eSchool News posted a very interesting article last week that charts some major developments in the rapidly evolving text-to-speech and speech translation software industry. The article suggests that “new technologies that enable cell phones to translate speech on the fly and read documents for the visually impaired could have important implications for both educators and students.”

eSchool’s report highlights both NEC Corp.’s not so recent announcement concerning the development of an automatic Japanese-to-English speech translation tool for mobile devices and the National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) very recent announcement of the first cell phone to incorporate text-to-speech capability.

The NEC Corp.’s speech-translation smart phone, which transcribes spoken Japanese into text and then converts that text into English, is intended for Japanese travelers abroad. However, versions for other languages could one day prove useful for educators and administrators in schools with large populations of English-language learners.

Likewise, the $2,100 NFB smart phone can scan text, read it aloud and even translate from other languages. James Gashel, vice president of business development for K-NFB Reading Technology Inc., asserts, ““It is the next step, but this is a huge leap. I’m talking to you on the device I also use to read things. I can put it in my pocket and at the touch of a button, in 20 seconds, [I can] be reading something I need to read in print.”

NFB software developer Ray Kurweil suggests that those with vision problems are not the only ones expected to benefit from the technology. Dyslexics, for example, are expected to be among the users of the current device because of its ability to highlight each word as it’s read aloud, helping them cope with their disability, which affects the ability to read.

It is extremely exciting to note that in the near future students with reading disabilities or language barriers could be holding highly portable solutions to these challenges in the palms of their hands.

For more be sure to check out eSchool’s full article.

Although its veracity (or “truthiness”) and, thus, the degree of its educational merits are frequently contested in academic circles, Wikipedia is an undeniably valuable first-stop reference library for exigent informational inquires—the sorts of inquires that, coincidently, seem to present themselves most often in classroom teaching and learning situations before expectant audiences.

Fortunately for students and teachers whose encyclopedic recall abilities occasionally malfunction, Patrick Collinson has provided instructions for putting the entire English version of Wikipedia (minus extraneous links and pictures) onto your iPhone or iPod touch, so that you will never again be subject to the sluggish EDGE connection when you’re desperate for the names of the nine Muses or that elusive quadratic equation.

If you have 2.2GB of storage free on your device, check out Collinson’s instructions to place a Wikipedian wealth of knowledge in your pocket.

Navizon, a new unofficial third-party application for your iPhone software/firmware 1.1.3, offers a location feature called “moving mode” that updates your location every 10 seconds—making your device even more like an actual GPS unit. Like 1.1.3’s current Google Maps feature, Navizon uses cell tower and WiFi triangulation to estimate user location. In addition, Navizon overlays a navigation bar on top of the Google Maps interface, allowing you to start or stop location tracking, access settings and more.

With Navizon 2.0, users can run the program in the background while performing other iPhone operations. In conjunction with the “buddy finder” feature, the background capability allows other users to track your location at all times if desired. Another interesting Navizon feature is “Alerts,” which allows you to define a circled area on the Navizon Web site. When you or another “buddy” enters that area, an email alert can be sent to any address.

Needless to say, this could be a pretty handy feature on college campuses—increasing connectivity among students, faculty and staff by providing additional opportunities to conflate virtual and physical interactions.

Our friends at iPhone Atlas have provided some handy installation instructions:

“In order to install Navizon, use our instructions for adding third-party applications to the iPhone, then navigate to the Network category in Installer and select Navizon. You may need to add the following repository: http://repo.navizon.com in your Installer sources. Within Installer, tap ‘Sources’ then ‘Edit’ and add the aforementioned URL. A Navizon official told iPhone Atlas ‘If you go in All Packages, you should see 2 versions of Navizon: the new one is version 2.0.0.’”

Click here to see a video demonstration of the new release.

New Line Learning, a conglomeration of three secondary schools in South Maidstone, has recently adopted an innovative interactive “Anytime Anywhere Learning” strategy. The initiative equips all 7th and 8th year students with their own personal, mobile computing device, the Samsung Q1, on which to perform all class and homework. The device also enables students to retain reference materials in a near paperless educational environment with anytime communications to teachers and each other by email. New Line Learning Academy reports that they are already seeing improved learning patterns, results and better relationships between students and staff.

To avoid any additional management overhead for the schools’ IT staffs in the deployment of over 1500 Q1 devices by summer 2008, New Line Learning has partnered with education IT specialist, Lanway CBS Ltd., to provide a complete turnkey solution. Lanway’s service “encompasses the provision and management of the Q1 devices with all the software loading and support required, maintenance and repair, and a 3 year warranty and insurance package including accidental damage and loss to ensure that pupils are never without their personal device.”

For more on the “Anytime Anywhere Learning” project, check out New Line Learning’s promotional video.

iTWire reported today that Microsoft is currently in discussion with Nokia about plans to have the handset maker add Windows Mobile-powered devices to its portfolio. According to Microsoft’s mobile communications business international marketing director John Starkweather, Redmond is in talks with the folks from Finland about getting Windows Mobile onto Nokia handsets. “They obviously have significant investments in Symbian but there are a lot of places where we have significant synergies and we would love to see the day where those synergies would extend completely with Windows Mobile,” said Starkweather, though he couldn’t say when or if any agreement will be met.

While Nokia phones don’t yet have a Windows OS, they do use a range of other Microsoft software. This includes ActiveSynch for connecting to Exchange Servers and the PlayReady DRM technology used to protect purchased music and video content. If Nokia did decide to completely adopt the full Windows Mobile operating system, their devices might be particularly appealing to universities looking to implement converged mobile devices on already Windows OS-centric campuses.

