SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE: WHO’S WHO IN EDTECH VOLUME 30 NUMBER 8
techlearning.com
IDEAS AND TOOLS FOR ED TECH LEADERS
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Apps for That Apple’s iPad, classroom tools, professional PD, and more
Where did the stim money go? School-tested mobile solutions
Apple iPad ZulaWorld.com Inspiration 9
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The Tech & Learning 100@30
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By Matt Bolch
As part of our 30th-anniversary celebration, Tech & Learning is compiling a compendium of the people most important to the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education. Our first 30 honorees are plucked from the past: the founding fathers and mothers whose inventions, declarations, and theories set the table for where we are today.
22 Blossom Learning 22 Learning.com’s Digital Learning Environment 24 Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z 24 Inspiration 9
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The Quest for Portability
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March 2010 What’s New
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT
Without a Wire Nobody said installing a wireless network was easy, but solid planning can ease the process significantly. With a bit of insight and some proper planning, you can install a wireless network that’s successful, stable, and secure.
Put to the Test: T&L editors take some new products for a test drive.
BEGINS ON PAGE 47
Is your district trying to determine the best way to get a computer into every student’s hands? Each hardware option has plenty of pluses and a few negatives. Read on to see how other technology directors figured out the best path for their schools.
Achiever! • eBlaster 2010 • Get Ready to Read! • Discovery’s new video series LIFE • CDW-G’s One-to-One Readiness Assessment Tool • MIND Research Institute • Sibelius Student • SpeedEDIT 2 • TestWiz • Hitachi Stimulus Bundle • Califone Spirit SD Multimedia Player/Recorder • Epson PowerLite 84+ • RM ePad • Sharp 3D Ready DLP BrilliantColor professional projectors • SMART Table 230i interactive learning • and more
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 6 Editor’s Desk Past Perfect
8 News & Trends • Next Big Thing: iPad • Training tech-shy teachers • Teens interested in STEM careers • Project Tomorrow study • Contest & grant news • Exploring 2.0 • Student tech skills help schools do more • Where do federal stimulus dollars go?
• School administrators react to
Obama’s 2011 budget proposal
• Sites we like • Back office business Tech & Learning (ISSN-1053-6728) (USPS 695-590) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 810 Seventh Ave., 27th Floor, New York, NY 10019 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tech & Learning, PO Box 8746, Lowell, MA 01853 Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Copyright ©2010 NewBay Media, LLC All Rights Reserved.
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[email protected] Professional development, funding, and free stuff: Check out our Web offerings from teachers, administrators, and tech coordinators.
VISIT THE MOST-READ STORIES ON TECHLEARNING.COM 100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration Check out these free Web 2.0 tools from T&L blogger Ozge Karaoglu.
ondemand Check out the following resources from our partner sites:
The Tech & Learning 100@30 As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, Tech & Learning is compiling a compendium of the most important people in
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Publisher: Allison Knapp
[email protected]; (510) 868-5074; Fax: (650) 238-0263 EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Kevin Hogan
[email protected]
PAST PERFECT There are two important reasons why we decided to blow out T&L’s 30th anniversary this year: First, too often we neglect to formally reflect on how far edtech has evolved (what would a reader from 1990 think of the iPad?!) and second, we usually forget to thank those who contributed to that progress. As part one of our three-issue series and yearlong celebration in print, online, and in person, we strive to do just that. The profiles that fill our special 100@30 section, which starts on page 27, are the founding fathers and mothers of a movement that in the grand scheme of things is still just getting started. Of course many, if not most, of these folks are still in the forefront of the edtech movement and may be surprised to be categorized as “past” (I’m looking at you Alan November and David Thornburg!). What we recognize this month is the pioneering work that has brought the state of educational technology to where we are today. Be sure to visit the 30th Anniversary page (www.techlearning.com/ 30thanniversary) to read further about these and other luminaries that are being added to our Who’s Who of Edtech each week. We’re building a portfolio for each visionary that includes in-depth interviews, links to studies and whitepapers, and more. You can also nominate your own picks, leave comments about the selections, and track the hundreds who have already participated in our reader favorite survey. This page also includes links to our digital archive of past anniversary issues. With all apologies to Loretta Lynn, we’ve come a long way baby!
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nextbigthing
Is the Apple iPad a game changer? The long wait is finally over. And while any geek worth his or her own salt wants a peek, we’re still debating whether the uber-hyped iPad from Apple really will be a transformative classroom tool. Sure, the iPhone and iPod Touch are already very popular devices and sport a large number of educational apps that the iPad can handle with a much nicer screen. Apple has also partnered with publishers to create content for the iPad that could mean a new generation of textbooks for schools. But there is no camera, which means no video conferencing. It also can’t multi-task, and it has only a virtual keyboard. Nevertheless, we still see great potential for the classroom and will certainly influence Windows device manufacturers to come up with similar devices. —David Andrade
Price: The iPad will start at $499 (16GB model). The 16GB model with 3G will be $629. The 64GB version is $699 and with 3G is $829.
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A DV E R TO R I A L
21st Century Educators A Professional Development Plan to Help Your Teachers Learn the Skills Phase 2 of 4: Understand Training Gaps
Students need 21st century skills to succeed and compete in today’s global workplace. In order for teachers to help their students learn these skills, they need a solid understanding of the skills themselves and the ability to integrate them into their classrooms. The four phases of a professional development solution for 21st century teachers are to provide tech training and how-to support, understand gaps in the training, develop skills, and analyze progress. This series of guides addresses the four phases. ASSESS GAPS TO DETERMINE PD NEEDS To be successful with a professional development program that focuses on 21st century teaching and technology, consider implementing a customized, online, standards-based assessment of each teacher’s current skill set. Employing assessment to see where each person is assures that existing skill sets aren’t overlooked. Everyone learns and integrates 21st century and technology skills differently. A successful professional development program respects that and customizes content for learning based on where a person is right now. HOW TO ASSESS EDUCATOR’S 21ST CENTURY SKILLS ■ Focus on the application of technology and 21st century skills in the classroom. ■ Base 21st century skills assessment on the ISTE NETS-T 2008 concepts and technology skills assessment on ISTE NETS-S 2007. ■ Use a sufficient number of questions in various formats. ■ Have the assessment facilitate prescriptive professional development.
■ Feature a comprehensive reporting system for individual and organizational skills assessment. ■ Use project-based assessment that includes skills-based projects, sample rubrics, and class discussion questions. ■ Include professional development materials. ■ Allow classroom adaptation of skills, projects and self-assessment. ■ Feature reporting that allows the user to see his/her overall skills and allows simple identification of areas requiring additional professional development. FIVE EASY STEPS ■ Take test to identify gaps ■ View prescribed Concept Series ■ Perform skills-based projects to target gaps ■ Adapt/implement skills-based projects in the curriculum ■ Provide supervisor with completed PD Workbook as proof of applied skills
ASSESS AND THEN WHAT? Use Atomic Learning’s Teacher Assessment to gauge skill levels and provide prescriptive paths to help teachers to incorporate 21st century skills in the classroom. Use Atomic Learning’s Tech Skills Student Assessment to help gauge teachers’ technology skill levels. After completing an assessment, depending on how well he or she does, a teacher should be automatically assigned a workshop that explains each 21st century skills concept and theme and that provides suggestions for implementation and assessment in the classroom.
LEARN MORE Visit http://al.atomiclearning.com/ training_gaps for more information.
The challenge for schools today is to develop 21st century-ready students, and the solution is to start with the teachers. TECH & LEARNING
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TRAINING TECH-SHY TEACHERS The conversations at the recent EduCon 2.2 conference at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy were dynamic and ongoing, thanks to the tech savvy of the attendees and participants. One of the most interesting conversations involved the challenge of motivating teachers unenthusiastic about technology to use it. Reading (PA) Public Schools’ Danja Mahoney, Michael Springer, and Beth Knittle asked the question, “Why is professional development such a challenge?” Here are highlights of the answers: ■ Training sessions are held at the worst time of the day. ■ Top-down decision making results in programs that aren’t helpful to teachers. ■ Training is usually a onetime thing. ■ There’s no real modeling from the administration. ■ PD opportunities are not of inter-
est to teachers. ■ There is a lack of good leadership. The presenters then asked the participants what they would change to improve this experience and motivate those reluctant teachers. Here are highlights of their answers: ■ Give teachers hands-on workshops and make sure they have a product they can take home (e.g., demo wiki). ■ Make the training experience sustainable. Create some way to follow up with these teachers after the training event. Encourage the participants to continue the conversation after the PD event. ■ Encourage school leaders to join this conversation. ■ Do a survey before the PD event to make sure you are presenting what the teachers want. ■ Get the buy-in from the teachers.
What do you find is the best way to learn about new technologies? None of the above
Prescience and insight from the Tech & Learning Twitter feed…
Educator iPad first impressions Carl_gaines Holy cow. Cheapest iPad will be $499. I will be standing in line...FOR SURE!
web20classroom And there it is...an external keyboard...I am sold...sign me up
Jenwagner
T&L ASKS READERS 1.35%
Top Tweets
So—as I understand it — the ipad will not replace my laptop..correct?
Garystager
18.83%
On my own Having a non-cellular version is a bad idea and will be a terrible choice made by schools who are price sensitive.
59.19%
All of the above
16.59% With small groups
Edtechsteve Does the iPad have a webcam built into it? I think I missed that
4.04%
With school-wide PD days or off-site workshops
See more polls at techlearning.com.
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Get the lastest news and information at techlearning.com.
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newstrends TEENAGERS INTERESTED IN STEM CAREERS According to this year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, an annual survey that gauges Americans’ perceptions of invention and innovation, teens are enthusiastic about these subjects: 77% are interested in pursuing a STEM career. Here are other highlights:
Sites We Like: www.brightstorm.com /d/math
■ Teens listed activities such as field trips to places where they can learn about STEM (66%) and access to places outside the classroom where they can go to build things and conduct experiments (53%) as the best ways to get them interested in these subjects. ■ 55% of teens said that they would be more interested in STEM if they simply had teachers who enjoyed the subjects they taught. ■ 43% said that having role models in STEM fields would increase their interest in learning about these areas.
