Schools : E.T. Holiday Reunion : a commercial ? Why not !

A Holiday Reunion

XFinity, 2019

https://www.xfinity.com/ET

Christmas Season approaches. So well, this Thanksgiving, E.T. did more than  a 'phone home', he came home - at least for a little while...

The iconic extraterrestrial from Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit movie E.T. appeared in a new nostalgic Xfinity commercial shown last Thursday. And at over four minutes long, it's a lot like a super-short sequel to the Oscar-winning movie.

A Holiday Reunion

XFinity, 2019

https://www.xfinity.com/ET

The short film brings E.T. back to Earth, where he shows up at the home of his old pal Elliott, played by a now-grown Henry Thomas, 37 years after the two met in the film. 

"A lot has changed since you were here," Elliott says, and that's an understatement.

After 37 years, E.T. comes back to visit his friend, Elliott, for the holidays. During his stay, E.T. learns that Elliott now has a family of his own and that technology has completely changed on Earth since his last visit.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Steven Spielberg, 1982

https://www.imdb.com/

E.T. was the most popular movie of the 1980s. Me and my kids went to the movies. And everyone cried at the end with this touching story between Elliot and the lovely allien E.T. (called E.T., condensing Elliott’s own name).

It humorously and movingly portrayed grade-school kid Elliott (Henry Thomas), feeling lonely during his parents’ separation, as he develops a friendship with an alien from outer space.

A Holiday Reunion

XFinity, 2019

https://www.xfinity.com/ET

E.T. meets Elliott's family and learns about Earth's new technology (XFinity commercial), including a freaky virtual-reality dinosaur game. 

Using a device of his own, E.T. shows his Elliot an image of his own far-off family. 

And there are plenty of nods to the original film, including E.T. maintaining his love for Reese's Pieces, the flying bike scene, and Elliott's son wearing pajamas that look like those his dad wore in E.T. 

A Holiday Reunion

XFinity, 2019

https://www.xfinity.com/ET

The ending, while a bit sad, is a sweet completion of the holidays are for reuniting with family theme that runs through the ad.

"The audience is going to get everything they want out of a sequel without the messy bits that could destroy the beauty of the original and the special place it has in people's minds and hearts," (...) "It's really a win-win."

Henry Thomas

Fans seem to think so, too. In 16 hours, the YouTube version of the ad had been watched more than 1.8 million times.

A Holiday Reunion

XFinity, 2019

https://www.xfinity.com/ET

The extra-terrestrial is a squat, brown-skinned, wide-eyed creature with whom white-American suburban-boy Elliott experiences telepathic empathy: psychological projection made real.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Steven Spielberg, 1082

https://www.imdb.com/

E.T. was instantly beloved. Coming after the cornball antics of Star Wars, "it raised the stakes of what popular cinema could express and tapped the universal need to be understood." 

Spielberg film made the process of identification that accompanies a child’s personal growth and maturation seem almost magical.

However, there are some critics. No matter the commercial, will be a lovely resource to bring back the real E.T. film to our days children at school.

Education:

Although some criticism, the commercial brought back some of the magical of the real movie E.T. by Steve Spielberg.

Why not to include it into your school curriculum as a motivation to explore the Narrative with E.T. by Steven Spielberg. 

It will be a lovely resource to bring back the real E.T. to our days children at school and watch how Steven Spielberg’s iconic movie came back to life for Xfinity’s holiday short story after 37 years.

Teens love technology, right?! It will be interesting to complete the narrative in E.T. with the make-of Family Reunion.

Remember, everything is possible when we want to have the attention of our students into the school curriculum! The important is how you will introduce new staff into your lessons and how to explore it in a pedagogical way. 

G-Souto

07.12.2019

Copyright © 2019G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : E.T. Holiday Reunion : a commercial ? Why not ? by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 

Schools : Wow ! Amazing week ! Two new tablets ! Apple & Google Chrome !

iPad 1 for education, 2010

http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com

I remember so well when the first iPad for education was announced in 2010 by Steve Jobs. When I saw the video presentation, I was looking forward to experiment the amazing innovative device! It was love at first site!

And then iPad 2 in 2011. Wow! New amazing media world opened to use in Education! Teachers were delighted to have amazing devices in the classroom and young people loved it! It was so exciting. I do love the mind of Steve Jobs. He was special. He was a real innovator.