Brad Stone posted an interesting article on the New York Times Bits technology blog last week about Amazon’s recent purchase of, Audible, the Web’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks. Though Amazon isn’t saying much about what it will do with the company, Stone suggests that bringing audiobooks directly to its Web site and to the Kindle is the obvious first step.

Stone goes on to speculate about the future of Amazon’s recent endeavor, imagining a service that allows you to “seamlessly switch from reading a book on your digital device to listening to the same book read aloud as you get in the car, or if your eyes are tired, or if you simply want to hear a crucial scene acted out? And then to switch back to the printed page?”

With its nascent MP3 store, Amazon has shown an eagerness to get traditional media companies to relax copyright restrictions. Consequently, Stone asks, “How about audiobooks that you can easily transfer between your computer, e-book reader and cell phone? Or e-book downloads that come packaged with a discounted audio track? Audible’s new owner could now make all that possible, with a little cooperation from brave publishers.”

Of course, any of this experimentation would certainly invigorate the slowly growing $923-million-a-year audiobook industry. But Stone suggests that the real opportunity is bringing some excitement and flexibility into the hardback-bound world of book publishing—getting people reading again, even if their eyes never land on the printed page. As we have suggested in past posts, interactivity and the provision multiple mediums might be the most exciting potential features of ebook readers for Higher Education. As we slip further into the world of secondary orality, students and teachers have the opportunity to interact with texts in ways that we have yet to imagine.

For more be sure to check out Stone’s full post.

Last week Gartner released a report delineating 10 key predictions of events and developments that will affect IT and business (and, consequently, Higher Education) in 2008 and beyond. Introducing these predictions, Daryl Plummer—managing vice president and Gartner Fellow—writes, “the trends and topics [addressed] this year indicate a strong focus on individuals, the environment, and alternative ways of buying and selling IT services and technologies.”

These predictions, selected from more than 100 predictions that Gartner presents and reviews every year, focus on general technology areas rather than on specific industries or roles. Here are some of this year’s most interesting predictions (These are especially enjoyable if you read them with Conan O’Brian’s “In the Year 2000” skit in mind):

By 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in computers. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices.

By 2012, 50 per cent of traveling workers will leave their notebooks at home in favour of other devices. New classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level and server and Web-based applications that can be accessed from anywhere will be ubiquitous.

By 2012, 80 per cent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported and provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment.

By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service.

By 2011, suppliers to large global enterprises will need to prove their green credentials via an audited process to retain preferred supplier status.

By 2010, end-user preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and services acquisitions made by IT.

Click here for an extensive report of Gartner’s predictions.

Last night, as the Giants were pulling off one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history, graduate students from Northwestern University were using a new technology via various devices and locations on the web, including the iPhone, to poll thousands of fans’ responses to advertisements.

Following each quarter, the students’ website compiled feedback from users concerning the success of individual ads: how much people liked them, and whether or not they would influence future purchasing decisions. Fans participated in the polling through several means; including, Facebook (via the PickMe application launched earlier this year), the iPhone and other Internet enabled mobile devices, as well as the students’ website.

The technology used to accomplish this collective effort, MIMIEO, is a social networking platform created by several Northwestern graduate students in the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program. MIMIEO provides open and real-time access to consumer polls.

For more, check out iPhone Alley’s recent post.

Our friends at iPhone Atlas recently posted an interesting article about the iPhone’s 802.1x hole, which prevents the device from connecting to wireless networks offered by a number of universities and corporations.

802.1x is utilized to secure wireless networks and restrict access, and because the iPhone does not have the capability to act as an 802.1x supplicant, it cannot join networks that make use of the protocol. Consequently, college students are often unable to make use of their schools’ WiFi networks.

iPhone Atlas reports that an online petition for Apple to implement support for the standard currently has over 1090 signatures, most coming from universities in the United States and UK. Comments from the petition include:
• “Many college students need this!”
• “Please update the ipod touch to be 802.1x compatible, it really inconvenience many people who were looking forward to using the WiFi on campuses”
• “For me the iPhone/iPod Touch are useless without it.”
• “This feature should have been standard from the word go”
• “This seemingly small feature is a huge factor in usability that could easily be solved via a software update.”

Apple has supported 802.1x in the desktop versions of Mac OS X since Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther).

Here are a couple of interesting calls for entries/papers. The first, and most recently announced, is Campus Technology’s Innovators recognition. CT is seeking “exemplary colleges and universities, their visionary technology project leadership, and their innovative vendor partners who have deployed extraordinary campus technology solutions to campus challenges.” CT’s 2008 Innovators will be featured in the August issue and recognized at the Campus Technology 2008 conference in Boston, MA, July 28-31, 2008.

Click here to nominate your institution, technology project leader(s), and vendor partner(s) by March 14!

The second is a call for papers from Northern Arizona University for an upcoming special issue of Educational Media International entitled, “Learning in Social Networking Technology.” “Manuscripts that address sound research-based, empirical, and/or data-driven studies in social networking technologies are invited. Manuscripts that focus on research examining theoretical framework for social networking technology are strongly encouraged. Social networking technology refers to blog, wiki, social tagging, social annotations, social bookmarking, and others.”

An expert panel of reviewers will review all manuscripts. The review criteria are:

• Importance of the subject
• Originality of the approach
• Soundness of research & scholarship
• Level of interest & pertinence for readers
• Depth and strength of argument
• Clarity of expression

Submit manuscript: May 20, 2008, Tuesday

Important dates for Northern Arizona’s call include:
* Submit manuscript: May 20, 2008
* Acceptance Notification: June 15, 2008
* Final revised paper due: August 20, 2008

Questions and/or submissions should be sent to the NMC Technology Advisory Board (TAB) at NMCTAB@Princeton.EDU