Tech & Learning (Oct 2010, Vol. 31, No. 3)

VOLUME 31 NUMBER 3

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. EdTech Chief Karen Cator on distance ed Special pullout guide to professional development techlearning.com

IDEAS AND TOOLS FOR ED TECH LEADERS

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OCTOBER 2010

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$6

Serve it up Virtual systems that get real results PLUS E-Portfolios in action Tech coach to-do list WHAT’S NEW Olympus

DimensionU Shmoop WYSE V10L THIN CLIENT InFocus

contents

OCTOBER 2010 | VOL. 31 NO. 3

26

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FEATURES

34

33

A Rural Revival An interview with Karen Cator, director of education technology, and John White, deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach for the U.S. Department of Education.

The Long Review Too often, reviews of edtech fall short of reality. Sure, speeds and feeds are important to consider, but how does this stuff work in the real world? T&L will try to answer that question this school year when our editors follow the stakeholders at Village Charter School (VCS) in Trenton, NJ as they implement Pearson’s SuccessMaker software on a 40-seat Dell PC desktop network. THIS MONTH— Meet the teachers: Professional development for faculty.

40 More Bang for Your Bucks

Desktop-based virtualization lets schools manage many enduser machines from one desktop. The technology’s use in school is nascent, but these schools have already taken the first steps. Read what they have to say.

PRODUCTS

22

51

Put to the Test: T&L editors take some new products for a test drive.

By Ellen Ullman

44 What’s New

22 Livescribe Echo smartpen 24 Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z 26 Tandberg Movi PC VideoConferencing and PrecisionHD USB camera 28 SimplyBox 30 Kurzweil 3000 Version 12 for Windows 32 Vernier LabQuest Mini

ABC On The Go 1.0 • Adapster • Aspen 3.0 • Atdec’s • Blackboard Mobile Learn • Atomic Blending Learning Courses • Califone’s USB Digital Microscope • Canon LV-7590 Multimedia Projector • Crestron iPad • DataMetrics Collaboration with ETS • Doodle • Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11 • Epson DC-11 document camera • HP Mini 210 • Infocus IN3914 and IN3916 series projectors • journ(i)emobile • Kensington Laptop Locking Station • Lucky Star • Microsoft add-ins to Office • NEStest.com Enhancements • Olympus DP-10 • Premier Mounts • and more

DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 6 Editor’s Desk Learning To Learn

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.

8 News & Trends • Next Big thing: Aver’s HD Video

20 How It’s Done: Permanent Records

Conference System

• Contests and Grants • Back office business • Are those earbuds really causing damage?

When the Lincoln (NE) Public School District implemented electronic portfolios two years ago, the lightbulb was turned on for educators everywhere.

• New research on school principals and social networking

• Robotics team to visit 20 schools • Top 10 search engines • The 6-step plan for using your Web 2.0 voice

58 They said it: The Tech Coach To-Do List T&L Blogger Kim Cofino shares her priorities for starting the year off right.

TE C H & LEA RN IN G | 3

MONTH 2010

[email protected] Professional development, funding, and free stuff: Check out our Web offerings from teachers, administrators, and tech coordinators.

THE MOST-READ STORIES ON

TECHLEARNING.COM Ten things you should know when using Google Basic Search T&L blogger Michael Gorman shares ten concepts to think about to get optimal searches from the Google basic search engine.

ondemand Check out the following resources from our partner sites:

UPCOMING WEBINAR

21 Skype resources

How to Set Up a Technology Day in Your District

Guest blogger Shelly Terrell shares these Skype resources that are ideal for classroom teachers.

Wednesday, October 20, 1 pm EST Sponsored by Atomic Learning

Top ten social networks for education

ARCHIVED WEBINAR

Popular T&L blogger David Kapuler posts his favorite social networks that target technology literacy.

Tips to Securing Your Network in a Mobile & Web 2.0 World

Ten free project-based learning resources

Thursday, September 30, 4 pm EST Sponsored by Lightspeed Systems

T&L blogger Michael Gorman lists some of the top sites that promote true project-based learning in the classroom.

FEATURED EBOOK

Get smart about phones

A New Generation of Wi-Fi in K-12

By Ellen Ullman

Although most schools ban smartphones, a handful of innovators have realized that these pocket-sized tools are a powerful addition to the classroom. The schools in this chart are finding more uses all the time.

Sponsored by Aerohive

PARTNER RESOURCES Back-to-School Product Showcase

Back to school with Web 2.0

Sponsored by T&L partners

T&L blogger Ozge Karaoglu recommends these Web 2.0 tools to start the year off right.

What’s the Real Cost of School Security?

The Tech & Learning 100@30 As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, Tech & Learning showcases a compendium of the most important people in EdTech.

Follow us on TWITTER (techlearning) and FACEBOOK (Tech&Learning Magazine)

Sponsored by Cisco, Faronics, and Lightspeed Systems

Strategy Guide to K-12 Office Consolidation Sponsored by HP and Intel

The Tech & Learning 100@30, Part 3

Sponsored by AEC, Cisco, SMART and Promethean Check techlearning.com for updates

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See how an improved network can help improve schoolwork. Underperformance can be contagious. So if your network isn’t making the grade, let CDWsG help you design and implement a solution that fits your school’s unique needs and budgeting requirements. We have one of the largest teams of K-12 technology specialists in the country and can help you pick just the right products and services for your schools. And a faster network can enhance communication and allow for collaborative learning. It could be just the boost you need to get your technology and your students performing at their full potential. Cisco® 2901 Integrated Services Router $

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editor’s desk

OCTOBER 2010 | VOL. 31 NO. 3 Publisher: Allison Knapp [email protected]; (510) 868-5074; Fax: (650) 238-0263 EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Kevin Hogan [email protected]

LEARNING TO LEARN

Managing Editor: Christine Weiser [email protected] Editorial Interns: Amir Hardy, Clea Mahoney Senior Art Director: Nicole Cobban [email protected] Art Director: Annmarie LaScala

I have used Microsoft Word since version 5.1 was released in 1992. I’m writing this note right now using version 12.2. Between then and now, the number of functions and features added to this most popular of applications is in the thousands. How many do I utilize? Ten, tops. How many did I learn beyond my own trial and error? Zero. A similar gross disconnect exists when it comes to the use of edtech. With all apologies to Waldorf schools, it is rare to hear an argument against computing in the classroom anymore. The question of how we do it productively, and more specifically, how we learn to use it productively, is still largely unanswered. How many pieces of hardware have you seen sit unused over the years? How many software applications remained encased in shrinkwrap on the shelf? Of course, answering these questions is at the core of our editorial mission. Each month in print and every day online, we try to encourage that most vague of phrases—professional development—through the sharing of best practices amongst our readers. This month we have two articles that highlight this attempt. In our special pullout section, contributing writer Ellen Ullman breaks down the options for creating a strategy for learning (“Finding the Right Fit: Which PD Suits Your Teacher’s Needs?”). And in our second installment of the Long Review (page 32), we report on how the administration at Village Charter school intends to educate its faculty to embrace new curriculum software holistically. Hopefully, their experience can inspire your own life-long learning. In the meantime, I’m going to check out what this mail merge manager tool is all about.

