Kids chose the #Gumdrop SoftShell for their 11″ Macbook Airs. @The_School #edtech

 

After determining there were too many student laptops with dented corners due to inefficient coverage from the last model purchased, I spent months searching Google and Amazon for other always-on covers to put on our middle school 1:1 laptops. The most recent cases which students helped protoype were:

• A zip-around faux leather model from GMYLE where the zipper broke within a week
• The Thule Vectros which only fit machines that had perfectly intact corners
• The Gumdrop Softshell

The overall winner chosen by the students was the Gumdrop Softshell! Students will be able to personalize their cases with metallic Sharpies and stickers.

Here’s a Pinterest board where I’ve gathered most of my research from four years of exploring 11″ Macbook Air covers: https://www.pinterest.com/specialkrb/macbook-air-11-cases. Last week, I overheard that The School will be purchasing Apple’s Macbook for next year’s incoming 3rd graders, 6th graders, and faculty. The dimensions of the MacBook Air differ from the MacBook, so we’ll be in need of an entirely different case come September. Back to the drawing board…

 

Trying out cases for the MacBook Air 11″ with @donbuckley

Next year, we’re buying MacBook Air 11″ laptops for the 3rd grade and 6th graders. Kids keep the same machine for three year until they graduate to a new model in 6th grade (or simply graduate from the school after 8th grade). The kids in K-2 have an iPad assigned to them. Up until now, we’ve provided MacBooks and Always-on Cases from InfoCase for the students. In preparation for next year, Don Buckley and I ordered a bunch of different cases from Amazon.

My favorites:

CaseCrown faux leather book cover clip on case for $18.18 (it’s an always on case with a snap closure)

Belkin MacBook Air vertical sleeve with shoulder strap for $14.99 (slim profile and cross-body carry strap)

Flort shoulder bag for $9.99 (I’ve always been intrigued by this IKEA bag…)

The others:

Acase faux leather book cover clip on case for $14.95 (same exact design as the CaseCrown but it doesn’t have a snap closure)

Hard Candy Cases convertible case for $36.99 is ok but pricey [RETURNED]

Gumdrop cases surf convertible case for $37.35 is the same as the Hard Candy design but pricier [RETURNED]

InCase perforated hardshell for $45 looks cool, is super expensive, and the bottom didn’t stay attached [RETURNED]

Red mCover hard shell cover case for $19.99 is overpriced considering the next item is…

Slim Crystal hard cover case for $12.99 is totally reasonable

** update 7/1/14 — Prices have been reduced significantly on many of the cases. Click the links for more current and more reasonable pricing. **

Eyeball throwable panoramic camera

This week’s Technology Review, published by MIT, has a hack article about the Eyeball. It is described as, “a globe studded with cameras captures a panorama if you throw it in the air.”

If you toss this foam-covered ball skyward, an accelerometer inside determines when it has reached its maximum height. At that moment, 36 cameras are triggered simultaneously, creating a mosaic that can be downloaded and viewed on a computer as one spherical panoramic image. The ball was created by researchers at the Technische Universität Berlin after one of them, Jonas Pfeil, labored to create panoramas while on vacation in Tonga. On that trip, he tried a cumbersome process that required snapping pictures in different directions and stitching them together later in a photo-editing program. Now he hopes to license the camera-ball technology for commercial production.

Full article here: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39196/

Education Think Tank hosted by @DellEdu today

Google Doc from Education Think Tank

Livestream/photos from Education Think Tank

Eventbrite description of Education Think Tank

#DoMoreEdu Twitter hashtag

So, it was a great experience to be at a roundtable with many people I know and respect from the education world. I felt conspicuous as one of the few teachers in the room (and from an independent school no less). I also felt like a rabble-rouser, as I stated early-ish that in my opinion technology is really about engineering and robotics and programming, whereas much of what we were discussing was social media usage and new media literacies. (Just last week, I presented about this at PNAIS, citing Henry Jenkins‘s new media literacy skills…)

However, everyone in the room understood that students need access to a plethora of devices and online resources, teachers need to be enabled to promote sound technology integration, and school leaders need to offer opportunities for collaboration and effective professional development while marketing their best practices/successes for a wider audience. Below are the topics touched upon today:

•  How can technology serve to transform teaching and learning? When we say “educational transformation”, what does that mean and how do we get there?
•  How do we increase access to technology and make it a priority in Districts to maximize learning?  Are 1:1 environments attainable?  If so how? Where does equity fit in?
• What does personalized learning look like and how can it be established? How do we move Districts, educators, and other stakeholders to embrace this concept both in and out of school?
• What is, or should be, the role of social media in education/the classroom and how can it be utilized for professional development?
• How do we engage school leaders in a conversation about the important role of technology and social media in education?  How do administrators support innovation in the age of accountability?
  

At the risk of leaving anyone out, present around the table today were: @NMHS_Principal (moderator), @tomwhitby, @InnovativeEdu, @adambellow, @Edu_Traveler (a parent at @The_School), @kenroyal, @drbpchinni, @erikendress, @timeoutdad, @agarry22, @kishizuka, @kjarrett, @MichLampinen, @teach2connect, @snowwhiteatdell, @paulallison, @susanmcp1 , @PMicheleGlaze, and @SpecialKRB (me).