textbook company that gets textbooks on all sorts of tablets, including the iPad and Android devices. Chegg customers can rent or buy textbooks and access them with a Web browser.

The plastic moving parts of a slide rule or the click of an abacus once represented the only computing power needed to accompany learning. Now, there is not an educational subject, classroom tool, or organizational product left untouched by technology. Teachers are using SMART Boards to create interactive lessons for students that expand minds far beyond dry chalk. With advances in learning-centric websites and Web software, students are taking initiative and self-directing their learning. Textbooks are by no stretch extinct, but how they are published, distributed, and experienced has evolved digitally. The pencil and pen are no longer a sole, lonely analog experience; digital pens and unique digital-capture paper are wholly transforming note taking.

The classroom is becoming more and more untethered. With the explosion of mobile devices, smartphones, laptops, and tablets are taking a more central role in the classroom. Technologies that once received blame for the decline of education are now fostering real, measurable learning. Lessons are not confined to the school day or even to one school. With the tech tools now available to learn at any time and from any place, even those not enrolled in a course of study can find some time to get the benefits of a little education.

Our story looks at how the backpack basics (i.e. textbooks, notebooks, etc.) and even the packs themselves have entered a new era. Yes, even backpacks have succumbed to the tech age, using the sun's energy to power the many gadgets we tote.

This fall, ditch the humdrum pen-and-paper routine and school yourself in the best technologies for the classroom and campus life.

Other than your laptops, your tablets, your e-readers and your smart phones, what other technologies are available for the modern student, and how can they help promote and speed up learning?

Below is a list of relatively new innovative developments in student technology, combiningtechnology and education both in and outside of the classroom. If you’re a student interested in any of these devices, make sure you have the budget before you get too excited…

1. Smart pens

A simple yet nonetheless impressive fusing of of technology and education, the smart pen is a pen that allows you to digitally record all your notes from classes and lectures via smart software which digitalizes your written text, and a sensitive microphone which records audio. Once uploaded, smart pen programs such as the Livescribe Echo Smartpen will allow you mark any
point in your digitalized text and play the audio that coincides with the time you wrote the note.

After use, the smart pen’s software allows you to upload your recordings and notes onto programs such as Evernote or Google Docs. So whether you’re using the smart pen simply to record a lecture, or a journalism or business student using the device during a field outing or meeting, Livescribe is the digital native’s way of keeping on top of academic notes.

2. Digital textbooks

As the tablet and the e-reader become increasingly popular mainstream student technologies, so too do digital textbooks. And with the digital versions being remarkably easy to use, streamlined and lightweight, when given the choice between lugging around the complete works of Shakespeare or having them all available on one e-reader, it’s easy to see why the popularity of digital textbooks is growing.

Not only do digital textbooks weigh markedly less than even one printed textbook, there’s also the added bonus that digital textbooks cost around 40% less than printed textbooks; combining technology and education doesn’t always have to be expensive. Chegg is a useful student resource for finding cheaper digital textbooks, as well as providing homework help and internship opportunities.

At some universities, this student technology has been used to digitalize course materials, allowing students to interact more with their reading and activities through class collaboration and customization.

3. Tech backpacks

If you’ve ever been out and about on campus with a bag full of technology that’s all run out of juice, then you might be interested in hearing about tech backpacks – bags that not only store all your student technology tidily and safely, but also allow you to charge your devices without the need for a plug socket. Running off solar energy panels on the front of the bag, tech backpacks offered by companies such as Voltaic andEclipse are brilliant for those who can’t live long without access to technology. And that’s not all; by using solar power, tech backpacks are often environmentally friendly too!

4. Smart lights

Depending on how much time you spend inside your flat or house as a student, and how much the revision you do depends on good lighting, you might like to get your hands on a smart light. Smart light functions vary depending on the manufacturer but one example, the AwoX StriimLight, is a smart light that plugs into a socket like a normal bulb and streams music directly from a mobile device or computer via Bluetooth to play through the light’s very own speakers. This acts as the perfect student technology to use at a house party or gathering (saving your laptop and speakers from inevitable spillages), or as a revision aid which allows for soft lighting and background music. And, for those of you who love a bit of ambience when studying, LIFX smart lights feature a full spectrum of changeable colors that can be changed with the touch of a button to align with your revision mood.

5. Virtual keyboards

Keyboards you can fold up and take with you have been around long enough for us to realize how handy they are for hooking up to mobile devices for typing on the go. But there’s a newer, better innovation being bought to market… the virtualkeyboard. Yeah, it’s happened, and it is as good as it sounds. A virtual keyboard, such as the Cube Laser Virtual Keyboard, utilizes laser technology and functions as a wireless device that you can connect to any mobile or tablet via Bluetooth. The keyboard device itself, little larger than a Tic Tac box, stands on your desk and once turned on, issues a red laser QWERTY keyboard for you to type on to directly. Your text is synced onto your device in real time.