Brightstorm Math offers free help with algebra, geometry,
■ 85% said that they wished they knew more about STEM in order to create or invent something. ■ Fewer than one-fifth felt that scientists contribute most to society’s well-being, and even fewer selected engineers (5%).
trigonometry, precalculus, and calculus. More than 2,000 online videos provide clear explanations of sometimes-knotty concepts.
PARENTS SPEAK UP ABOUT TECH Parents & students speak up about using technology to personalize learning
Parents & students speak up about perferred technology for classrooms
THE DATA IS FROM SPEAK UP 2008, A NATIONAL INITIATIVE OF PROJECT TOMORROW. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.TOMORROW.ORG.
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CONTEST & GRANT NEWS Calypso sounds call for 2010 Be Heard School Grant applications Calypso Systems announced its call for entries in the 2010 Be Heard School Grant program, which awards three K-12 institutions school-wide classroom voice-amplification systems. In its inaugural year, the Be Heard School Grant program awarded more than $120,000 worth of classroom voiceamplification equipment to schools in three states. DEADLINE: April 30 MORE INFO: www.calypsosystems. com/grant-apps
Each winner will receive up to $5,000 in funding and an HP Artist Edition notebook to carry out their plans. DEADLINE: April 22 (Earth Day) MORE INFO: IncreaseYourGreen.org
Contest encourages community support of schools Apperson Education Products has put together a monthly Gives Back contest designed to involve the entire community in supporting its schools. Teachers or faculty members nominate their school or classroom online. If their school or
$5,000 prize for best teen green innovation DoSomething.org and HP today announced a campaign to challenge teens to find new and innovative ways to conserve energy and reduce waste in their schools. The campaign is expected to engage more than 100,000 teens. A panel of judges, including Nick Cannon, host of
America’s Got Talent, will evaluate the entries for creativity, innovation, reduction of waste, energy saved, and number of students involved. The best use of technology will be an important criterion for selecting campaign winners.
classroom is chosen, they then encourage as many people as possible to go to the voting page on the Web site to vote for their school. The school with the most votes wins $1,500; second most, $750; and third most, $500. DEADLINE: Ongoing MORE INFO: www.appersonedu. com/schools
Video Diary contest Destination ImagiNation’s Video Diary contest follows six teams through the 2009-2010 tournament season as they post a variety of content at www.idodi.org/index.php/contests, where visitors can browse the blogs and follow their journey. Destination ImagiNation is an after-school activity in which students work in teams to solve
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difficult challenges and present their solutions at tournaments. All six teams have posted their first videos, which run the gamut from infomercials to documentaries to global travels. DEADLINE: The contest runs until May, when each member of the winning team will receive a $1,000 scholarship. MORE INFO: www.IDODI.org
Voting for projector giveaway opens Meeting Tomorrow, a provider of computer, audiovisual, and live-event services, is donating LCD projectors to 10 schools based on voting by teachers, students, parents, and all interested persons. Simply vote for a deserving elementary, middle, or high school; all votes recorded on any unique computer will count as one vote. DEADLINE: Voting ends March 31. MORE INFO: www.meetingtomorrow. com/audio-visual-giveaway.html
Doodle 4 Google Competition Doodle 4 Google is a competition in which K-12 students submit ideas for the Google homepage logo. This year a group of well-known illustrators, cartoonists, and animators for organizations such as Sesame Workshop, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the Charles M. Shulz/Peanuts Museum, and Pixar Animation Studios will help select the 40 finalist doodles as well as attend the awards ceremony to personally meet the winners. DEADLINE: Register your school by March 17. MORE INFO: www.google.com/doodle 4google
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EXPLORING 2.0 Adventurers brave Siberian winter to raise awareness of water issues World-record-holding adventurers Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely begin their attempt to run the 404-mile frozen length of Siberia’s Lake Baikal in 10 days or less on March 1. But the two Canadians are attempting more than just a record-setting and safe crossing. With Siberia still in the grip of winter, the adventurers will brave the ice of Baikal to raise awareness of the worldwide scarcity of clean water and to inspire young people to push beyond their perceived limitations. Students from around the world can also be part of the experience by logging on to www.SiberianX.com. The i2P expedition team will use the BGAN satel-
Sites We Like: www.60secondrecap.com/ library/frankenstein/
This site takes great works of literature and breaks them down into easy-to-digest 60-second video clips.
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lite communication device provided by Stratos Global to blog, post photos, upload videos, and even stream live video conferencing into classrooms across North America, providing a unique learning experience to more than 8,000 students. During the expe(L-R) Ultra runner Ray Zahab (middle), legendary arcdition, students will be able to see, tic explorer Richard Weber (right) and elite adventurspeak to, and hear the pair in real time, er Kevin Vallely (left) reach the South Pole after a 1094km (680mile) record setting trek. all the while learning about the clean drinking water shortage around the and raise money for clean drinking water world. projects. Participating schools have Beyond the classroom, Zahab and been challenged to organize fund-raisVallely will use the www.impossible2 ers and help complete clean drinking Possible.com Web site to bring their water projects in Africa through Ryan’s message to people around the globe Well Foundation and GivingWater.org.
STUDENTS’ TECH SKILLS HELP SCHOOLS DO MORE Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service announced that six schools have been selected to participate in the Service & Technology Academic Resource Team (START). The selected schools will receive grants and serve as national laboratory sites and as examples of how schools can integrate service learning and techKaren Cator, director of Education Technology for nology into the classroom. the U.S. Department of Education, greets Montrez Microsoft also announced that it Brown of Tupelo Middle School. is committing more than $1 million a year for the next few years to study Economic Co-operation and Developwhat works in education technology. ment, UNESCO, the World Bank, and The Innovative Teachers and Learning ISTE to focus on teachers’ adoption of Research project is lead by SRI innovative classroom teaching pracInternational and guided by outside tices and on how these practices advisors from the Organisation for translate into student learning.
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WHERE DID FEDERAL STIMULUS DOLLARS GO? States are using federal stimulus money intended to promote innovation and equity reforms in schools to instead plug holes in education budgets ravaged by the economic recession. That’s the finding of at least one major study presented at “Stimulating Equity? The Impact of the Federal Stimulus Act on Educational Opportunity,” a symposium held at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, in February. The event, convened by the college’s Campaign for Educational Equity, was the first major national symposium to analyze the impact of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).
“Our initial analysis indicates that stabilization may in some cases have been unduly emphasized at the expense of the equity and reform goals of the ARRA,” said Michael Rebell, founding director of the Campaign for Educational Equity and organizer of the annual symposium. “Some states apparently increased their anticipated education deficits upon learning that substantial federal funding for education was in the offing in order to avoid planned cuts in other areas of the budget... Children’s constitutional rights are not put on hold because there is a fiscal crisis,” he said.
School administrators react to President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal The American Association of School Administrators (www.aasa.org) issued the following statement on the Obama administration’s 2011 budget proposal: “AASA applauds the support for and investment in education in President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal and the changes in No Child Left Behind that are assumed in the proposal. The significant increases in funding for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the focus on improving teaching and closing the achievement gap are important steps toward long-term positive change in our schools. “However, AASA is concerned with the decision to shift a significantly larger proportion of dollars into competitive grant programs... AASA strongly encourages both Congress and the administration to recognize—and be prepared to react to—the possibility that the sizeable increase in federal education funding may not translate into funding increases at the local level.”
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Sites We Like: www.alz.org/brain/01.asp
Follow this two-part interactive tour of the brain. The first gives you brain basics; the second shows how the brain is affected throughout the stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
SURVEY REVEALS SCHOOLS THINK STUDENTS CAN BYPASS FILTERS A new survey conducted by Cyberoam and JTL Technical Services uncovered four key trends related to school-system computer-network security: ■ 66% of school administrators and teachers indicate that students know how to bypass their school system's content-filtering solution, raising the problem of meeting CIPA compliance requirements. ■ 56% sense that their current security solution hampers the teaching process. ■ 89% consider the Internet is generally safe for students. ■ 52% indicate that their school systems have adequate funding for security solutions.
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BACK-OFFICE BUSINESS: HOW SCHOOLS GET IT DONE Virtual storage offers security, space CHALLENGE: Pennsylvania schools wanted to eliminate data-access problems for students and teachers in their new one-to-one computing initiatives. SOLUTION: Five districts in the state now employ School Web Lockers, a cloud-based computing service that combines Web-based storage, backup, collaboration, and file sharing. The Web Lockers offers unlimited storage capacity and complete firewall protection while eliminating traditional security problems related to file sharing in K-12 schools.
Video camera system provides smart security for New York State district CHALLENGE: The Onondaga Central School District is located in upstate New York just seven miles outside Syracuse. The school district’s administration wanted to help ensure that students and staff would be safe at all times while on school property. SOLUTION: The district chose the VideoIQ iCVR, a video surveillance camera that combines automated event detection, a built-in DVR, and integrated video management in a single product driven by analytics.
Progress reports for kids, schools benefit Colorado districts CHALLENGE: After a decade of working to create a new system for measuring individual student growth, called Colorado Growth Model, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and Center for Assessment wanted a system that would better present student-progress data it generated. SOLUTION: CDE took its existing student data system, Colorado Growth Model, and brought Universal Mind in to consult on and build a way to visually present and interact with the data coming out of the system. July of 2009, CDE introduced the resulting application, known as SchoolVIEW, to staff in 180 school districts. Shortly thereafter, SchoolVIEW launched with 470,000 individual student-performance reports to school districts for use by teachers and parents throughout the state.
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Oregon institutes new teacher certification process CHALLENGE: Oregon’s Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) was shopping for a new state teacher-licensure-testing program linked to all standards. SOLUTION: The TSPC began working with Pearson’s evaluation systems group to implement new contemporary teachercertification tests, part of Pearson’s NES (National Evaluation Series). Oregon will use the new tests to replace many existing tests for licenses and endorsements, integrating them with the existing customized Oregon Educator Licensure Assessments program.
