What is Google Wallet?

What's cool?

Google Wallet is the wallet for the 21^st century.   Incorporating all the ways we spend money today into one, easy to use application, this technology will grow fast and has much potential.  The Google Wallet application has the ability to store rewards cards, works as an online shopping account (similar to PayPal®), and syncs automatically with Google Offers. 

Rewards cards can quickly add up in a “normal” wallet depending on the person, and especially for the everyday mom.  Putting rewards all in one electronic location makes them much more manageable and accessible.  The online shopping account differs from PayPal® in that it pulls funds directly from your Google Wallet account, allowing all of your purchases, online and offline, to stay in one location—the palm of your hand.  Google Offers is a complimentary service that provides users with relevant discounts and coupons presented by merchants.  Rather than searching for coupons in magazines or missing in store deals by a few hours or days, you can relax with Google Offers, which shows you deals and coupons relevant to your proximity to stores.   If you take a vacation to Destin, Florida, you’ll be offered deals from stores in that location, only for the time of your stay.  Also, the application for Google Wallet locks with a PIN number, and Google argues that their wallet is safer than the leather one in the seat of our pants or purses.

Google Wallet incorporates every facet of the purchasing experience into one location, allowing us to stop multitasking. In Rewired, Larry Rosen maintains that the current thought today amongst psychologists is that multitasking is bad.  It slows down our task completion rate. Google wallet is a good example of a piece of technology that helps us cut back on our multitasking; because it cuts back on the need for so many different ways of processing purchases, shopping is now much simpler and free of multitasking.

-Louis Anzalone

What's not cool?

Even though Google Wallet seems like a great convenience, it is currently a very limited technology in the United States, and there are potential social implications impending widespread usage.

As it stands now (20 Mar 12), there are only twenty-three vendors that accept Google Wallet listed on the official website.  None of these vendors are Single-Tap Merchants either.  This means that the Google Offers features of the program are not accepted anywhere in our city.  In addition to having trouble finding places to use Google Wallet, it is only compatible with one phone on the American market—the Nexus S 4G by Sprint.  This is a relatively new phone on the market having been released less than a year ago.  Limiting this technology even further are the limited payment options. The only two types of accounts you can link to your Google account are Citi MasterCard and pre-paid accounts held by Google. I think that these limitations combined really diminish the effect that Google Wallet can have in its current stage.  Google is making efforts to work around all of these issues already, so they are only temporary and not the main focus of the negative argument.

It is much more important to consider how Google Wallet will impact our daily life if it is widely implemented.  The concept of numbers is a very important step in human development. Wolf speaks of it briefly when talking how it is related to learning to read in Proust and the Squid. It is required for abstract thought about math.  Without a firm grap of this concept, everything from counting to using equations becomes almost impossible.  Children grasp the concept of numbers through hands on interaction with counting.  If you can count objects in one group and add them to the count of another group, you can perform addition. If you can see and count ten objects, you can imagine ten groups of ten objects each or multiplication. Google Wallet removes the need for counting physical money.  If children would start using this technology before they have a firm grasp on the concept of number, it could greatly impair their mental math skills. The other main concern with the app is that this app will increase a "have verses have-not" trend seen in society today.  Can you imagine the last time you had to wait behind someone writing a check? It seemed like it took an eternity because we have become so used to quick, electronic transactions. The swiftness of electronic transactions has prompted many retailers to stop accepting checks completely. This technology has the potential to replace debit cards. There are many reasons why Near Field Communications readers will be preferred over credit card swipes. There are no moving parts and no chance of getting an inaccurate read, for instance.  Because NFC will only be available on smart phones, there is a great portion of the population who will not be able to use this technology.  What would happen if vendors started only accepting NFC devices? 


-Andrew Griffin

Gamification- Cool and Not So Cool

This link is for a gamification introduction video that we did not make:Introduction to Gamification

This is our presentation on what's cool and not so cool about gamification:
Gamification! Cool or Not So Cool?

Overall, there are positive aspects of gamification, but the negative side effects shouldn't be brought into education. If someone can figure out how to implement the positive aspect of gamification by making learning fun and engaging with actually learning and maintaining the information, then there will be room to bring more gamification concepts to the classroom.

Rock Prodigy Pros

     Rock Prodigy is an app that plays like a game, but uses a real guitar and teaches real songs and skills.  It teaches you these songs and skills by allowing you to play along with notes displayed on the screen, like a real-life Guitar Hero.  You simply play along with the 'game' on your real guitar, and in doing so learn guitar techniques and songs.  Rock Prodigy, however, is not a game; it's an instructional tool.  Rock Prodigy's purpose is to teach you how to play the guitar in a fun way.  It is intended to provide some relief to the burden of practicing, making learning the guitar easier, faster, and more fun.
    
     One large benefit of Rock Prodigy is its mobility.  It works with any recent iOS device, and requires no plug-ins.  Also, you can use any guitar, electric or acoustic.  And so, you can use Rock Prodigy anywhere that you can bring your iOS device and guitar.  It's very portable.

