Imagine Cup 2010 Update

Congratulations to Teams Educ8 and Xormis for advancing to Round 2 in the Next Gen Web Award of the Imagine Cup 2010

Imagine Cup 2010 update

Congratulations to Team Xormis for advancing to Round 2 in the Internet Explorer 8 Award of the Imagine Cup 2010

Symbian^3

Track Down Your Stolen Laptop

Prey is a lightweight application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free.

Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief.

Prey uses a remote activation system which means the program sits silently in your computer until you actually want it to run. If so, it gathers all the information and sends it to your Prey web control panel or directly to your mailbox. The thief will never know his movements are being watched.


Prey Features

Wifi autoconnect: Prey checks if there’s an active internet connection to send the information. If not, it will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available. This gives you a better chance to locate the device.

Lightweight: Yes, this is a feature. Prey is written in bash which means it has virtually no dependencies, only what its different modules need to work. This also means Prey is portable and should run in just about any computer.

Modular architecture: You can add, remove and configure the different parts of Prey as you wish. Prey is composed by modules, each one performing a specific task, so you can have it as you like.

Powerful report system: Get the list of current running programs, the recently modified files, active connections, running uptime, take a screenshot of the running desktop or even a picture of the guy who’s using the computer.

Messaging/alert system: You can alert the user he’s being chased at by sending messages which will appear on screen. You can also trigger alarms to make the message clear not only to him but also to whomever is nearby. Be careful with this one!

For more information and to download Prey visit: http://preyproject.com/

Imagine Cup MCA Regional Finalists announced

The finalist teams for the Microsoft Imagine Cup Multi-Country Americas Regional finals have been announced today Monday January 11, 2010. The finalist teams represent Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

Below is the list of teams that will participate in the regional finals:

Jamaica

• Project Xormis - Northern Caribbean University
• Project eSCAPE - Northern Caribbean University
• Project A.L.E.R.T. - Northern Caribbean University

Guatemala

• Uniendo pacientes y médicos a través de una herramienta tecnológica – Universidad Galileo
• VIVIENDO LA MATERNIDAD CON TECNOLOGIA - UNIVERSIDAD MARIANO GALVEZ DE GUATEMALA
• Control de la Prenatalidad - Universidad Rafael Landívar & Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala
• ReStudy: Estudiar es para todos - Universidad Rafael Landívar

República Dominicana

• Learning Touches - Instituto Especializado de Educación Superior Loyola
• Software Enviroment Clean Out - Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo y Universidad APEC

El Salvador

• HELPLA.NET - Universidad de El Salvador
• Tutor Virtual de Matemáticas para Educación Primaria - Universidad de El Salvador

The winner of this regional competition will go on to represent the region at the world final in Warsaw, Poland.

Keep Your Crises Small

Ironing out the little problems can make it so companies can avoid big disasters. Recorded: January 31, 2007.

Purdue University Adds Twitter and Facebook to Class Participation

by Barb Dybwad

Students at Purdue University are experimenting with a new application developed at the school called Hotseat that integrates Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging to help students “backchannel” during class.

People who have attended technology conferences in the past several years are already familiar with this phenomenon, where social media is leveraged to allow the participants in a session or panel to comment and exchange questions and ideas in real-time. At Purdue, Hotseat is used to allow students to comment on the class as it proceeds, with everyone in the class including the professor able to see the messaging as it happens.

The Hotseat software allows students to use either Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (MySpace), or SMS to post messages during classes, or they can simply log in to the web site to post to and view the ongoing backchannel. Right now it’s only being pilot tested in two courses, but has already become a fast favorite for both teachers and students. Professor Sugato Chakravarty, whose personal finance course is one of the pilot tests, said, “I’m seeing students interact more with the course and ask relevant questions.”

And although it’s been optional for students to participate, so far 73% of the 600 or so in the pilot classes have used the software. We’ve seen Twitter become mandatory for journalism students at Australia (Australia)’s Griffith University to some negative reaction, but this is a less structured implementation which may perhaps account for its more favorable reception.

As Chakravarty goes on to note, though, the application is called “Hotseat” for a reason — and professors will have to be resilient enough to take any potential criticism or even corrections from students in real-time. Nevertheless, he cites it as a “valuable tool for enhancing learning. The students are engaged in the discussions and, for the most part, they are asking relevant questions.”

Check out a video introduction to the Hotseat application below, and let us know what you think. Does social media have a natural place in the classroom? What role should Facebook (Facebook) and Twitter (Twitter) play in education?