Kindlelab Project: Open source & 3D immersive educational tools for K-12 education

Here is the plug:

The Kindlelab Project

"... Kindlelab is a consortium of educational designers, developers, thought leaders, and teachers working together to ensure open source and 3D immersive educational tools find their way into the K-12 educational setting. Any organization, individual, or company whose goal it is to ``ensure open source 3D immersive educational tools find their way into the K-12 educational setting`` are eligible and welcome to submit their application to be considered as a partner or contributor to this consortium. To become a partner submit your application here. For more information about how our consortium can help you with design, development, and consulting projects on your open source 3D immersive education project send us a note at info@kindlelab.com "

The Kindlelab Project is just starting up, and includes organizations such as the Immersive Education Initiative and the Reaction Grid. Open source software platforms related to the Kindlelabs Project include the Opensimulator Project, the OpenCobalt Project, the Wonderland Project, and Edusim.

Rich White, of the Greenbush Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, is the guy driving the KindleLab Project. He's known for his involvement in the Edusim project, ".. a slimmed down version of the core Open Cobalt Metaverse Project. Edusim is a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit intended for your classroom interactive whiteboard (but equally powerful on the students laptop or desktop computers !).."

Even through there are funds from the stimulus package earmarked for technology in the schools, it is not enough to outfit every teacher's classroom with shiny IWB's. There are solutions out there! The following video by Rich White demonstrates how to make an interactive whiteboard for little cost, using a $20.00 BlueTooth adaptor, a $25.00 tripod, an existing projector, and an ordinary whiteboard. This concept is based on Johnny Chung Lee's Wiimote Project.

KindleLab on the WiiMote




Here's a screen shot of a KindleLab cell lesson/project by Rich White:






RELATED

From Rich White and Greenbush TV:

How to use Google 3D Warehouse to Build & Share Colbalt & Edusim Virtual Worlds

The NeuroNetwork: A professional network dedicated to the study of the brain

I am the first to admit that the process of returning to school to take computer courses, combined with easy access to the Internet has turned me into a knowledge junkie, and since I have limited time to feed this habit, I've joined a few on-line groups where I can browse around if I get the urge.

The most recent group I've joined is the NeuroNetwork. Why?

During the 2008-09 year, I participated in neuropsychology training geared for school psychologists who work with children and teens who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. There is so much going on in neuropsychology and related fields, and some of it I had never heard of before. There is quite a few things going on within the intersection of technology and the cognitive sciences!

The NeuroNetwork has over 1000 members. Here is a visual of the interests of the members:




There are several subgroups within the NeuroNetwork. Here's information about some of them:

Theoretical Neuroscience



"Dedicated to exploring theoretical constructs in neuroscience, using a synergy of experimental, mathmatical, and computational methods"

Neuropsychiatry in Schizophrenia and Intellectual Disabilities



"The interest in neurobiological approaches and the cerebral and systemic pathology of mental disorders is essential. Neurotransmitter, brain imaging, etc."


Brain-Computer Interfaces


"Bridging the gap between human and machine minds. We discuss everything related to invasive and non-invasive BCI."

Neuropsychology
"A discussion place especially dedicated to neuropsychology and its empirical research on the relation between brain and human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral function as well as its clinical application."

Organization for Computational Neurosciences


"The Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS) organizes the international Computational Neuroscience meeting (CNS) each year. CNS is a premier forum for experimental and theoretical results addressing computation in the brain"

Upcoming Conference:

CNS 2010 July 25th - 29th, San Antonio, Texas

CNS 2009 Program Book (pdf)

Sample topics from CNS 2009:
CARMEN: An e-science virtual laboratory supporting collaboration in neuroinformatics
Python in Neuroscience
Quantitative Models of Natural Behaviour
Cortical Microcircuit Models of Information Processing and Placticity
Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience
CRCNS.ORG: A repository of high-quality data sets and tools for computational neuroscience
Emergence of behavioral primitives in self-organizing control and composition of behavior for autonomous robots
Large scale model of the human brain

Motivational Video Clip: "If you never failed, you never lived". (Do you know who is sitting in your classroom?)

Good motivational video clip: "If you never failed, you never lived" (Do you know who is sitting in your classroom?)



(cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog)

SMARTtables in North Carolina:

Kicking SMART up a notch (Morgan Wall, The Mount Airy News 9/2/09)

"The table is hands-on and interactive, allowing students to use a number of their senses to learn. It can be beneficial to visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners."

"Shoals Elementary has two SMART Tables which can be checked out through the main office. Riggs sees them mostly as being for K-2 students but said 3-5 students can use them as well."

I wonder if any teachers at schools who have adopted Universal Design for Learning strategies have SMARTtables in their classrooms. If so, please leave a comment!

