Blackboards and chalk replaced by digital whiteboards

It looks like blackboards and chalk will soon become a thing of the past, at least here in Australia.

"The State Government will install 200 high-tech digital whiteboards in NSW public schools, which it says will "transform the way education is delivered", over the next year. The interactive whiteboards, along with video-conferencing technology and e-learning tools, will take up $28 million of tomorrow's 2007-08 state budget.

The digital whiteboards are essentially touch-sensitive screens connected to a regular computer and data projector.
Students and teachers can interact with data displayed on the boards - such as text documents, images and rich video - using a finger or stylus. The boards can also display websites and other internet content."

Sydney Morning Herald

the urge to be connected - those leading the way and those left behind

The exponential increase of internet usage worldwide is no news, but it may be surprising to know that, in countries like the UK, the internet is now catching up to the TV, as favourite pasttime in our spare time. In practical terms this means that we're coming back from work, where we've most likely spent hours staring at a computer screen, hungry for more ...

Findings on British stats from contentagenda.com:
While more than six in 10 households claim they could not live without their computer, nearly half now spend more
than three hours a day on the internet and a similar period watching television. The study of 2,500 households by
telecom giant Orange found that it is now as common to come in from work and log on to a website as it is to flop down
in front of the TV.

Paradoxically, in places and communities where the broadband revolution has been slow to occur, like rural America and outback Australia, some citizens have decided to take action and wire-up the town themselves... is this how addicted we've become to the WWW?

Tired of waiting, the town of Sullivan plans to start its own high-speed Internet network this summer, using a
combination of fiber-optic cable, wireless transmitters mounted on water towers, and Internet signals sent over power
lines... The gap in broadband Internet usage between rural America and the rest of the country remains wide. A survey
last year found that 29 percent of rural Americans had broadband at home compared with 48 percent of urban and
suburban residents (CSB news)

Linda Stones, former Microsoft and Apple startegist, explains the phenomenon: '[We are]... motivated by a desire to be a live nod on the network ... to be busy, to be connected is to be alive, to be recognized and to matter.' (from a study by The Future Laboratory)

Google has done it again!

At Google they've outdone themselves again with a new "Street View" feature. Dragging a "little guy" around the map lets you view street-level panaromic photography of any location you search for.

make sure you keep a smile on your face and behave diligently ... Big Brother is watching you on the streets of the world!

courtesy of PSFK

Pumping water whilst having fun

The PlayPump water system is an ingeneous structure that allows clean water to be pumped from underground into a tank thanks to children having fun spinning on the PalyPump merry-go-round. The storaged water is then simply collected thru a tap and the storage tank also provides a rare opportunity to advertise on all four sides ... health and educational messages predominently.

It's obviously not going to be the ultimate solution to water shortages in Africa, as children can't possibly be on the merry-go-round to make that sort of impact, ... but it's a start!

(All images courtesy of PlayPumps International.)

Skype now aims at your TV

Skype's founders' are now trying to conquer the TV world with their new company Joost ... you'll soon be able to watch a variety of content on your TV thanks to the Joost software ... will we be finally liberated from the 8 o'clock show?