If you’ve ever wanted to feel like one of those futuristic spy-tech operatives in the James Bond movies, the virtual keyboard is for you.

6. Noise-cancelling headphones

While noise-cancelling headphones are great for those who enjoy listening to their music much too loud on public transport, they also act as a great way to maintain study concentration by lessening the distractions of the outside world. Whether you’re revising to the quiet sounds of the ocean in the library or letting off steam with a head-banging session to Metallica at 3am, noise-cancelling headphones are a brilliant way to ensure no one will ever again be distracted by stuff they don’t want to be distracted by.

Perfect for revision and ignoring the guy eating crisps in the library’s quiet zone.

7. Encrypted flash drives

To make absolutely sure no one steals your dissertation, invest in an encrypted flash drive/USB which requires a PIN in order to access any work stored on it. This may not solve the problem of constantly leaving your flash drive connected to the library computers, but it will hopefully stop anyone from thieving the device for themselves, as without the user-defined PIN the information held on the drive is rendered useless. One such drive is the LOK-IT Secure Flash Drive which features a PIN number display.

Other useful student technology

• LiveBinders – acts as a digital ring binder, allowing you to put all your resources together in one clean file, including digital resources such as PDFs, videos and web pages.
• Laptop locks – laptop locks are becoming more and more essential in the age of the digital native.
• Phone charging cases – allow smartphone users to charge their phones without the need for a power cable. Brilliant.
• Webcams – webcams are getting better and better these days and are a must-have if you plan to do any video calling home and don’t have an integrated camera.
• Laptop cooling mats – if you have a problem with cooling your laptop down, consider using a cooling mat – not really a feat specifically for technology and education, but can be very handy for keeping your legs cool while studying!

• Change in Student and Teacher Roles

  When students are using technology as a tool or a support for communicating with others, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress.
  The teacher's role changes as well. The teacher is no longer the center of attention as the dispenser of information, but rather plays the role of facilitator, setting project goals and providing guidelines and resources, moving from student to student or group to group, providing suggestions and support for student activity. As students work on their technology-supported products, the teacher rotates through the room, looking over shoulders, asking about the reasons for various design choices, and suggesting resources that might be used. (See example of teacher as coach.)
  Project-based work (such as the City Building Project and the Student-Run Manufacturing Company) and cooperative learning approaches prompt this change in roles, whether technology is used or not. However, tool uses of technology are highly compatible with this new teacher role, since they stimulate so much active mental work on the part of students. Moreover, when the venue for work is technology, the teacher often finds him or herself joined by many peer coaches--students who are technology savvy and eager to share their knowledge with others.

• Increased Motivation and Self Esteem

  The most common--and in fact, nearly universal--teacher-reported effect on students was an increase in motivation. Teachers and students are sometimes surprised at the level of technology-based accomplishment displayed by students who have shown much less initiative or facility with more conventional academic tasks:

  

  The kids that don't necessarily star can become the stars. [with technology]. My favorite is this boy . . . who had major problems at home. He figured out a way to make music by getting the computer to play certain letters by certain powers and it changed the musical tone of the note and he actually wrote a piece. He stayed in every recess. . . . When I asked him what he was working on, he wouldn't tell me. Then he asked if he could put his HyperCard stack on my computer because it was hooked up to speakers. I said "sure" and at recess. . . he put it on my computer and played his music and literally stopped the room. And for months he had kids begging him at recess, every recess, to teach them how to make music. And for that particular kid it was the world because he really was not successful academically and was having lots of problems. . . . This really changed him for that school year. -Elementary school teacher

  Teachers talked about motivation from a number of different perspectives. Some mentioned motivation with respect to working in a specific subject area, for example, a greater willingness to write or to work on computational skills. Others spoke in terms of more general motivational effects--student satisfaction with the immediate feedback provided by the computer and the sense of accomplishment and power gained in working with technology:

  Kids like the immediate results. It's not a result that you can get anywhere else except on the computer. . . . For them it really is a big deal. Much more so than I ever though it was going to be. --Elementary school teacher

  Technology is the ultimate carrot for students. It's something they want to master. Learning to use it enhances their self-esteem and makes them excited about coming to school. --Fifth grade teacher

  The computer has been an empowering tool to the students. They have a voice and it's not in any way secondary to anybody else's voice. It's an equal voice. So that's incredibly positive. Motivation to use technology is very high. --Elementary school teacher

  In many of these classes, students choose to work on their technology-based projects during recess or lunch periods. Teachers also frequently cite technology's motivational advantages in providing a venue in which a wider range of students can excel. Compared to conventional classrooms with their stress on verbal knowledge and multiple-choice test performance, technology provides a very different set of challenges and different ways in which students can demonstrate what they understand (e.g., by programming a simulation to demonstrate a concept rather than trying to explain it verbally).
  A related technology effect stressed by many teachers was enhancement of student self esteem. Both the increased competence they feel after mastering technology-based tasks and their awareness of the value placed upon technology within our culture, led to increases in students' (and often teachers') sense of self worth.