Professional development resource adopted by Hawaii statewide CHALLENGE: Hawaii’s public schools were shopping for a resource that would help them meet their high estimations of students’ knowledge, ability, and passion for learning as well as their high expectations for performance by teachers and staff at every school. SOLUTION: The department of education purchased the on-demand professional learning resource PD 360 for all its schools. Hawaii plans to use PD 360 at the school level to align professionallearning plans with the schools’ academic goals and student achievement data.
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PRODUCTREVIEWS
Put to the Test T&L Editors take some new products for a test drive PRODUCT: BLOSSOM LEARNING www.blossomlearning.comRetail price: $69.95 Blossom Learning is an online applied SMART Board course that allows teachers and students to take a course at their own pace, and repeat a lesson until proficiency is achieved. The course contains end of chapter reviews, but teachers have the freedom to review at any time. PROS: The program is a bargain at its price, offering nearly four days of instruction and covering all aspects of the SMART Board from the basics to the most advanced topics. The course features built-in administrative functions that allow administrators to assign, monitor, and evaluate individual teacher progress. CONS: To successfully take the course, teachers and students should have some prior knowledge of how to learn from an online course. OVERALL EVALUATION: Schools who want to incorporate more SMART Board technology into their classroom curricula will benefit from a program like Blossom Learning, with its straightforward lessons and individualized opportunity for progressing at a self-paced level. —Joe Huber
PRODUCT: LEARNING.COM’S DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT www.learning.comRetail price: Free to current Learning.com customers. Learning.com’s Digital Learning Environment is an online curriculum management tool that coordinates lesson plans to national and some state curriculum guides. Teachers have the ability to share their best lesson plans with other educators, and can interact with students via online journal lessons (interactive web pages). Users can import media for outside resources such as teacher tube, and the program encourages
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teachers to relate lesson plans to curriculum guidelines as they are being written. Lessons are stored on companies’ servers, eliminating the need for local installations. PROS: The software is an excellent value, since anyone who currently uses a Learning.com product can access it free of charge. This is one of the easiest to use curriculum management tools available. It includes a comprehensive feature set that is robust enough to get the job done, especially for elementary schools. With a crisp and clean user interface, anyone who can use a word processing program can use the Digital Learning Environment. Sharing lesson plans among teachers makes it easy to collaborate with co-workers. CONS: To reach a larger audience, the product needs to be coordinated to more state curriculum guidelines. OVERALL EVALUATION: Schools will benefit from a software tool like Digital Learning Environment, a product that boosts collaboration between teachers and allows for easy student-teacher interaction via interactive web pages. —Joe Huber
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PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: LENOVO THINKCENTRE A70Z www.lenovo.com Retail price: Starting at $499 The Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z is a an all-in-one computer with a small 70% footprint that separates CPU and display, starts up in 35 seconds and is only 2.4 inches thick with a 19 inch display. A highdefinition Web camera and 6 USB ports make this a great product for the high-tech classroom. Teachers concerned about the cost will appreciate the computer’s 5 Star Energy Rating, saving users about $65 per year over previous Lenovo desktops. PROS: The small footprint of this computer allows more computers to fit into the same classroom space than other machines. CONS: Since the computer is an all-in-one product, having one part break renders the entire machine down for repairs. The computer uses wireless keyboards and mice, so teachers need to ensure that frequencies do not cross in a lab setting. (But there are models that do come with wired keyboard and mouse.) OVERALL EVALUATION: The small footprint, the low prices, the HD picture, the wireless mouse and keyboard all make this machine too good of a value to pass up. —Joe Huber
PRODUCT: INSPIRATION 9 www.inspiration.comRetail price: Single copy $69; 5 computer license, $310; 10-computer license, $550; 20-computer license, $895; single upgrade, $29.95. Inspiration 9 includes a collection of helpful visual learning tools designed for brainstorming, organizing ideas, outlining, draft writing, note taking, and storyboarding. The non-linear mind maps students draw with Inspiration symbols, arrows, and pictures help students visualize connections between related ideas. Inspiration 9 offers support for OpenOffice Writer and iWork Pages in addition to Microsoft Word. Inspiration 9 builds on the strong toolset available in previous versions by adding new symbols, a Link Phrases labeling capability to clarify how one symbol relates to another, and a tool to lock selected items in place so that designated symbols and text boxes cannot be moved or deleted. Locked items will come in handy on templates created for students to complete, preventing them from altering the template in unintended ways. PROS: Inspiration’s graphic libraries, subject area templates, built-in text-to-speech, spelling checker, and layout arrangement tools reinforce learning across the curriculum, enabling students to focus on what is being taught in any subject with-
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out requiring that they read and write large quantities of text. CONS: When users select “Transfer to Word Processor,” the software asks the user to select the destination application and automatically exports the file to that designation word processor in all future uses. Prompting the user to choose a word processor each time may be more effective for educators who wish to choose different word processors as needed. There is also some difficulty in changing from Outline or Diagram view to Presentation Manager, requiring substantial slide rebuilding and placeholder reformatting. OVERALL EVALUATION: Every school should have Inspiration in its software collection. The software supports non-linear brainstorming and higher-order thinking for all students, including mainstreamers, high achievers, and struggling learners.
—Carol S. Holzberg, PhD
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WHO’S WHO IN ED TECH: PART ONE, THE PAST
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Clarksville Students Excel with A+® The Clarksville Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) in Tennessee has been using the A+nyWhere Learning System® (A+LS™) courseware from American Education Corporation since 2003. CMCSS uses A+LS in its Alternative School, Virtual School, Credit Recovery, and Summer Intervention programs, and also for ACT and GED preparation. The primary challenge to education in CMCSS is unmistakable. “We’re a district with more than 45 percent poverty,” says Dr. Kimi Sucharski, accountability supervisor, K-12 at-risk programs supervisor, for CMCSS. “In some schools, poverty approaches 90 percent.” Along with poverty is mobility, with its disruptive effect on learning. “We have schools with more than 70 percent turnover,” says Sucharski. “In some grade levels, it’s 90 percent.” “We wanted to provide our kids with access to one flexible curriculum that
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allows them to move from place to place and also lets them continue learning,” explains Sucharski. Since many students may start a grade in one school and finish in another, ongoing, accurate assessments with results that can be compared between schools is critical—both to maintain state standards and to give teachers a quick understanding of each student’s strengths and weaknesses. “After extensive research, A+LS was selected because it includes a study component, pre- and post-assessments, and can be realigned to meet our specific needs.” “We use the A+LS assessments differently in different programs,” says Sucharski. “For example, in Credit Recovery, our assessments are mainly
summative. Our purpose is to evaluate mastery. Assessments are made after each module and upon completion of each content package. In ACT and GED prep, we make more use of pre-assessments to establish what the student already knows and to build on that, and to focus on what the student doesn’t know.” For Sucharski, the bottom line is the success of individual students. But individual student success often depends on solving district-wide problems in educational management. “In our Alternative School program alone,” says Sucharski, “we have six high schools and seven middle schools. So we have the potential for 13 or 14 curriculums. Imagine being the teacher in the classroom who has to address that. To streamline the process and ensure curriculum continuity, we decided to standardize on A+LS.” The results of Sucharski’s strategies are well documented. “For instance,” says Sucharski, “100 percent of the students coming to our Virtual High Schools were identified as being unable to graduate on time in their traditional high school programs. In the last two years, 90 percent of Virtual School students graduated high school on time with regular diplomas—that’s a huge percentage.” And in the CMCSS Credit Recovery Program, 93 percent of more than 200 students recovered their credits. Sucharski values not only the A+LS courseware but also the company that stands behind it. “When you have 400 kids signing on to technology,” says Sucharski, “it has to work perfectly. The American Education Corporation has always been responsive. All our phone calls and emails are answered promptly. They’ve always resolved even our most difficult problems. They work closely with us—that’s a big plus.”
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The Tech & Learn By Matt Bolch
AS PART OF OUR 30TH-ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, Tech & Learning is compiling a list of the people most important to the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education. Our first 30 honorees are plucked from the past: the founding fathers and mothers whose inventions, declarations, and theories set the table for where we are today. Here is our list. Did we miss someone? Respond to our reader poll at www.techlearning.com/30thanniversary.
Burrhus Frederic “B.F.” Skinner (1904–1990) has been called the most influential psychologist of the 20th century, but the Harvard professor who invented operant conditioning also shaped teaching. Skinner invented the teaching machine, a mechanical device that allowed users to respond to questions and receive rewards for correct responses. In The Technology of Teaching, he outlined five main obstacles to learning (fear of failure, task too big, lack of directions, lack of clear directions, and lack of positive reinforcement) and ways each can be overcome (give immediate feedback, break task into smaller steps, repeat directions as necessary, work from the simple to the complex, and give positive reinforcement).
Craig R. Barrett
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) was a professor of English literature who pioneered the study of media theory. His 1951 book The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man helped establish popular culture as a field of study, while 1962’s The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man examined how communication technology (alphabetic writing, the printing press, and modern electronic media) affects cognition and social organization. McLuhan received wide acclaim for his 1964 book Understanding Media, in which he set out his belief that media, and not their content, should be the focus of study. The popular quotation “The medium is the message” is the title of that book’s first chapter.
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(born 1939) retired last year from Intel Corp. as CEO and chairman of the board after a 35-year career, but his passion continues to inspire successive generations of learners. Barrett has taken on national and international roles in the advancement of technology and learning. Until last year he was chairman of the United Nations’ Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development, which works to bring computers and other technology to developing parts of the world. He is also a private-sector advocate of a national science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education initiative.
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Sugata Mitra is a professor of educational technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University in the UK. While at the National Institute of Information Technologies, where he remains chief scientist emeritus, Mitra ran what is known as the Hole in the Wall experiment to gauge unsupervised learning. A computer was placed in a kiosk in a slum in Kalkajo, Delhi, and children were allowed to use it freely—and did so, proving that children can learn to use computers without formal instruction. Mitra continues to explore what he calls minimally invasive education in his work in education technology for remote and rural areas.
