The classic example is Ethan Allen.  Enter the term into Search and you’re out furniture shopping.

But all kids really want to know about Ethan Allen is that he was some great Revolutionary War figure from Vermont.

Wading through a cluster of furniture ads is confusing and takes away from the task at hand.  Other examples: Long John Silver, Madagascar (the movie or the place?)

If Google doesn’t want to create a student version they could simply make it one of the options–like Images, News, or Buzz.  A Student option would tailor searches more to academic terms and less towards advertising.

When the homework’s done you can just click back to regular ‘ole commercially funded Google.  School and homework should be given the importance of having a specific search engine optimized for learning not consuming.

Whaddaya say Goggle?  Introduce a study mode or run the risk of slim pickings for the next generation’s workforce.

]]> http://www.robinraskin.com/blog/2010/02/26/why-google-needs-a-student-version/feed/ http://www.robinraskin.com/blog/2010/02/16/toy-fair-where-grownups-get-to-play-first/ http://www.robinraskin.com/blog/2010/02/16/toy-fair-where-grownups-get-to-play-first/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:13:28 +0000 admin http://www.robinraskin.com/blog/?p=732 Toy Fair, an industry trade show in NYC this week, is one of my favorite annual visits, because it’s a chance to be a big kid in a candy shop full of toys that the public has not yet seen.

This year’s show feels a little recession strapped in that the toy manufacturers are packing volumes of value into their packages and not designing big expensive toys.

There was a time when plush animals costing thousands were plentiful on the floor.  Today’s show was a bit more austere but amazingly creative, which goes to show you that having less can sometimes be more.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Lego: Lego introduced a new breed of  board games at Toy Fair. Your job is to build the game out of Legos (and decide the rules of engagement) before you play.  It’s a brilliant idea–a twist on the family board game, capturing the love of Legos. What a mashup!  The digerati are awaiting Lego Universe, the company’s huge online world. Most of the games, like Pyramid (pictured here), are priced between $10 and $20.  At the high end, Creationary costs $24.

Mattel: Mattel’s star of the show was a dog collar aptly named Puppy Tweets. Once the collar is placed on the pup, he can send a tweet (or is it a woof directly to Twitter).  The USB collar uses Bluetooth to communicate with Twitter so proximity is important. For $30 it’s pure unadulterated fun–a mashup of pets/gadgets and social media. You can follow your dog and have them make other doggie friends on Twitter. 

E-readers: I wondered when the first e-readers for kids would appear and they have. Systems like Leapfrog’s Tag Reader have been serving the function of e-readers for a long time. Fisher Price announced a super-duper 5-in-1 product called the iXL. It’s a 3- to 6-year-old’s rendering of My First iPod, combining a photo album, e-reader, notebook, game machine, and music player into one crash-proof device.  Price: $80.

TRAKR: One much buzzed about fave on the show floor was Wild Planet’s new Sky Video TRAKR.  At the upper end of the price range ($129), this packed-with-technology gizmo is a toy that looks like a tank/robot.  You control it with a gameplayer-like remote control that has a small LCD VGA-quality screen, joystick, and buttons.  Using simple downloadable programs or even creating your own programs, the TRAKR transmits color video and audio and data.  It can memorize a path to your kitchen or be trained to scare the pants of your mom when she enters your room.  It’ll even have night vision just to make things interesting.

Talkatoo: Of course some of the coolest products are found in the recesses of the Javits Center, usually start-up companies with some very passionate owners.  For instance, there’s talkatoo–a small, colorful pendant that allows for a 30-second voice recording.   For $16 bucks, you can carry your kids’ voices everywhere with you.

TV Hat: Now here’s one that’ll have you laughing and shaking your head in amazement. But no one will be able to see you because you’ll be under the TV Hat.  This sub-$30 hat (or visor) has a tiny pouch for you to insert your iPhone or other video player. Underneath the hood, a prism brings the image into focus and built-in earphones create your own private studio.  As long as you’re comfortable looking like a cross between a Klu-Klux Klan’er and a HAZMAT worker, you will fall in love with the TV Hat–a poor man’s solution to TV glasses.  (Imagine each kid in your car wearing these in the back seat! You might get pulled over for kidnapping!)  Of course it made the worst of show list over at http.bored.com, but it’ll either be the next pet rock or not.

Geocaching: For the family that likes finding its way together, GeoMates Jr. from Apisshere is an entry-level $70 GPS.  It’s filled with 25,000 geocache locations from all over the country. Geocaches are markers or hidden boxes or anything you want that you place somewhere and mark its coordinates on a GPS map.

My Ami: Finally there’s My Ami–created by a mom after giving her kid an iPod and watching it tossed from the shopping cart one too many times. My Ami is a bear that conveniently holds the iPod or iTouch securely and out of harm’s way.  There’s the suction cup version for strollers or car seats and the clamp-on for shopping carts. Advocates of less screen-time for little ones will go apoplectic over this one, but hey, for many moms, it’s whatever it takes to get you through the day.

