The new design, converts instantly from a clamshell to a tablet mode with a touch screen. Intel reports that according to research with students and teachers, the 180-degree swivel design, rotational camera and touch screen encourage flexible classroom interaction and natural collaboration.

Lila Ibrahim, general manager of the Intel Emerging Markets Platform Group, quoted in the Intel press release said  “Education is one of the best ways to improve the future for individuals, villages, or nations. There are 1.3 billion school-age children around the world and of those only 5 percent have access to a PC or the Internet. The IT industry has a huge opportunity to contribute to how technology can improve students’ learning and students’ lives. With our announcement today, Intel continues its long-standing commitment to advancing education through technology to transform lives around the world.”

Intel News Release: Intuitive Convertible Design for the Intel-Powered Classmate PC Enhances Collaborative Learning

Article: High tech, no tech

Cohen is working with Carole Beal, a UA cognitive science professor, UA computer science doctoral degree candidate Derek Green and Yu-Han Chang, a research scientist with the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California on the one-year project to create the system.

Article: New Grant-funded Project Meant to Improve Educational Technology

1. Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
2. Developing 21st-century literacies — information, digital, and visual — among students and faculty members.
3. Reaching and engaging today’s learners.
4. Encouraging faculty members to adopt, and innovate with, new technology for teaching and learning.
5. Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

Project wiki: Top Teaching and Learning Challenges, 2009 Wiki

Rome 3D is based on Rome Reborn, an international initiative whose goal is the creation of 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (ca. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (ca. A.D. 550).

Submissions are due by February 9, 2009. The Submission guidelines, from the Google site, are:

Submissions to the Google Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition will be judged based on the following elements:

* Educational value
* Creativity
* Clarity, organization, and resources used
* Use of Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth

Winners will be chosen in each of three curriculum areas:

1. Geography/social studies/history
2. Art/design/pre-architecture/engineering/math/science
3. Literature/language arts/English/philosophy.

One K-8 and one 9-12 submission will be chosen as a winner in each subject matter group.

Rome Reborn website at Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) of the University of Virginia: Rome Reborn

Google Earth Ancient Rome site: Ancient Rome 3D

Contest site:  Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition

In this study, students were asked to answer the question a second time after their peer discussion, but also to answer a different, conceptually related question. Neither the correct answer, nor the student responses were shown between questions. The authors conclude that “our results suggest that peer discussion can be effective for understanding difficult concepts even when no one in the group initially knows the correct answer.”

One of their students, quoted in the study says it pretty well: “Often when talking through the questions, the group can figure out the questions without originally knowing the answer, and the answer almost sticks better that way because we talked through it instead of just hearing the answer.”

Diving in…