     More importantly, however, it works with any level of experience.  If you are picking up a guitar for the first time, or if you already know how to play well, it has lessons and songs adapted for your level of experience.  It teaches you the basics, such as how to hold and tune a guitar, and then increasingly advanced lessons, such as scales and difficult songs.  This leads into the main function of Rock Prodigy:  it is an instructional tool designed to assist the learning and practicing of any guitar player.  It is not intended to replace any traditional methods of learning or practicing.  Rock Prodigy, as a supplementary tool, can help any guitar player learn and perfect songs and techniques.  Learning how to play a song requires repetitive practice.  Why not practice in a way that is fun?

     In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr claims that our brains change and develop based on our behaviors and experiences.  I think it's possible that, after practicing the guitar with Rock Prodigy for some time, guitar players could come to develop positive, fun associations with guitar practice.  Do not be deceived; no app can make learning and practicing an instrument easy.  It requires hard work and consistent practice.  However, if Rock Prodigy can make learning the guitar a little easier, faster, and more fun, then that is a worthy accomplishment.

Edmodo

About Edmodo:
Edmodo is a social learning network for students, teachers, and parents. A teacher creates a group for each class and distributes the group code to each student. Once connected, students can write posts to classmates, teachers, and parents and upload media as well as view grades, submit assignments, and receive teacher feedback, features sites such as BlackBoard and Moodle utilize. The Edmodo community combines the efforts of students, parents, teachers, and school districts to help education appeal to students’ ever-increasing technological tastes. Edmodo is an addition to the classroom that will promote learning all hours of the day.
Edmodo.com

Positives:




Negatives:




Prezi Presentation: 

Edmodo on Prezi

The SMART Board (Pros)

The SMART board has begun to find its way into classrooms across the country, especially as the growth of technology heightens. The SMART board is essentially a modern day projector that connects itself with a computer inside of the classroom. Whatever is projected on the computer’s screen is also projected on to the SMART board; however, with this board, the teacher is able to do much more. This board is touch screen and can be operated by one’s finger or the pen provided with the board. Therefore, a teacher can open a presentation created on the computer, make notes on top, record the presentation, and then email the notes to the class. This could potentially allow students to focus more on class involvement than writing the notes down since the teacher can send them out to the class. The SMART board provides amazing opportunities educationally. First, the board provides interactive learning. Children in the classroom are able to work on this board while the rest of the class is engaged. Essentially, the board is the modern dry-erase or chalkboard. Secondly, this board uses multimedia to adapt to all learning styles. Sound bytes, pictures, videos, lectures, and text are all available for use on this board. Third, this board only requires one computer that operates with Windows software, so educators do not have to spend too much money on computers for the entire class. All that is needed is a simple PC. In order to be adaptable in our education, schools will begin to implement technology into the classrooms in big or small ways, and this board is a great way to do so.

In The Proust and the Squid, Wolf expresses her concerns about the implications associated with the rapid growth technology. She questions that the rapidity associated with technological growth may cause humans to find less satisfaction in reading long text and may have attention issues. Oppositely, she proposes the ideas that because of technology’s fast-paced style, humans may be able to complete tasks more quickly and, in turn, spend more time on in-depth thought. Secondly, people may become better at multi-tasking (Wolf 214). The educational opportunities provided by the SMART board both appease Wolf’s worries as well as support her positive implications. Because the SMART board is used for educational purposes, it’s a great way to bridge the gap between a non-technological world and an entirely technological one. As we move forward, classrooms will have to adapt to at least some form of technology, as it is relevant to today’s real world. However, this board still allows children to learn proper reading skills as well as learn to use technology to complement their learning styles. If used properly, this device can only support children’s learning needs.

Cell Phones

As time has moved on, and technology has progressed, our ability to communicate across the world has opened new doors, and removed long-existing land barriers. Ecomonmies changed forever, and loved ones could live further away without losing contact with one another. No invention has better served this purpose than the telephone.
The telephone has it's issues, but many of which were later solved with the introduction of the cell phone. It was suddenly possible to live at all times without ever being unreachable. You could be anywhere in the world and connect with anyone else, at any given time.
Today, in the U.S alone, 278.9 million people subscribe to a cell phone service. By comparison, there are 309 million people alive in the U.S according the 2000 census data.
Now that cell phone have become so unanimous, their implications have become more and more wide-spread. Check out our Prezi for the details:

Cellphones and their effects on human development. on Prezi

There are several ways this influences out lives and well-beings. For one thing, the World Health Organization now believes that there may be a link to cell phones and brain cancer. (Though their research may be flawed...)

Not to mention, I would personally trade a slightly increased risk of brain cancer for constantly available 911 access.

Something else to think about, a person's cell phone is always in reach. It has become impossible to escape our friends, family, or the entire world. With the internet connectivity they offer, Google, Facebook, MySpace (if you still use that, get with the times), eBay, and every other notable web service sit right in your pocket, just waiting for the urge to hit you to browse, surf, and communicate.

The cellphone brings lots of positives and negative to the table, but let's be honest, even if they shorten our live expectancies, cell phones aren't going anywhere.

What the Internet has done to our brains. A comic.

Just something I thought you guys might enjoy! Seemed at least a little relevant to the class.