Google Sky Map

This nifty application takes full advantage of the phone’s orientation sensors to show a star map for just about every location on earth at any given time. Are you wondering what that really bright thing is just on the horizon? Find out if it’s a star, a planet, or maybe a low flying plane just by pointing your camera toward the object. Google Sky Map provides detailed maps of over one thousand stars and all of the planets in our solar system.

Formulas Lite

This simple application houses a vast collection of the most important and oft used formulas in math, physics and chemistry. The app also features a scientific calculator and a very basic translator. While Formulas Lite won’t get you through advanced calculus without studying, it is a useful reference guide to keep easily accessible.

The Elements

This highly addictive game uses low-tech, abstract graphics to represent various elements such as fire, sand, water and salt. Want to know what happens when you mix fire and sand? Set up the scenario and press play. Voila! You’ve made glass.

PlinkArt

As a company that specializes in visual searches, Plink has created a beautiful application for art scholars. Users can browse art by timeline, movement, or gallery, or hit random and check out a new masterpiece. The coolest feature of this app is the visual search function. Just snap a picture of a work you’re admiring and if the piece is one of the thousands of paintings in their database the system will find it.

Trippo Mondo

With more than 30 different languages supported, Trippo Mondo has you covered. Not sure how to ask how to find the bathroom in Italian? Not sure if your Spanish pronunciation is up to snuff? Use this application to translate any given phrase. Type or speak into the phone and hear it repeated back in the local language.

Doodledroid

Yes, this is another smartphone painting program. But 21 different brushes, a three part color palette, simulated brush dynamics, and unparalleled control over design, this feature-heavy app is definitely worth the $.99 price tag. Just check out these sample images created with the program:

Layer Reality Browser

Last but definitely not least is an app that was one of the featured products at Google’s Zeitgeist event in May. The augmented reality program, which by the way is available for iPhone 3G users as well, augments the real world as seen through your phone’s camera lens. Several different layers can be applied over phone images to show aspects of your location. For example, if you wanted to know about crime in your area apply the SpotCrime layer and see a real time recording of crimes that have happened in your area. Although still in it’s early stages, the potential for augmented reality education using mobile devices is astounding.

What’s your favorite Android application for education?

Shelly Blake-Plock
Blog: http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @TeachPaperless

Beth Still
Blog: http://bethstill.edublogs.org/
Twitter: @bethstill

Neil Stephenson
Blog: http://thinkinginmind.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @neilstephenson

I haven’t had that feeling in a long time; like many of you, I have come to expect major leaps in technology and information gathering, so it takes a tremendous amount of change to impress me. Enter: Wolfram|Alpha. This is not your typical search engine; in fact, it is being called an “answer engine.” Wolfram|Alpha separates itself from the likes of Google, Yahoo, and all the rest by delivering answers, instead of results. The databases that Wolfram|Alpha uses are scrubbed of erroneous data and is essentially an aggregate of many of the world’s best libraries.

Typical search engines take your queries and attempt to match them to the best answers, which are based on the most popular results using keywords, track-backs, and a variety of other metrics. Wolfram|Alpha will take search results and compute the data into useful factual information. In the past few years, companies have stepped up to the plate with the intention of unseating Google as the most powerful search engine, but all have failed. Wolfram|Alpha might be that “answer engine” to de-throne Google. Not because it is better, but because it is different. Wolfram|Alpha seeks to serve a new market, based on facts and pure data, which frees us from sifting through the never-ending piles of useless data living on the internet today.

Many argue that Google already does a great job of sifting through this junk data, and I agree; but I have never personally typed a search term into Google and then hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button with the expectation that Google will come up with something worth referencing in a post or article, for example. Wolfram|Alpha has the potential to be that tool which allows us to take the result of queries and reference them as facts. Educational technology is poised to take a giant leap forward when Wolfram|Alpha becomes more popular and their databases prove themselves to be the massive digital almanacs they claim to be.

Watch the screen-cast to get familiar with how to best put Wolfram|Alpha’s search algorithms to work and then run some of your own searches. If you are not impressed, then I challenge you to show me a tool that works half as well as Wolfram|Alpha, while remaining absolutely free of cost.

Here is a comparison of Wolfram|Alpha and Google searching for “mass of the moon vs mass of the earth.” Which engine do you think yields more valuable results from the persepective of usable data?

Creating Wolfram|Alpha Part I

Creating Wolfram|Alpha Part II

A district in California plans to use Title I funds for “site purchases that refresh computer labs and expand our interactive instruction with document cameras and mounted projectors. We are also beginning to infuse “netbook” technology into upper grades to foster differntiated teaching strategies.”

Please describe your school or district’s plans here so that we can learn from eachother and share ideas on how to effectively and efficiently spend ARRA dollars for classroom technology and 21st century learning.  Additionally, ISTE will share this critical information and examples with the Obama Administration and Congress. We’ll post again later to tell you what

Education

Total: $90.9 billion

• $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cut-backs, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair (State Equalization Fund)
• $15.6 billion to increase Pell Grants from $4,731 to $5,350
• $13 billion for low-income public school children
• $12.2 billion for IDEA special education
• $2.1 billion for Head Start
• $2 billion for childcare services
• $650 million for educational technology
• $300 million for increased teacher salaries
• $250 million for states to analyze student performance
• $200 million to support working college students
• $70 million for the education of homeless children

Figures from Wikipedia

I have to congratulate Anil and his team for reaching out to a competitor and deciding it was more important to improve upon both of their platforms, instead of just trying to leap ahead of the other for what would be a smaller gain for us, the endusers. Below is Anil’s keynote in four parts; I highly recommend watching it, whether you are a seasoned blogger or just now thinking about joining the blogosphere. Please enjoy, and if you have any questions for Anil you can find him on twitter @anildash or leave a comment on his most recent blog post.

Also check out Shashi Bellamkonda’s blog post that features a 1 on 1 interview with Anil that gives further insight into his announcement. If you want to join some engaging conversations about this you can do so on TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb.

ISTE is “storming the Hill” while we’re in DC! Join your colleagues and make your voice heard. Schedule an appointment in advance (via the Special Events page of our registration form) to meet with congressional staff from your state. An onsite “boot camp” will prepare you for your advocacy visit, and we’ll provide transportation and a T-shirt!

Hill visitors will also receive a ticket to the exclusive VIP Congressional Reception held the same evening at the Library of Congress. Take advantage of this awesome opportunity and sign up now! ($25 fee required.)

Information from email newsletter written by:

Leslie S. Conery, PhD
NECC 2009 Conference Chair

Donella Evoniuk
NECC Conference Director

Add yourself to the ISTE Email list!

NECC 2009 is drawing near and as a result the Bring Your Own Laptop and Open Source Lab sessions are filling up rapidly. Remember to sign up for these free sessions during step 6 of the registration process. If you have already registered you can re-access your registration and add the sessions or your choosing. Be sure to check out everything else in the NECC 2009 program and be ready for a wonderful experience!

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