This trend correlates with the increased use of online resources for education.  Long gone are the days of chalkboards and wooden desks; the internet is the new frontier of education. This means we need a new set of tools to work with and we’re seeing the development of those tools right before our eyes.  The Facebook field of educational opportunity is ripe and ready to harvest.  So dig in and take a look at our list of the the top educational Facebook apps.

Reading

• Books iRead
• Goodreads

Research

• JSTOR Research Tool
• DoResearch4me

Memorization

• Flashcards

Typing Speed

• Typing Speed

Vocabulary

• Wordscraper
• Dictionary.com “Word of the Day”
• Translations

Organization

• CourseFeed
• Courses 2.0

Classmate Connection

• The Greek Community

Note taking

• Notely
• Notecentric

Test Taking Skills

• IQ Test

Math Help

• Mathematical Formulas
• Hey Math

So the latest craze and development at Google and on the internet now is Google Wave. If you haven’t seen the Google Wave Developer Preview from Google I/O, you have to watch it. Google is going to change the face of the internet as we know it with Google Wave. Google Wave is going to be released open source for developers to add onto. I’m sure after you watch the Google Wave Preview you will hopefully have your mind blown and see as I see Google Wave.

One major issue that online education has is real time collaboration. Education institutions are communities to collaborate and learn from one another. People often times say the major weaknesses of online education is that you don’t learn some of the same team building skills and social skills that normal students do that get a traditional on campus degree. Depending on what career you are looking into and training for, that face to face collaboration may be important. Most collaboration now a days is either done through a digital medium or documented through some type of a digital medium. Google Wave is going to help make real time, online, cross platform collaboration a reality. It’s going to take the elements of many different applications that have been separate from one another and bring them together. It will allow the extending of other applications through the Google Wave interface.

Some of the Google Wave extensions or plugins I would like to see come together that I believe will help in the areas of education, support, and collaboration are:

• video communication
• audio communication
• screencasting
• project management
• scheduling
• time tracking

Google Wave will speed up communication and make communication more interactive, real, and more clear. I can’t wait to see how the internet evolves as Google Wave development becomes stable and releases. Be ready for the internet to change as we know it! Along with the change in the internet will come a major change in education and business.

Before we get to the list though we need to discuss the basic benefits of a web based education applications, and why students can benefit from a web based application.

Here are some of the basic benefits of Google web based applications in education:

1. All data is accessible with an internet connection.
2. Device independent. (Access from your phone, the computer lab, your laptop, your parent’s PC, etc.)
3. Files stored on Google’s servers. (I think Google know how to run servers, your files are probably pretty dang safe.)
4. Many web based application are shareable and collaborative. (Working as a group just got easier.)
5. Revisioning (Your edits are often times archived and revisions are created.)
6. One centralized Google Account to manage all web based applications. (The main reason we focused this article on Google.)

Now the list of categorized Google Web Applications:

Collaboration

• Docs
• Sites

Communication

• Blogger
• Gmail
• Groups
• Sites
• Talk

Geography

• Earth
• Maps

Financial

• Docs
• Finance

Health

• Health

Media

• Picasa
• SketchUp
• YouTube

Networking

• Groups
• Orkut

News

• Alerts
• News

Organization

• Calendar
• Docs

Programming

• Code
• Labs

Publishing/Sharing

• Blogger
• Docs
• Earth
• Gmail
• Groups
• Maps
• Orkut
• Picasa Web Albums
• Reader
• Sites
• YouTube

Reading

• Blogger
• Blog Search
• Book Search
• News
• Reader
• Search
• Translate

Research

• Alerts
• Blogger
• Blog Search
• Chrome
• Finance
• Knol
• News
• Patent Search
• Reader
• Scholar
• Search
• Translate

Shopping

• Alerts
• Google Checkout
• Product Search

Writing/Editing

• Docs

Your Input

How have you used Google in your schooling or everyday application? How has Google benefitted you? What do you wish Google had? What do you wish Google did better? Comment your feedback and let us know how you use Google.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of articles that have been dugg and that have been floating around some social communities out there. One example is “Education reform: Let’s start by burning all the textbooks”. This article discusses a focus on digital/electronic education and getting rid of textbooks. The great thing about digg is all the opinions that come to surface.

One argument seems to be the inability to provide all students with a laptop. There were a bunch of other arguments, but I thought I would run with that one, but focus on elementary school students. I decided to put together a list of laptops / notebooks / netbooks that I felt would work well for elementary schools students. Let’s face it, most teenagers now have a laptop or want their own so the biggest issue would be getting the elementary kids computers.

My Criteria

My criteria was pretty simple. I tried to find the following elements in a laptop:

1. Physical Size – something small and easy to haul around.
2. Screen Size – something small but something that had decent resolution.
3. Wireless Connection – netbooks that would connect to the internet via wireless.
4. Internet Browsing – netbooks that will browse the web.
5. Word Processing – netbooks that have word processing capabilities.
6. Affordable – netbooks that were reasonable in price, preferably under $500.

Note to gamers: These netbook computers and their specs may not fit your standards when it comes to a machine. These netbook computers were evaluated based on basic functionality and the minimum ability to run applications usually encountered in a learning environment.

Netbooks / Notebooks / Laptops For Elementary School Students

Acer Aspire One

$229 – $349
Link

Asus Eee PC

$249 – $599
Link

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

$279 – $479
Link

Gateway LT

$429
Link

HP Mini 1000

$279 – $599
Link

Lenovo IdeaPad

$349 – $399
Link

LG X

$400
Link

MSI Wind U100

$289 – $429
Link

One Laptop Per Child

$199 (working on $100)
Link

Samsung N110

$470
Link

Sony P

$899
Link

Conclusion

My conclusion is that there are a lot of options out there for elementary schools students for laptops. If you spread the cost of a netbook for a student from Kindergarten to 5th grade, the expense would be less than $100 a year per student. You could either let the students buy them or even rent them out to the students. They already do this with instruments in most music departments anyways. Think of this as an instrument that everyone needs. I even remember buying a calculator that was mandatory for my math class in 8th grade for $300. I can get a laptop for that now.

Two Cents

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