The ‘smart’ in smart meters

• Who is this post for? Anyone responsible for their home energy choices
• What does it discuss? The government’s aim to install 53m smart meters in UK homes by 2020
• How does it benefit you? Be more energy efficient and save money

Proponents of smart meters believe they will save people money, promote more competition, more innovation, and change the way the global energy industry works. The UK government has told energy suppliers that they must offer to replace the old analogue gas and electricity meters in homes and small businesses with digital ‘smart’ meters with a target of installing 53 million by 2020.

To read more about the benefits and why the real ‘smart’ is actually you, take a look at this handy overview. Seems like a no-brainer to us – have you taken part in this voluntary scheme yet? If you have, have you noticed any tangible benefits?

 

Are tablets reducing your kids’ digital skills?

• Who is this post for? Parents and teachers
• What does it discuss? A report coming from Australia that suggests increasing use of mobile devices is lessening children’s digital skills
• How does it benefit you? Fresh perspective, focus

A new report by Australia’s National Assessment Programme, an Australian educational body, looks at technology literacy among two groups of children – one just leaving primary school and another in its fourth year of secondary school. More than 10,500 students took part. It compared digital literacy scores from 2011 with those from a survey carried out in late 2014, finding that the number of children meeting basic ICT literacy standards in these age groups had dropped significantly.

The report’s reasoning was that tablets and smartphones were making children competent at using many forms of online communication at the expense of those other skills emphasised by the curriculum, skills considered important for employability.  Our favourite quote in response to the report was from Eben Upton, who came up with the idea for the Raspberry Pi computer now used to teach so many IT skills in schools. He said:

“There’s a place for tablets in education, but we need to get away from the idea that knowing how to pinch-zoom makes your toddler the next Bill Gates”

If you’d like to read the report in full, you can download it here

What are your thoughts on this report’s conclusions?

How to charge your mobile phone using a mud oven

Now I’m often to be found cursing around the house looking for a phone charger. But I have to say it’s never occurred to me that I could whip up a mud oven to get the job done!

British and Irish Aid are currently funding a project in Malawi trialling small generators that use heat to make electricity. Check out the ingenious project in this short video.

 

How can you use digital tools for education?

• Who is this post for? Anyone who teaches kids, be they teachers or parents helping with homework
• What does it discuss? How to use Twitter, Pinterest etc in an educational environment
• How does it benefit you? See digital tools through kids’ eyes and in a positive light

I’d been looking for some inspiration on how to utilise some of our most commonly used tools in an educational environment and stumbled across what look like a couple of very useful resources. They are both US-based but that’s irrelevant (though if anyone can point us in the direction of similar resources in the UK we’d love to shout about them).

The first is a series of guides from Edudemic that you can read online and give fantastic sets of advice in the form of infographics, terminology, how to become an authority on the subject, tips for use, rules etc. We’re very impressed on first reading, especially as the advice is free. You can read all the guides here

The second is a paid resource but looks pretty comprehensive from where we are sitting as Jennifer Gonzalez, author of the rather wonderful site Cult of Pedagogy, has produced a 210-page Teacher’s Guide to Tech, described in her own words as “a digital binder, a 210-page interactive PDF that you can store on your home computer, work computer, even on a tablet or smartphone. It contains clear descriptions of over 100 tech tools (almost all of them free), divided into 30 categories, with links to over 100 videos showing how the tools work, practical ideas for using each tool in the classroom, a glossary of over 80 tech terms, and a clickable table of contents and index that help you navigate through the binder with ease“. Helpfully the resource is updated as new tools come to be widely adopted.

Do let us know what digital tools you have found useful from an educational perspective or ask us if you’d like any particular aspect of education looked at.

How to boost your home Wi-Fi connection

• Who is this post for? Anyone with Wi-Fi at home
• What does it discuss? A short video giving you tips to boost strength of connection
• How does it benefit you? No more slow-loading pages and videos!

I live in a small rural village, in a small 3-floor house. There’s no 3G or 4G phone signal available and there’s no high-speed broadband available either. Therefore it’s vitally important that our Wi-Fi connection is maximised all over the house. I already have a booster on the top floor as the router is on the ground floor. This and other tips for boosting your Wi-Fi strength, including a very handy Blue-Peter style trick with some cardboard and tin-foil, are included in this useful, brief video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34848853/embed

 

 

Have Sky TV? Then you should know about Sky Q

• Who is this post for? Anyone with or considering Sky TV
• What does it discuss? Sky’s ‘re-imagination’ of the TV viewing experience
• How does it benefit you? More flexibility and ease for how you watch Sky TV

On Wednesday, Sky launched its new service Sky Q (though it won’t actually be available to customers for just a little while longer yet). Considering that Sky is constantly having to make massive overhauls to its technology (satellite dishes and big set-top boxes are hardly representative of the simple viewing experience offered by Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon et al), we thought this was a pretty good update.