David Thornburg
Angus S. King Jr. (born 1944) served two terms as governor of Maine and established the nation’s first one-to-one laptop initiative late in his second term. In 2000, King established the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, whose goal was to provide students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century. The effort culminated in the fall of 2002 in each seventh-grade student and teacher’s receiving a laptop; eighth graders followed a year later. King is a distinguished lecturer at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and a Segal lecturer in American politics at Bates College in Lewiston.
is director of global operations at the Thornburg Center, which he founded to help clients think intelligently about the future and explore ways telecommunications and multimedia will change the face of learning. His education philosophy is based on the idea that students learn best when they are constructors of their own knowledge. Thornburg also believes that students who are taught in ways that honor their learning styles retain the native engagement with learning with which they entered school. His latest book, When the Best Is Free, explores the world of free open-source software in education, with special emphasis on tools for student use.
Linda G. Roberts directed the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology from its inception in September 1993 to January 2001 and was the secretary of education’s senior adviser on technology. At the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment before joining the Clinton administration, she directed three landmark studies of technology that became the basis for federal and state law and policy on education technology. Roberts played a key role in developing the E-rate, the program that brings the Internet and advanced telecommunications to the nation’s schools and libraries.
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Leading the Way in Classroom Transformation Every day, teachers around the world tell us that SMART products help them transform learning. They say we make it easy to create extraordinary moments in the classroom and help students succeed. Since we invented the interactive whiteboard nearly 20 years ago, we’ve grown into a company of over 1,300 staff, with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Now, hundreds of thousands of educators use our products.
addressing all learning styles. Whether your teachers specialize in math, special education, science, technology, early education or distance learning, we have products to support them.
WHY CHOOSE SMART? We take great pride in the fact that more educators choose SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards than all other brands combined—it means we’ve earned their trust.
"21st century learning skills are necessary for the success of our students and the economic prosperity of our nation. These skills begin with installing a SMART Board in every classroom" —Anthony Mullen, 2009 National Teacher of the Year, ARCH School, Greenwich, Connecticut But SMART is more than just an interactive whiteboard company—we offer full education solutions that help you engage students and make learning extraordinary. EASY TO USE. EASY TO SUCCEED. At the core of our education solutions is the SMART platform, which includes two fundamental products—the touch-sensitive SMART Board interactive whiteboard and SMART Notebook™ collaborative learning software. These easy-to-use products are
recognized by educators around the world as having the power to transform teaching and learning. To help educators achieve this transformation, we also ensure they have the content they need to create extraordinary lessons. Through the SMART Exchange™ online community, teachers are connected to each other and to highquality SMART Notebook lesson activities. EASY TO EXTEND When you’re ready to further enrich your schools with products that complement the SMART Board interactive whiteboard, you can look to the SMART classroom. It’s an extensive selection of easyto-use, modular products that give teachers more ways to engage students. The SMART classroom helps teachers shift easily between whole-class, small-group and individual learning environments,
EASY TO IMPLEMENT AND OWN Whichever products you select for your classrooms, you’ll know that they will be supported fully. And you can be sure of seeing a maximum return on your investment. We provide industry-leading services, including professional development, customer support, consulting services and access to the best of digital content. We’ve considered every aspect of your technology rollout, so you can implement SMART products quickly and on a large scale, with rapid adoption and student success as your end results. EASY TO BELONG When you purchase SMART products, you become part of a community that spans all continents, bringing together people who use SMART products to transform teaching and learning. The SMART community is large and committed; it’s a good place to belong. It offers a wealth of grassroots information, advice and content—all waiting to be shared. MAKING LEARNING EXTRAORDINARY EVERY DAY When we make it easy to succeed at implementing our products, educators make our products part of their lives. Our commitment to SMART education solutions has resulted in profound and lasting changes in schools around the globe.
For more information visit smarttech.com ©2010 SMART Technologies ULC. All rights reserved. SMART Board, SMART Notebook, SMART Exchange, smarttech, the SMART logo and all SMART taglines are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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The Tech & Learning 100@30 Benjamin S. Bloom (1913–1999), an educational psychologist, and his co-workers at the University of Chicago developed a six-step stairway for learning that helped classify educational objectives and is the basis for the theory of mastery learning. Each successive step builds on the ones below. While other systems for learning have been created, Bloom’s system is easily understood and has been widely applied. Starting from the bottom, the steps are knowledge, which forms the basis for higher levels; comprehension, grasping a concept; application, using what one has learned; analysis, breaking information down; synthesis, putting separate ideas together; and evaluation, judging the worth of material.
Scott McNealy M. David Merrill is an instructional effectiveness consultant and a professor emeritus at Utah State University. He has been a major contributor to the field of instructional technology, especially in the area of first principles of instruction, as outlined in five steps of engagement. According to these steps, instruction occurs when the learner engages in solving real-world problems, uses existing knowledge as the basis for new learning, receives a demonstration of new knowledge, applies new knowledge, and integrates that knowledge. Merrill teaches online courses at Brigham Young University Hawaii and the University of Hawaii. “Information is not instruction,” Merrill has famously said.
Bob Pearlman is a consultant on strategy for developing 21st-century schools. From 2002 to 2009, he directed strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation, a school-development organization that supports the replication of the New Technology 21st Century High School model in more than 50 communities across the United States. Pearlman consults and speaks on 21st-century learning widely in the United States and the UK. He also consults on strategy for education reform, assisting key reform initiatives around the country.
Julie Young is president and chief executive offer of Florida Virtual School, which she helped launch in 1997. The organization, which has a staff of more than 1,200, provides nearly 100 courses to more than 130,000 students annually. Young chairs the United States Distance Learning Association and serves on the boards of the North American Council for Online Learning and the Florida Learning Alliance. She is a member of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Distance Learning Task Force, the Florida TaxWatch Center for Educational Performance and Accountability, and the UT TeleCampus National Advisory Board. In 2003, Young was inducted into the USDLA hall of fame.
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(born 1954), chairman and cofounder of Sun Microsystems, was an early advocate of the networked-computer environment. McNealy, who also is chairman of Sun Federal Inc., helped set the industry agenda through his vision of network computing, which has been a guide and a barometer for the direction and pace of technological innovation. Sun Microsystems is responsible for Java, the Solaris operating system, and the Niagara computer chip. McNealy is furthering his commitment to education by working with Curriki, a global education and learning community dedicated to delivering global access to knowledge.
Albert Bandura
Al Gore (born 1948) is credited with pushing through Congress legislation that led to the commercializing of the Internet in the early 1990s. As a senator in the early ’80s, Gore was known as an Atari Democrat because of his intense interest in technology as an economic engine. He coined the phrase “information superhighway” and later, under the Clinton administration, was the first U.S. vice president to hold a live interactive news conference on an international computer network. One of the goals of that administration was to connect every U.S. classroom to the Internet by the turn of the millennium.
Alan November is the senior partner in and founder of November Learning, a company that empowers educators to apply tools and strategies across the curriculum. November, an international leader in education technology, was among the first to recognize the importance of Web 2.0 technologies in enhancing classroom learning. He is the author of Empowering Students with Technology and a founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology. November, who was selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe educators, leads the Building Learning Communities summer conference, which features presenters and participants from all over the world.
Seymour Papert (born 1928) is a mathematician at MIT and one of the pioneers in the study of artificial intelligence, having founded MIT’s AI Laboratory with Marvin Minsky in the mid-1960s. He also created the Logo programming language, which was designed as a tool for learning by children. The Logo Foundation was created to inform people about Logo and to support the use of Logobased software for learning and teaching. Papert serves on the advisory board of the Lego Mindstorms product line, which was named after his seminal book Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas and which forms the basis for the First Lego League, which has worldwide participation.
(born 1925) did pioneering research in social learning theory early in his five-decade teaching career at Stanford University. The Alberta, Canada, native is best known in education circles for his research on the role of social modeling in human motivation: for example, the famous Bobo doll experiment in 1961. That test demonstrated that we learn aggression and other behaviors by observing and imitating other people. Bandura has been at Stanford, where he is professor emeritus of psychology, since 1953. His current research focuses on the influential role of people’s beliefs in their ability to exercise control over their lives, especially in the area of self-development.
Robert Mills Gagne (1916–2002) began to develop his “conditions of learning” when he was a research manager at the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense following World War II. Throughout his career, which included a professorship in the educational research department at Florida State University, the educational psychologist greatly added to the knowledge of instructional design. He also applied instructional concepts to computer-based and multimedia learning. His “nine events of instruction” are: gain attention, inform learner of objectives, stimulate recall of prior learning, present stimulus material, provide guidance, elicit performance, provide feedback, assess performance, and enhance retention transfer.
Howard Gardner (born 1943) is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The developmental psychologist is best known in education circles for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments. Gardner has written more than 20 books that have been translated into 27 languages and several hundred articles. Building on his studies of intelligence in Frames of Mind, Gardner has also written Leading Minds, Changing Minds, and Extraordinary Minds.
Nicholas Negroponte (born 1943) is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child nonprofit association. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he cofounded and directed the media laboratory. Negroponte is a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design and author of the 1995 best-seller Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Negroponte serves on Motorola Inc.’s board of directors and is general partner in a venture capital firm that has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.
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The Tech & Learning 100@30 George W. Bush
LeRoy Finkel (died 1993) was one of the founders in 1978 of Computer-Using Educators (CUE), a California-based organization that has since gained a national reputation for its leadership in the use of technology in the classroom through both its annual conference and general advocacy. LeRoy was an educator who recognized that technology would become a major factor in the educational process. According to friends and colleagues, he showed the way as teachers struggled to integrate computers into their classrooms, and their lives. He wrote books and articles, praised good products, sniped at bad ones, and scrutinized every aspect of educational computing for the benefit of all. He died (WHEN) In his memory, CUE offers an annual fellowship to promote leadership in the field of educational technology.”