Of course, if they browse without some structure or keep their IM and Facebook accounts open while working, the web can be a disaster. But if you help them hone in on the problem, the homework helpers on the web are pretty darn good.

Young kids need to reinforce what they learned (or daydreamed through in school). In the traditional classroom if you don’t “get it” when the teacher presents it, you’re bound to suffer as problems get complex.

I like Discovery Education because it’s engaging and fun. Its homework help site provides skill-building sessions in math, science, English, social studies, and others; many of the lessons use smart, engaging videos. Click on “Whole Number Multiplication,” for example, and you’ll get a video that walks you step-by-step through the problem using a marathon race and gym as examples. For English, you can learn nouns by taking a pictorial video tour of the desert.

OK, he’s got an unfortunate name, but one of the best stops for older kids (junior high and above) on the homework help circuit is BJPincheck’s Homework Helper. BJ started organizing websites that can help with various subjects when he was just nine years old. Today he’s in college and he’s still at it. He picks good references and indicates the targeted age.

Of course, every parent wants to know whether it’s OK or not to use Wikipedia when the kids are doing homework. Remember that Wikipedia is a collection of articles written by anyone who feels they have expertise in the subject. For the most part, Wikipedia is terrific, but there are biased and mistaken articles. Many teachers ask that kids use only one Wikipedia source, if any, in their research. In general, Wikipedia is more accurate with historical articles than recent current events. Recent articles are subject to more personal interpretation and less vetted by time.

Not sure of when the War of 1812 took place? If you want the facts–facts on every science from geology to weather and every period in history–try FactMonster for a quick dose of reality.

Now, the greatest guilty pleasure of the school-aged set…YouTube. Kids will watch fart movies or fornicating kitty cats for hours, but when tamed, YouTube can be a homework helper. For older students and lifelong learners, the YouTube Education site has lectures and talks from the great universities and professors worldwide. For kids, all you need to do is filter out the crap and leave the benign. Special web software like Vidzui or Kideos weed out inappropriate materials. Both are fun and carefully arranged from ages pre-K through grade 9.

If all else fails and you parents haven’t a clue as to what the gerund in the sentence is, you might consider an online tutor like the ones at Tutor.com. You register at the site and specify the problematic subject and your grade level. Just like a good date, you’re matched with the perfect tutor for a one-to-one session. There is a charge, but there are lots of ways to pay–for a single use, a monthly fee, or a number of sessions.

 Shmoop may be one of the dumbest product names I’ve ever encountered, but it’s a pretty brainy take on summaries, study guides and synopsis of  classic literature, poetry and histroy. Like CliffNotes  (which offers a far wider selection of course materials) and SparkNotes (which is a much edgier subject review), Shmoop is meant to augment (not replace) the textbook and also instill a love of learning and reading. Of course anyone who’s been around kids long enough knows that  these sorts of  review sites often create accidental (or not) plagarists and are often accused of spoonfeeding kids a summary of literature so that they’ll never need to crack the real book. 
Created by a bunch of dedicated PhD’s who couldn’t imagine that kids wouldn’t want to read the book, Shmoop gets its name from a Yiddish word that means “to move forward.”  Schmoop is available free of charge and it includes analysis, study questions, audio and video links, cram sheets and even lightening paced quizzes to help students master the classics.  Shmoop summaries are also available for the Amazon Kindle and as iPod/iTouch apps. 

Once a kid understands that Hestor Pryne is a  just another single mom, ostracized by society. Or that  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner might explain a lot about why they’re doomed to disobey their parents may spur them on to read and study.  But even if they just read the Shmoop,  they’ll have an interesting and modern take on literature,.

The Nick Edition follows on the heels of a Disney announcement for a pink or blue encased ASUS netbook that it calls the NetPals Netbook. Both machines are honest-to-goodness entry-level netbooks, ones that any adult on a budget would be happy to own. What makes them kid-friendly are decoration, software, a custom UI, and lots of parental control software

Beneath the green and white Viacom slime on the cover of the PC lurks a Dell Inspiron Mini. A Nick widget (which wasn’t quite ready to be demonstrated) will take junior right to Nickland. There they’ll find feature games of the week, first-run Nick shows, an MP3 and more. WhyVille, a highly respected social networking site that caters to a “thinking” kid, is also featured prominently.

When it comes to speeds and feeds, both Disney/ASUS and Nick/Dell machines have similar specifications: Atom processors, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and a built-in webcam. Both run XP. Both weigh under 3 lbs. Dell adds a Lo-Jack–a sensible addition for parents sending kids into a world where they’d forget their pants if they weren’t wearing them. Dell did not announce pricing, but expect it to be competitive with the Disney NetPal.

