schools
Software
11:35AM Nick Broughall | I have no idea whether or not the sign guy at Arthur Philip High School in Parramatta is right in saying that they are the first school in the world to have Windows 7, but if they are – kudos! All other schools now bow before your new Windows OS-owning greatness.
[Thanks Ben!]
Aussie School Claiming First To Windows 7
11:35AM Nick Broughall | I have no idea whether or not the sign guy at Arthur Philip High School in Parramatta is right in saying that they are the first school in the world to have Windows 7, but if they are – kudos! All other schools now bow before your new Windows OS-owning greatness.
[Thanks Ben!] 
Robots
Japanese Elementary School Kids Now Being Taught by Saya the Robot
6:23PM Elaine Chow | Elementary school teachers watch out. Japan’s trying to make you obsolete! In lieu of a real flesh and blood person, one primary class in Tokyo is now getting a robot teacher named Saya. More »
Business
Old Circuit City Stores to Be Used as Schools?
6:40AM Adam Frucci | Welcome to Circuit City High School, where you’ll get expelled if your grades are too good so they can make room for dumber kids that are cheaper to educate. More »
Computers
11:30AM Nick Broughall | Kids today have got it easy. Not only do they have mobile phones and the internet, they’re now going to get a free netbook just for going to a public school. So long as they live in NSW that is, with The Australian today reporting that the NSW State government and the Federal government have kissed and made up over funding for the free laptop scheme.
Sadly, there’s no mention on exactly which type of netbook years 9-12 students can expect to see come next year. They will have wireless though, and will connect to the Department of Education’s network through each student’s unique ID, which the Government claims will help prevent theft of the devices.
Students will also get to keep the netbook when they leave school, although you’d feel pretty bummed if you were in year 9 next year and you had to keep the same, 3-year-old netbook heading into uni… Those things aren’t that powerful to begin with, let alone 3-years down the track…
[The Australian] More »
NSW Students To Get Free Netbooks Next Year
11:30AM Nick Broughall | Kids today have got it easy. Not only do they have mobile phones and the internet, they’re now going to get a free netbook just for going to a public school. So long as they live in NSW that is, with The Australian today reporting that the NSW State government and the Federal government have kissed and made up over funding for the free laptop scheme.
Sadly, there’s no mention on exactly which type of netbook years 9-12 students can expect to see come next year. They will have wireless though, and will connect to the Department of Education’s network through each student’s unique ID, which the Government claims will help prevent theft of the devices.
Students will also get to keep the netbook when they leave school, although you’d feel pretty bummed if you were in year 9 next year and you had to keep the same, 3-year-old netbook heading into uni… Those things aren’t that powerful to begin with, let alone 3-years down the track…
[The Australian] More »
Business
Large, Goliath-Sized Apple Tells Small, David-Sized School to Stop Using Logo
4:30AM Jack Loftus | Apple is again flexing its immense legal muscle today with a threat of legal action against a small Vancouver business school over the use of the Apple logo. The tiny Victoria School of Business and Technology, which may remind some of a certain Biblical character named David, adopted the Apple-esque logo in 2005. Apple Inc., which may remind some of an angry, Biblical giant named Goliath, has used its trademark apple icon for the past 30 years. More »
Random Stuff
Apple Sues School For Using The Same Fruit In a Logo
7:00PM John Herrman | The Victoria School of Business and Technology in Canada could have probably taken a more original approach when designing their logo, but I doubt Apple is protecting themselves from much by suing the hell out of them. Are students showing up at Apple stores demanding that the so-called “Genius Bar” reconsider their essays marks? Are Apple store employees inadvertently showing up at the school and teaching hours and hours of “How to use iPhoto” classes? Apple is just trying to prevent the devaluation of their logo here, but it never looks good when you sue a school, even if that school is a for-profit vocational tech college. [CBC via MacNN] More »
Random Stuff
Steve Jobs High (In Mexico!)
5:20AM John Herrman | How does a fledgling, technology-oriented school just north of Acupulco get a leg up in this competitive world? I honestly have no idea, but at least one person seems to think that naming it after Steve Jobs will do the trick. Will this entice southern Mexico’s best and brightest to switch to the school? Maybe. Did Steve Jobs have anything to do with this idea? Almost certainly, no. More »
Robots
Autonomously Schooling Robofish Will Become Cylons of the Sea
8:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | One day in the near future, when humanity has killed off all the fish in the sea, we’ll be able to replace every single on of them using the research of University of Washington UW assistant professor Kristi Morgansen. That’s because Morgansen, with her 10,000-gallon UW test tank, has almost perfected an autonomous robofish, which needs only other robofish and a basic set of commands to operate wirelessly underwater. They’ll be Cylons of the Sea. Like tuna, with nukes. More »
Gadgets
Dallas Truancy Court Tracks Lazy Kids Using GPS
4:40AM Sean Fallon | Being late to school is one thing, waking up at 2 p.m. and rolling in to class is quite another. Apparently, this was the daily routine of Jaime Pacheco, a 15-year-old high school freshman at Bryant Adams High School in Dallas. Naturally, this routine created problems for both his family and the school system, so drastic action was necessary. However, instead of juvenile detention, a truancy court judge sentenced him to enroll in a pilot program that requires truant students to be electronically monitored using a GPS system. More »
Press
