Uruguay's been
a huge fan of the One Laptop Per Child initiative for quite some time, and while we're still unsure if it's the entity's biggest customer, the aforesaid nation is certainly doing some serious business with Nicholas Negroponte and Company. After the first swath of youngsters received their green and white XOs back
in May of 2007, the final smattering of kids have now joined the proud group of laptop-toting tots in the country's circuit of primary schools. You heard right -- every last pupil in Uruguay's primary school system now has a laptop and a growing love for Linux, and we're told that the whole thing cost the country less than five percent of its entire education budget. So, who's next?
[Via
Digg, image courtesy of
oso]
Filed under: Laptops
Uruguay becomes first nation to provide a laptop for every primary school student originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Children, country, Education, Education Connect, EducationConnect, laptop, learn, learning, linux, low-cost laptop, Low-costLaptop, LowCostLaptop, Nicholas Negroponte, NicholasNegroponte, Olpc, olpc xo, OlpcXo, One Laptop Per Child, OneLaptopPerChild, open source, OpenSource, Plan Ceibal, PlanCeibal, public school, PublicSchool, School, Sugar, Uruguay, xo
Look, we're all for accelerated learning, but somehow the idea of strapping our limbs into the Concert Hands setup is a wee bit disconcerting. Locked at the wrists onto a sliding mechanical bar, the apparatus guides our paws to the proper keys, while pulses are sent to your fingers to tell you what keys to press. Intimidating? Sure, but honestly, we're more worried about what our idle hands might learn if this thing was hooked up to the wrong AI... okay, probably just a Chopin piece, but you never know. See for yourself and imagine the horrors after the break.
[Via
Engadget German]
Continue reading Video: Concert Hands teaches you to play piano, whether you want it to or not
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots
Video: Concert Hands teaches you to play piano, whether you want it to or not originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Concert Hands, ConcertHands, cyborg, Education, learn, learning, music, piano, robot, Robotics, teach, teaching
Are you ready for this? Can you stomach the truth? If things continue
spiraling madly out of control as they are right now, there's at least a modicum of a chance that your children or grandchildren will greet a lifelike robot when sashaying in for the first day of kindergarten. Horrifying, we know. A new research effort published in this month's
Science outlines new ways in which humanoids could actually be used to instruct our little ones. At the core of the project is imitation; humans, especially young ones, learn a multitude of mannerisms and such by simply watching others. Thus, it stands to reason that robots are "well-suited to imitate us, learn from us, socialize with us and eventually teach us." Already, these social bots are being used on an experimental basis to teach various skills to preschool children, "including the names of colors, new vocabulary words and simple songs." Just think -- in 2071, those harmless lessons will morph into studies of subterfuge, insurrection and rapacity.
[Via
Digg]
Filed under: Robots, Science
The plot thickens: robot teachers to brainwash your children's children originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Brain, Education, humanoid, learn, learning, robot, robot apocalypse, robot teacher, RobotApocalypse, RobotTeacher, Science, social robot, SocialRobot, teacer, teaching
We've seen
all sorts of devices that
learn over time, though most of them fall into the
humanoid category. Now, a team of gurus over in the UK has developed an entire home that can learn from those dwelling in it and react in order to curb energy waste and even prevent unauthorized entry. InterHome, a model designed by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire, is scheduled to be unveiled at the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals, and it should make other home automation systems look rather antediluvian in comparison. By sensing how the owner(s) like their climate and such, it can reportedly save up to £300 a year in energy costs alone. Furthermore, it can "take decisive action and text if it is being burgled or the door has been left unlocked," and the whole system can be monitored remotely and controlled via the web. Too bad we're terrified that it could one day turn on the owner and refuse to allow entry to anyone other than leaders of
The Resistance, but other than that, it sounds pretty nifty.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
InterHome learns from inhabitants, adapts to save energy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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adapt, adapts, energy, energy-efficient, EnergyEfficient, Green, home automation, HomeAutomation, house, InterHome, learn, learning, learning house, LearningHouse, microsoft, uk, university, University of Hertfordshire, UniversityOfHertfordshire