According to Dell, Maria Bailey, CEO of BSM Media, helped set the mission. Moms and dads are looking for brands they can trust, access to entertainment and education, and a protected environment.

Dell is going to miss the back to school buying spree, but when it does become available in October you’ll find the Nick Edition at Wal-Mart or on Dell.com.

Undecided whether to be in the SpongeBob/iCarly or Little Mermaid/Hannah Montana camp? Don’t worry–I’m sure it’s a matter of moments before you’ll be able to add a few other kid-themed netbooks to the menu. The injustice of it all may be that your kid gets a netbook before you do.

I spent two days being a voyeur at ISTE/NECC, a conference about technology’s role in education. It provided me with a welcome call to 21st century education in the classroom. While there wasn’t one single “killer product” on the show floor, the sum of a bunch of solid technologies is giving teachers a real chance at cultivating the original thinking part of their students.

Collaborative Education: We all have memories of the group project where one person did the lion’s share of the work, but the new collaborative tools bring both novelty and structure to group projects. Systems like Promethean’s ActivClassroom, eChalk, and Saywire offer schools complete collaborative systems. Promethean’s is centered on its electronic whiteboard. Saywire includes a suite of social networking tools that includes blogs, wikis, document sharing, and more.

Digital Storytelling: Digital storytelling has become the new buzzword for the old fashioned research paper. Images, audio, first person research, videos, drawing, and other elements create reports that are more lifelike and encompassing than ever before. The student plays the role of multimedia author and a new sort of research product is born. Tools like Google Apps for education and Apple’s iLife are helping students create complex and visually arresting reports. Some good examples of the modern classroom’s projects can be found here.

Distance Learning: There are many who think that the savior of ridiculously priced colleges will be online learning. The cost per student to have access to top notch curriculum and personalized instruction is lower when you eliminate the physical bricks and mortar. Video, online assessment testing, and multimedia  curriculum are the enabling technologies.  The University of Phoenix and Kaplan are the 100-pound gorillas, accredited full degree schools, but watch for newcomers like University of the People (a free degree based on open source curriculum) and institutions like MIT, Stanford, and others to incorporate online components into their regular courses of study.

Personalization: What happens to the student who’s never learned his multiplication tables? As he progresses through the school curriculum, he never recovers from missing a piece of the puzzle. Students who fail to master basic concepts fall behind forever. Software and hardware that can track a student’s progress, giving them remedial or accelerated instruction as needed, sometimes tailored to their specific learning style, provides some assurance that every student will master a unit of information before moving to the next. Solutions include products like McGraw-Hill’s Acuity Unwired, which relies on hardware clickers distributed to students who use them to “click” on an answer and makes tracking progress easy. My eCoach offers a full solution for individualized lessons.

Learning Games: There’s a part of school life that is just a big game of Jeopardy—with laundry lists of facts and figures. Sites like BrainPOP that teach odd facts in strange and humorously hip ways have their place in the classroom.

eBooks: E-books may not be particularly satisfying for reading the next great novel, but there’s a lot to like about them as textbook replacements. They are easier on the back, easier on the pocketbook, and easier on the eyes (with adjustable fonts). With tools for underlining, note taking, web lookup, and immediate downloads, they hold tremendous potential to be more powerful than a traditional book. The Kindle DX, with its larger screen format, is currently being tested as a textbook replacement in five universities.

Electronic Smartboards: Blackboards are erased without a trace, but smartboards keep the knowledge flowing. A teacher at a smartboard can “write on the board,” interact with software and the web, track student progress, and record lectures and then distribute content to the entire class.  Blackboard is the big kahuna in this category, but some of the most interesting products you’ll see in this space are ones like mimio that turn any wall surface into a smart electronic board.

THQ  Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter:

Just introduced on the Wii, this game combines kids creativity and game playing.  Using a set of familiar looking paint tools kids design their own characters to star in video games.  The characters can even articulate their limbs, giving them lifelike moves.  Once the character is completed you can  place it  in a simple game, drawing in your own obstacles as you go. You can even draw a bridge to get you across a river with a special action ink, or a draw a ball that bounces.  The game you play is the one you’ve created. That’s both inspired and loads of fun.
Leapfrog  Zippity 

Zippity looks like a cross between a pogo stick and a Dance Dance Revolution mat. It’s played on the Wii. Young kids will stand on the  mat,  with their stick held firmly in their hands . On a TV screen they’re be watching their favorite Disney characters and using the stick they’re interacting as they watch  Using Playhouse Disney characters like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey, Zippity presents  kids with dances to do, jumping and movement, and learning fun.  Priced at $79 it’s a mini-Wii game for the mini-est users.

NetPal 

A netbook of their own.  Disney and ASUS teamed up to create a $350 netbook designed for kids. That means safe browsing, parental controls with plenty of room for parents to adjust, customizable screensavers with themes from Disney’s Cars, WALL-E and others.

