The ESA has put some of its actual astronaut training materials online and in the iTunes App Store for iPad and iPhone users. There are two lessons available that astronauts actually use the keep trained on what to do when the Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is docking. One of the training lessons is a list of possible docking issues and wants due to troubleshoot them. The second lesson is the steps you need to go through to be able to open the hatch to the ATV once docked.

Considering that the vehicle is automated, you might be wondering why astronauts need to be present. The answer to that is obvious, you never know when HAL will go crazy and try to destroy the ISS. Astronauts have to be on hand and ready to respond if needed.

I certainly don’t blame students for jumping on and trying it out. If I could have used digital books rather than carry a bag stuffed with 60 pounds of textbooks in college I certainly would have.

We do have to take that download count with a grain of salt though. Apple has been offering a free download textbook called E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth, and there is no indication of how many times that free title was downloaded. There is a chance that the free textbook might make up a significant number of those downloads. Still, it shows an interest in the app’s updated interactive and note-taking features.

In the same three-day period, there were 90,000 downloads of the iBooks Author app that lets people make free textbooks themselves, so that’s a good sign for an increased volume of publications hitting the shelves.

[via AllThingsD]

The organizer of the event was a nonprofit firm called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The goal of the contest was to encourage interest in kids for science and technology. The challenge was for the students to build the LEGO-based robots to complete a specific task. In all, about 200 students on 24 teams participated in the LEGO League competition.

The teams have been working since September to build their ‘bots. After the robots were completed, the students have to explain to the judges how they built and designed it, then show how well it works and talk about what didn’t work.

This is something I totally would have done when I was a kid had I been given the opportunity.

[via VCStar]

In all, Yale is spending about $600,000 to provide 520 top-of-the-line iPad 2 3G 64GB tablets to students. The iPads come with the curriculum for first and second year students pre-loaded. The iPad for third and fourth year students come with materials for their chosen specialty. Apparently, the stack of printed materials that goes along with medical school at Yale is enormous after two years and the copied pages don’t do colors that are needed in medical images.

The iPad on the other hand will allow the students to view the material with high-resolution images as well. They can also take advantage of apps that encourage interactive learning. Tablets like the iPad are becoming much more common in the hospital and medical setting so it only makes sense for Yale to move in this direction.

[Yale Daily News via MacWorld]

So what does a grand buy you? A 3.1GHz Intel Core i3 Dual-Core processor, 21.5-inch LCD screen, AMD Radeon HD 6750 with 256MB, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a Superdrive and OS X Lion. The next cheapest iMac that’s available for the mass market costs $1,199.

Instead of the Thunderbolt port, this iMac has a simple mini Display Port.  For $200 more, you can get a 2.5GHz Quad-Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB of storage. While some people might perish the thought of getting this sub-$1,000, a lot of students will purchase this because of the price-point.

[Apple via MacRumors]

RURO was designed by grade-school kids and sponsored by Osaka’s business community. A contest to design the robot drew in over 1,600 submissions from 5th and 6th graders. It stands about 2 feet tall and can play recorded messages as greetings, too. On top of teaching kids, RURO has a built-in siren and spinning light to scare off any thieves that it detects.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While it may be able to detect thieves, it won’t be able to pursue them very quickly, and it’s definitely not imposing enough to ward them off anyhow.

[via PlasticPals]

The name of this teacher ‘bot is Engkey and he costs about $10,000 (USD), which is certainly less than even a teachers’ salary. Engkey is a telepresence robot that can connect the students to more affordable teachers working offshore in the Philippines.

Engkey can move around, and do a little jig, but you probably don’t want robots teaching your children, do you? They might just go all nutty and start serving their robot overlords someday.

[Phys Org via DVice]

The Humane Reader is designed to provide computer technology to homes or schools without internet access or the budget for traditional PCs or Macs. The 8-bit computer can turn any television into an e-Book/Wikipedia reader. As a matter of fact, its makers say you could store 5,000 books or more on a single 2GB SD card (included in the $20 cost). The creators of the Humane Reader state their value proposition simply: “The Humane Reader can provide a virtual library to any developing world school or individual with electrical power for less than the cost of a single textbook.”

Based on the Atmega328p microcontroller (there are actually three of them in there), the open source Humane Reader can be loaded up with educational content via USB, and it can display output on any video display with composite input. Basic control can be achieved through buttons on the face of the device, but a keyboard can be connected with an optional USB or PS/2 port. As an added bonus, its creators are hoping the computing platform will become an easily extensible and hackable general platform for developing low-cost applications and systems.

Sure, the television and keyboard will add a little bit to the cost of this system, but it’s still a pretty amazing feat to pull this off for just $20 bucks. In fact, they estimate that in quantities of 10,000 or more, they could get the cost down to under $15 per system.