Hello Haptic flash cards

Tactile Flash Cards for the Blind via Yanko Design

The haptic flashcards were designed by people from the Samsung Design Membership, and were awarded the 2009 Silver International Design Excellence Award:

Designers:

Rhea / Young Soo -- Hongik University
Sunmin -- Ewha Women’s University
Sae Hee--Hanyang University

"The Hello Haptic set of flash cards works with Braille text and other tactile elements from environments the student might not otherwise have access to."

Samsung Braille TouchPhone Prototype is Cool: Uses Electric Active Plastic for Functional Tactile Feedback

Here are some interesting things I've come across that hold potential for children, teens, and adults with visual impairments:

From the Tuvie blog: Braille Concept Phone for Visually Challenged People

"Braille phone is a universal cellular phone concept that is able to produce Braille code in a particular part of it by using Electric Active Plastic to make it usable for visually handicapped people. The phone has been designed in a simple and easy to use manner and looks like a television remote control. The Braille area provides all the information that a traditional screen of a cell phone displays so that visually impaired people can read them by touching it. It provides letter blocks in two by three dot matrixes and by using this principle on buttons, visually challenged people can easily create or read text messages. This braille phone just won Red Dot Awards 2009."






Information from the Samsung website:

SAMSUNG's Braile Mobile Phone Wins Gold Award at the IDEA 2006 Awards (7/2006)

Earlier version:




RELATED:



SPICEMOBILEPHONES

Touch Sight: Camera for the blind may open a lot of eyes





IEEE Spectrum Electric Flex

Microsoft Surface Multi-touch Application for Pediatric Neuropsychology Assessment and Rehab, by VectorForm

Neuro-rehab tools from VectorForm on MS Surface from Health 2.0 on Vimeo.

Pediatric neurological rehabilitation.
"Vectorform LLC, in cooperation with Cook Children's Health Care System, has created a suite of applications to assist with motor control and learning for neurological rehab. These applications are designed to exercise and evaluate a patient's motor control. Each application was designed to allow the clinician to manipulate test conditions and tailor the therapy to address the unique needs of each patient." -Reuters, 4/3/09

According to the Vectorform blog, Cook Children's Medical Center now has five Microsoft Surface units. Table-top applications would be great for psychological assessment, intervention, and special education support for students with a variety disabilities.

What's New in Assistive Technology and Augmentative Communication? AbilityNet GATE - Global Assistive Technology Encyclopedia Shows it All

The AbilityNet GATE wiki is the place to go for new and updated information about assistive technology. The site is a wiki, created by AbilityNet, of the UK. The motto on the home page is uplifting:

"Knowledge is power, but it is distributed information which is truly empowering."

Here is the video from AbilityNet GATE that provides a short overview of assistive technology:



(The music on the video is Jimmy Eats World "Big Casino")

The AbilityNet GATE wiki has a wealth of information, video clips, and photos, plus an RSS feed aggregator that highlights the latest in assistive technology news.

You can also get additional information about assistive technology from AbilityNet's related sites:
AbilityNet E-learning
AbilityNet Website
AbilityNet YouTube
AbilityNet MySpace
AbilityNet Wiki
AbilityNet Twitter
Other sources of information (on AbilityNet wiki)

Multi-touch Tables for Education: Link to post

The following link is to a blog post about teacher Tom Barett's experience with networked tables, including a video. The post also outlines Tom's recent experiences as one of the first teachers to have a SMARTTable in his classroom.

Tom Barrett Demonstrates Durham University's SynergyNet Mutli-touch Networked Tables

Brainport Vision Device enables people who are blind see in 3D via tongue.

The best part of this video is when the man is able to play a games (tic-tac-toe & rock, paper, scissors) with is daughter as he uses the vision device:


(The father depicted in the video is Erik Weihenmayer, who is a professional mountaineer and motivational speaker. He's the only blind person to have climbed the "Seven Summits", the highest points on each continent.)

Photo courtesy of engadget

The system uses a head-mounted video camera which takes in visual information and translates it into electric patterns on a tab placed on the tongue in such a was that 3D representation is interpreted by the brain.



It should be noted that the BrainPort vision device is investigative and not yet available for sale.

RELATED

BrainPort Vision

Lollipop Helps Reveal Shapes To the Blind
Ibby Caputo, Washington Post, 7/21/09

Publications

(Also posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.)

Great Video Short: Thinking Outside the Box (and inside out, around, and in many other ways)

Watch how the ideas unfold and spiral about as two gentlemen have a conversation about thinking thoughts:

outside the box from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.

Thanks, Matt Gullet, for sharing this video!

Low Tech: Historical psychological assessment collection from Brazil- via Kevin McGrew

Kevin McGrew, a psychologist and blogger, recently spent some time in Brazil attending a conference, and while he was there, he came across a collection of historical psychological assessment kits used in Brazil.