Contributing Editors: Judy Salpeter, Gwen Solomon Custom Editorial Director: Gwen Solomon [email protected] ADVISERS David Warlick, Ryan Bretag, Patrick Higgins, David Andrade, Dean Shareski, Scott Meech, Kim Cofino, Darren Draper, Terry Freedman, Cheryl Oakes, Bob Sprankle, Lisa Thumann, Jen Wagner, Lisa Nielsen, Ben Grey, Michael Gorman, Daniel Rezac, Henry Thiele, Özge Karaog ˘ lu, Kevin Jarrett, Kyle Pace, Steven W. Anderson, Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano TECHLEARNING.COM Assistant Web Editor: Diana Restifo ADVERTISING SALES East Coast Sales Manager: Caliann Mitoulis [email protected]; (215) 370-5813 MARKETING AND EVENTS Marketing Manager: Jared Stearns [email protected] Director of Events: Diana Milbert [email protected] Production Director: Bill Amstutz [email protected] Production Manager: Fred Vega [email protected] CIRCULATION Group Circulation Director: Denise Robbins [email protected] Associate Director for Audience Development: Tracey Dwyer [email protected] REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS Wright’s Reprints: (877) 652-5295 EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES 810 Seventh Ave., 27th Floor, New York, NY 10019 Phone: (212) 378-0400; Fax: (650) 238-0263 For general editorial correspondence: [email protected] NEWBAY MEDIA LLC—CORPORATE President & CEO: Steve Palm Chief Financial Officer: Paul Mastronardi Vice President, Web Development: Joe Ferrick NEWBAY MEDIA K-12 EDUCATION GROUP Vice President, Group Publishing Director: Adam Goldstein Publisher: Allison Knapp Editorial Director: Kevin Hogan Editorial/Creative Director: Anthony Savona Online Production Manager: Rob Granger Web Production Specialist: Ashley Vermillion Web Director: Ragan Whiteside SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION $29.95 per year in the U.S. $59.90 for two years. $39.95 in Canada and Mexico. $69.95 in all other countries.

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news trends

by T&L editors

nextbigthing

Now You See It Videoconferencing has always been right up there with flying cars when it comes to unfulfilled futuristic technologies. AVerMedia comes closer with its HD Video Conference System. The products are portable and easy to install and display high-definition imaging with relatively low bandwidth. The cameras have a 7x optical zoom PTZ lens with auto focus and five-megapixel camera. Connect up to four locations at once.

Price: MSRP $3999, www.averusa.com

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news  trends Are those earbuds really causing damage?

■

The answer is yes, according to new research from The Journal of the American Medical Association. It finds that hearing loss among U.S. teens is up 30 percent—more than 70 percent when just mild and worse cases are taken into account. Consider these facts from ASHA’s Web site Listen to Your Buds: ■ Hispanic teens use personal audio technology for longer periods and at higher volume than other teens. ■ Forty-seven percent of teens say

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they are not concerned about hearing loss from the use of personal audio technology. Ownership of iPods and MP3 players among children has increased from 18 percent to 76 percent in just the past five years. Children aged eight through 18 devote an average of more than seven hours a day to using entertainment media (more than 53 hours a week). The European Union’s Scientific Committee found that listening to personal audio devices with headphones at volumes greater than 89 decibels could have detrimental effects on hearing. Leading authorities predict a rise in hearing loss nationally because of unsafe use of personal audio devices.

T&L ASKS READERS How integrated are your school library information literacy initiatives with everyday classoom work?

7%

Great. Can‘t tell one from the other.

7%

Dismal. Where‘s the library?

31% 55%

Not so good. We need help.

See more polls at techlearning.com.

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Pretty good. Lots of overlap, but could be better.

New research on school principals and social networking A new research report summarizes the results of an extended look at school principals’ use of social networking. The underlying research for the report, “School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010,” was conducted by edWeb.net; IESD, Inc.; MMS Education; and MCH Strategic Data. Among the key findings: ■ Most principals who responded to the survey believe that socialnetworking sites can provide value in education. ■ About half the surveyed principals felt that social networking is very valuable for these purposes. ■ Most of the responding principals thought that social networking and online collaboration tools would make a substantive change in students’ educational experience. Specific changes mentioned included: • Development of a more social/ collaborative view of learning • Improved motivation, engagement, and/or active involvement • Creation of a connection to real-life learning ■ None of the responding principals in the discussion group had in place school or district policies on social networking that were deemed adequate. Download the report at www.edweb. net, www.mmseducation.com, or www.mchdata.com.

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news  trends

CONTESTS & GRANTS AVerMedia Interactive Classroom Video Contest

Samsung announces educational initiative

The 2010 AVerMedia Interactive Classroom Video Contest contest asks teachers and educators to create a twominute or shorter “commercial-type” video on how AVerMedia products have helped or could help in the classroom or on how the teachers and/ or their students would promote AVerMedia as a company, its products, and/or its services. Three prize packages will be awarded to the first-, second-, and third-place winners. Each prize package will include an AVerPen Interactive Collaborative Learning System, an AVerVision Document Camera, an AVerComm Video Conferencing System, and a cash prize. Total combined cash and prize value is $18,800. DEADLINE: October 15, 2010 MORE INFORMATION: www.avercampus.com

Samsung announced a $1 million educational initiative, Solve for Tomorrow, geared to teachers across the United States. The program, part of Samsung’s Hope for Children initiative, will reward the schools of winning teachers and students with a variety of Samsung electronics, Microsoft and Adobe software, and DIRECTV educational programming valued at more than $1 million. To increase enthusiasm for STEM studies and to address the technology gap in classrooms, Samsung is asking teachers of the sixth through the 12th grade and their students to produce creative videos that explore the question “How can science or math help improve the environment in your community?” DEADLINE: October 24, 2010 MORE INFORMATION: samsung.com/solve fortomorrow

eInstruction Classroom Makeover Video Contest eInstruction announced its fourth annual Classroom Makeover Video Contest, which awards three classrooms with interactiveclassroom makeovers and prize packages ranging from $63,000 to more than $78,000. Classes are invited to submit short creative music videos demonstrating how they would use technology to enhance their learning experience in the classroom. Videos will be judged on effective use of technology, portrayal of teachers and students working together, and overall creativity and spirit. DEADLINE: November 2, 2010 MORE INFORMATION: http://2010classroommakeover.shycast.com/

Video Game Challenge from the White House President Obama announced the launch of the National STEM Video Game Challenge as part of the national “Educate to Innovate” campaign. The National STEM Video Game Challenge features two competitions: The Youth Prize aims to engage middle-school students (grades five through eight) in STEM learning by asking them to design original video games. The Developer Prize invites emerging and experienced game developers to design original games for young children (grades pre-K through four) that teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subjects. DEADLINE: Entries accepted from October 12, 2010, through January 5, 2011. MORE INFORMATION: www.cooneycenterprizes.org

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We Can Change the World Challenge opens The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education, and the National Science Teachers Association announce the kickoff of the third annual Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, a program that educates, empowers, and engages students and teachers nationwide to become “agents of change” in identifying and solving environmental problems. The national sustainability challenge encourages all students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, to team up with their classmates to create replicable solutions to environmental problems in their schools, community, and world. Winners receive more than $100,000 in grants and prizes for students and mentors. DEADLINE: March 15, 2011 MORE INFORMATION: www.wecanchange. com

news  trends 2010 INTEL SCHOOLS OF DISTINCTION AWARDS The 2010 Schools of Distinction awards ceremony was held in September at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The award honors schools doing innovative work in science and math. Each of the 18 finalist schools receives a $5,000 award from the Intel Foundation. From this group, six schools are selected to receive the Intel Schools of Distinction award, 2009 Star Innovator Max Magee of IMSA awards 2010 Star Innovator, Walter Payton College Preparatory School. winning an additional $5,000 from the foundation and a Foundation and additional prizes and package of goods and services valued services from sponsors. at approximately $100,000. The big- And the winners are: gest prize went to the “Star Innovator,” THE STAR INNOVATOR which received $25,000 from the Intel Chicago’s Walter Payton College

Preparatory School, a citywide magnet school that serves a diverse student body and focuses on mathematics, science, and world languages. MATHEMATICS EXCELLENCE: ■ West Elementary School, Wamego, KS ■ M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, Bronx, NY ■ Walter Payton College Preparatory School SCIENCE EXCELLENCE: ■ Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School, Baton Rouge, LA ■ Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Roxbury, MA ■ Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA

To see photos and video coverage of this event and to find out more about the contest, visit Techlearning.com.