  I see more confidence in the kids here. . . . I think it's not just computers, it's a multitude of things, but they can do things on the computers that most of their parents can't do and that's very empowering and exciting for them. It's "I can sit down and make this machine pretty much do what I want to," and there's something about that that gives them an extra little boost of, "Wow, I'm a pretty special person." --Elementary school teacher

  Students clearly take pride in being able to use the same computer-based tools employed by professionals. As one teacher expressed it, "Students gain a sense of empowerment from learning to control the computer and to use it in ways they associate with the real world." Technology is valued within our culture. It is something that costs money and that bestows the power to add value. By giving students technology tools, we are implicitly giving weight to their school activities. Students are very sensitive to this message that they, and their work, are important.

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  Technical Skills

  Students, even at the elementary school level, are able to acquire an impressive level of skill with a broad range of computer software (see examples). Although the specific software tools in use will likely change before these students enter the world of work, the students acquire a basic understanding of how various classes of computer tools behave and a confidence about being able to learn to use new tools that will support their learning of new software applications.

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  Accomplishment of More Complex Tasks

  Teachers for the observed classes and activities at the case study sites were nearly unanimous also in reporting that students were able to handle more complex assignments and do more with higher-order skills (see examples) because of the supports and capabilities provided by technology.

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  More Collaboration with Peers

  Another effect of technology cited by a great majority of teachers is an increased inclination on the part of students to work cooperatively and to provide peer tutoring. While many of the classrooms we observed assigned technology-based projects to small groups of students, as discussed above, there was also considerable tutoring going on around the use of technology itself. Collaboration is fostered for obvious reasons when students are assigned to work in pairs or small groups for work at a limited number of computers. But even when each student has a computer, teachers note an increased frequency of students helping each other. Technology-based tasks involve many subtasks (e.g., creating a button for a HyperCard stacks or making columns with word processing software), leading to situations where students need help and find their neighbor a convenient source of assistance. Students who have mastered specific computer skills generally derive pride and enjoyment from helping others.
  In addition, the public display and greater legibility of student work creates an invitation to comment. Students often look over each others' shoulders, commenting on each others' work, offering assistance, and discussing what they are doing.

  I've also seen kids helping each other a lot at the computer. The ones that pick it up faster, they love teaching it to someone that doesn't know it yet. --Fifth-grade teacher

  The ones who have used it from the beginning have become peer coaches. --Fifth-grade teacher

  Students' ability to collaborate on substantive content can be further enhanced through the use of software applications specifically designed for this purpose. Students in several classes at one of our case study sites used a research package called CSILE (Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment), for building a communal database and exchanging comments about each others' ideas.
  One of our teacher informants made the point that the technology invites peer coaching and that once established, this habit carries over into other classroom activities:

  It's a much more facilitating atmosphere because the kids help each other so much on the computer. It changes the style and the tone of the classroom a lot. --Elementary school teacher

  Though the use of technology often promoted collaboration and cooperation among students at these case study sites, there were still concerns about appropriate student conduct. Many schools implementacceptable use policies, especially if they offer students access to the Internet. (See examples of Sharenet's formal technology use agreement or other acceptable use policies.)

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  Increased Use of Outside Resources

  Teachers from 10 out of 17 classrooms observed at length cited increased use of outside resources as a benefit of using technology. This effect was most obvious in classrooms that had incorporated telecommunications activities (see examples), but other classes used technologies such as satellite broadcasts, telefacsimiles, and the telephone to help bring in outside resources.

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  Improved Design Skills/Attention to Audience

  Experiences in developing the kinds of rich, multimedia products that can be produced with technology, particularly when the design is done collaboratively so that students experience their peers' reactions to their presentations, appear to support a greater awareness of audience needs and perspectives. Multiple media give students choices about how best to convey a given idea (e.g., through text, video, animation). In part because they have the capability to produce more professional-looking products and the tools to manipulate the way information is presented, students in many technology-using classes are reportedly spending more time on design and audience presentation issues.

  They also do more stylistic things in terms of how the paper looks, and if there is something they want to emphasize, they'll change the font . . . they're looking at the words they're writing in a different way. They're not just thinking about writing a sentence, they're doing that, but they are also thinking about, "This is a really important word" or "This is something I want to stand out." And they're thinking in another completely different way about their audience. --Elementary school teacher

  While most teachers were positive about the design consciousness that technology fosters, a potential downside was also noted by a few teachers. It is possible for students to get so caught up in issues such as type font or audio clips that they pay less attention to the substantive content of their product. We observed one computer lab within which several students with a research paper assignment spent the entire period coloring and editing the computer graphics for the covers of their as-yet-unwritten reports, pixel by pixel. Teachers are developing strategies to make sure that students do not get distracted by some of the more enticing but less substantive features of technology, for example, by limiting the number of fonts and font sizes available to their students.