(born 1946) and Ted Kennedy (19322009) helped shepherd the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 into law. Bush proposed the sweeping education-reform bill shortly after taking office, and Kennedy was a sponsor of the resulting Senate bill and helped it gain passage. The NCLB touts standards-based education reform because its backers believe that high standards and measurable goals can help students learn. The act requires states to develop basic-skill assessments that are given at specific grade levels in order for the states to receive federal funding. Each state establishes its own achievement standards, however.
James D. Finn (1915–1969), an education technology pioneer, viewed technology as much more than machines. After serving in the military in the instructional-aids and training departments at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he spent two decades as an education professor at the University of Southern California. Finn sought to elevate audiovisual education to a professional field of study and to base it on research and theory. He believed that technology encompassed processes, management, and human and non-human controls. Finn served as president of both the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and the National Education Association in the early 1960s.
Albert Shanker (1928–1997) had activism in his veins. During his undergraduate years at the University of Illinois in UrbanaChampagne, Shanker picketed segregated movie theaters and restaurants and joined several socialist clubs. He taught for seven years in the New York City school system, where he devoted increasing time to union work. He was president of the local United Federation of Teachers for 12 years and of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 until his death. But Shanker was also a proponent of accountability, calling for national teaching standards, charter schools, responsibility for results, peer review, and minimumcompetency testing of new teachers.
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Dennis Harper is founder and CEO of Generation YES, which teaches and empowers students to solve technology problems in their schools and communities. Generation YES (Youth and Educators Succeeding) grew out of a successful pilot program funded by a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education while Harper was with the Olympia (WA) School District. What was then called Generation www.Y was an innovative model of student involvement in infusing schools with technology, driving teachers’ professional development, and improving schools. More than 100,000 teachers and students participated in the project, which was christened Generation YES after the grant ended. Harper served on the ISTE board of directors from 1997 to 1999.
Steve Jobs (born 1955) is an American entrepreneur who cofounded Apple Inc., which marketed the first Apple II and Macintosh personal computers in the late 1970s. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the computer mouse. He left Apple in the mid-’80s to found NeXT, a computer company specializing in highereducation and business markets. Apple bought NeXT in 1997, and Jobs rejoined the company as its CEO. Apple has regained some of its luster through the introduction of the iPod and the iPhone, both of which are making inroads as educational-content platforms.
Bill Gates (born 1955) is best known for developing the Windows operating system, which is used in a huge majority of the world’s computers. The PC enables all types of learning in both personal and classroom environments. These days the Harvard dropout and world’s richest man continues to bolster education through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which supports organized and individual learning across a wide variety of local, national, and global projects. Educational initiatives include a global-libraries award to promote free access to information technology; national grants to support smaller schools and charter schools; and endowed scholarships at U.S. and UK universities.
Lajeane G. Thomas
Jeannette M. Wing is assistant director of the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation. A doctoral graduate of MIT, she is also the President’s Professor of Computer Science in Carnegie Mellon University’s computer science department. In 2007, CISE’s more than $527 million budget funded 86 percent of all federally subsidized research in computer science. The organization also contributes to the education and training of future generations of computer scientists and engineers. Wing’s recent research has focused on strengthening software security.
is a professor of curriculum, instruction, and leadership at Louisiana Tech University who has helped prepare teachers for the 21st century. She is a past president of the International Society for Technology in Education and a longtime chair of its accreditation and standards committee. Thomas directed ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards Project, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology grant, and served on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’s technology task force, which developed the report “Technology and the New Professional Teacher: Preparing for the 21st Century Classroom.”
Clifford Stoll is an astronomer at the University of Berkeley but is probably best known as a leading authority on Internet security (he caught the “Hanover Hacker”) and as a bit of a technology curmudgeon. He is the author of High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian, which asks readers to check the assumptions that dominate our thinking about technology and the role of computers, especially in the classroom. In his 1995 book Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, Stoll warned of the effect the Internet may have on human interaction.
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Schools Enhance Learning and Reduce Costs with Cisco Unified Wireless Network Teachers and technology teams have discovered how the Cisco® Unified Wireless Network can enhance the way that students learn—and also help relieve strained district budgets. Orange County Public Schools in Florida are building out a new 802.11n wireless network to enhance classroom experiences while reducing their labor costs for network adds and moves by 20 percent. For the Council Rock School District in Pennsylvania, a similar move to Cisco 802.11n wireless and a “Go Green” program have helped provide the foundation for a dynamic learning environment and $5 million in energy savings. Both of these school districts chose Cisco’s high-performance 802.11n wireless solution to provide secure, highspeed mobile access for students, teachers, and administrators. This solution protects the network from unauthorized access and malicious activity with its built-in security suite. Further, Cisco’s solution can help improve school safety and security by extending wireless video surveillance into hard-toreach areas and campus trouble spots or during emergency situations. BUDGET-FRIENDLY HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS “Today’s schools have to provide highquality learning with reduced funding,” says Ray Smets, vice president and general manager, Cisco wireless networking. “The Cisco Unified Wireless Network helps schools deliver cost-effective teaching, learning, and operations anywhere on campus on-demand. Students, teachers, staff, and parents all benefit as the campus environment becomes more flexible to support innovative learning experiences.”
Cisco’s industry-leading 802.11n wireless solution provides important advantages to schools and school districts. ■ More users and Wi-Fi devices can simultaneously access the 300 Mbps wireless network to run high-bandwidth applications. ■ Video and multimedia are sent and received more efficiently with higher quality over the Cisco Unified Wireless Network. ■ Cisco ClientLink makes wireless access more predictable and reliable for new and legacy laptops, PDAs, and other Wi-Fi devices. ■ Mobility services such as guest access, voice over wireless, and asset tracking can be added easily, at any time. ■ Wireless management is simplified and cost-effective. For example, Orange County Public Schools are able to manage their entire wireless infrastructure spanning 180 school sites—without adding any IT staff. DELIVERING EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE “Because the Cisco 802.11n network provides 300 Mbps, we can now support more devices running simultaneously— including wireless IP phones, PDAs, and our Computer Labs on Wheels—than we could before,” says Myron Bryant, assis-
tant director of Network Services at Orange County Public Schools. “The network is more predictable, enabling faculty to work anywhere on campus. Wi-Fi, available pervasively indoors and outdoors across the district, has increased our staff’s productivity substantially. Plus, the Cisco Unified Wireless Network enabled us to add secure and controlled guest access to provide wireless Internet access for visitors and at community events.” The Cisco wireless advantage is also evident at Council Rock Schools. “We can [centrally] control and manage all 211 wireless access points across the district, including the wireless security cameras,” says Matt Frederickson, the IT director for the Council Rock District. “Changing configurations remotely takes about 30 seconds. We’re extremely pleased with 802.11n…the capabilities make it ideal for our dynamic environment where there is a constant mix of old and new technology. We will eventually migrate all of our access points to this new standard.” EMPOWERING SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS FOR SUCCESS Cisco has an extensive portfolio of highperformance wireless solutions for all areas of the campus, from classrooms and administration offices, to auditoriums, parking lots, and outdoor areas. Cisco will work with you to transform your school campuses into dynamic connected learning environments that improve efficiency, enhance safety and security, and enable mobile students, faculty, and staff to stay continuously connected to vital resources for enhanced learning and improved student success.
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W W W.T E C H L E A R N I N G . C O M
THE QUEST FOR PORTABILITY By T&L Editors
Is your district trying to determine the best way to get a computer into every student’s hands? Are you deciding between netbooks and tablets? And what about thin-client computing? Each option has plenty of pluses and a few negatives. Read on to see how other technology directors figured out the best path for their schools.
PINELLAS COUNTY SCHOOL
NORTH KANSAS CITY SCHOOLS KANSAS CITY, MO
LARGO, FL
5,600 HP MININOTE 2140S WWW.HP.COM/GO/K12
WHAT DO YOU USE?
“To accommodate our budget crisis last year, we decided to get netbooks,” says John Just, assistant superintendent of management information systems. “We went with Dell because the 2100 was designed with schools in mind.”
“We didn’t feel we could afford to go one-to-one with our high school students with something that cost more than $500,” says Janet Herdman, executive director of information and technology services. She tested netbooks last year and found that they accomplished about 90 percent of what the district needed to do.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS APPROACH?
$493 each, including one-year warranty, installation, and custom configuration.
$123 per student for a three-year lease.
“The form factor and scale have been terrific at the elementary level,” Just says. He has gotten tremendous feedback about the cart, too. “I don’t think a lot of companies other than Dell understand how much time it takes to get laptops in and out of a cart. These slide right into a slot; you can’t put them in the wrong way. They are automatically powered and hooked up to the network.”
Size, mobility, and weight. “We have a decent processor, lots of RAM, and long battery life. Why spend twice as much on a tablet if this suffices?”
They’re a little small for the high school students, says Just. Also, they can’t run some of the specialized programs without a lot of tweaking. “Our state developed an assessment that wasn’t scaled down to work on the netbook; there was lots of scrolling involved.”
The processor is not as fast as a full-blown laptop. Also, one of the district’s CAD programs and a few other things wouldn’t run.
It’s affordable, and you can get more computers in students’ hands. Before netbooks, Just says, there wasn’t a form factor that worked for elementary school students. “A lot of our elementary teachers use Moodle,” he says. “For them, the ability to use this technology is great. They love it.”
“If you’re looking for a way to afford a one-toone environment, this is it. We’re reaching 5,600 students and bringing the digital world to them without increasing our budget.”
7,000 DELL LATITUDE 2100 NETBOOKS WWW.DELL.COM
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COSTS?
PROS
CONS
WHY MIGHT OTHER SCHOOLS CHOOSE THIS ROUTE?