TOP 10 SEARCH ENGINES While Google is still a user favorite, there is an abundance of other search engines that can be useful for educators. Here are my 10 top search engines:

1

Eyeplorer: a unique search engine designed according to a wheel format that lets a user take notes by means of an online widget Oamos: a wonderful visual experience unlike anything else around

2 3 4

Quintura: a fun “tag cloud”-style site that lets users embed word chains into a site BevyFind: an engine that speeds up the searching process by

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combining different elements in one page Kngine: an excellent Web 3.0 search engine built on semantics Spezify: Get visual results with a sticky-type interface that incorporates all sorts of media content. Scoopler: One of the best realtime search engines has a builtin button for sharing results across many social networks.

5 6 7 8

Webkruz: Get search results in visual thumbnails with blurbs of text underneath.

9 10

Sputtik: A great way to search the Web for results, it covers a variety of content in different visual ways. Feedmil: a nice way to search in which users can adjust their results by means of a sliding panel that controls the searching criteria. David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K–12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@ gmail.com and read his blog at cyberkap.blogspot.com.

news  trends The six-step plan for using your Web 2.0 voice to make a difference JOIN (WEEK 1)

Start with the biggies. Join each of the following: ■ Twitter ■ Facebook ■ Classroom 2.0 ■ Blogs you like

LURK (WEEKS 2, 3, 4) ■ Take a look around. ■ Watch. ■ Learn.

CONVERSE (WEEKS 5+)

ROBOTICS TEAM TO VISIT 20 SCHOOLS As part of its 20-year anniversary in 2010, iRobot Corp. this fall launched a campaign called “20 in 20.” In it, a team of robot

experts will spend 20 weeks giving hands-on demonstrations of robotic technology to K–12 students at 20 schools. The team will document its experiences by posting videos and photos, tracking overall progress on a virtual map, and sharing key insights through an interactive blog, http://spark. irobot.com/20in20.

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You’ve had a chance to get used to the norms, protocols, and procedures. You’re ready to say something. Here are some ways to get started: ■ Reply on Twitter. Retweet. Participate in a chat, e.g., #edchat. ■ Comment on or “like” a status update on Facebook. ■ Participate in a Classroom 2.0 discussion. ■ Comment on a blog.

INITIATE (SOMETIME WITHIN THE FIRST SIX TO 12 MONTHS) It’s time for you to get something started. Here are some ways to do that. ■ Tweet. ■ Update your status. ■ Start a discussion. ■ Contribute a guest post to a blog.

LAUNCH (IF YOU FEEL READY) If you’ve engaged in all the previous steps, congrats! If you are ready to do even more, you may want to launch your own Web 2.0 presence on one of these outlets. ■ a blog ■ a learning network ■ a Twitter chat ■ a Facebook fan page ■ a movement

SHARE/PUBLISH (LIFELONG) If you’ve engaged in most of the previous steps, you’re well on your way to establishing a digital footprint that shares your message. Ensure that the following are in place. ■ You know what you stand for. ■ You have a clear message to deliver. ■ You find those an audience. Lisa Nielsen is the creator of The Innovative Educator blog.

NEWTEK TO GIVE AWAY $25,000 IN HD PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT NewTek takes to the road with the fall edition of its TriCasts America: Varsity Tour, on which it demonstrates the newly released TriCaster TCXD850 HD portable live-production system. The tour kicks off in NewTek’s hometown, San Antonio, on September 30 and ends in Phoenix on November 8. As part of the tour, NewTek will give away a TriCaster TCXD850 and Live Text 2, together valued at more than $25,000. Register at www.varsitytour.com.

Finally, a data-driven analysis tool that teachers can use for differentiated instruction in under a week.

systems for education For more information and a demonstration, call 800-899-7204 or visit www.oncoursesystems

Student Stats, from OnCourse Systems, is the just-right data solution for mid-size school districts. Import virtually any student data—standardized test scores, benchmark assessments, IEPs, even attendance and discipline records—and Student Stats generates classroom reports that teachers can use immediately to craft their lesson plans. For administrators, Student Stats provides student achievement reports by teacher, grade, school and district.

The Student Stats advantage: r Web-based—no software to install or update r Customizable—reports can meet your district’s needs r Secure—control access to student records r Affordable—a manageable alternative to large-district data programs r Intuitive—Distribute reports to staff with point-and-click simplicity

news  trends

BACK-OFFICE BUSINESS: HOW SCHOOLS GET IT DONE Arizona district combines online with on-campus THE CHALLENGE: The Vail (Arizona) School District has become one of the few districts statewide that were approved to be Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) providers. This means that students in the district can take some of their regular classes online during the school day. THE SOLUTION: The combination of classes varies for each student depending on his or her needs and desires. Whereas one student may take three classes online and his other three classes (including AP courses) on campus, another student may choose simply to take Art or PE first thing in the morning, leaving the rest of her day open for working on online classes. All students taking a class on campus at the VAHS receive a netbook to use while enrolled in that class.

Let’s get physical THE CHALLENGE: The state of Florida requires 150 minutes of physical education each week, but not all schools can build that much time into the weekly schedule with a certified PE teacher. THE SOLUTION: Almost 40 schools have turned to a new online physical education program for grades three through five from Florida Virtual Schools. The 30-minute online course incorporates physical exercise by setting activities to music and by using numbered mats that reinforce academic skills and allow classroom teachers to provide practice for FCAT-tested skills such as multiplication, addition, and subtraction. By adding this physical time to other weekly PE activities, these Florida schools are able to enhance their program, and meet the state’s 150 hour-a-week requirement.

California schools pilot new iPad algebra curriculum THE CHALLENGE: California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss joined Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser and others recently at Washington Middle School in Long Beach to launch a year-long pilot of the first full-curriculum Algebra app for the Apple iPad. The pilot also represents the launch of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s HMH Fuse, a new mode of curriculum delivery that uses interactive platforms and mobile devices. THE SOLUTION: Empirical Education Inc., a Silicon Valley research organization, will compare students using the new iPad-delivered content to those using conventional textbooks. A report on the research findings is expected in fall 2011.

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NSBA HONORS DISTRICTS FOR USE OF TECHNOLOGY The National School Boards Association’s Technology Leadership Network has named four school districts Salute Districts in recognition of their focus on technology to promote student achievement: ■ Dysart Unified School District (Surprise, AZ): This rapidly growing 24,000-student district, just outside Phoenix, invested in network modernization and created a culture that emphasized using technology to transform instruction and administrative operations. ■ Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools: Kentucky’s largest district has provided all 6,000 teachers and administrators with tablet PCs to support its vision of using technology to enhance instruction and change administrative practices. ■ Liberty County (GA) School System: The 10,200-student southeast Georgia school district recognized the importance of collaboration between building leaders and the district’s technology staff to ensure that technology investments are being maximized. ■ Township High School District 214 (Arlington Heights, IL): Township High School District 214, a 2000 TLN Salute honoree, has shown a long-term commitment to using technology. The four districts will be honored at NSBA’s 2010 Technology + Learning Conference, October 19–21, in Phoenix.

What if

a team of

world-class engineers collaborated with administrators and teachers to develop our most comprehensive, user-friendly interactive teaching tools ever?

(Imagine that.)