• World's First Satellite-Powered Tablet To Use Newtec Technology For E-Learning

  By Keith Cowing on November 15, 2014 3:48 PM
  Satellite solution provider Yazmi today announced a new e-learning scheme using the first satellite-enabled tablet, called Odyssey(TM), and Newtec's multicast technology to deliver content via satellite to rural, remote and low income regions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The end-to-end content delivery system aims to improve performance outcomes for students and teachers in areas where there is weak computing and Internet infrastructure. The first pilots of the technology are taking place in India (with 30,000 licenses) and the sub-Saharan region in Africa, with the latest trials in two schools in South Africa, in Rietkol, in Mpumalanga Province, and at Heathfield, in Western Cape.

  In Western Cape, tablets have been deployed for the pilot, which started in October during the fourth term of the current academic year and will continue until December. Each student in Grade 6 has received an Odyssey 700 tablet and can now access live lectures, as well as supplementary material, via classroom servers installed at each school using the WLAN interface. Solar chargers have also been provided.

  "We believe satellite is the perfect candidate for e-learning connectivity," said Noah Samara, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yazmi. "With our system in place the possibilities are endless - lectures can be live streamed from any location, teacher training courses can be offered and having a connected device for multimedia consumption allows teachers and students to access and store high quality educational content. Empowered with Newtec's multicast gear it is quite unique in the market."

  Yazmi's solution utilizes the AfriStar and AsiaStar data multicasting satellites and the world's first truly satellite-enabled tablet to provide Governments with access to a special e-learning channel. Approved educational content can then be transmitted to all tablet users via one single transmission thanks to TelliCast, Newtec's multicast distribution software platform.

  As well as transmitting live lectures from a remote teacher, Odyssey also enables the sharing of digital textbooks and notebooks, educational apps, preparatory materials and other files. Teachers can also use the tablet to access live training modules, helping them to be better prepared and more confident in the classroom.

  "We are proud to be a part of this very important scheme which has the potential to create sustainable economic growth through a more educated and healthier community," said Newtec's CEO Serge Van Herck. "Our technology ensures the content required for students and teachers is delivered in a reliable, secure and controlled manner."

  Newtec's TelliCast, which enables the reliable distribution of files, directory structures and data streams, consists of a server package combined with a set of software clients that can be installed on computers or embedded into a variety of receiver devices. For Yazmi, the result is a multicast allowing educational content to be distributed to a large number of recipients with only one single transmission.

Technology is everywhere, entwined in almost every part of our lives. It affects how we shop, socialize, connect, play, and most importantly learn. With their great and increasing presence in our lives it only makes sense to have mobile technology in the classroom. Yet there are some schools that are delaying this imminent future of using technology in the classroom as the valuable learning tool it is.

Here is a list of ten reasons your school should implement technology in the classroom.

1) If used correctly, will help prepare students for their future careers, which will inevitably include the use of wireless technology.

2) Integrating technology into the classroom is definitely a great way to reach diversity in learning styles.

3) It gives students the chance to interact with their classmates more by encouraging collaboration.

4) Technology helps the teachers prepare students for the real world environment. As our nation becomes increasingly more technology-dependent, it becomes even more necessary that to be successful citizens, students must learn to be tech-savvy.

5) Integrating technology in education everyday helps students stay engaged. Today’s students love technology so they are sure to be interested in learning if they can use the tools they love.

Also Read | "The Future of eBooks: Preparing Interactive Content in Education"

6) With technology, the classroom is a happier place. Students are excited about being able to use technology and therefore are more apt to learn.

7) When mobile technology is readily available in the classroom, students are able to access the most up-to-date information quicker and easier than ever before.

8) The traditional passive learning mold is broken. With technology in the classroom the teacher becomes the encourager, adviser, and coach.

9) Students become more responsible. Technology helps students take more control over their own learning. They learn how to make their own decisions and actually think for themselves.

Also Read | "Update: How Students are Using Technology in the Classroom 2013"

10) Student can have access to digital textbooks that are constantly updated and often more vivid, helpful, creative, and a lot cheaper than those old heavy books.

If your school is still debating using the latest technology, I hate to break it to you, but it’s the inevitable future of education anyways. It is important that school wireless networks keep up with the ever changing technology in order to keep up with our students. From the ease of communicating with their teachers via e-mail, to quickly accessing an overabundance of information online about a particular topic they have learned about in class, technology is needed in today's classroom.