Handheld Learning and Policies

A conversation in a session at the T+L Conference last week reminded me that although I knew Apple had made some changes in their policies regarding the download of apps for various devices, I haven't heard a lot of conversations going on about this topic. Today, as I was taking advantage of the offers from the 'momswithapps' site (if you didn't know - they give out one or two free apps every Friday - all you have to do is sign up!), I took the time to actually read the changes myself. In a nutshell, Apple knew that by allowing multiple devices to sync to one computer, schools and others were violating the rights of app devlopers to be compensated fairly for their work. There is now a policy in place for schools and organizations to make bulk purchases in order to remedy this legal issue.

The best 'plain English' explanation I have found so far is here, on Tony Vincent's site:  http://learninginhand.com/vpp

Yes, I agree it's a bit complicated! But we'd best be paying attention and help our teachers and students keep things legal while putting the best apps in their hands to help them learn.

T+L and the Future is Here

I'm at the T+L Conference in Phoenix this week. Although it's playing to a smaller audience than I've seen at this conference in the past, I am really pumped from the presentations I saw today. The one that got me the most excited relates way back 18 years, when I told my students that I was not going to retire until I saw the Holodeck become a reality in classrooms. And today, I saw this future, and it is closer than you think.
Dr. David Thornburg and his researchers have piloted the Holodeck as a hands-on project based learning unit with middle school students in Brazil, and it was showcased on October 7th as a part of World Space Week. You can read all about it here:  http://www.tcse-k12.org/ 
Dr. Thornburg will also be presenting about this project through TED at a TEDxTLN on Thursday morning.