Below is just one picture of many assessment tools:


-picture taken from Kevin McGrew's blog



Kevin McGrew is known for his work in psychological & educational measurement (Woodcock-Johnson), learning, applied psychometrics, and related areas. His blog, "Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theory and Tests (AKA IQ's Corner) holds a wealth of information and links. You can follow Kevin on Twitter, subscribe to his blog, and access his presentation slides on SlideShare.

Computer Based Intervention For Individuals With Autism

Valerie Herskowitz, M.A. CCC/SLP shared her presentation slides on slideshare. Her presentation focuses on computer-based intervention for individuals with autism. It provides a good overview of technologies that are currently available, and some that are in development. For more information, visit her website at http://www.valerieherskowitz.com/home.php

Valerie is the mother of a son who has autism, and has written a book, "Autism & Computers: Maximizing Independence Through Technology".

Computer Based Intervention For Individuals With Autism

View more presentations from galeeprol.

From the Psychology Today blog- Resilience Matters in Traumatized Children, and Sensory Activities Make the Difference

Cathy Malchiodi's recent article in Psychology Today's blog discusses the topic of resilience among traumatized children and how engaging the senses through a variety of activities, combined with positive relationships and environments can make a difference.

As a school psychologist, I work with occupational therapists, and over the years, I've learned how important it is to address sensory issues with children and teens who have autism spectrum disorders. Cathy Malchiodi wrote her post while attending the 4th Annual Childhood Trauma Practitioners Assembly. According to the conference website, the following topics were covered:

"Areas of interest include intervention approaches, research, and resource specific to:

• Posttraumatic Growth Resilience
• Complex Cumulative Trauma: Research/Interventions
• School-Based Programs
• Community-Based Programs (hospitals, mental health agencies, family services)
• Interventions for Special Populations (special needs students, children immigrating from war torn countries, Native American Indians – other diverse populations).
• Interventions using Expressive Therapies/Interventions
• Interventions for other trauma related behaviors (OCD like behavior, agoraphobic like behavior) or anxiety disorders – separation anxiety disorder, shyness, social phobia, agoraphobia, etc.
• Research which supports practice (versus theory). Evidenced based research on interventions with traumatized children is limited at this time. "

Cathy's post provides a good overview of research among those who focus on sensory and somatic interventions, which includes addressing support for three regions of the brain - the cortex/thinking brain, the limbic system/emotional brain, and the brain stem/survival brain.

For more information, read the post, and follow the related links:

Resilience Matters in Traumatized Children's Lives -- and Sensory Activities Make the Difference (Cathy Malchiodi, Psychology Today, 7/14/09)

It would be interesting to see how multi-modal technologies could be used to address some of the sensory issues among this group of children!

U of M's Dr. Soloway: Brief talk about the importance of using hand-held devices in education

Dr. Soloway is a professor at the University of Michigan who has been working very hard for many years to spread the word about hand-held devices and mobile computing in education. People are are finally listening. Dr. Soloway has been a leader at HI CE, the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at U of M, and is the CEO of GOKNOW, a company that develops software and resources for hand-held educational computing. He is passionate about his mission. Watch the video!

Elliot Soloway: Ed-Tech Classroom Climate from Education Week on Vimeo.

I will be revisiting the topics of mobile learning & hand-held devices in the classroom soon.

Video Modeling and Social Skills Development: Scott Bellini and Tom Buggey's Resources

Scott Bellini is an assistant professor in the area of School Psychology in the Counseling and Educational Psychology department at Indiana University. His work focuses on social skills development with children and teens who have autism spectrum disorders. He is known for his research in the area of video modeling. He is also the author of the book, Building Social Relationships: A Systematic Approach to Teaching Social Interaction Skills to Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Social Difficulties.

Dr. Bellini is involved with the Indiana Institute on Disabilities, which sponsors the Autism Resources website.

It is worth taking the time to explore the Autism Resources website/blog. There you will find a descriptions of resources for children, teens, parents, and teachers. The resources include books, videos, websites, and related events. Some of the links are to education-related websites that also include information related to autism spectrum disorders, such as links to fairly recent article on the Edutopia website by Fran Smith that highlights the problem facing public schools schools in dealing with the increase in the number of students with autism spectrum disorders.

Tom Buggy is the Siskin Chair of Excellence in Early Childhood Education at UT-Chattanooga. Like Scott Bellini, he also focuses on video self-modeling with young people who have autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Buggy is the author of "Seeing is Believing: Video Self-Modeling for People with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilties", authored by Tom Buggey.

According to the description of the book, "VSM involves filming and editing footage to create a video of a person's ideal performance of a skill. The person then can watch whenever they please and gather valuable information about the skill. Seeing is Believing offers and step by step guide about how to get the equipment to begin the technique, how to plan the film, how to edit the video and much more."