You can find out more about the Humane Reader here.

[via Make:]

That statement cracked me up; makes it sound as if the schools in Japan don’t have any say in the matter. But I guess it’s worth a try, to keep kids stay focused on their studies and not on distractions, like gaming.

This isn’t the first time that Nintendo has marketed the Nintendo DS as a learning aid, but a Miyamoto educational game or software? Learning’s about to get a lot more fun.

[via Joystiq]

Sony asked a number of us bloggers to snap photos using the camera’s unique sweep panorama feature – then enter them into a competition. The winner will get to send 10 of these wonderful little digital cameras to the school of their choice. If I end up winning, I’d like to pledge mine to Carl Schurz High School, a diverse public institution which emphasizes math, creative arts, science and technology right here in my neighborhood in Chicago.

So back to the camera… the WX1 can shoot seamless horizontal or vertical panoramas with a simple sweeping motion of the camera. As the camera is moved from side-to-side or up-and-down, it snaps numerous photos in rapid succesion and automatically stitches them together into a panorama. As an added bonus, this pocket-size 10-megapixel camera can also capture 720p HD video.

The  photo contest runs until December 18th, and the winning school will be awarded their prize on December 22nd. All you’ve got to do is head on over to the photo contest page over on we say, and vote for your favorite photos. I can’t tell you which ones are mine, but there are lots of cool panoramas up there already, and every vote you make will help a school get a welcome holiday gift.

The scientists’ next goal is to get the Einstein robot to socialize, and eventually robot tormentors tutors.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Marian Bartlett, a facial recognition expert who was a part of the experiment, said that the aim is to use robots to conduct one-on-one tutoring, which she says can improve learning “by as much as two standard deviations.” Sounds like they want our kids to go insane.

[via Wired]

Now you too can embellish your bedroom wall with a constant reminder of exactly how to increase speed, drop down and reverse direction – just in case you need to do that sort of thing for your job.

The guys at Blik Surface Graphics have now turned Neil Gregory’s hilarious A Simple Plan Threadless t-shirt into a set of vinyl wall graphics you can apply to any room. The complete set comes with 43 colorful wall decals, and instructions to build out your Invader army. When it’s all finished, the design measures in at approximately 60″ wide by 45″ tall, and looks great on any wall – although I think it looks best on a dark colored surface.

The set is available now over at Blik for $45 (USD).

The image above shows the attendance-taking app. As you can see students simply enter a 3-digit alphanumeric code to confirm their presence. The iPhone’s GPS helps verify that the student is actually in school when the code is entered. Awesome.

Of course, the school doesn’t want the device to be reduced to an expensive attendance monitor; they’re looking for ways to integrate the iPhone to foster better teacher-student interaction, like viewing videos of class lectures for reviewing or for absent students.

There’s the fear that the GPS-based attendance may lead to privacy issues, but if the response of the people in the video are any indication, there’s a decent chance that Aoyama Gakuin’s high-tech – or is that iTech – system will be emulated by other institutions.

[via Reuters]

This bare-bones looking “TV Computer” is based on the same 1MHz 6502 processor chip that powered many of the great 8-bit systems of days gone by. And like the home programming movement of the 1980s, the guys over at Playpower.org are encouraging the use of these cheap imports for the development of homebrew and open-source apps, to spur computer-aided education in developing countries.

Not only can the system run simple programs written in BASIC, it comes with a cartridge pre-loaded with an 8-bit music application, a “Visual Theremin” (whatever that means), a sprite manipulation program and a Chinese language GUI. As an added bonus, the system can play old school NES games (with the use of an optional 60 to 72 pin adapter).

So if you’re ready to get to brush up on your BASIC skills, or just want to play some Mario Brothers, you can find the 8-bit TV computer over at the MakerSHED for just $49.99 (USD).

Back in 1983, designer Rob Marquardt (aka ‘someToast’) painstakingly drafted not only the exterior of the stick to show off his mad isometric drawing skills, he went through the trouble of diagramming out all of the gory internals of the classic digital gaming controller.

While it might not be a 100% accurate rendition of the Atari controller, you have to admire his creativity and persistence. His teacher may have graded his work anywhere from A- to B, but I say A++++ all the way!

(P.S. While you’re staring at Rob’s Flickr portfolio, be sure to check out this awesome blueprint iPhone menu skin he designed.)

The GeoSafari Digital Recording Lab lets kids (and kids at heart) experiment and create their own electronic sound effects. There are 59 different projects they can build, creating everything from an alarm clock, to a robotic voice, to an “electronic parrot” that records and plays back whatever they say.

All projects are done by connecting wires to spring-loaded terminals, so no soldering is required. I’m sure if you decide to go “off book” and do some circuit bending, you’ll get some really interesting sounds.

[Order from Amazon]