Students at the Tower School in Marblehead had their hands on some coveted technology this week as part of the school’s tablet computer pilot program launched this spring.

At the independent elementary school, students are learning several subjects while playing with brand new iPads. Tower’s tablet program stems from the work of the school’s Technology Task Force, which has identified ways in which the school can be forward-thinking, flexible, and inventive in the rapidly expanding realm of learning technology. 

Third-grade teacher Nancy McCarthy, fifth-grade teacher Russell Wells, and sixth-grade teacher Webb Thompson are just three of the teachers participating in the program. McCarthy’s classroom was hushed in concentration as students played a Jeopardy-style game on their iPads to test their knowledge of national parks. Wells’ science students used their tablets to graph the bounce height, stretch distance, and other physical characteristics of glubber, a polymer similar to Silly Putty. Students in Thompson’s class watched a slideshow of pictures and maps related to their homework. 

Read the full article from Boston.com here

Agency says designing a strong "architecture" is more important than tools when it comes to info sharing

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is one of America's numerous intelligence agencies, which operates under the command of the Director of National Intelligence.  The NSA is tasked with intercepting and analyzing foreign signals and safeguarding the government's networks, including the military's secure networks.  

Given that its duties significantly overlap with other U.S. intelligence organizations like theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the NSA is keenly interested in developing a better framework to share information with these peers. 

I. New Data Centers

The agency is currently working on replacing three cryptologic (signal deciphering) centers in Texas, Georgia, and Hawaii.  These legacy stations contain computer equipment dating back to the 1980s.  With the construction of three new centers underway, NSA Chief Information Officer Lonny Anderson says his organization has a "once in a lifetime" to institute a cutting edge new architecture, both in hardware and software.

One of the new centers will be a $1.5B USD data center, located in Camp Williams, Utah.  The data center will be tasked with protecting government agencies' computer networks, including those of civilian agencies. 

At the new data centers, the agency plans to deploy secure wireless networks, thin clients, and private clouds to streamline its operations.  With the thin clients, the NSA will run multiple security domains on a single server.  This should make it easier for its staff to secure the various domains.  In order to accomplish that optimization, though the NSA has to rewrite some of its in-house apps that its staff uses.

In an interview with Information Week, Mr. Anderson comments, "[The overhaul] gives you a chance to look at all of your data centers and servers, identify those that are at end of life, replace or get rid of them."

The NSA runs three private clouds.  Two of the clouds -- a utility and a storage cloud -- act as pooled resources for the staff.  The third cloud -- the data cloud -- sifts through the deluge of data intercepted by the agency.  It uses secured version of the open source software Apache Hadoop and its MapReduce tool to analyze and manage its data sets.

Get more from the full article here at DailyTech.com

Rolling backpacks are lame.  There, I said it.  No one wants to be that kid rolling into class, crushing people’s toes and running into desks with their weapon on wheels.  On the flip side of that coin, no one wants to be the kid in the back brace either.  But textbooks are heavy, and there’s really no way around them, or is there?  Trinity College in Melbourne Australia recently conducted a study to find out – they dispatched iPads to a small group of students and teachers at the start of term, and monitored how the new technology affected the classroom.  The results of their study – called the Step Forward Pilot Project – were recently published online and outline a few of the pros and cons of iPads as a learning tool.  Trinity College isn’t alone – schools around the world are incorporating iPads into their daily routine and changing the way students of all ages access and learn new information.

Read the full article from Singularity Hub here

Teachers already use Skype to connect with other classrooms around the globe, bring in guest speakers without asking them to travel, and take virtual field trips.

Now, Skype is making it easier for them to do so.

The company launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, on Tuesday. Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject.

Skype Blog says: Almost everyday we hear a wonderful story about how our simple software is being put to good use for learning. From international projects on weather, mega-cities, and world populations, to classroom exchanges on earthquakes, culture and language, to helping deaf children communicate, teaching English to Haitian children, connecting students with experts from lawyers and authors, survival experts, paleoanthropologists, and other inspirational guest speakers on global issues such as peace and the importance of intercultural cooperation.

Read full article from Technology Digital here

Adobe loves mobile browsers AND applications

A conflict which had been simmering below the surface was sharply highlighted earlier this year. When Apple revealed that the iPad wasn’t going to support Flash, it threw theFlash vs. Web Standards debate into the public eye. Since then, Adobe has been quietly but busily working to improve the experience it provides for mobile. Some of the fruits of that labour are now apparent, with a major update recently to Scene7, Adobe’s media streaming platform, and today’s release of study results into what consumers really use mobile for. Probably the most interest claim is that apps are generally no more popular that mobile browsers, despite the stronger media attention.

What’s Scene7?

Scene7 was an independent company founded in 1999, and bought by Adobe in 2007. It focuses on a few functions, but this release is dedicated to one: streaming media to any platform. If you’re an Adobe client with a Scene7 account, you can upload every single piece of digital media you use (sound, video, text, images) to the Scene7 server. Once that media file is hosted, Scene7 will stream it live to any device or screen you want.

Read more about Scene7 HERE