Electronics and Education

Electronics and education, not a mix that is typical some students might say. Most of the time, the closest experience of both is when their teacher tells students to put their cell phones away.  Many schools have invested in updated computer labs, but this isn't enough. School Districts should continue to invest in mobile labs and computers, but teachers should also include the use of computers in their plans.

There are many online websites and tools that are available to teachers for little to no cost. Kahoot is a website that allows teachers to design a quiz, and give it to the students in class. Students can connect to the quiz with a phone, tablet, or computer to answer the quiz that is displayed on the teachers Smartboard or projector.

• Kahoot's Website

Quizlet is a website that allows teacher to create a classroom and have online flashcards for students to study from. I’ve found it very helpful while learning another language.  Instead of making flashcards while many foreign language teachers make their students do, students can spend more time studying words and terms. Quizlet also offers other study techniques instead of just digital flashcards, that try to reinforce what you know, and single off exactly what you’re not confident on. They created an app that allows you to take quizlet with you on the go. There are also some fun little games that you can play with your terms and definitions.

• Quizlet's Website

These are just two websites out of many that are available for free.  There are so many other websites, and there are even videos from Khan Academy and many YouTube creators that teach or help students study a subject. There are just so many resources that can be used in class to supplement learning that teachers and students don’t use to their advantage.  Teachers should implement time into their lessons to show and use these tools. Students should also take advantage of the growing number of computers that school districts are offering.

• Khan Academy
• Crash Course

The Internet is More Important Than You May Think

Today we take the Internet for granted. It's something we assume that every household should have. The Internet has become something most people, including myself, could not imagine living with out.  In essence, the Internet is a tool that allows anyone who's connected contact another person. We use this for playing games, working on a collaborative project, or simply browsing social media. Now these days, a lot of people try to get the fastest speeds they can when they move into a house, but before the internet, the fastest form of communication we had was the phone. But if you wanted to physically show something to someone, you had to either mail a photo or letter to them, or meet them in person.  If someone was across the world, mail could take weeks, and meeting them would take a lot of money, and a lot of time out of your life.  Now, scientists are able to comment on colleges' work who may be from another country. Coders are able to work together to create a functioning script. This relatively instant communication is what makes the Internet so powerful and important.

In the last 10 years, we have developed a way to access to the Internet from wherever we are with smartphones and cell towers. From massive computers physically connected to servers to a handheld device with almost not limit to the area it can access the Internet, we've came a long way, but what do the future hold for the Internet?  With many smaller, wearable devices being developed, such as smartwatches or Google Glass, access to the internet could become even more convenient.  Cars might even be connected to the web, constantly talking to each other, calculating the fastest route to a destination, and avoiding other vehicles.  Education might also take a path into the internet. Many sites now offer help with the use of videos or a written explanation to teach eager learners about math, science, and more. Online schools might become cheaper instead of a physical school. There might be a teacher who teaches an online class with a hundred students watching, or possibly you might just watch a recorded video of the day's class, and have the ability to ask teachers if you don't understand or need help.

Overall, the Internet is a tool most people never take a second to think about. Since the day it was created, the Internet has been an extremely helpful tool that has helped the world develop. It has effected culture, allowing borders to not stop anyone from communicated.

Why We Should Not Be Afraid of Drones

Ever heard of drones? Chances are that you have. According to Dictionary.com, a drone is a unmanned aircraft that is either guided by a human operator, or can navigate autonomously.  What kind of drone first comes to mind?  Does a recreational drone come to mind, or does a military drone carrying a payload come to mind?  A lot of people when they hear drones associate them as something that bad and deadly. This is possibly caused by the media giving drones a bad reputation after the military successfully takes out a target with a drone. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), as the military calls their drones, are a useful tool not only for relatively risk free strikes, but also for scouting.  Instead of sending in a unit to scout out a location, the military can fly a drone over the location.  Yes they’re often used to destroy a target, but it is often a much safer solution instead of sending in a squad to take out the target.

The word Drone is a very broad word.  A more correct definition of drone would be any unmanned vehicle. The word has somewhat evolved though to mean any unmanned flying vehicles. Many people refer to quadcopters as drones, as it fits the description. Many civilians enjoy driving or flying drones recreationally. There are also competitions held for racing quadcopters, which has pushed the development for longer lasting batteries, more powerful motors, lighters and cheaper materials, and design of quadcopters.