In a nutshell, you can now:

• Have mini-boxes connected by WiFi that allow you to watch on TVs in different rooms
• Watch up to four different programs on four different screens at any one time
• Download recorded programmes to smartphones and tablets to watch whatever you like

If you’d like to read a reaonably balanced article (avoid the mind-numbingly dull video) that talks about the impact of the innovation and other viewing choices, check out the BBC’s response here

YouTube Kids app now available in UK & Ireland

• Who is this post for? Parents
• What does it discuss? YouTube’s new app for Kids entertainment and the associated parental controls
• How does it benefit you? Big catalogue of free TV for your kids

A year after being launched in the US, Google has made its YouTube Kids app available in the UK and Ireland.

The app provides content that’s suitable for kids of all ages. The aim is to give parents peace of mind when it comes to their children browsing and watching videos on YouTube.

There will be new content aimed to appeal to a UK and Irish audience specifically, like Octonauts, In the Night Garden and UK YouTubers like Stampylonghead and his Wonder Quest.

To give parents peace of mind, Google has made it possible to deactivate the search function in the app. That means that the only videos available will be the featured ones on the homescreen, which are recommended by YouTube and avoids the possibility of children finding something their parents deem inappropriate through search. There’s also a timer mode that lets parents determine when videos stop playing and it’s possible to set a passcode to prevent children from accessing the settings area of the app.

You can read more on YouTube’s blog here.

 

 

 

Photographer Dad makes his son with Down Syndrome fly

• Who is this post for? Everyone with kids
• What does it discuss? A heartwarming digital photography project
• How does it benefit you? Inspire your children; Get creative

When Utah-based art director and photographer Alan Lawrence found out his son Wil had Down Syndrome, he reacted in the most wonderful fashion. Noticing how Wil would lift his legs and flap his arms whenever he would crawl around, Alan likened it to flying. It was the inspiration for the photo series ‘Wil Can Fly’.

In the series, Alan would hold his son high up in the air, and then would later edit himself out, making it seem as though Wil is flying. After posting the photos online, Alan’s family has been praised for the positive attitude towards their son’s condition.

‘These photos of Wil flying have taken on a special meaning for me as I think about the unique challenges Wil is going to face growing up. I hope to teach him that even with his disabilities he can do anything he puts his mind to’.

Check out the beautiful images here

Have you seen any inspirational digital photography projects that use the editing technology to tell a powerful, positive story?

 

Is there nothing ’20 seconds in the microwave’ can’t do?

• Who is this post for? Anyone who uses their kitchen for cooking!
• What does it discuss? How to get more juice more from your citrus fruit and peel garlic quicker
• How does it benefit you? Save time; more bang for your buck

I love any kind of ‘hack’ technology can help my life with. Having seen a couple of kitchen-based hacks recently, I’m wondering how many more tricks ’20 seconds in the microwave’ has up its sleeve.

Here’s one for getting more juice from your lemons:

http://www.littlethings.com/video-embed.php?vid=Wfl3kiYu&dfpid=7473

and here’s another for peeling garlic more quickly:

http://www.littlethings.com/peeling-garlic-microwave-hack/

Anyone got any more suggestions on microwave ‘hacks’ for the kitchen?

 

 

 

Using apps to save you money

• Who is this post for? Anyone wanting to save some extra pounds
• What does it discuss? How technology can help you save money
• How does it benefit you? Increased bank balance; Decreased stress

We probably don’t need to run a poll to ask if you’d like to save money. But we DID run a poll recently to ask how people are using smartphone and tablet apps to save money. Below are the the most popular types of app being used by our readers and you can find them all for both iPhone, iPad, and Android devices:

1. Monitoring expenses and budget – Moneyhub and Money Dashboard were most mentioned
2. Supermarket price comparison – does anyone know of a better app than My Supermarket? I use it all the time
3. Vouchers – such as Groupon, My Voucher Codes or vouchercloud
4. Travel – Skyscanner was hailed consistently as the best for finding cheap flights but of course there’s TripAdvisor for cheap hotel rooms and the likes of trainline for rail travel.
5. Cashback – It was no surprise that Quidco was the most mentioned app. We’re not sure about the claim of being paid to shop (hey, you have to spend money in the first place!) but it’s certainly a popular and easy-to-use service.

There you have it. Perhaps no great surprises but if you’re not currently using any of these types of app, it’s probably worth checking them out. If you have any other recommendations, please let us know!