HHL09 last gasp!

HHL09 last gasp!

Y-factor presentation: the winners of this years Y factor competition
(innovation in their learning) for 6-16 year olds celebrating their
success by presenting to the main conference. Normanby primary school
showed how they use PDAs & other tech - full of humour, really good
presentation. Lots of videos they made in school. Got notes / slides
in wrong order but coped well with it!

Research strand again - round table format, so got to choose who to
listen to. Couldn't make notes as there were only one or 2 at a table!
Say talks on a visual voting system; the OU mobile library stuff; and
a central repository for mobile learning projects. When I edit the
blog I'll put details in..

Last keynote - the legendary Ray Kurzweil via video link. The
acceleration of technology in the 21st Century: the impact on
education and society. Exponential growth in computing power, we can't
picture this - tend to think linear not exponential. This is why we
struggle to picture the future.
Involved in reading machines for the blind since early 70s. First was
like a big copier. Now got it integrated into mobile including
translation & more.. Predicted hardware would be available in 2008 so
started developing software in 2002! Adding object recognition as
well...
Important for us: need to plan for what is possible at end of a
project as things can change dramatically in a few years.
Showed graph of beginning of life on Earth to invention of PC. Claims
to show move towards singularity- we use complexity of life or
complexity of tech to move to the next level of complexity and
paradigm shift. Says these progressions are fairly smooth and always
have been.
Predicting $1000 for human level computing power by 2020. Just need
the software to take advantage of it. Says we have lots of specific
apps to do intelligent tasks, but nothing for the full thing. Reverse
engineering the human brain is giving us ideas & helping us model more
& more of the brain.
Says by 2029 we'll have systems integrated with our brain to expand
our mental health.

Fascinating talk, nothing new to me, but great to hear from the horses
mouth...

BTW- didn't win anything in the prize draw that followed...