Google Chrome OS tablet for schools

https://techcrunch.com/2018/

So, this week, we have two new tablets for Education, almost at the same time. Chrome OS tablet and the new iPad geared toward the education.

Last March 26, Google announced its first education tablet designed with Chrome OS. The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will be the first such Chrome OS tablet for schools to land in kids’ hands. 

"Since their debut, schools have chosen Chromebooks because they are fast, easy-to-use and manage, shareable, secure and affordable. We've listened carefully to feedback from educators around the world, and one common theme is that they want all the benefits of Chromebooks in a tablet form."

Cyrus Mistrys,

Group Product Manager, Google for Education

Google Chrome OS tablet

credits: Google

https://www.blog.google/topics/education/

The tablets also will enable students to jump into educational AR experiences given their handheld form factor and Google’s upcoming rollout of the Expeditions AR platform on the devices, which the company promises will allow students to visit the Great Barrier Reef, the Colosseum and International Space Station said Lucas Matney (TechCrunch).

Being a Chrome OS device, it will integrate into the IT systems of schools with a Chrome education license and will give students a device they can easily pass around and jot notes on with stylus and touch controls. 

Price US:

The device itself is a pretty standard 9.7 inch 2048×1536 tablet that will retail for $329, the same price as Apple’s entry-level iPad. Read more on Blog Google Education here

And yesterday, March 27,  Tim Cook presented the new iPad for schools. He hosted a “field trip” to talk about the new iPad 9.7 inch: "Like a computer. Unlike any computer."

Google has won over a large portion of the education market in the US, something that can be credited to both the cheapness of web-based Chromebooks and the accessibility of Google’s apps. 

Apple knows this, so yesterday, it hosted a “field trip” — that’s actually what it was called — for press, teachers, and student journalists at a magnet high school in Chicago.

Lauren Goode, The Verge

New iPad 9.7 inch with pencil

https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/

Apple presented another iPad and a new and improved suite of apps for teachers and students. 

The new, $329 9.7-inch iPad ($299 for students) supports Apple’s fancy Pencil, as well as a new stylus from Logitech called Crayon. 

Need to scribble some notes or use a fine point to edit a photo? You can do that on a cheap iPad now. 

New iPad 9.7 inch & pencil

credits: Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

htps://www.theverge.com/2018/

The school iPad also supports ARKit, which means it can run sophisticated AR apps. One example is an app that lets you dissect a virtual frog. (You don’t even need to Google “formaldehyde.”) And there’s a new Apple-designed curriculum called Everyone Can Create, which joins Everyone Can Code as part of a suite of apps for, well, making things: music, art, videos.

Lauren Goode/ The Verge

Price US:

In an attempt to make it easier for schools and educational customers to bring iPad into the classroom, Apple is providing its 2018 iPad at a discount, cutting the just-announced tablet from the regular starting price of $329 down to $299.  Wow! Read more on Apple Education here

credits: Apple

https://appleinsider.com/articles/

Education: Some thoughts

Steve Jobs was the first to revolutionize the concept of education bringing attractive technology in Education. iPads, iPods, smartphones on the hands of all students. 

Introducing those Apple devices in the classroom was such an experience! I did it for the first moment (I was a former teacher on TV Schools, so I loved technology since the early years in 1989) and my students were so glad to work in the classroom with the gadgets they used only for fun. 

They loved technology and they had grown up working with touch devices, so tablets were intuitive for them.

Google Chrome tablets in school

credits: unknown

https:www.google.com/

Now, Google Chrome tablets are lightweight and durable, allowing students to collaborate, create and learn from anywhere. And they come with a low-cost Chromebook stylus inside that doesn’t require charging or pairing. The stylus uses advanced machine learning to predict student writing for a natural writing experience.

Teachers are always thinking in captivating the students to a better school performance and new digital skills. So, they understand how gadgets like iPad and Chrome OS tablet could excite the students in the classroom. And they do incredible experiences, developing digital skills to the job market in the future.

I only could read some of the most interesting tech articles. I'm not living in the US. I only can present the principal features of the two devices, Google and Apple tablets, after reading these tech opinions. They were there, they could touch and work with the new devices. 

Teachers, it's up to us to choose the best to all of our students when we will can to test and compare pros and cons the two devices in our countries.

G-Souto

28.03.2018

Copyright © 2018G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Wow ! Amazing week ! Two new tablets : Apple & Google Chrome by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References:

Tech Crunch/ The Verge