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PRODUCTGUIDE
DWIGHTENGLEWOOD SCHOOL ENGLEWOOD, NJ
LIVERMORE VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL LIVERMORE, CA
1,000 FUJITSU LIFEBOOK 5010S WWW.FUJITSU.COM/US/
50 TOSHIBA M750S (UPGRADED FROM M400S) WWW.TOSHIBA.COM
“We wanted to make sure the students could use these like [paper] notebooks,” says Trevor Shaw, director of technology at this private pre-K-12 school. “It’s hard to take notes in math and science on a keyboard.” The tablets have niche applications everyone likes, such as Microsoft Office OneNote and ArtRage.
“Every teacher has a tablet,” says Michelle Fitts, a sixth-grade math, science, and technology teacher. “We have about 110 Toshiba netbooks for students, but we chose tablets for the teachers so they could have full power to do what they need.” Fitts, for example, writes on her tablet’s screen to show each step in solving a math problem.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COSTS?
Parents are billed for the machines, which come to $2,400 each with a four-year warranty and a secondary battery.
Approximately $1,000 each.
Teachers are using them. Once Toshiba gave the teachers some training, they began using OneNote and are collaborating.
PROS
The pen input is the major difference. “Going to one-to-one made lots of people nervous,” Shaw says. “Our faculty was concerned about distractions, but some teachers require students to have the machines in tablet mode, which lets them see what’s happening on the screen and helps them manage the class.”
CONS
The price. “It’s the right device for us, but down the road we might look for something a little less expensive and a little smaller.”
“With a tablet versus a non-tablet, it’s cost,” Fitts says. We had to go in front of our CFO to plead our case and justify buying these.”
The note taking is key, says Shaw, especially being able to do shared note-taking sessions in OneNote. “Everyone sees the same page and contributes to it. The ninth-grade textbook is a OneNote document that the students download, and it’s customizable.”
“A laptop’s keyboard is a barrier, but a tablet lets you do everything you’d do with a pencil. You can draw lines or circles—annotate anything. Also, I don’t have to turn my back to write on the board. It’s much more engaging when I’m looking at the kids rather than turning my back on them.”
WHAT DO YOU USE?
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS APPROACH?
WHY MIGHT OTHER SCHOOLS CHOOSE THIS ROUTE?
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PRODUCTGUIDE
PAWTUCKET SCHOOL DEPT. PAWTUCKET, RI
WESTERN WAYNE SCHOOL DISTRICT SOUTH CANAAN, PA
WHAT DO YOU USE?
2,000 HP THIN-CLIENT DEVICES WWW.HP.COM/GO/K12
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS APPROACH?
It was a matter of survival, says technology director Michael St. Jean. “We’re a fairly decentsize urban district, money is tight, and the demand continues to grow. We could not sustain managing, purchasing, configuring, and replacing individual desktops throughout the district. We had to change the way we do business.”
The district won a grant and got 250 laptops for four classrooms. They needed to figure out how they would come up with $300,000 when the grant ran out. “Thin clients and virtualization sounded attractive to me,” says Brian Seaman, network administrator. He went for training, did some trials, and liked how it worked.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COSTS?
St. Jean’s thin-client unit is $199. It’s tied to a flat-panel display that costs $140, so a full “unit” is $340.
$12,000 for the VMWare (infrastructure); Wyse thin clients cost $180 each. New Dell servers are $6,000 each.
PROS
It’s more cost-effective, and you can do more with less staff, St. Jean says. “It takes 30 seconds to configure it for a student or teacher to start using it. We use significantly less electricity and don’t need to run antivirus on these machines, which have no hard drive, fan, or moving parts. We don’t need desktop management software. We expect to get eight to 10 years out of a thin-client device, so the cost of ownership is much better.”
They are much easier to deploy than desktops, Seaman says. “They all get configured from one file that you create. The life span of a thin client is double that of a desktop. It’s all managed from one console.”
CONS
“You need to put a lot of eggs in one basket. If something happens to a server, a school or lab goes down. However, we’ve found it so reliable that when, rarely, something goes wrong, it’s a matter of a reboot.” Thin client is not the best at streaming audio and video, so if an entire school is streaming, it will bog down. This is improving, though.
Right out of the box, thin clients are not able to play Flash as if they were a PC. Although Wyse has software that fixes that problem, Seaman hears some complaints. Also, he says that technology directors may hesitate to put all their eggs in one basket; it’s a matter of perspective.
For many districts, it’s no longer a matter of choice, St. Jean says, adding that everyone should carefully consider this approach because of its efficiency and cost-effectiveness, how well it utilizes the available resources, and how it limits the impact on your staff’s time.
“In my experience, it would be so that you can deploy more with your current budget. On the IT side, you can be more productive with fewer people. I can say, ‘Create 90 virtual machines’ and the server will do it by itself. Later that night, from home, I can double-check. I don’t need to go back and rename them all, or run around and press F12 100 times.”
WHY MIGHT OTHER SCHOOLS CHOOSE THIS ROUTE?
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100 WYSE THIN-CLIENT DEVICES WWW.WYSE.COM
WITHOUT A
WIRE HOW TO MAKE A WIRELESS NETWORK WORK IN YOUR SCHOOL
SPONSORED BY
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Advertorial
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WIRELESS
GOING WIRELESS By Ellen Ullman Nobody said installing a wireless network was easy, but solid planning can ease the process significantly. Done properly, building a wireless network won’t be the horror story it was for the school that shut down the network when a student’s laptop accessed an infected Web site and spread a virus. We’re here to make sure that that doesn’t happen to you. With a bit of insight and some proper planning, you can install a wireless network that’s successful, stable, and secure. START WITH A SOLID FOUNDATION. Before you do anything, make sure your wired infrastructure is strong. If it’s not working properly, installing wireless will exacerbate the problems. PLANNING IS EVERYTHING. A successful wireless implementation is entirely dependent on figuring out the variables up front, including application, wireless frequency, density of users, and building materials. ■ APPLICATION: What do your teachers, administrators, and students want to accomplish with a wireless environment? You need to understand this before you get to the technical details. “We are on our fourth iteration of wireless because we
didn’t plan it correctly,” says Steve Terrell, the network and IT security engineer at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. Now he knows to ask the essential questions: How many people will be accessing the network, and what do they need to do with it? As Terrell learned the hard way, providing a bunch of access points and wireless devices will not make a successful deployment. “If you don’t know what capacity you’re building for, your users will be unhappy.” Try to anticipate what your users will want so that you don’t build a network Although Wi-Fi is the best known, most widely deployed wireless technolto accommodate one device per person and then have people walk in with sevogy in the enterprise market, it’s not the only option for video. eral devices each. For example, if the application has to span a distance larger than Wi-Fi’s ■ WIRELESS FREQUENCY: Even range of about 300 feet, such as to link surveillance cameras around an though wireless standards continuously office campus, it’s worth looking at vendor-specific platforms, such as evolve [see sidebar, page TK], you AvaLAN Wireless Systems’ Wireless Ethernet Bridges. Depending on the should choose whichever equipment is model’s frequency and whether it’s designed for indoor or outdoor use, an right for your district. If your students’ AvaLAN’s product has a range of 1,500 feet to 40 miles. notebooks are not the same standard as Another option is to run the video over a commercial wireless network, such the access point, the access point will as cellular or WiMAX. The advantages include better security than Wi-Fi, the use kick down to the speed of the notebook of licensed spectrum, and, in some cases, the option of obtaining service-level and you won’t get the true benefits of agreements. One potential disadvantage is having to pay a monthly fee, which that access point. Even if you have 40 can increase proportionally with video quality if more bandwidth is required. 802.11n notebooks and an 802.11n —Tim Kridel access point, if just one person has a
MORE THAN WI-FI
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WIRELESS notebook that’s 802.11b, every user will default down to 802.11b speed. Joe Penney, technology director at Madison-Plains Local School District in London, Ohio, chose 802.11n instead of 802.11g. “G is fast, but n provides higher speeds and a wider spectrum for us to run multimedia and streaming over,” he says. “N also provides double the coverage size.” ■ DENSITY OF USERS: Another critical issue is the number of users who will be accessing the wireless network. Remember, wireless is a shared resource. “Lots of people think they can put up an access point, get coverage, and they’re set, but that’s only
part of the story,” says Thuan Nguyen, chief information officer at Kent (WA) School District. “You have to look at how many clients you’re building for and where they will be. You need to plan so you’ll be able to provide enough bandwidth, for example, to stream video to a class of 30 laptops.” ■ BUILDING MATERIALS: Another consideration is your building’s makeup. Wireless will not penetrate metal, which is often found in older buildings. Newer construction, particularly LEED-certified, presents other challenges: wireless and cellular wreak havoc, and reflective glass can impede wireless coverage.
Mary Ann Beseda, technology director at Spring Independent School District in Houston, Texas, had difficulty with her schools’ cinderblock walls. “There’s a difference with how RF [radio frequency] goes through today’s buildings versus those built in the ‘70s,” she says. “Music rooms can also present challenges. You can be standing outside the door and unable to get access because of soundproof walls.” THE ESSENTIAL SITE SURVEY Next up is figuring out where to put access points. Penney covered his 750-person high school with 12 access points.
WIRELESS VIDEO: AN UGLY PICTURE? Running surveillance cameras and other video apps over wireless is a viable option—if you know what you’re doing Just about every other form of enterprise communications has gone wireless, but can the medium handle video? The short answer is yes, but there are plenty of caveats. Although Wi-Fi is often viewed basically as wireless Ethernet, there are at least four fundamental differences between it and its wired counterpart: ■ Throughput varies by distance. The farther that the video device—such as a surveillance camera—is from the Wi-Fi access point, the weaker the signal and thus the less bandwidth it can support. Walls and other physical obstructions also attenuate signals, further shrinking the usable range, which is about 300 feet under the best of conditions. ■ Throughput varies by time. Wi-Fi shares spectrum with myriad other technologies. Over time, the amount of bandwidth available for a video app can decrease as other devices are deployed and start competing for the same spectrum, thereby creating interference. ■ Overhead saps bandwidth. For all versions of WiFi, only about half the advertised bandwidth is actually available to the application; the rest is eaten up by radio overhead. ■ Packet loss is higher. Wi-Fi networks often lose at least 5 percent of packets because of factors such as interference. Those losses create noticeable video problems, such as jerky and pixelated images. Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum, which means that unlike the case with cellular, there are no governmentissued frequency licenses to segregate one set of users
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from others. As a result, the Wi-Fi bands are no-man’s lands where users routinely interfere with one another.
