With Christmas just around the corner, here are some great ideas for educating kids through technology. At the same time, they will have a blast with some of these cool, new, gizmos. A win-win for everyone.

Next month sees the beginning of sales for Apple’s iWatch. The claim is that the watch is able to keep accurate time within 50 milliseconds of the definitive global time standard. Of course, however, it wouldn’t be an Apple product without a whole slew of bells and whistles as well though.

First, there is the visual. Users can customize the watch’s face to present time in a more personalized way, in line with their life and schedule. Second, communication is facilitated. And there is a physical sensation one experiences when a message comes in – like a gentle tap. One can also connect to their friends spontaneously with a tap, sketch or even a heartbeat!

One is alerted by three rings on the activity app to show one’s daily progress and motivates them to get up and move around! As an advanced sports watch it gives the user real-time stats for most popular workouts too.

For anyone who wants to see a cool color change on their iPhone, the heat sensitive iPhone 4/4S Backing will make the perfect gift.  Fitting a self-adhesive laser cut on to the back of the phone causes it to change colors from 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit or just below body temperature.  Since it is particularly thin, it can fit comfortably under any bumper one is already using for their phone.  The backing changes color from heat from one’s hands, pocket, etc.  It even changes colors and reveals outlines from its inner components while you’re doing something else with the phone like surfing, listening to music or even on a call.

It really is pretty cool.  Check it out on YouTube to see just how you can impress your friends with your cool new tool and how much you can enjoy it yourself as well.  Colors it goes from are black (cold), red, yellow green and then deep blue (when it’s really hot).

Here us a video from Reuters.com:

Aside from creating more convenient methods of communication and entertainment such as the iPad 2, technology has many other important uses. For example, the Kenyan Wildlife Service recently fixed eight elephants with GPS collars.

These devices will help the organization study the elephants’ migration patterns in the Tsavo East National Park, as well as monitor the elephants’ health. The tracking devices will also enable the park rangers to better combat poaching, and resolve other human-elephant conflicts without difficulty.

The Department of Defense is the single greatest energy consumer in the world. Officials have said that the department will join forces with the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-E, in an effort to create technologies that can benefit civilians as well.

“The steady march of technology has created a voracious appetite for energy in the military,” said Ray Mabus, US Navy Secretary. He went on to explain that during the Vietnam War, Marine platoons used two or three radios on patrol. Now, squads in Afghanistan take more than ten. Even if the soldiers were to use solar panels to generate energy, the lack of effective power storage devices would put the military at risk.

“We need the ability to effectively store the energy we create- to be able to use it when it’s need, and to use it where it’s needed,” Mabus said.