Drones are not just military weapons, or recreational toys, they’re also very useful and practical tools.  A few years back, the company Amazon announced their plan to ship their products that were under 5 pounds, by drones.  An idea back then that sounded impossible, but really could become the future of shiping.  Imagine having your package ship into your town. Instead of waiting for the delivery truck to go through it’s route, through traffic, till it gets to your house.  With a drone, it could fly straight to your house, avoiding all traffic, and drop off your package.

One example of current day use of drones is for search and rescue. During natural disasters, cities can be turned into as pile of rubble, trapping people, and making it hard to traverse and rescue these people.  Often helicopters were used to fly over the ruins looking for any signs of life. This was commonly a problem though, because it often took a few day, depending on the location, for helicopters to fly in to assist in the search. Now, drones equipped with heat sensing cameras are flown above the ruins like helicopters to search for trapped people. Though not a complete replacement for helicopters, it’s another tool that is a lot cheaper.

To summarize, drones are not just a deadly weapon that could be a threat to us.  They are used strategically by the military instead of risking soldiers’ lives, are also used recreationally and flown for fun or for sport, and used as a tool for saving people’s lives.

A Simple Clock

Last weekend, a kid decided to build a clock. This was just a simple digital clock, but the kid wanted to bring it to school to impress his teachers.  When he showed the clock to some of his teachers, instead of being congratulated on his hard work, he was slapped into cuffs. The teachers apparently thought that this board was a bomb, and took it away and sent the kid down to the office, where police came and arrested him.  Why such an extreme reaction from the teachers? Even if they thought at first it may have been a bomb, with a quick examination, it would be clear to tell there was no explosive material or any other components of a bomb, it was simply a digital clock. This kid's name is Ahmed Mohamed, and he might of been racially accused.

Racial comments aside, what I'm more dumbfound over was the fact that at the end of all this Ahmed was punished with a 3 day suspension.  If this situation was truly a bomb hoax threat, 3 days of suspension seems like an extremely light punishment.  We know though it was not a bomb hoax, and Ahmed simply created a digital clock that he wanted to impress his teachers with, so why was he punished? If you're not allowed to bring a digital clock into school, then why are we allowed to bring a digital watch? It's the same concept, just in a smaller package. If they're concerned with it being used as a bomb trigger, then why can we bring cell phones into school? Cell phones could, and are typically used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as a trigger.  Besides how convenient it is to use a cellphone as a trigger, it doesn't neglect the fact that most people are carrying a potential make-shift bomb in their pockets. The lithium ion batteries in most smartphones, if overheated or overcharged, have the potential to explode. Now some manufactures have recently been producing batteries with built in safeguards to prevent a potential catastrophic detonation, but not every battery is the same, and there is a potential for defective batteries.

To recap, their actions out of thinking it was a potential bomb threat, or hoax, might of been justified if some peoples eyes, but the action afterwards, continuing punishment after it was just identified as a clock, and giving Ahmed a 3 day suspension because he brought a digital clock to school is unjustified. If they were truly scared of the clocks potential to be used for a bomb, many items carried around by most students, such as cellphones, would have to be banned.

Links:

• http://www.livescience.com/50643-watch-lithium-battery-explode.html
• http://www.officer.com/article/10250461/cell-phone-bombs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMy2_qNO2Y0

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Popularity of Tablets

Tablets started to gain popularity ever since the original iPad was released in 2010, and became a common household item today.  But look back to a year ago. Tablet sales hit an all time low. There was still growth, but no where near where it was previously. What happened?  Why the harsh change?  If we look to smartphone sales in 2014, you might expect the same trend, that the growth would also start to slow down. Possibly the demand had just gone down for consumer electronics.  Even though Samsung's sales went down, Apple and other companies did grow.  So what is happening to tablets?