An ASUS netbook under its skin, the Netpal has an interface that’s all Disney. The keyboard is spillproof and a Shock shield protects the netpal  from damage due to  accidental drops.  Naturally it’s available in Princess Pink and Magic Blue.

Leapfrog Tag Reader Jr:

 Leapfrog’s Tag Reading System used a special magic digital pen to read aloud to young readers.  Now the youngest pre-readers get a Tag of their own, called Tag Jr.  Instead of a pen, the handheld device is shaped more like a big rubber stamp.  The child presses the tag reader junior to the book page and all sorts of things begin to happen.  Stories get read, songs are sung, shapes and colors called out.  The books are made of really durable heavy cardboard so the system is dribble and drool proof.

Imagine Series: For girls who dream about what they want to be when they grow up Ubisoft created a series of  unique videogame introductions to the working world. Last year the big hits were Imagine Doctor, Movie Star and Babysitter. .This year they’re adding artist, boutique owner, detective, fashion designers, salon stylist, zookeeper and a few others to the lineup.  The games have become quite successful. Each gives you a taste of a career with simple games from picking patterns for fashions to putting together clues to solve a mystery. For girls ages 6-14 available on Nintendo DS.

It’s a jungle out there.  If you’re looking to help them practice  reading, math, critical thinking, color matching  … whatever, there are hundreds to choose from ranging from the mundane to the sublime. And no way to know for sure much about what’s inside the box.

Leapfrog, known for mostly top-notch products for kids just made it much easier to buy the right product and better still, to watch how your child is interacting with the toy.

The company’s new website Learning Path offers parents a portal into their child’s learning.  Learning Path charts a course for parents to make good product choices by grouping choice by age and skills. Parents receive tips and ideas from educators. But most important the child’s product can be linked to the website and parents get feedback about how the child interacts with the product. 

Here’s a quick look at some of the types of things you can expect to see in the new line:

EARLIEST LEARNERS

Focus is on products like Fridge Phonics and Pre School Medley. (Still, not quite sure I love the sound of little kids recorded voices singing and saying words without much difference between singing and saying,  but the Leapfrog folks assure me that the kids prefer it.

With slightly more coordination kids are ready for products like Zippity. Zippity is sort of a colorful cross between Dance Dance Revolution and  Nintendo Wii  but made for a three to five year old who play games where their using their bodies to interact with the device, without needed the dexterity to succeed with a full blown Wii.

SCOUT AND FRIENDS

Scout, a cuddly plush dog becomes the mascot to preschoolers with a collection of products that look just like mom and dad’s high tech stuff. There’s a PDA that teaches words and letters and has some fun built in emails and calendar functinos that revolve around Scout’s life.  A Scribble and Write is like a high tech version of the tracing books we used to use to learn to write our letters.  Trace the letters by following the screen’s LED dots.

TAG READING FOR JUNIORS

One of the newest products is the Tag Reader Junior  ($35 when it’s released later this year).  TagReading Kit  is a pen shaped device that can interact with books to read, teach words and more ($50).  Once you have the pen you keep replenishing your library of Tag books at about $14 each.  Tag Jr. is a stubbier, snowman-like stamperr instead of a pen.  As it touches the book, a sturdy cardboard affair, it also responds. 

Things I like:

The books and materials were high quality, compelling stories.  Many Tag books are liscened from companies like Disney and Scholastic so the child is engaged in the literature.

The tag pens bring a fun element to reading books, but it’s a book you’re reading, not a game screen.

The parents web site and the kids’ website are basically two views of the same content.  Parents can see where there kids like to play (learning words? shapes? math? and kids can get more content and games from the web.

After years of mostly quality one off toys, the Leapfrog strategy took a giant leap forward.

University of the People is out to legitimize free. Not only is a college degree free, anyone who has access to a computer, in any country in the world, is invited to get one.

When the University of the People (www.UoPeople.org) opens its doors this fall, it will be opening them virtually using the growing body of OpenCourseWare to provide the basic courseware. Much of the OpenCourseWare comes from some of the finest professors and some of the world’s finest institutions, too.

It is the brainchild of Shai Reshef, an Israeli with a background in entrepreneurial educational services, who funded the company with a million dollars of his own money.

Any student anywhere in the world that has a high school education, English speaking skills, access to an Internet connection, and the potential to succeed will be able to attend. The instructors will be a mix of full-time and part-time volunteers.

According to Reshef, the first class will include students from 52 countries. Initially, the degrees being offered are Business Administration and Computer Science. While taking a course is free, there will be small (and sliding) fees for taking online exams, thus making the university sustainable. UofPeople is not an accredited program at this time, but the skills it will bring to those willing to learn should make them desirable employees in a global world.