In the world of interactive teaching, Mimio products stand apart. The NEW MimioClassroom™ family of products. We took award-winning teaching technologies. We gathered meticulous input from teachers and administrators. We then challenged some of the best engineering minds in the industry to create an entirely new standard. All MimioClassroom tools are designed to work together. Simply. The MimioTeach™ interactive system transforms the whiteboards you already have into interactive whiteboards. The MimioCapture™ ink recording system lets you use dry erase markers to write, edit, and erase directly to your computer. The MimioVote™ assessment system provides instant testing results with a handset that’s easier for students--it automatically renumbers in a convenient storage and charging tray. The MimioView™ document camera displays high-resolution images and launches the onscreen software simultaneously. When Ken Royal of Scholastic experienced the new MimioClassroom tools, he said they were “…simple to use, priced right, and not confusing for teachers….” Exactly what we had in mind.

Schedule your free demonstration: visit mimio.dymo.com/new39 or call 877.MY.MIMIO ©2010 DYMO, a Newell Rubbermaid company

TL_10_10_.indd 3

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news  trends How It’s Done

Permanent Records Linda Dickeson got excited about electronic portfolios when her district beta tested Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, almost two years ago. “Previous versions of the software let you create portfolios,” says the distancelearning coordinator for the Lincoln (NE) Public School District, “but they weren’t going to get us where we needed to be. With this version, the lightbulb was turned on for educators everywhere.”

INSTANT ILLUMINATION The key, Dickeson says, is that the program lets you create, in just a few simple steps, a PDF portfolio that you can fill with any kind of file: PowerPoint presentations, scanned documents, video and audio clips, and so on. “The software compresses the files and puts a wrapper around them so it’s one neat little package,” she says. “Students, parents, anyone with a computer, can open up and interact with all of a portfolio’s contents,” Dickeson says. “And it’s easy for students to continue adding new files every year.”

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Although Lincoln teachers are just starting to discover PDF portfolios, they already realize their value. “Students become responsible and ‘own’ their history and evidence of their achievement,” says Carol Andringa, curriculum specialist for career and technical education. “A portfolio helps them collect, organize, and manage important information for further learning, college and scholarship applications, and job interviews. It is always available, and parents can use it to communicate about school and student progress.”

DIGITAL LEADERS Dickeson can identify plenty of ways teachers can use digital portfolios, from showcasing classroom projects to offering evidence of their own performance. She trains colleagues in how to build a portfolio to augment a textbook or for a lesson that has no textbook attached. The teachers learn to capture Web pages, construct study guides, and incorporate videos. “You can put these into a curriculum portfolio to use again and

again,” Dickeson says. Portfolios are an excellent summative assessment, Andringa believes. The business education class, for instance, used them to document the business plan they wrote. Career education classes develop student résumés that are edited and revised throughout the high school years and used for applications for scholarships and college. Other classes have used portfolios to create a cumulative reflective journal that provides evidence of thought and growth over time.

BEYOND THE DISTRICT Once their teachers get started, Andringa and Dickeson know, they’ll find even more uses for PDF portfolios. In fact, while Dickeson was conducting training at the Nebraska Department of Education earlier this year, the state director of technology suggested that she use a PDF portfolio as a pre-meeting organizer rather than send many emails containing many attachments. It probably won’t be too long before Dickeson turns that idea into a reality in her district.

K12 IS STRENGTHENING THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION THROUGH ONLINE LEARNING OPTIONS

Let us help you keep your promise.

How? Through K12’s experience delivering two million online courses, an investment of $140 million in our curriculum, and our decade-long track record of success as America’s #1, trusted provider of K–12 online learning. K12’s web-based, fully hosted options range from supplemental courses, to blended online/classroom solutions, to full-time, turnkey online school programs—each with as much support as you need. Bring us your biggest challenges, as schools in most states and D.C. have done. We’re ready to partner with you to strengthen the promise. COPYRIGHT © 2010 K12 INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. K12 IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF K12 INC.

Please call us: 866.903.5122 Or e-mail: [email protected] Visit us at: K12.com/educators

PRODUCTREVIEWS

Put to the Test T&L editors take some new products for a test drive PRODUCT: LIVESCRIBE ECHO SMARTPEN www.livescribe.comRetail price: starts at $199.95 By Gwen Solomon The Echo smartpen is an electronic pen that captures audio and written notes (on their paper, purchased or printed out) and places them on a Livescribe Desktop for playback. It also plays back audio directly from the pen. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: Overall, the Echo smartpen is an effective tool for helping students take notes, helping teachers provide instructions, and helping students learn from those instructions. Along the way, the pen provides

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The smartpen is priced low enough that every student can have one. The basic features, capturing audio and notes and saving them for replay, are amazing. Even if students don’t use a computer, this pen has advantages that will help them.

features such as a calculator, a spelling tool, and crib sheets on basic facts about states and presidents. Teachers can create an interactive Flash movie called a pencast and post the notes online, email them, or embed them on a Facebook page, a blog, or a class Web site. A student can plug in the pen and transmit these notes to the Livescribe Desktop on a computer. Another exciting feature is the voice-to-text capability. The related product MyScript for Livescribe turns handwriting into text for Word rather than for the Livescribe Desktop (provided the handwriting is clear). This add-on is available for a 30-day-free trial or purchase. EASE OF USE: The instructions are clear, and the pen and the Desktop are easy to use. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: While it’s a relatively single-purpose device (write, draw, speak/record/play), that purpose lends itself to tasks that are important in teaching and learning. Students can take notes in class, teachers

22 | T EC H & L EA RN IN G

can create tutorials for students to use, and anyone can search for specific information they’ve saved and display or replay it. SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: Students can take notes as the teacher talks. The Livescribe Desktop allows them to save, search, and play back their notes and recordings on their computers. It lets teachers and students organize, manage, and export notes and audio. Students can find the notes they took on a specific topic and review them before a test. Teachers can find the tutorials they created on a topic. Even administrators can keep meeting notes to remind the staff of a decision that was made and the details of it. Teachers can prepare pages with instructions: for example, how to solve a complicated math problem. They can draw the diagram or demonstrate how to solve the problem as they explain the process. Students can review or replay the page, or a portion of it, as many times as is necessary for them to grasp the concept. They can send or share notes and recordings by exporting notes as audio files or as pencasts. They can embed pencasts on a blog, a Web site, Facebook, or the Livescribe Community.

OVERALL RATING This has such great potential to help solve challenges: for students, in note taking; and for teachers, in creating tutorials that include audio explanations and diagrams for students, who can play back the whole tutorial or part of it as needed.

PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: LENOVO THINKCENTRE M90Z www.lenovo.comRetail price: from $1,207 (sale price, $929) By MaryAnn Karre The ThinkCentre all-inone features a sleek and efficient design with a fun touch-screen option. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: With its huge 23-inch LCD screen with multi-touch capability and its Intel Core i5 processor, this desktop is just plain fun, and its two-gigabyte memory (expandable to four gigabytes) can keep up with all the graphics, audio, and multitasking that can take place in a classroom. It has all the essentials of a desktop combined with the mobility of a laptop, especially as it also has an optional wireless keyboard and mouse. There is even a convenient carry handle on the top. This desktop brings all the bells and whistles; it has six USB 2.0 ports, two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, a serial port, an “Integrated display port,” VGA input, and ports for headphones and microphone. All these controls, however, are located on the back of the unit, where they are sometimes difficult to reach. There are DVD-drive and memory-card slots and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The model T&L tested had Windows 7 Professional installed, so it also had the Lenovo ThinkVantage Tools, including fingerprint reader, SimpleTap, and System Health and Diagnostics, and really slick backup, recovery, and restore tools. EASE OF USE: For those who are comfortable with interactive whiteboards, the touch-screen feature will be a snap. It is pressure-sensitive, so anything can be used to tap the screen to left- or right-click and to resize, rotate, or move objects. A math-input panel even recognizes numbers and mathematical symbols. Software includes Microsoft Office Starter, the full suite of which is available for purchase, and a fun set of activities for the touch screen called the Microsoft Touch Pack. Although the M90z’s appearance is clean and modern, some of the controls may be difficult to use in close quarters; the touch-sensitive controls on the frame can sometimes be a bit too sensitive; and it would be nice to be able to see the ports and slots, which are located on the back of the frame. The computer cover is easily removed for upgrades and servicing and can be locked for security.