If we take a look at the tablet market, Apple held, and still hold the number one position in the sale of tablets, but sales dropped about 12% in 2014.  Why is the iPad, the most popular tablet, not selling as well now? If we take a look at the first iPad, released in 2010, the starting price of a 32GB iPad Gen 1 was $599, but the iPad Air 2 64GB was only $500. Price apparently hasn't played a part in less sales, as iPads are getting cheapers. An idea behind this drop might be people simply don't need a new iPad.  With a new iPad being announced basicly yearly, people are still just find with their tablet, or don't want to spend so much after just buying a tablet a year ago. Some people might be willing to upgrade their smartphones on a yearly basis, or their plan will upgrade them, it isn't the case for tablets.  Though the prices may be slowly dropping, $500 is still a large figure, and most tablets don't come on a contract. Tablets usually have a useful life of 2-5 years, while a smartphone has a typical useful life of 1-4 years.

Apple tablet sales could drop even more due to the target group. Previous Apple tablets have appealed to mostly everyone, but that possibly might not be the case in the future. With Apple's newly announced iPad Pro, many have speculated that it's large size and expensive price tag will deter the common consumer electronic users.  The new iPad Pro is 12.9 inches, compared to the iPad Air 2 size of 9.7.  Not everyone wants or are able to lug around a larger tablet.  Also, the official Apple keyboard case that will be released for the iPad Pro will costs $169, and their official stylist, the Apple Pencil, will cost $99. With a 32GB iPad Pro costing $799, the full line of Apple accessories and iPad Pro will cost you around $1070. With that kind of money you would be better off just buying a computer and saving some.  The iPad Pro just doesn't sell to everyone like their previous tablets have.



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The New iPhone6S

On September 9th, 2015, the company Apple held a conference about their soon to be released products. One device announced was the new iPhone6S. They showed off the new phone and some of its new features.

iPhone6S

Apple's new phone, available for purchase September 25, is a solid upgrade from the iPhone6.  You'll have the option of buying a regular 6S or a 6S+. The iPhone6S+ comes with a bigger screen and battery.  

One big thing Apple boasts about the iPhone6S, is 3D-Touch. 3D-Touch, also known as Force Touch, gives the iPhone the ability to sense how much pressure you apply to the phone's screen. iOS9 has been designed to make the most out of it. Pressing hard on any of the built-in applications will bring up some quick actions that you can do with that app. Say you want to take a quick selfie, just press hard on the camera app from your homescreen, and then swipe to take selfie. The app will open with the back facing camera up and ready to capture yourself.  

Speaking of the camera, Apple added a new 12 megapixel camera to the new iPhone6S, allowing for a better image quality, recording 4k videos, and faster focusing. They also added a new feature called Live Photos. Live Photos records a few seconds before you take a photo, and a few seconds after to create a little video, or gif, to bring the photo to life. Pressing harder on a photo in your gallery will allow you to view the Live Photo.  The back facing camera wasn't forgotten, and now has a 5 megapixel camera, providing a crisper image for video calls, or for just taking a selfie. 

The iPhone6S also sports the new 64-bit A9 Processor and 2 gigabytes of RAM, which will provide better graphic and CPU performance. Apple for a long time has only had 1 gigabyte of RAM in their, iPhones. With double the amount of RAM, the new iPhone will have a lot of resources for app developers to take advantage on. The rest of the hardware in the iPhone6s is similar to the previous iPhone6.

Opinion

The iPhone6S looks to be a solid follow-up to the iPhone6. Following the path since 2008 with the iPhone3GS, the S models have typically been a solid upgrade to the speed of the phone, and this would be the case for the 6S. With the A9 processor and RAM upgrade, the 6S should preform a lot better, but with more processing power could mean less battery life. 

3D-Touch is an amazing feature for the 6S in iOS 9, but Android has had this capability since Android 2.0 Eclair. Though, having the capability doesn't mean it was used, most Android phones have not taken advantage of it. 

Live Photos is a cool feature, but raises a concern with storage. With the base model being 16GB, and not having expandable storage, it will eat space a lot faster than a regular photo, meaning if you want to take advantage of this feature, you'll want to buy the 64GB or 128GB model.

Overall, decent improvement from the previous iPhone6, but would be an expensive upgrade if you just recently bought the iPhone6.

Links

• Apple iPhone6S Page
• phoneArena iPhone Specs
• Apple Keynote 2015
• 2GB of RAM
• MKBHD iPhone6S

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