The OLD Top Shelf

In this session, we learned about some of the new features of Office 2007. This release of Office is very different from previous versions. If you are thinking of upgrading, there are some things you will want to know.

MS Office 2007 has what is termed a “fluent user interface.” It uses new terminology, such as: ribbons, Office button, mini toolbar, contextual tabs, fluent galleries and live preview. There are lots of ways to learn about Office 2007. Office Online offers support, of course, but Atomic Learning also has very good tutorials. There are some great Getting Started plug-ins available for download, too. These integrate with Office 2007 and put a Get Started tab right within the software.

There are some issues with Office 2007. For example, it is not backwards compatible – meaning that you cannot open documents made with 2007 with previous versions of the software, unless they have been saved for versions 97-2003. Another problem presented by the speaker is that the program uses quite a bit of memory on your computer.

There are some neat, new features as well. The live preview allows you to see font, color, and style changes immediately. PowerPoint features a Smart Art gallery that lets users create art for their slides that look like they were professionally created.

Presenter: Dr. David Thornburg, Thornburg Center

Dr. Thornburg looked into his crystal ball and discussed things that he believes will be commonplace in the next 10 years:

User interfaces flexible – they can and will change. For example, the One Laptop Per Child program from MIT uses a new type of interface, called Sugar, which was designed specifically for children using educational theory.

Androids – The Fed Ex Institute of Technology in Memphis is building very human-like andoids that can understand natural language and respond. Dr. Thornburg described an experience he had visiting with an android version of author Philip K. Dick, who died in 1982. He said that after 5 minutes it seemed as if he was talking to the author himself. Based on this experience, Thornburg predicts that in the future schools will have access to androids of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, or other historical figures. These androids would be able to give lectures and talk with students.

Cisco is developing a product called TelePresence, which uses hi-def video and audio to put people in various places virtually. Watch the video below to see this in action. You won’t believe it!

Researchers at MIT have developed I/O Brush, a paintbrush program that lets you pick up colors and patterns from real life on a brush and paint with them. Here’s a video that shows how it works. Pretty cool.iSkia is a new hardware interface developed by iMatte that goes between your computer and projector and can do several things. It can createa shadow on a presenter standing in front of a projected image, so that the image is not projected on the person. It also allows the presenter to draw on screen with a finger or hand, manipulate projected images on software and move them around. It was invented by the person who invented the green screen that is commonly used in television news for weather. Watch the video to see a demonstration.

Heliodisplay is a way of projecting a computer image in mid-air with no screen and shows images in 3D. Click here to see video and images of heliodisplay at work.

Jeff Han from NYU presented a new multi-touch interface at the TED Conference in Feb. 2006. Many people believe that this technology may be the end of the point and click mouse interface. See his demo here. One of the important comments that Jeff makes is that there is no longer any reason to be confined by the computer’s interface. He believes that the interface should conform to us.

Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon has also created a multi-touch system more affordably by using a Wii remote and a pen with an LED light on the end. See the video below:

Some overall trends Dr. Thornburg predicts are technology users using gestures, not a mouse and the user interface morphing into something more compatible with users’ needs.

Presenter Patrick Crispin

The Powerpoint for this presentation is online at netsquirrel.com

Hardware
The Polaroid is not dead! They own a new spinoff company that has developed ZINK, which stands for “zero ink”. It is a polaroid thermal printer that uses Zink paper to print  color images and photos without ribbons or toner. The paper has dye cristals embedded in a protective layer that and are set to pop at a certain temperature. This new photo printer will be coming out Christmas 2008 for $149 and 30 cents a print.

Solid state hard drives are now available in high end laptops, but are still very expensive. The benefit of these drives is that they have no moving parts to break, are faster and consume less power than conventional hard drives. Patrick predicts that within 5 years they will be in every laptop.

USB 3.o will be out in 2008. It will be 10 times faster than current USB technology due to the use of fiber optic cable.

Wireless USB will allow a computer and  its peripherals to connect with no cables. It  requires the components to be in proximity with each other. Belkin has wireless USB hub available now.

The Eye-Fi is a wireless SD memory card for  your digital camera. It will automatically upload your pictures to your computer and to your favorite photo sharing, blogging, or social networking sites. It is available now for $99 at Walmart and other places that sell memory cards.

802.11 is the current set of standards for wireless network communication. 802.11n is an update of those standards that will significantly increase the speed and range of wireless networks.

WiMAX is another develping networking standard that will provide wireless access over long distances. It uses microwave and access will be similar to cell phone access – available pretty much everywhere.

RFID is a tag/chip that carries encrypted information and can be read by a reader. Currently toll tags use RFID technology and RFID chips are now included in all US passports. Patrick thinks this technology will likely replace traditional barcodes and barcode readers.

LED (light emitting diode) Patrick predicts that the filament light bulb will be replaced by LED lights within 11-20  years.

Recordable Media
Until recently, the DVD has had two competing standards: HD-DVD and Blu-ray. In Jan. 2008, Warner Brothers decided to release all of its movies in Blu-Ray only, so Blu-Ray is the new standard.

AACS (Advanced Access Content System) is a standard for content distribution and digital rights management that is being added to Blu-Ray disks to prevent unlawful copying. AACS provides a unique decryption code to each type of Blu-Ray player. If the decryption code is hacked and published, that code will be revoked, essentially rendering all players of that type unable to play disks. See the Wikipedia article for more info.

Utilization 
IP version 6 solves the problem of running out of IP addresses.

Presentations 2.0 refers to a new movement in developing PowerPoint presentations. This method goes beyond bullet points to incorporate less text and more visual representations. The powerpoint is a support for the presentation instead of being the whole presentation. Patrick’s slides for this session are an example of this type of presentation.

HDTV – On Feb 17, 2009 high definition television becomes the standard. Televisions that are not using cable or satellite will require a converter. This is something to consider if the TVs in your school are not HD compatible. Budget funds for converters will need to be set aside.

OLED  (organic light emitting diodes) technologies are used in small screens for mobile phones and mp3 players. They have high readability in sunlight and low power needs. It is also used in the Optimus Maximus keyboard. Each key on the keyboard is a display and can change the function of the keys based on the software that is running.

This session was fast and furious and I’m not sure that I fully understand all of the new things that were discussed. Hopefully the links I’ve provided will give you more information in the things that peak your interest.

I’m back for day 2 of TCEA. Our first session this morning is about del.icio.us.

Presenters: Patty Engel, Rockwall ISD

Those of you who explored del.icio.us while doing the 23 things already know a lot about it. For those who don’t, del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. It allows you to save your bookmarks online, give them tags (or subject heading, for you librarians out there), and share them with others. What makes it “social” is that you can share your bookmarks with other del.icio.us users. Since your bookmarks are online, you can access them from any computer with Internet access.

The tags assigned make del.icio.us really powerful. They allow you to find your bookmarks by searching instead of scrolling through long lists of sites that you have saved in your favorites.

Another great feature is the ability to create a network of other del,icio.us users so that you can access their bookmarks and see what they have saved.

If you haven’t set up a del.icio.us account yet or want to know more, see the del.ici.o.us help. They have really easy to follow instructions for setting up your browser and how to save your bookmarks, as well as how to use additional features.

The presenters recommend also creating a “teacher” account and letting students add and tag sites to this account for projects. This way that they end up with a group generated list of sites that are relevant for that particular project.