24 | TEC H & L EA R N IN G

Since the unit is serviced so easily, the PDF manual presents step-by-step instructions for replacing parts and servicing. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: This computer is all about energy efficiency and ease of use. It is constructed of 41.8 percent postconsumer content (the equivalent of 65 plastic bottles) and even comes in a reusable tote bag instead of plastic wrap. It is certified by Energy Star, and each unit purportedly cuts electricity consumption by as much as 69 percent, saving almost $55 in energy costs. Either by pushing the SimpleTap button or by using two fingers to tap the screen, the user can quickly change commonly employed settings. The 2MP camera opens easily from the SimpleTap panel, and it can be shut for privacy; the user can adjust the volume and put the computer into sleep mode or lock it. Likewise, the mics can be muted with a simple tap. SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: Although this is another PC that was designed for business, some of its features are ideal for the classroom. The large, clear display will stay clean, since the screen can be washed with cleaner safely. It connects easily to a projector, and controls for output send the image to a desktop, a screen, or both with just a tap. The VGA port permits input from another computer, and the viewing area can be doubled by connecting an additional monitor; the touch panel on the monitor’s frame controls the input. An optional fingerprint-recognition program is available for increased security. And the M90z’s slim, compact design allows it to fit easily in tight areas.

OVERALL RATING The touch screen alone makes this an ideal tool for classroom use, for interactive-whiteboard demonstrations, and for use by students with disabilities that make it difficult for them to handle keyboards and mice. Although the computer has several features that enable it to lend itself to the classroom environment, the price would probably be prohibitive for most schools. We hope that it is a sign of things to come, since this is just the kind of technology that is needed in a school environment.

Looking for proven ways to boost achievement? Visual thinking and learning build essential skills across the curriculum. Inspiration® Software solutions give students the tools to improve performance in every subject, using the proven methods of visual learning in which ideas and information are associated with images and represented graphically to enhance thinking and learning skills.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams I. Characters A. Amanda Wingfield Amanda Wingfield is the mother of Tom and Laura. She clings to the past where she was a Southern Belle and could have had her pick of anyone, but instead married a man who was charming, but irresponsible. B. Laura Wingfield Laura is Tom's younger sister who is painfully shy and has to wear a leg brace. She spends every day playing old records from her father's collection and playing with her collection of glass animals (menagerie). She is 23 years old. C. Tom Wingfield Laura's older brother wants to be a poet, but instead he has to work in a shoe warehouse to support the family. At night he drinks and goes to the movies. D. Jim O'Connor The "gentleman caller." He knew Laura in high school where he was the model of success (in the school play, popular athlete, very outgoing). His character contrasts with the Wingfield family. E. Father He only appears in a picture on the wall, but he is on everyone's minds. He deserted the family. He is a symbol of how everything started to go wrong. II. Settings A. Past The play is Tom's memory of the past. B. Present

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PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: TANDBERG MOVI PC VIDEOCONFERENCING AND PRECISIONHD USB CAMERA www.tandberg.comRetail price: $399, camera; contact a Tandberg sales representative for Movi pricing. By MaryAnn Karre Paired with the Tandberg PrecisionHD USB camera, Movi enables any PC to become a premium video system that connects users to any standards-based teleconferencing system. The PrecisionHD is a hefty, sturdy piece of equipment, larger than webcams that typically travel. The Movi videoconferencing software has been updated and now permits desktop sharing, is Mac compatible, allows far-end camera control, and can connect via IP address or URI to any H.323 or end point. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: Developed for business use, the Tandberg conferencing package features mobility, quick connectivity, and adaptability for use outside the usual videoconferencing offices. As such, it can easily be used to create a mobile learning lab anywhere, employing any laptop or desktop computer. Because Movi permits multiparty calls and content sharing between users of other “major telepresence” systems, users should be able to connect to other end points more easily than with other products; but this will depend on the expertise of the users and the reliability of the other conferencing software. EASE OF USE: Since there is no software for the camera, using it is as easy as plugging it into a USB port. Even the firmware can be updated through the Tandberg Web site. The autofocus is efficient and smooth and compensates for low light and bright spots; even handheld documents are

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The capacity for multi-screen highdefinition video collaboration with many users on different devices and with any standards-based video device creates more possibilities for educational experiences. Tandberg’s “intelligent network” improves video on networks not designed for video and enables users to record and archive conferences and thus make them available for further study.

26 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

easy to read. The Movi videoconferencing software installs simply on both PCs and Macs and can be configured for the entire system from one administrator access (which can be a plus or a minus for a school IT department). Connections are made through a straightforward interface that displays contacts and recent calls; settings, devices, and video controls can also be changed here. The full-screen video display is not cluttered by toolbars or buttons, and this is especially helpful with multi-user connections. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: With high-definition 720p, 30 frames per second, the camera communicates smoothly even in low light or with backlight. The wideband microphone mounted on top of the camera effectively and clearly picks up sound to a distance of 10 feet. Because of the product’s picture-in-picture capability for self-view and content sharing, students and teachers can share equally across a distance or within a community. SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: The ability to share both PC content and video, to allow all parties to see the same video and content, and the strong ultrawideband microphone and terrific focus of the HD camera combine to create an excellent distance-learning tool. Because the camera is portable, any classroom with the conferencing software or anywhere that a laptop can be carried can be a distance-learning lab. Movi can be used by one class, as a school-wide or a district-wide network, and still connect to any standards-compliant system.

PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: SIMPLYBOX http://simplybox.comEducation price: $15/year/user; volume discounts available. By MaryAnn Karre SimplyBox allows customers to clip, capture, save, organize, and share information and Web sites simply by drawing a box with the computer mouse. These “bookmarks” are saved not only to the Web site but also to a software application that sits in the user’s system tray. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: New updates of SimplyBox permit easier collaboration via email and socialnetworking sites, such as Twitter. Users who share a box are notified of changes instantly. Users with the paid Education Version can capture and

collaborate around documents or Web applications. EASE OF USE: SimplyBox Desktop installs easily and works seamlessly with the online site for users of Windows as well as Macs. Boxing is as easy as dragging and dropping, and step-by-step instructions guide users. The simplybox.com Web site offers video demonstrations as well as a list of new features and how they can be used effectively in personal, business, and educational settings. Support is quick, personal, and easily accessed. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: SimplyBox’s collaborative nature, inte-

Make More Classrooms Interactive with

Go interactive! All you need is a wall and BrightLink, the interactive projector + pen combination from Epson. • PD programs and new learning tools available! • Use, share, and engage with virtually any software, digital media file, or eContent. “...in fact, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would still want an interactive whiteboard, when they could get the [BrightLink] 450Wi instead.”

August 9, 2010 Epson BrightLink 450Wi

BrightLink is a trademark and Brighter Futures is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc. Copyright 2010 Epson America, Inc. Reprinted from www.pcmag.com, August 9, 2010, with permission. © 2010 Ziff Davis, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

gration with social-networking tools, and use of graphics make it ideal for educational use. SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: SimplyBox makes sharing information with students safe, fun, and easy. The program’s visual nature enables it to be useful with

SimplyBox allows customers to clip, save, organize, and share information and Web sites simply by drawing a box with the computer mouse. even the youngest students. Especially helpful is the ability to embed a widget that displays the contents of a box on other Web sites. Anyone can collaborate and share, but comments can be moderated only by the SimplyBox owner. An Education Edition of the Web-based SimplyBox has customizable features for hosting, control, and other options. OVERALL RATING: SimplyBox lets users capture, share, and organize content and save it online or on a desktop. Students can gather content from a variety of sources, so they get a well-rounded view of topics and teachers can integrate different types of materials into one lesson. The visual nature of the product makes it ideal for use with young students, and the simple, straightforward design means that less time is spent learning to use it and more time is spent sharing ideas.