REUSE OR START FRESH? Many wireless video applications piggyback on an existing WLAN rather than going through the expense of deploying a new, parallel network just for video. In those cases it’s important to reengineer the WLAN to ensure that video traffic gets priority over email, file transfers, and other traffic that isn’t delay-sensitive. If the existing WLAN is already near capacity, it may be better to deploy a new network, either just for video or to migrate all applications to a system that has years of growing room. In both cases, consider the latest version of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, which has several features that benefit video: ■ a raw-data rate of 600 Mbps, enough to support even high-definition video after radio overhead, interference, and other users take their share. ■ more channels for devices to choose from when trying to find one that isn’t plagued by interference. ■ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) design, in which four antennas send and receive data in order to work around interference and weak signals. The bottom line is that for most enterprise applications, wireless is a viable option. The key to a good, secure system is to understand the potential pitfalls going into the project and to select products and network architectures that avoid them. —TK
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WIRELESS “We used a service provider through CDW-G who came in and did a site survey of the high school,” he says. “It is important to do a true site survey instead of guessing where your access points will go. It showed me how to overlap three different access points where I wanted them.” At this time, you should also think about any non-tech devices running in your building, in particular microwaves, which usually run on the same channel as wireless. Adam Weber, principal of Techedvise, an education-technology design and consulting firm in Carmel, Indiana, has helped hundreds of schools go wireless. He also recommends doing a site survey, and suggests using wireless-planning software to do it. “Whether it’s an entire campus or one building, we use these tools to ensure that you have proper wireless coverage.” Vendors such as Cisco, Meru, and Trapeze have their own software, and this, says Weber, will help with planning regardless of the platform you use. CHOOSING EQUIPMENT Terrell and Nguyen use Cisco products and services; Beseda and Penney use Aruba Networks. When choosing a vendor, it’s not just about price; it’s also about what you are trying to achieve. Weber says to talk with surrounding districts and to not assume that only one vendor has what you need. He suggests having a manufacturer or local reseller do a demo so you can see how it will connect and can get a feel for the user interface. Penney’s system has a centralized controller that allows him to manage his network. “I can reconfigure ports as I need to,” he says. “It gives me the ability to customize.” When he installed wireless in the middle school, he just duplicated the high school configurations. “Management is easy, because you do it once.” Beseda also uses a centrally man-
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aged system. “Otherwise you’ll be spending all your time going out and touching things, and most IT departments are short-staffed as it is,” she says. Whichever system you choose, you have to keep in mind that wireless configuration is ongoing. When Sean McDonough, director of information technology at the Harrisburg (PA) School District, discovered that an office building was competing for air space and clogging his network, he had to reconfigure the way his access points were interconnected. Because of the constant tweaking, you need to be able to do it on your own. “We are constantly reevaluating. The spectrum changes, kids find ways to bring in other wireless devices, and you need to stay on top of things.” KEEPING THE NETWORK SAFE As with a wired network, your district policy will dictate your security. How do you intend the network to be used? What is acceptable and what isn’t? “Your first consideration should be if you want a Starbucks café atmosphere or something equal to your wired network in the security it can provide,” says Terrell. He lets visitors log on to a guest portion of his network only. During the log-in, they must confirm that they accept all responsibility for their actions.
MORE THAN
WI-FI Although Wi-Fi is the best known, most widely deployed wireless technology in the enterprise market, it’s not the only option for video. For example, if the application has to span a distance larger than Wi-Fi’s range of about 300 feet, such as to link surveillance cameras around an office campus, it’s worth looking at vendor-specific platforms, such as AvaLAN Wireless Systems’ Wireless Ethernet Bridges. Depending on the model’s frequency and whether it’s designed for indoor or outdoor use, an AvaLAN’s product has a range of 1,500 feet to 40 miles. Another option is to run the video over a commercial wireless network, such as cellular or WiMAX. The advantages include better security than Wi-Fi, the use of licensed spectrum, and, in some cases, the option of obtaining service-level agreements. One potential disadvantage is having to pay a monthly fee, which can increase proportionally with video quality if more bandwidth is required. —TK
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WIRELESS Penney’s district provides wireless to anyone who’s near the school. He has four portals: one for districtowned equipment that’s hidden from outsiders; a staff-device portal, accessible by user name and password; a student-device portal, for kids who bring in their own wireless devices, which limits bandwidth; and a fourth one, for visitors. The visitor portal provides access only in certain areas, such as the main office. The visitor gets a password from a staff member and is granted usage for a set number of hours. “Every once in a while, kids bring in their own device or an access point and plug it into the network,” says Penney. “Because I have all the heat maps on my controller, I can detect the rogue access point, locate it, and go ask them to unplug it. Or I can put it on a rogue list and keep our network running clean.” Other things to decide how you’ll handle are encryption, rogue detection, and intrusion detection, Nguyen says. His district uses machine-level
authentication, in which the computer authenticates to a server and creates encryption. When users log in, there’s a second level of authentication so that Nguyen knows who’s logged on to that machine at that moment. Mark Coltharp, a technology-solutions consultant for Denver-based
WIRELESS NETWORK RESOURCES ■ 3com’s education solutions: www.3com.com/solutions/en_US/education/index.html ■ Aerohive networking case studies: www.aerohive.com/solutions/casestudy.html ■ Aruba Networks networking case studies: www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/case_studies.php ■ AvaLAN Wireless Systems’ Wireless Ethernet Bridges: www.avalanwireless.com/products-wireless_bridges-14.htm ■ Cisco’s white paper, “Optimizing Enterprise Video Over Wireless LAN”: www.ciscosystems.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps6302/ps8322 /ps10315/ps10325/white_paper_c11-577721.pdf ■ Impulse Safe•Connect NAC’s case studies on network security: www.impulse.com/education.php ■ Meru Network’s guide to 802.11n: www.merunetworks.com/11n/index.php ■ Motorola’s wireless networking product line: www.motorola.com/business/ v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=787b3acf35e95110VgnVCM1000008406b00aRCRD ■ Ruckus Wireless education solutions: www.ruckuswireless.com/verticals/education ■ The Wi-Fi Alliance: www.wi-fi.org ■ The WiMAX Forum’s Web site: www.wimaxforum.org ■ Trapeze Networks networking whitepapers: www.trapezenetworks.com/solutions/wireless_white_papers/
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Accuvant who has worked with schools for 20 years, says a common mistake is to forget to physically secure the network. “I’ve seen several schools with access points or antennas in clear sight of the students, who take them home. It’s more than just a financial loss. The access points can contain key security data.” He suggests installing access points above the drop-tile ceiling (and exposing just the antennas) or encasing them in a grid. Another security challenge is protecting students’ identities. “You need strong Web and content filtering on the back end,” Coltharp says. “I recommend full-disc encryption to protect them in case a laptop is stolen, as it has information about the child’s identity, his security key, and how he accesses the network.” Last but not least, to protect against malware and viruses, Coltharp suggests limiting bandwidth and restricting usage by time of day and geographic location in the school. After all, you don’t want to be the horror story we mentioned before and which we write about in the next wireless article.
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Advertorial
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WHATSNEW
Hardware/AV The newly enhanced SMART TableST230i interactive learning center (www.smarttech.com/table) includes a SMART Sync classroom management software license that enables teachers to transfer content between their computer and the SMART Table. They can then monitor and control student activity, and display the SMART Table screen image on a SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Additionally, integration with the SMART Document Camera enables students to capture images directly onto the SMART Table in real time. The SMART Table Toolkit—used by teachers to customize and create content—now provides direct access to thousands of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software Gallery items, and allows teachers to preview SMART Table activities on their computer.
RM ePad (www.RMeducation.com) interactive slate comes bundled with RM Easiteach so teachers can create and deliver engaging lessons with all the interactivity of a whiteboard from the palm of their hand. The RM ePad works with PowerPoint, any Internet browser, and all other classroom software. The unique hand straps make it easy to carry the RM ePad, and text entry is simple with the built-in keyboard. The wireless RF technology allows for 60 feet of unhindered movement. The LCD panel monitors the pad and pen battery, which provides more than 40 hours of use on one charge.
Datamation Systems (www.pc-security.com) has introduced the DS-NETVAULT-M. The new NETVAULT secures, stores, and recharges from 14 to 24 netbooks, notebooks, or tablets, depending on their physical dimension and battery size. The cart’s small footprint is especially important in tight classroom spaces and makes it easy to store. Its three-point locking system protects equipment. The NETVAULT is sized to be compatible with technology from all major manufacturers.
The CP-D10+FX-77GII Bundle (www.hitachi.com), named the Stimulus Bundle, combines the Hitachi CP-D10 short-throw projector, the Hitachi StarBoard FX-77GII 77-inch interactive whiteboard, and a custom-designed Premier Mounts wall mount. When the CP-D10 is mounted on the wall arm, its short-throw capability reduces the shadow cast by the presenter on the FX77GII and offers a better viewing experience. The FX-77GII has all the capabilities that have been revolutionized by Hitachi but includes interaction, which is enabled by the use of an electronic pen. The wireless two-button pen device, included with the StarBoard, functions as a mouse that operates and annotates on the board.
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The ThinkVision L2251x Wide (www.lenovo.com) environmentally friendly monitor uses only 18 watts during operation, unlike the average consumption of other monitors, at 49 watts. The L2251x Wide is made of 65 percent postconsumer recycled plastics and is shipped in a reusable protective bag to reduce plastics use. Other features include a 22-inch-wide screen (1,680 x 1,050) and ambient-light sensor/white LED black light, built-in webcam, and cable management.