Tom Buggey's "how-to" presentation about video self-monitoring can be downloaded at http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/Tom-Buggey/vsmorlandoclean.ppt

RELATED

If you are interested in free software that allows for detailed annotation of video, you might be interested in the Video Note Taker, which is free and open-source. It was developed by IBM researcher Eben Haber. I might give it a try.

In my job as a school psychologist, I use video to record some of my assessments, especially when I'm assessing students who have autism spectrum disorders. I also use it to develop video self-modeling activities and content for digital social stories. I find it to be useful when I conduct functional behavioral assessments. More recently, I have been using it to document student response to intervention, paying close attention to things that are difficult to record in real-time using traditional methods. What results is lots of video footage!

I think the Video Note Taker might help me with my work with young people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.

I learned about the Video Note Taker from Harry Brignull's blog, "90 percent of everything". Harry is a User Experience Consultant. You can download the application from the SourceForge website.

Here is the description:

"The basic function is to allow the user to take notes while watching a computer video file. The program combines a video playback window and a very simple text editor. Keyboard shortcuts can control playback, e.g. pause/resume, skip back, etc."

This looks pretty cool, considering that video footage of assessments completed by a team, such as the ADOS, require a good deal of collaboration, and of course, rewinding, forwarding, and rewinding video! According to the software's author:

"This software has one other interesting feature: if two people at remote locations are watching the same video file, it can synchronize their players, so that if one person pauses the video, it pauses the other, and if one person skips ahead, the other player shows the same thing. This can be handy for going over a video with someone remote."

Data Systems Standards and Guidelines from the National Center for Education Statistics

If you are involved in data-driven decision making in your school or school district, it is important to keep up with the most recent standards regarding data systems. The National Center for Education Statistics has recently developed a toolbox for educational data system designers and managers who are "looking for ways to build and/or improve education data systems".

According to the NCES website, the Education Data Model, Version I is a "comprehensive, localized, conceptual model that provides a generic blueprint for schools and districts. This blueprint enables schools to evaluate and improve instructional tools, communicate those needs to their umbrella agency or directly to vendors, enhance the movement of student information from one district to another, and in the end, have better tools to inform instruction. Using a standard Education Data Model as a starting point contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the need for data, how data are used, and the questions that can be answered with the data. For instance, the Data Model helps to answer questions such as the following:

• What data do schools, LEAs, and states need to collect and manage at the local level to meet the information needs of students, staff, and other stakeholders?
• What data do they need to effectively manage education organizations in order to increase success in teaching, learning, and school leadership?
• What data do they need to efficiently manage and run an education organization from a fiscal and administrative perspective?

A single, comprehensive model of education data is prerequisite to establishing automated systems with the right data, data that are comparable across time and systems, and data accurate enough to answer our questions".

Educational data systems are developed on a large scale, and generally the "client" is a school district, or administrator of a school district. I am not sure that those who design the data base systems are aware of the work of school psychologists, and how our work is negatively impacted by a system that doesn't address our work needs efficiently or effectively.

So what is a data-minded school psychologist to do? The first step is to become informed about databases and how they are used and implemented in your school(s). Find out who is responsible for making decisions regarding the use of data-based systems, and find out if there is a district committee who is involved in this area. It just might be that it has not occurred to high-level administrators that school psychologists might want to have a say in this matt

If you are interested learning more, you can browse the data model on the NCES Data Model web page. Also take a look at the "How to Use the Data Model" on-line guide.

Here are a few graphics from the NCES website:

Concept map behind the development of the data model:



Taxonomy - entities, classes, and attributes:



Here is the relationship diagram of the data model:


Educational data systems are developed on a large scale, and generally the "client" is a school district, or administrator of a school district. I am not sure that those who design the data base systems are aware of the work of school psychologists, and how our work is negatively impacted by a system that doesn't address our work needs efficiently or effectively.

So what is a data-minded school psychologist to do? The first step is to become informed about databases and how they are used and implemented in your school(s). Find out who is responsible for making decisions regarding the use of data-based systems, and find out if there is a district committee who is involved in this area. It just might be that it has not occurred to high-level administrators that school psychologists might want to have a say in this matter.

Wolfe awarded LEED® Green Building Certification (slightly off-topic)

Only five new schools in North Carolina have been awarded LEED® certification, and Wolfe School (a program for students who have severe/multiple disabilities), in the Union County Public Schools district, is one of them. According to information from the UCPS website, "LEED® is a registered trademark of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). It stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings."

LEED®-certified schools minimize student exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOC's) and artificial lighting. Both are thought to trigger sensitivities in people who are medically fragile or have more complex disabilities, such as severe autism.

I spend half of my working hours at Wolfe, and I'm impressed by the the positive outcome on the school's environment. The air is fresh and clean, and I've noticed that I have no allergy symptoms when I'm there.