The Buzz

Penguin UK’s digital writing project “We Tell Stories” is an interesting experiment blending traditional narrative and interactive Web technology. If you haven’t already seen it, the recently concluded six-week project is worth a look. A highlight: best-selling thriller author Charles Cumming’s Google Maps tale based on John Buchan’s classic novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps. According to project creator SixtoStart, an alternate reality game design firm, “These stories could not have been written 200, 20 or even 2 years ago.” www.wetellstories.co.uk.

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A new software product, Fluent Reading Trainer (FLRT), strives to boost reading speed, while improving comprehension, and silent reading skills. Released by MindPlay, FLRT can be used with beginning or struggling readers, as well as English language learners, and involves reading stories, which teachers can select from various categories or have presented at random. Accompanying questions test comprehension and single line reading improves eye-tracking and reading speed. $350 per workstation for the networked version. 

On new site Tikatok, children can compose their own tales, post them online for friends and others to read, and even print a hard copy. Launched in March, the site’s led to hundreds of kid-created books in different languages made by users around the world. This July, Tikatok will launch a national writing program, drawing more than 25 registered libraries to use Tikatok’s StorySparks System to help guide the creative writing process.

Lugging around an eight-pound laptop may not appeal to students already burdened with overstuffed backpacks. But what if that laptop replaced the books—and the notepads for that matter—all for just $100? Meet Papyrus, an e-reader that would allow students to scribble notes with a stylus right on the screen. Add to that a 30-hour battery life and we’re sold. Alas, Papyrus is just a concept of the Greener Grass, an online think tank run by design firm, Kaleidoscope. Stay tuned. kascope.com.

The Nova5000, Fourier Systems’s tablet computer built for schools, now features a faster 624 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM. Flash memory has also been upgraded by 100 percent to 256 MB. For students involved in multimedia, the Nova5000 includes a 2-D graphic accelerator and an SD card slot for transferring images from digital cameras or other multimedia files. All this, plus an extended battery life also comes at a lower price: under $500 for three available versions. www.nova5000.com.

The New York City Department of Education has barred employees from including their blog URLs in email signatures. That was the directive issued to Lisa Nielsen, manager of professional development for NYC’s Department of Instructional Technology. “A blog is a great way to model best practices for using 21st Century tools... that support the work we do,” Nielsen responded on her blog. theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/.

Microsoft’s Partners in Learning has now reached more than 100 million students worldwide with its programming. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the milestone last month at the Government Leaders Forum Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia. A global education effort, Partners in Learning aims to increase technology access for schools. A separate partnership between Microsoft and the Bradesco Foundation (pictured above right) brought laptops to a school in São Paulo, Brazil.

Panasonic has released its first Wi-Fi-enabled digital camera. With features similar to the earlier TZ5 model, the LUMIX DMC-TZ50 comes with standard 802.11b/g wireless LAN connectivity with 12-month access to T-Mobile’s HotSpot service. Users can upload their snapshots directly to Picasa, a free online photo-sharing service from Google. The 9.1 megapixel TZ50 ships with a 28mm wide-angle Leica lens with 10x optical zoom, and the ability to record 720p HD video. $449.95. www.panasonic.com/dsc.

All those USB mobile devices, digital audio players and the like, are nice to have. But then you have to charge the little suckers. And who wants to fire up the desktop to do it? The Greenhouse Eneplug is a nifty solution that’s candy-colored, too. Simply join your device via USB cable to the Eneplug, which plugs into any AC outlet. The Greenhouse Eneplug measures 42 x 65 x 22 mm and is available in green, orange, pink, white, black and yellow. A three-plug package will set you back $46.23 and is available at GeekStuff4u. www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=743.