International CES 2009 starts this week and as product announcements roll out it will be easy to get engulfed by products on the trade show floor. However, CES is much more than vendor exhibits. It is one of the largest networking events in the industry and a conference with sessions discussing the future of the industry.

You can find the session list at http://www.cesweb.org/sessions/search/default.asp. Here are a few sessions that I find particularly interesting because they focus on current trends, such as solid state drives with mini-notebooks / netbooks, and future concentrations, like kids & our environment.

Which sessions do you hope to attend?

Conference Sessions

Track: Kids@Play: Building a Smarter World

Disruptive Technologies in Kids' Education
Friday, January 9 at 11:05AM - 12:05PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Moderated by Sue Tave Zelman, SVP Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Panelists: George Cigale, CEO Tutor.com; Rob Franek, VP Publishing at The Princeton Review; Cheryl Petty Garnette, Director Technology in Education Programs, US Department of Education; David Lord, CEO of Knowledge Adventure; Adam Masur, VP Marketing at Tutor.com

Intel: A Vision for Education
Friday, January 9 at 2:15PM - 2:20PM
The Venetian Lando 4203

Intel plans to unveil a new design, adding to its Intel-powered classmate PC family at CES this year. The company will show off this latest design targeting the education space during our Kids@Play Summit.

What's Dust and What's Magic
Friday, January 9 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Speaker: Warren Bucleitner, PhD., Editor, Children's Technology Review
A spirited look at the best and worst of 2008 and what we can learn from them in 2009.

Track: Technology & The Environment

Better Batteries and a Greener Charger
Thursday, January 8 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Suzanne Kantra
Panelists: Jerry Hallmark at Morotola, Christina Lamp-Onnerud of Boston-Power, James Prueitt of MTI MicroFuel Cells

Going Green: More than a Label
Thursday, January 8 at 12:00PM - 1:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Ron Schneiderman of Electronic Design
Panelists: Jeremy Arditi of Greenzer; John Frey of HP; Robert Scaglione of Sharp; David Thompson of Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM); Mike Trainor of Intel

Track: Flash Memory

Collaboration Successes in enabling SSDs in a Windows Environment
Thursday, January 8 at 2:00PM - 3:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: James Borden, Senior Technical Strategist, Microsoft

Solid State Drive Standardization Activities
Thursday, January 8 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: Scott Graham, Sr. Manager, Micron Technology, Inc.

Track: Just the Facts: Research, Reports, and Revelations

The Millennials' Influence on CE Purchases
Thursday, January 8 at 3:00PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N264
Presenter: Ben Bajarin, Director, Consumer, Creative Strategies, Inc.

The Future of Display Technology in Consumer Electronics
Saturday, January 10 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
The Venetian Lando 4302
Presenter: Sweta Dash, Director LCD and Projection Research, iSuppli Corp

On the first day of WIPTE (Workshop on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education), attendees decided that on the second day of the workshop that they'd record their own I'm a PC commercial -- describing to the world the value and fun aspects of using Tablet PCs. Joe Tront from Virginia Tech just made this video available on YouTube. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to do this. This is my favorite "I'm a PC" story yet.

What do they describe as benefits? Here's a list:

1. Touch
2. Take notes
3. Record lectures
4. Share ideas
5. Make music
6. Can make eye contact and write
7. Engage students in learning
8. Annotate on diagrams
9. Help achieve dreams
10. Help teachers teach and students learn
11. Do the twist ;)
12. joke about lost pen
13. Do physics!
14. Use it

As the Zvi states in the video, "Tablet PC, that's the way to go!"

On Thursday, the 2008 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware at the Frontiers in Education Conference was presented to Richard Anderson, Ruth Anderson, Natalie Linnell, Craig Prince and those who have contributed to Classroom Presenter development. Congratulations!

 
Screenshot of Classroom Presenter

Classroom Presenter is a presentation tool, combines whiteboard and slide-based presentation methods with delivery of lecture materials from the teacher's Tablet PCs to students' Tablet PCs. So, students receive the instructor's live lecture and can then add their own notes and select students' work can be shared back with the instructor for a complete set of lecture information. It includes additional interactive features, such as QuickPolling, which allows instructors to assess understanding of a topic while presenting.

As Classroom Presenter grew out of the Center on Collaborative Technologies, which is funded by Microsoft Research External Research and Programs, Classroom Presenter is freely available to those in academics who would like to use it. The source code is also available.

Download Classroom Presenter 3.1 

Download Classroom Presenter for the OLPC

Getting Started with Classroom Presenter

Available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese

According to CrunchGear, the leading maker of classroom interactive whiteboards, Smart Technologies, will introduce its Smart Table interactive learning center this week. Here is the press release dated this coming Thursday, October 23rd with details and a video showing kids using the new table.

Children can work in small groups around the table to manipulate objects, draw and write on the horizontal screen.

• 27" diagonal screen (29" W x 25" H)
• Supports multiple users & multiple fingers
• Gestures include pinching object to scale size and object rotation
• Wide viewing angle
• Ships with interactive learning applications, including activities and games
• Toolkit for teachers to create their own applications
• ISVs partners and content developers to offer products in Spring '09 to run on the Smart Table.

The press release lists $8000 as the educational price, with a caveat "To be determined." Look forward to seeing an update from Smart Technologies.

Congratulations on the new product launch. Can't wait to see how these will be used by students and the types of applications that are created for it.

As schools adopt PCs for students to use in the classroom and take home, it is good to see more appropriate hardware designs be made available on the market. The balance between the value of the PC and cost is difficult for many schools, so seeing affordable entry-level solutions like the next Intel Classmate design is encouraging.

