CES 2017 - What the world's biggest tech conference had in store for schools
Taking place between the 9th and 12th of January amongst the bright lights of Las Vegas, CES (the biggest and most breath-taking tech show) has now drawn to a close – and what a year it has been. And there’s little wonder that CES serves as an alluring platform to showcase tech for education, as the US is home to an Ed-Tech spend of a staggering $14 billion (a figure that is proportionally reflected on our side of the Atlantic, with UK schools estimated to have spent around £623 million on IT in 2015 alone [Information Age]). Without further ado, here’s exactly what CES had in store for education this year.
Kubo Robot
Kubo Robot has won awards and very much represents the best of robotics in the school setting. Through play, creativity, and exploration, primary school children progress communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills by interacting with Kubo – a robot developed on the concept of a jigsaw puzzle.
Pluralsight
There’s no secret that the UK has a serious IT skill shortage, and alongside efforts such as introducing kids to code from primary school age, and a brand new ‘computing curriculum’, the fresh emphasis on finally recognising IT as vitally for our future generations is more than well-overdue. For this, tech eLearning platforms could provide the answer.
Pluralsight serves as a global leader for online training in the tech realm, but they’re quite unlike any other online learning platform. Pluralsight chop up their courses into 60 minute training sessions – providing motivation for learners by offering chances to earn badges and win prizes – such as drones, 3D printers and TVs. Pluralsight were promoting the Academic arm of their platform at CES (which covers more than 5,000 tech courses and innovative group led learning) however we may be missing a trick here by focusing on kids alone.
If our recent insight into the challenges of teachers attempting to harness tech are to be addressed, platforms such as Pluralsight could and should prove invaluable for teachers, as well as students.
VDO360
VDO360’s slogan is “We are at the front of the class!” – and how true this is. Strings to their bow include developing leading Intel technology and building the world’s first 1st RTLS auto-tracking camera. At CES, they showcased their collaborative video equipment – heralded for its power within a lecture/presentation setting and the ways in which this can allow teachers to teach from the classroom, whilst students benefit from at-home video learning which is interactive. A further plus point is that the costs involved with introducing an expert into the classroom are significantly cut by the medium of telepresence.