28 | TE C H & L E A RN IN G

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PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: KURZWEIL 3000 VERSION 12 FOR WINDOWS www.kurzweiledu.comRetail price: Starts at $395. By Carol S. Holzberg, Ph.D. Kurzweil 3000 (version 12 for Windows) is a multifunction tool incorporating media-rich support for meaningful self-directed student-centered learning. Integrated tools include text-to-speech, the ability to scan printed documents and convert them to editable characters, a word processor and graphic organizer, and support for each stage of the writing process from brainstorming through outlining, drafting, revising, and proofreading. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: Kurzweil is a tool for all students, not just struggling readers, English-language learners, and students with disabilities. All students can

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This version adds support for NIMAS formatted digital books and Google Translator, allowing users to translate text from one language to another. It also includes a Read the Web option for Internet Explorer (in Firefox you must install a Read the Web toolbar add-on), enabling users to read Webpage text aloud.

benefit from its built-in English and Spanish picture dictionaries, which have more than 1,300 illustrations and photos, human-voice pronunciations from the American Heritage Dictionary, foreign-language-translation tools, a spell checker, and a talking calculator. EASE OF USE: Those familiar with Kurzweil 3000 will find the user interface virtually unchanged except for four new buttons: Web, Translate, Picture, and Definition. Help files include several how-to videos. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: In addition to readaloud access to electronic text, Kurzweil offers a Study Skills toolbar with four colored highlighters (yellow, green, blue, and pink) to help with reading. The toolbar also includes the option of adding a footnote so you can attach typed notes, a bookmark tool for marking a place in a docu-

3 0 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

ment for quick access, and a hyperlink for linking directly to a Web page. Kurzweil has an add-in toolbar for Firefox that enables users to activate Kurzweil reading supports (textto-speech and dictionary definitions and pronunciations) directly from the browser. SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: This multipurpose read-write application supports students of all ages and abilities. Use it as a simple word processor or as a program with a rich assortment of customizable tools for read-aloud, process writing, word prediction, and language translation. It works with TWAIN compliant scanners, allowing you to scan printed materials and convert them to editable digital text for further manipulations. Version 12 no longer includes printed copies of user guides or other documentation. MathML support is available only for Internet Explorer (not Safari, Firefox, or Opera), but even within Internet Explorer, the Math ML Player doesn’t always work, and it sometimes makes the browser crash. There is no support for the ePub XMLbased file standard, a format supported by iPad and other electronic readers.

OVERALL RATING The Kurzweil 3000 collection of tools is a powerful application that provides all students with digital options like dictionary definitions, synonyms, pronunciations, audio notes, outlines, and study tools for gaining more control over the learning environment. If price were no object, our district would purchase many more copies of Kurzweil Professional Color and Kurzweil LearnStation, given the application’s built-in tools for student-centered self-directed learning.

Want 21st century-ready students?

Start with the teacher. From “How do I do that?” to “How do I apply that?”

Preparing 21st century learners means rethinking not only what is taught, but how it’s taught. Atomic Learning partners with schools and districts to create and implement complete professional development and technology integration solutions—empowering educators with the training and resources they need to create college and career-ready students. A Five-Part Process:

Understand Training Goals

H

ly igh

Provide Support

Eff ec

tiv e Develop Skills

College & Career Ready Students Teachers Reflect & Analyze Progress

Enhance Curriculum

Educators will apply skills developed through blended learning, project-based training, just-in-time tech tutorials and more—to enhance existing curriculum. From tracking and analyzing progress using a robust reporting system, to providing post-training assessment and authentic assessment tools such as professional development workbooks and ePortfolios, Atomic Learning provides a much needed resource for effective professional development.

AtomicLearning.com 866-259-6890

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The Right Fit: Some educators—particularly the folks at Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Council)—have begun referring to professional development (PD) as professional learning, since it’s an ongoing process of active engagement. And that change in terms seems to get at the heart of the matter: learning. Joellen Killion, deputy executive director of Learning Forward, defines PD as “when learners are actively engaged in reshaping their knowledge, skills, access to strategies and tools, dispositions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.” Regardless of how your district delivers PD—in person, online, or via a mixture of both methods— it’s essential to decide, up front, how the outcomes will be measured. In other words, how will your teachers be asked to demonstrate mastery? Once you know that, it will be easier to design the activities that will lead to acquiring that knowledge. The good news is that research has consistently shown that when teachers are involved in their learning, invited to help create their own activities, and encouraged to interact with each other as well as the content, that is when professional learning is at its best. Here is a look at the three types of PD.

LIFELONG LEARNING

ONLINE PD

What Is It?

Delivered over the Internet, online PD can be asynchronous or synchronous. Asynchronous is available at any time, via an online platform (e.g., Blackboard) or a collaborative tool (e.g., a wiki, YouTube). Synchronous is held online at a specific time, usually via a Web-meeting tool. How Online PD Helps Schools Reach Goals: Face-to-face workshops are tied to a time and place. Asynchronous online courses can be archived for teachers to review the material or for new teachers to access it.

Everyone can learn a new skill, perfect an old one, or just figure out a new way to deliver a lesson. Here are some resources to make sure the learning never stops.

Understand Training Goals

NETS-T Assessment

Establish concrete initiatives by identifying professional development needs.

Assess educators’ knowledge of 21st century skills concepts

™ Consultative approach to determine the best solution to meet your schools’ unique professional development needs ™ Measure current skill levels using assessments based on recent ISTE® NETS-T and NETS-S standards

NETS-S Assessment

™ Implementation plan created collaboratively with key parties

Measure students’ current technology literacy level

Develop Skills Develop critical 21st century skills, build technology skills and learn how to effectively integrate them into the classroom. Atomic Learning’s complete solution utilizes a variety of professional development approaches including blended learning courses, project-based learning and assessments. ™ 21st Century Skills concept training and projects for skills development ™ Continuing education courses for college credit through IT4Educators ™ Blended Learning courses on 21st century skills, tech integration and assistive technology topics

Blended Learning Courses Atomic Learning offers a variety of sought-after courses on 21st century skills, classroom tech integration and assistive technology. ™Communication & Collaboration: Caravan Through America with Google™ Docs

™Integrating Technology in Elementary Schools

™A Survey of Technology Integration Strategies for 21st Century Teachers

™Transitioning to a New Version of MS Office

™Bringing Communication & Collaboration into the Classroom

™Going Mobile: Portable Computing for the Classroom

™Infusing Financial & Ecomonic Literacy into the Curriculum: It makes $ense

™Global Awareness: We’re All in This Together!

™Effective Online Instruction

™Implementing Accessible Instructional Materials

™Implementing Accessible Instructional Materials

™Visual Supports in the Classroom

™Using the Plus in Boardmaker™ Plus!

™iPod/iPad™ for Special Education

™Exploring Computer Access Methods

™Beginning Toy Adaptation

™Supporting Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Throughout the Day

For a full listing of courses and descriptions, contact Atomic Learning today at 866 259 6890 or [email protected].

Give your professional development initiative its best chance for success.

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Which PD Suits Your Pros

✔

• Asynchronous PD lets teachers take courses at their convenience.

IN PERSON

• Both forms allow course developers to include experts from anywhere in the world. • Online is more cost-effective than sending teachers to conferences and/or paying for substitutes. • Gives teachers a chance to interact with teachers in other districts, states, or countries and offers the opportunity to build a global community of learners. • “Online course developers can assemble the very best faculty and examples to videotape,” says Judy Zimny, chief of professional development at ASCD. • Online material is always up-to-date. • “Learners are more visible in online classes,” says Zimny. “All of their work is easy to track. You’re either in the discussion or you aren’t.”

