Real Things Happened..

Beware of computer illiterate in the workplace

Still computer illiterate in 2006

Source: Youtube

'Engkey' English Teachers: Egg-shaped Robot Teaches South Korean Students

English teachers always are very expensive in non-english countries. But South Korea has found its solution, they’are testing Engkey, a robotic teacher, in the Philippines. Engkey will walk in class among students, will talk to them and teach them English language, and can do a little dance too. But its a little clumsy and ugly robot. It don’t have human like figure, Instead of face it has a LED screen.

The developer say these robot will not require health care, no more sick leave, or vacation pay, but to get this teacher you must have to pay about $10,000 for one. A total of 29 English-language education robots will be placed in 21 elementary schools in Daegu next week for a four-month feasibility study to check the commercial viability of robotic teachers, to go on sale in 2013. 

The state-run Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said Friday that the robotic assistants, dubbed “Engkey” combining “English” and “disc jockey,” will help teachers during English classes. “We will carry out the second-phase pilot program with Engkey until next March after wrapping up the first project over the past year in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province,’’ KIST spokesman Park Young-ho said. “We learned that Engkey should be able to fare well in markets based on the first phase of experiments. We are poised to conduct more pilot runs before commercially launching the robots in 2013.’’

It looks like South Korea’s aspirations of having robots in classrooms, teaching their youth, which were aiming for 2012, may be seeing adoption at a quicker rate. But, that’s not stopping a school in Daegu, South Korea, from planting a few 3-foot tall robots, oddly shaped like huge eggs, right in front of students, and teaching them English. The students reportedly love the Engkey, though, and that’s kept the little bots around.

In total, the Engkey robots stand 3.3-feet tall, and feature a small display where a female woman’s face is displayed. The robots don’t control themselves, though. The English teachers are in another room, controlling Engkey in its content, as well as the reactions to the students. The image of the woman’s face will actually copy the reaction of the teacher’s, thanks to cameras watching his or her face. 

Other than the fact that the students love the little ‘bots, the schools are adopting the robots at a faster rate due to the cheaper cost of hiring Filipino teachers. According to a school official, Kim Mi-Young, “The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person.” She went on to add that having a robot in the classroom makes the students more active, and that their participation has climbed steadily since the robot’s introduction. Source : Web & Korea Times


Source: http://news.krisaru.com/

Free Web Tools For Educator

Dear Educators, please explore how limitless technology can transform education although the tough budget situation those schools across the nation are facing. Doing more with less has become a mantra among technology enthusiasts, and in turn, free resources are more popular than ever.

WebList is a tool that gathers different resources and aggregates them under one main URL. Users can collect different websites, images, documents, and videos in an editable list. Each resource receives its own URL, but users can send the main URL to colleagues and share all resources in one place.

TypeWith.Me lets users collaborate in real time in a chat-like format. One user creates a document and sends the URL to others, and each user types in a different color. Users can import and export text files, websites, and documents for collaborative learning, brainstorming, and editing. Students can collaborate with one another on projects or group study sessions, and revisions are saved. A time slider function lets users and teachers view the chat progression.

My StoryMaker, from the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, lets students create their own stories that are archived for 30 days. Once created, a story is saved as a PDF and can be exported to a computer for permanent access. Students can play with characters, shapes, colors, movement, and sentences. Because users can’t edit a story after it is created, Daugherty recommended asking students to map out their stories before creating them online. It’s particularly popular with first and second grade students in the district, she said.

Glogster EDU lets educators and students create online multimedia posters with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments, and more. A “Glog” is created using a drag-and-drop feature. Once projects are complete, a teacher can share students’ work in a variety of educational settings. Glogs can be embedded in a blog, wiki, or website, or shared with others using Glogster EDU’s presentation capabilities. The teacher easily creates a private virtual classroom with students by registering for a teacher-administered account, generating student accounts with safe logins and passwords, and monitoring all activities within the account throughout the learning process. Student accounts can be created without providing eMail addresses or other contact information. Educators can choose the number of student accounts, and Daugherty recommended signing up for the maximum number of free accounts available, because educators will keep all the accounts they open when they sign up.

Tagxedo turns words, including speeches, news articles, and student research papers, into a tag cloud. Students and teachers can choose the shape of their tag cloud, and they can import a picture if desired. The most frequently-used words appear the largest in the cloud. The site also features a list of 101 ways to use the resource.

ViewPure is exactly what the name implies: pure video viewing. It gives educators the ability show students YouTube videos without advertising, free from links to suggested videos that might be inappropriate, and without user comments below the video. Users can copy the video’s “pure” URL for future reference. In addition, teachers can opt to install a “Purify” button on their browser’s toolbar. Instead of pasting a YouTube video’s URL into the ViewPure URL field, an educator can simply click on the “Purify” button while viewing the YouTube video to instantly clear it of questionable advertisements and materials.

(Editor’s note: M86 Security has created a free website that also strips YouTube videos of their comments, links, and advertising. This website, called VuSafe, lets teachers create online video libraries of their favorite educational videos from YouTube and other sources, but unless the school uses M86?s web filter, YouTube must be unblocked on the teacher’s computer if he or she shows the videos in class.)

TubeChop helps educators avoid the hassle of skipping through videos to find a certain clip within the video. Instead, users can select and “cut” just the portion of the video they would like to show or share with others.

Museum Box is a presentation tool in which students put pictures, videos, and text into a virtual box. For instance, a student researching a project on the Renaissance might identify artwork or important documents from the time and place those into the box to show what life was like during the period and what important discoveries or advances occurred. Source : eclassroomnews.com

Source: http://news.krisaru.com/