Gizmodo Australia » schools

Aussie School Claiming First To Windows 7

Nick Broughall — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:35:29 +0000

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!]

Japanese Elementary School Kids Now Being Taught by Saya the Robot

Elaine Chow — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:23:09 +0000

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.

Saya has 18 motors hidden behind her latex face which can help her express emotions that run the gamut from approval to anger. She can also speak different languages, carry out roll calls and set tasks for her robot-fearing pupils.

Apparently, Saya took 15 years for science professor Hiroshi Kobayashi to create. She is one of various robots being designed to take over human jobs in Japan in an effort to deliver a cheaper workforce as the Japanese population ages.

Call me a traditionalist, but something unnerves me about using a robot teacher on little kids. Sure, Saya might be less inclined to show favouritism or get snappy, but isn’t there something about human emotion-something no facial motors could ever replicate-that students are supposed to learn from a young age? If Saya gets rolled out to other schools, what would be be unintentionally depriving these children of? [Telegraph]

Old Circuit City Stores to Be Used as Schools?

Adam Frucci — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:40:00 +0000

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.

Yes, with hundreds of Circuit City stores all across the country set to be left vacant in the very near future, the question has arose about what to do with them. One idea is to sell them to schools. Weird!

According to DJM Realty, the company in charge with offing all those red-capped monstrosities, “Circuit City’s real estate has begun to create interest among national and regional retailers and supermarkets. There are great opportunities for schools and other non-retail uses.” Sure there are, DJM. Sure there are. [Blogging Stocks via Consumerist]

NSW Students To Get Free Netbooks Next Year

Nick Broughall — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:30:38 +0000

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]

Large, Goliath-Sized Apple Tells Small, David-Sized School to Stop Using Logo

Jack Loftus — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:30:00 +0000

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.

A letter from Apple lawyers said the VSBT logo, which depicts an apple and a mountain graphic from its sister company, northStudio.com, infringes on Apple’s rights. The letter also alleges the logo is “falsely suggesting that Apple has authorised your [computer-software operation courses].” Some of those courses are conducted on Mac hardware.

If this tiny Vancouver school does not comply with Apple’s request, legal proceedings could begin that would prohibit the school from using the logo. The VSBT could also be forced to repay legal costs and “damages.”

The VSBT, for its part, is conducting a survey about the issue on its homepage. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what the current survey results reveal.

Surprise! The school’s president and CEO, Dieter Gerhard, is vehemently denying any infringement, saying the logo differs from the Apple logo in several ways:

the acronym VSBT is part of the design.
the logo incorporates a mountain graphic from its sister company, northStudio.com
the school’s apple has three bumps on top while Apple’s design has two
the logo is multi-coloured while Apple’s is not

Seems pretty cut and dry to us. Why all the sour grapes at Apple? [Vancouver Sun]

Apple Sues School For Using The Same Fruit In a Logo

John Herrman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0000

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]

Steve Jobs High (In Mexico!)

John Herrman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:20:00 +0000

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.

Steve Jobs Technological High School Centre (Steve would NEVER have used that name!) is currently open, and apparently seeking applicants. Be mindful that there is a one in five chance that this is actually a horrible con, and that you’ll immediately be shunted into an underground sweatshop where you’ll sew exact replicas of out-of-production black turtle necks and Levi 501s. [Macenstein]

Autonomously Schooling Robofish Will Become Cylons of the Sea

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:30:00 +0000

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.

Morgansen designed the robofish to explore the deepest depths of the ocean, as well as seek out other locations where the environment is deadly to human beings. They’ll do this all without any intervention from people, other robots or even satellites. The group would perform just like an organic fish and form a school, with dominant personalities leading the way even if certain robofish received incomplete or garbled instructions.

“In schooling and herding animals, you can get much more efficient maneuvers and smoother behaviours than what we can do in engineering right now,” Morgansen said. “The idea of these experiments [with schools of live fish] is to ask, ‘How are they doing it?’ and see if we can come up with some ideas.”

Schooling also helps fight the effects of water on wireless communication. Optimal underwater data transfer rates are approximately 80 bytes, or about 32 numbers, per second, but the robofishes’ simple two-command memory structure (swimming in the same direction or swimming in different directions) mean tasks get done anyway. The robots use fins and a tail, instead of a propeller, because they’re more maneuverable and create lower drag. [University of Washington]

Dallas Truancy Court Tracks Lazy Kids Using GPS

Sean Fallon — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:40:25 +0000

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.

Since Pacheco started wearing the monitor on April 1st, he has had perfect attendance, and many other kids in the program have experienced similar results. Now, school systems across Texas are planning to expand the program and drastically increase the number of kids hooked up with the monitors next year. Yet another example of GPS scaring kids straight. [NYT]

Crossing Guards Become Big Brothers

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:45:00 +0000

If you wanted a sure sign that the Orwell-isation of Great Britain is underway, then look no further than this. Lollipop ladies, those kindly old women who man the main roads next to school, similar to the US crossing guard, have been issued with video cameras to record lollipop rage—as school-side road rage is known.

The cameras, which record traffic coming from both the front and the back, mounted on the lollipop lady’s cap, and attached to an Archos portable DVR, have been developed by a British firm, Routesafe. Several local authorities have invested in the technology to counter the increasingly aggressive behaviour on British roads.

“It’s unbelievable that we have to take this action,” says the chairman of the Local Government Association’s transport board, “but the lives of children are at risk from increasing numbers of drivers who are so selfish that they are willing to put lives at risk by refusing to stop for 30 seconds at a school crossing.” Miscreants will be fined the sterling equivalent of US$2,000 and be given three points on their licenses.

All of this raises the question: what is next for the CCTV state that Britain has become? I’m betting on Bathroom attendants with cameras to make sure you don’t abuse the soap or toilet paper, and school dinner ladies with serving-spoon cams that make sure that “ver kidz” are eating their greens. [Daily Mail]