Cons

✘

• It is new compared with other forms of PD and still in a learning mode.

• It’s unfamiliar territory for a lot of learners and can create high anxiety levels. • Critics express concern about building community in an online setting (yet social networks show that this is possible). • There is something to be said for personal contact. • “One concern I hear about is the lack of hands-on experience,” says Zimny, “but students can videotape themselves teaching or document the experience in other ways. It is possible.”

✔ What Is It?

Pros

• Teachers become experts through long-term relationships.

• A structured environment and curriculum provide consistency. • Allows for the personal touch (i.e., non-verbal nuances, body language). • High-need learners may need the support of someone looking them in the eye, putting an arm around them, and encouraging them.

Cons

✘

• Is costly, particularly when you have to hire substitutes and pay for travel. • Often, a visiting instructor cannot be an ongoing coach, which helps solidify learning.

• Research has shown that one-shot classes with no follow-up are the least effective form of instruction. • Completely dependent on the quality of the instructor.

A school or district brings in an instructor to build internal capacity.

How In-Person PD Helps Schools Reach Goals: In-person PD is most successful when the learning continues after the instructor leaves the building. Schools need to develop lead teachers who can share their expertise and keep the process evolving.

ASCD Professional Development: www.ascd.org/pd Learning Forward (formerly National Staff Development Council): www.learningforward.org One To One: www.one-to-oneinstitute.org

Enhance Curriculum As an education partner, Atomic Learning offers a complete professional development approach focused on effectively utilizing technology in the classroom. ™ Blended Learning programs to guide educators on the integration topic of choice ™ Over 200 classroom-ready Tech Integration Projects, adaptable to a variety of subjects and ages ™ In-depth Professional Development Workbooks to guide teachers on creating a classroom integration plan ™ 21st Century Skills projects for classroom application

21st Century Skills Project Sample Internet Safety & Social Networking Subject:

Life & Career Skills

Grade Range:

9-12

Application Types:

Social Networking; Web Application 21st Century Themes

Global Awareness

Financial & Economic Literacy

Civic Literacy

Health Literacy X

21st Century Concepts Creativity & Innovation

Communication & Collaboration

X

X

Research & Critical Thinking Information Fluency & Problem Solving X

Digital Citizenship

Technology Literacy

Growth & Leadership

X

X

X

The Project Description This project promotes communication and collaboration, as well as digital citizenship, through the exploration of issues related to social networking. The example project addresses concerns about maintaining personal safety and privacy while using online communication tools, such as a social networking Web site. Students will be instructed to consider what constitutes “safe” and “unsafe” behavior when building an online profile, inviting and accepting “friends”, uploading content to their Web space, and engaging in online communication, as well as what they can do if they find themselves in uncomfortable situations when social networking. The tutorial movies demonstrate how to use a popular online social networking application, as well as discuss issues related to digital citizenship, Internet safety, and other 21st century skills and concepts. Discussion questions, assessment rubrics, and information about adapting and extending the example project are included in the resource materials available for download with this project.

Learn more about these solutions at www.AtomicLearning.com/k12 or call 866-259-6890 for more information.

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Top 10 Social Networks FOR DEVELOPING LIFELONG LEARNING

By David Kapuler

1

Twitter (www.twitter.com):

Far and away one of the most popular social networks around. This microtweeting platform is used worldwide and especially in education (search hash tags, edchat, or edtech).

Facebook (www.facebook.com):

4

5

A place to meet old and new friends and collaborate.

Plurk (www.plurk.com):

A social network similar to Twitter but with a timeline view and a fun, karma-based platform.

2 3 Classroom 2.0 (www.clasS room20.com):

Created by Steve Hargadon and used by thousands of educators daily. This site alone changed the way I viewed education and ignited my passion for Web 2.0.

The Educator’s PLN (edupln.ning.com):

Built by Thomas Whitby, this social network is one of the fastest-growing around, and some of the top technology-based innovators can be found here.


7 8

ISTE Community (www.iste-community.org): The International Society for Technology & Education is a great place for educators to collaborate on technology.

Edutopia (www.edutopia.org): A very popular organization created by the George Lucas foundation.

10

6

Learn Central (www. learncentral.org):

Sponsored by Elluminate, Learn Central is an ideal place for educators to host or learn through its virtual conferences.

Collaborative Translation (collaborative-translation. ning.com): Created by well-known educator James O’Reilly, CT is a great place to learn and share innovative ideas.

9

IT4ALL (www.integrating-technology.com):

Integrating Technology for Active Life-long Learning is a nice place for educators to share best practices for technology integration. David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K–12 environment.

Teachers’ Needs? BLENDED PD

Pros

✔

• Customization is easy. Since each learner is typically at a different place on the continuum, this method lets the facilitator deliver whatever each person needs at a particular time. It is customization at its best. • Blended makes the most of our access to technology and research, combining the pros of online and face-to-face.

What Is It?

A mixture of face-to-face contact and online experiences, blended PD connects students to each other and to resources and discussions that complement their learning. It can also include coaching and mentoring. How Blended PD Helps Schools Reach Goals: “Embedded PD lets teachers apply what they’ve learned and then share the experiences in their communities of practice. This kind of job-embedded learning is very powerful and highly effective,” says Leslie A. Wilson, president of the One-to-One Institute. Adds Pape, “For many teachers, blended learning feels safer. When it’s done well, it can model the way teachers can do blended learning in their classrooms.”

• Participants can get together in person to make sure everyone is at the same level of tech proficiency, says Liz R. Pape, president of Virtual High School Global Consortium. • You can use whichever format you prefer for specific activities. For instance, Pape says, some schools prefer face-to-face for group work, peer reviews, and presentations.

Cons

✘

• Can be restricted by geography.

• It is expensive to hire an expert for the in-person training. • Must be woven together seamlessly or can be jarring for participants.

PD Tips from Atomic Learning: www.techlearning.com/section/PDTips The Sloan Consortium: sloanconsortium.org • Virtual High School: www.govhs.org

Reflect & Analyze Progress Effective professional development is continuous, and the likelihood of success is greatly improved by monitoring progress against defined goals. Atomic Learning offers a variety of tools to measure success in straightforward, tangible ways. ™ Facilitator feedback and project evaluation for all Blended Learning course projects ™ ePortfolio of user-submitted projects and Professional Development Workbooks ™ Access to individual progress reports and district-wide reports for administrators

Provide Support Short, 30-second to three-minute tutorials use a show-and-tell approach to answering specific ‘How do I do that?’ questions on more than 205 of the most-used technology resources and applications, including assistive technology software, devices and accessibility features. ™ 24/7 access to a continually growing online library of over 50,000 tutorials ™ On-Demand tutorials on over 205 applications for professional development and refresher training

Training On Over 205 Applications Access Cloze Pro™ Acrobat® Connect™ Comic Life Acrobat® Pro Composer Acrobat Reader® Contribute™ ActivInspire® Creative Commons ActivPrimary® Curriki ActivStudio delicious Address Book Desire2Learn™ After Effects® Digital Image Suite Aperture® Diigo™ AppleWorks® Discovery Education ATLAS.ti Dreamweaver® Audacity® DVD Studio Pro® Blackboard® Easiteach® Bridge Easy Grade Pro® Bryce® eFolioMinnesota™ Clicker™ Encore® DVD

EndNote® Entourage Excel eZediaMX® eZediaQTI® Facebook® Filemaker® Pro Final Cut Express® Final Cut Pro® Firefox® Fireworks® FirstClass® Flash® Flash® ActionScript™ flickr™ FreeHand® Freeway®