The next generation Classmate PC will include an integrated digitizer on the display, so that a student can use either a finger or stylus to enter information. The ability to control the PC literally at the touch of a finger will be good for entering commands and direct object manipulation. What ways do you see students using touch technology?

Though touch is a great natural interaction addition to a traditional mobile PC, the educational value of writing and drawing directly on the screen far exceeds touch. On first thought, you may nod your head because the most common tools in the classroom include pen, paper, and [chalkboard or] whiteboard. The one-for-one value of being able to accomplish whatever the students do on paper on a PC can be met. Students can write, erase, and turn in the assignment. The challenge comes with moving beyond the analog equivalent, and this is possible with the right software.

At a simple level, a student may draw a triangle in one space and want to move it to another location. The student can erase it and re-draw, or using the stylus the student can select and move the triangle. Let's say the student wants three more of that same triangle, so now can copy the original, paste the new, then move the new to the preferred locations. Object replication is simple on a PC and faster than with paper and pencil.

A more complex example includes the software providing real-time feedback to the student, so the student knows if his or her answer was correct or incorrect. MathPractice is an example of this type of software. This involves handwriting or shape recognition and software developers can integrate this aspect into applications and this will work if the operating system is Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Business or Enterprise, or the software vendor creates proprietary ink and recognition engine.

Have you gotten a preview of the next generation Intel Classmate? What are your thoughts about it? How do you see your students using it?

For more information on the next Intel Classmate PC, go to http://www.classmatepc.com/sneak-peak/

As you know, I really enjoy talking with people to learn how they're using technology. This week I was able to go to two conferences that happened to overlap in timing, so as you can imagine I was thrilled. First, I attended WIPTE where I was on two panels with Jim Vanides from HP. Then on Thursday and Friday I had the chance to attend Project Inkwell meeting and you can see photos from that meeting on Flickr.

The events were fairly different in form, but the goals are similar of improving the implementation of technology in education and sharing information about advances and research. It's a privilege to be involved and I was honored to spend time with all of you this week.

During the two blogger panels at WIPTE I showed many sites that are useful for finding information about Tablet and Touch technologies. Here is a list of those sites Jim & I mentioned, as well as a few more that you might find useful:

• Craig Pringle's blog 
• Frank LaVigne's blog
• GottaBeMobile
• Incremental Blogger
• JKontheRun
• Mobile PC Wiki
• Mobility Matters
• Nice Creations
• Student Tablet PC (new name Endless Scholar)
• Sumocat's Scribbles
• TabletPc2.com
• Tablet PC Buzz
• Tablet PC Corner (French)
• Tablet PC Education Blog 
• TabletPCReview
• Tablet PC Talk
• Teaching, Learning, & Technology in Higher Education - Jim Vanides
• Teaching and Learning Economics with Technology
• Teaching with Tablet PCs
• Technology Questions education forum
• TheTabletPC.net
• UltraMobilePC Tips
• UMPC Portal

Aggregators, search engines, & social networking sites:

• Thredr.com
• Alltop
• Friendfeed
• Google blog search
• Technorati
• Techmeme
• Twitter

Keep in mind that when you rely on search engines that you need to use a variety of keywords to find content related to Tablet PCs and education. People may refer to handwriting recognition, ink, touch, specific model numbers as "notebooks" or "laptops" that are convertible, or mis-spell Tablet PC as tabletpc.

Charles Bostian from Virginia tech describes how he and his college sophomore students used Tablet PCs during a course. Virginia Tech had a planned roll-out of Tablet PCs in its department of Engineering. Tips from their rollout & his class:

• Planned, methodical implementation where Engineering students required of) purchase Tablet PC (Fujitsu)
• Student homework usually submitted in Word & posted up to Blackboard
• TAs grade and return papers electronically
• Dyknow used for lecture

I've been intending to to a few quick screenshots of how grading works. I'll try to get this posted in the next week or two.

The Workshop on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education (WIPTE) officially begins tomorrow. Of course, we had an impromptu gathering tonight.

Bob, Joan and I took the shuttle service from Indianapolis to Purdue University campus and as we waited for luggage to be unloaded, I started talking with someone who is also going to WIPTE. You're familiar with this person's work -- Rob Mancabelli from Hunterdon Central, which hosts a three day Tablet PC Academy for K-12 teachers, administrators and IT support. Rob will be delivering Thursday's keynote, "Tablet PCs: Gateway to Change."

Within a few minutes, a text message connected us with Jane Prey from Microsoft Research and we ended up meeting with Jane, Rob Reed from HP, Ed Evans from Purdue, Mark Payton formerly of Vermont Academy and now with King's Academy in Jordan, Charles Bostian from Virginia Tech, Zvi Ritz from UIUC among others, then later with Joe Tront also from Virginia Tech. What an amazing group and it's just the beginning because tomorrow is going to be a full day.

Rob Bushway is unable to attend our "From the Blogosphere" panel tomorrow. Rob, we will miss your company tomorrow and will be sure to remind people to join the community at GBM. Jim Vanides is going to web conference in. I'm looking forward to learning from attendees how they would like to see the community grow and how they can contribute.

At the same time Dad, Dave Berque from DePauw University, and Sam Kamin from UIUC will host "Increasing Learning through Feedback from Tablet PCs: What Features are Needed".

See the full schedule: Wednesday and Thursday.

• Motion Computing updated its LE1700 semi-rugged Tablet PC with new option for Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7500 processor, 64GB SSD option, and increased display viewing angle at SXGA+ resolution
• Microsoft Student Experience site updated look reflects wide student interests from in the class to around campus
• Have you used DynaVox's PCs that specialize in communication assistance? Also has large touch UI.