Google Glass no game-changer but has potential, says Franklin teacher

Source: The Indianapolis StarDec.迷你倉 22--Google Glass was supposed to be a "game-changer" for Franklin Community High School teacher Don Wettrick and his students.But after he shelled out $1,500 and brought the wearable computer to the classroom, and after the newness wore off, Wettrick said the device has failed to live up to the massive pre-launch hype."Honestly, it's a great gadget," Wettrick said. "It has potential. We just haven't seen that potential because the apps aren't out yet."Wettrick was among the first 8,000 chosen by the company last spring to purchase a pair of the voice activated, Internet linked eyeglasses.The device takes pictures, shoots video, gives directions and browses the web. Glass recognizes voice commands and displays information on a tiny video screen mounted on the eyeglass frame in front of an eye.Wettrick teaches the school's innovations class and runs the broadcast and television studio. His students were eager to test the device, he said, but only a few have actually used it for class work.Glass is great for fast note-taking, Wettrick said, noting his favorite app is Evernote, the popular note-taking tool for smart phones and computers."I go nuts with my to-do lists," Wettrick said. "I now jot things down on Glass. I say 'O.K. Glass, take a note,' then I can cross things off. When I set Glass down, it transfers everything to my Evernote account."Owning Glass now, Wettrick said, is kind of like owning an iPhone before any of the third party apps were developed. It's cool, he said, and you can imagine what it might do later when the device finally graduates from the testing phase.Sophomore Ryan Long said Glass is ideal for taking impromptu video and photos that capture those candid, unexpected moments that hap文件倉en every day in our lives."It eliminates having to pull your phone out of your pocket, slide to unlock to get to the camera," Ryan, 15, said. "If you see something cool and want to capture it in that moment, Glass does it because it's right there on your face."Long has used Google Glass to record a Franklin High School football game. The 94-second video produced by Long and classmate Thomas Bolt lets viewers experience the game through a spectator's eyes from the bleachers and the sidelines. Glass gets viewers up close with fans, cheerleaders and players.There are plenty of ways students might use Glass in the classroom, Ryan said."Say I'm doing a chemistry experiment and I have two chemicals in my hand," Ryan said, "I can say 'O.K. Glass, Google which of these chemicals is more toxic.'"Glass is still too new to be of much use in the real world, said Steve Voida, an assistant professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the Indiana University School of Informatics."It's very early technology," said Voida, who met the developers of Google Glass at a conference in September.For teachers like Wettrick, Voida said, Glass can help give students an idea of what computing will look like in the near future.It wasn't too long ago, that most people could only access the Internet via a computer. In the last few years, Voida said, cell phones have become the primary computer for many people."People are still trying to figure out how to use it," Voida said. "If we have this constant access to information, what's it really good for?"___Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Indianapolis Star Visit The Indianapolis Star at .IndyStar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