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WHATSNEW
Epson (www.epsonbrighterfutures.com) announces the introduction of four new projectors for the education market: the PowerLite 84+, 85+, 825+, and 826W+ (shown). This suite of projectors offers advanced features, including USB plug and play connectivity for PCs and Mac computers, improved microphone support, and preset line and graph patterns designed to aid teachers in instruction. In addition, the PowerLite 85+, 825+, and 826W+ can send content over the IP network and offer optional wireless connectivity, virtual remote control functionality, and message broadcasting. These PowerLites allow teachers to fully leverage wide-screen notebooks or tablets as well as wide-screen DVD content. In addition, each of the four projectors features extended lamp life of up to 6,000 hours, a built-in closed captioning decoder, and a powerful internal 10-watt speaker to deliver clear and crisp audio without requiring external speakers.
Califone (www.califone.com) launches the Spirit SD Multimedia Player/Recorder. The Spirit SD’s built-in SD card slot and USB port allow the unit to work with the latest digital file formats. The product lets students record responses and projects with a built-in microphone, helping educators monitor their progress and create audio-filled lessons that engage them. Built with shatterproof ABS plastic for durability and safety in high-use environments, the Spirit SD features a teacher-tested CD player, a cassette recorder/player, and an AM-FM radio. This unit is available as a stand-alone multimedia player/recorder or as part of a four- or six-person learning center.
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WHATSNEW
Extron’s new WallVault System (www.extron.com) is a family of complete, centralized A/V switching and control systems designed for use with wall-mounted short-throw projectors and flat-panel displays. These economical classroom A/V systems use twisted-pair technology for transmitting signals and include network connectivity for Web-based asset management, monitoring, and control. WallVault Systems take their name from the WMK 100 Wall Mount kit, which securely mounts and conceals system components on the wall.
Vernier Software & Technology (www.vernier.com) has updated its SpectroVis Plus, an diode array spectrophotometer. The updated SpectroVis Plus has an improved range of 350 to 950 nanometers, enhanced optical resolution, and new support for fluorescence, all for hundreds of dollars less than traditional spectrometers. This sensor is ideal for high school and higher-education chemistry and biology classes and can be used with either a computer or a LabQuest interface.
Sharp (www.sharpusa.com) has entered the 3D presentation market with the introduction of six 3D Ready DLP BrilliantColor professional projectors, which offer excellent 3D projection from a single projector. These projectors offer 3D support with both 60 Hz and 120 Hz XGA (1,024 x 768) and SVGA (800 x 600) sources. All six models provide analog RGB and component inputs, S-video, and composite video, as well as RGB loop-through, an RS-232C port, and a USB input for mouse control. The projectors also offer 10-watt stereo audio on the PGD45X3D and PG-D40W3D and seven watts on the other models in the lineup. The projectors also have a built-in network connection.
AD INDEX COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 3LCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Aero-Hive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48-49 American Education Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-29 Atomic Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 AVerMedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Bretford Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Calypso Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CDW-G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Cisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41 Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Elmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Epson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Follett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-37 Hitachi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 HP DLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Inspiration Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE ISTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Lexia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 LG Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Logitech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Lumens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Meru Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 NetSupport School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 On Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Pasco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Qwizdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 School Wires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 SMART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-33 Tech Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 University of Maryland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
For more information about the advertisers in this issue, please visit www.techlearning.com and click on the Advertiser Index.
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W W W.T E C H L E A R N I N G . C O M
Online & Software
ACHIEVER!
(WWW.BRAINCHILD.COM) The Achiever! online assessment and instruction program, used to evaluate student performance on state standards, now offers test questions and tutorials in Spanish or English. Students can change the text on their screen or select audio narrations in either Spanish or English and then toggle between the two as needed. With the new Spanish support, Spanish-speaking students can be even more self-directed, because they can read test questions and answers in Spanish and go through the tutorials, including all the on-screen animations, illustrations, text, and audio narrations, in either language. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment
EBLASTER 2010
(WWW.SPECTORSOFT.COM) eBlaster 2010 is SpectorSoft’s latest update of its remote monitoring software. The product is available for PCs and Macs and incorporates enhanced activity recorders
that ensure that all PC and Internet activity is captured. In addition, the new version of eBlaster is compatible with Windows 7 and includes the Ultimate Care customer-support program. The software automatically records emails, chats, instant messages, Web sites visited, programs run, keystrokes typed, and more. Price: $99.95 Category: Internet monitoring
GET READY TO READ!—REVISED (WWW.GETREADYTOREAD.ORG)
This early-literacy screening tool’s 25 questions help identify which step, on a four-step continuum, a child has reached on the path to becoming a successful reader. The visual and auditory questions allow young learners to demonstrate their skills in print and book knowledge, phonological awareness, and phonics. The enhanced Get Ready to Read!—Revised also includes tools such as skill-building activities and resources for helping students who need extra assistance in becoming literate. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: reading, assessment
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WHATSNEW
IT’S LEARNING INC. (WWW.ITSLEARNING.NET)
it’s learning inc. has expanded its individualized learning platform with new features to enable better collaboration among teachers and students, safer communication online, and faster support of attendance and behavior tracking. it’s learning integrates with each school’s existing student information system (SIS). In addition, the company now supplies Gmail from Google. The latest release also updated it’s learning’s software development kit (SDK) to include support for third party plug-ins, in addition to traditional application integration. Price: $10-$15 per user per year Category: administrative tool
LEARNING PLANS ON DEMAND (WWW.LEARNINGPLANSONDEMAND.COM)
Learning Plans on Demand released new diagnostic assessments that tie directly into embedded tutorials for individualized learning. The tool automates the RTI process from the individual assessments to the generating of the learning plan, and it does so for
remediation or accelerated instruction. It includes assessments and tutorials for math, language arts, reading, and science at any grade level from kindergarten to high school exit exams. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment
LIFE
(WWW.DISCOVERYEDUCATION.COM) Discovery Education announces the debut of the Discovery Channel’s epic 11-part natural-history series, LIFE, on Discovery Education streaming Plus in late March, following the U.S. premiere of the series on television. LIFE is the definitive exploration of our planet’s living things and their spectacular, bizarre, and fascinating behaviors. Fulllength episodes, clips, and classroom resources aligned to state standards will be available to educators and students the day after each episode premieres on the Discovery Channel. Teachers’ guides and ancillary materials for three targeted grade bands (3-5, 68, and 9-12) will promote critical thinking among students and will support educators in taking a cross-curricular instructional approach. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: science
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WHATSNEW
ONE-TO-ONE READINESS ASSESSMENT TOOL (WWW.CDWG.COM)
MESTUDYING
(WWW.GWHIZMOBILE.COM) meStudying allows high school students to practice algebraic concepts such as graphing, polynomials, and the division and factoring of polynomials on an iPhone/iPod touch application. The application delivers more than 300 questions in a multiple-choice format to help students review core algebraic concepts learned in class. It offers both review and practice-test modules and self-paced tests, giving immediate insight into areas of mastery and difficulty. Price: $4.99 in Apple iTunes App Store Category: math
MIND RESEARCH INSTITUTE (WWW.MINDRESEARCH.NET)
MIND Research Institute introduced its Integrated Instructional System, which features the company’s neurosciencebased instructional math software for K-5. This announcement was coupled with the introduction of MIND’s new ST Math: Fluency software for basic math facts. Both incorporate MIND’s distinctive visual approach, which uses spatial temporal reasoning. The new Web-delivered ST Math: Integrated Instructional System includes comprehensive, integrated teaching and learning tools. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: math
SIBELIUS STUDENT (WWW.SIBELIUS.COM)
This notation and composition software platform was designed for students in grades three through 12. Based on the same popular software used by industry professionals, Sibelius Student offers a tightly
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TECH & LEARNING
COURTESY WHITFIELD SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, MO
The tool provides K-12 educators with the information they need to implement one-to-one laptop computing programs. It assesses the technical and cultural readiness of a school’s environment for a one-to-one program, assists schools in identifying critical success factors that teachers and administrators may not have considered, and provides specific next-step recommendations to reduce risk and time-to-launch. Price: free Category: one-to-one
packaged set of features designed to help students complete musictheory assignments, compose pieces for real ensembles, score music to video, and increase their literacy in music notation while it provides teachers with specific features for classroom use and classroom management. Sibelius Student is also available as a Network Pack, which includes 20 seats of Sibelius Student and a single copy of Sibelius 6 Professional Edition to help educators prepare lessons and supervise classroom work remotely. Price: $99, MSRP; 20-seat network packs, $1,499 Category: music
SPEEDEDIT 2
(WWW.NEWTEK.COM) SpeedEDIT 2 is an upgrade to NewTek’s resolution-independent video editor that offers support for additional file formats and enhanced sub-project capabilities for more flexible real-time layering. SpeedEDIT 2 works natively for real-time editing with XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, QuickTime, and AC3 Audio. Price: $995; upgrade price, $249 Category: video-editing software
TESTWIZ
(WWW.TESTWIZ.COM) TestWiz software makes it possible to track and diagnose all the types of assessments given in the K-12 environment. National, state, and local tests are all supported with the same user interface. TestWiz allows teachers and administrators to view, customize, and generate more than 40 types of reports. It also enables them to associate several data elements with each student, such as teacher assignments, numerous demographics, and intervention details. TestWiz templates range from student and item details to graphical summaries. Educators can disaggregate test results by sub-tests, strands, cut scores, demographics, and more. Price: Starts at $3 per student per year; minimum district purchase, $1,500 Category: assessment
ZULAWORLD.COM (WWW.ZULAWORLD.COM)
ZulaWorld.com is a new online destination where kids ages six and older can spend hours exploring the galaxies in fun and challenging ways. ZulaWorld.com was developed in collaboration with IBM by the creators of the award-winning TV series The Zula Patrol. Inside ZulaWorld.com, users create their own avatars, fly their own spaceships, and make intriguing discoveries about how things work as they explore the cosmos. Students team up with their peers, parents, and teachers to solve problems, play games, and immerse themselves in the ZulaWorld community. Price: Basic levels are free; subscription unlocks additional levels: $5.99 (one month), $29.99 (six months), and $49.99 (one year). Category: science
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