FrontPage® GarageBand® Geometer’s Sketchpad® GIMP Gmail™ GoLive® Google™ Blogger™ Google™ Calendar Google™ Chrome Google™ Docs Google™ Earth Google™ Reader Google™ SketchUp Grade Quick Web® GraphicConverter GroupWise® HyperStudio®

iCal® iDVD® Illustrator® ImageBlender® iMovie® InDesign® Inspiration® InspireData™ Internet Explorer iPad™ iPhoto™ iPod touch® iTunes® iWeb® Kid Pix® Kid Pix® Deluxe Kidspiration®

KompoZer Lightspeed Lotus Notes® Mail MediaBlender® MediaWorks® mimio® Moodle™ NeoOffice® Netbooks netTrekker® netvibes® Notepad® NoteTaker™ Numbers NVU Office

OneNote® OpenOffice.org™ OS X® Outlook® PageMaker® Pages™ Paint Palm OS® PBworks® Photo Gallery Photo Story Photoshop® Photoshop® Album Picasa™ PowerPoint® Premiere® Pro Presenter

Producer Project Publisher Quark® Safari® Scratch SharePoint® Skype™ SPSS® StarOffice™ TI Calculators TI-Nspire™ TimeLiner Twitter™ Visio® Windows® ...and more

Learn more at www.AtomicLearning.com/k12 or call 866-259-6890

Gatefold_AL_Page8.indd 1 Gate8.indd 1

9/21/2010 1:16:45 9:34:50 PM AM 9/21/2010

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Don't miss this chance to join Tech & Learning magazine for a high-end event designed especially for district and school administrators and technology leaders. Tech Forum features outstanding speakers, engaging sessions, sponsored receptions, and great opportunities for networking. TECH FORUM PROGRAM TOPICS INCLUDE: • Beyond the Web 2.0 Hype: Focusing on What Matters • Smartphones and iPods in the Classroom • Venturing into the Cloud with Google Apps • Web 2.0 Smackdown: Free Favorites • AUPs and Filtering: What Should we be Doing? • Admin 2.0: Leadership for Today's Schools • 21st Century Technology for School Leaders • Green Computing • PLUS: Join local visionary superintendents as they share their perspectives and the role technology can (and should) play in the classroom and district

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PRODUCTREVIEWS PRODUCT: VERNIER LABQUEST MINI www.vernier.comPrice: $149 By Ben Grey The Vernier LabQuest Mini is a data collection tool that interfaces with Logger Pro software. QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS: Vernier adds to their extensive line of data collection solutions with the LabQuest Mini interface. The compact design of the interface allows for easy portability, and the product serves as an excellent solution for environments that do not require a standalone data collection device. The interface connects directly to a computer via USB, and it works with both the Mac and Windows operating systems. The interface is compatible with more than 50 Vernier sensors, and it works with either Logger Pro 3 or with the included Logger Lite software. The interface performed flawlessly during our testing, and the setup was extremely simple and effective, allowing for minimal time spent on experiment setup. This will certainly be welcomed by teachers who have limited lab time, as it allows for more time to be spent on running the actual experi■ The price of the ments rather than fussing device. with unwieldy and com■ Extremely easy to plicated equipment setup. set up and use. From start to finish, it takes ■ The inclusion less than a minute to get of Logger Lite the LabQuest Mini consoftware. nected and ready for data collection. EASE OF USE: The LabQuest Mini is an extremely easy-touse product. Vernier created the product to easily interface between probes and a computer, and it performs that task simply and flawlessly. There are no unnecessary steps to take to get the interface to work, and using either Logger Lite or Logger Pro 3 made for a very effective data collection experience. CREATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: The LabQuest Mini is designed to be a simple solution for environments that do not need a stand-alone data collection device, and it is an excellent option for such situations. The product is extremely

Top Features

simple to set up and use, and it performs very well at a very reasonable cost.

3 2 | TEC H & L EA RN IN G

SUITABILITY FOR USE IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: The LabQuest Mini is an excellent option for the school environment. The unit allows classrooms to make use of over 50 Vernier probes without needing the more expensive stand-alone data collection devices. The interface connects the probes directly to a computer, where the use of either Logger Pro 3 or Logger Lite can collect the data and make use of them in a variety of options. The unit has a list price of $149, and it includes Logger Lite 1.5 software. The unit is USB powered, so there is no need for external power supply when using the product with a USB 2.0 powered computer.

OVERALL RATING Vernier has produced an excellent product that will serve many classroom environments well. The LabQuest Mini is an incredibly easy-to-use device, and its plugand-play nature reduces the headache of setup inherent in many data collection products. Students of all ages will have no difficulty using the device, and its cost makes it an appealing option for schools that have computers available to serve as the data collection device. Vernier’s inclusion of Logger Lite software also increases the value of the device, as this allows students access to a powerful data collection and analysis tool.

W W W . TE C H L EA RN IN G . CO M

The Long Review Too often, reviews of edtech fall short of reality. Sure, speeds and feeds are important to consider, but how does this stuff work in the real world? T&L will try to answer that question this school year when our editors follow the stakeholders at Village Charter School (VCS) in Trenton, NJ as they implement Pearson’s SuccessMaker software on a 40-seat Dell PC desktop network. For a full, comprehensive look at the project, including specific product details and costs, a profile on VCS, supplemental resources, etc., go to techlearning.com and click on The Long Review.

THIS MONTHÐMEET THE TEACHERS: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR FACULTY With an early morning Powerpoint presentation in front of them and a day-long workshop still ahead, the staff at Village Charter school would have been forgiven if they were less than enthusiastic. Just one week before start of school, there were certainly plenty of other things to be done to get ready. Or one last beach day perhaps? But the school’s new media labs were packed with bright eyes and big smiles. Ross Hunter, Pearson’s regional educational consultant for curriculum, led staff through a demo of Successmaker’s interface. The teachers were the students this morning: learning how to navigate the login procedure; following along on a reading comprehension quiz; patiently enduring the teenspeak that Successmaker’s video narrators use during interludes to keep kids engaged. To many in attendance, the Pearson/Dell experiment was a surprise. In years past, says Leigh Byron, Head of School for Village Charter, new technology implementations like this would have put many faculties on the defensive. But this group was energized, asking pertinent question with even a few oohs and ahhs thrown in. “It exceeded my expectations,” says Byron. “Teachers were excited about the project before they even sat for the initial session. It was really amazing, as almost all of them had no experience with the program.” Of course, one day does not make for anyone’s true

professional development, especially when it comes to a holistic solution like curriculum software. Mastering the classroom presentation tools is one thing, interpreting analytic reports is quite another. “In my career, which spans decades, I have known teachers who wouldn’t know a percentile from a kitchen tile,” says Byron. “And they are not going to come out in the middle of the faculty lounge and proclaim that ‘I don’t know what that means.’”

That truism makes Pearson’s professional development offerings one of its strongest features (and explains much of the program’s significant costs). Hunter will be on call with the school throughout the year with onsite visits at least once a month. He will work with both Byron and the faculty to have a continuous conversation, for continuous learning and gaining an expertise. Says Byron: “You have to give them a little bit at a time, incrementally, because this software is so comprehensive. If you take small steps, then you can see the successes as they occur and you’ll want to be even more successful. The way the Pearson team has begun to implement this plan has been impressive.”

LAST MONTH: VCS GETS STARTED NEXT MONTH: MEET THE STUDENTS: IN ACTION IN THE CLASSROOM

“It exceeded my expectations. Teachers were excited about the project before they even sat for the initial session. It was really amazing.” —Leigh Byron, Head of School for Village Charter, TE C H & LEA RN IN G | 33

FEATURESTORY

A Rural Revival T&L interviews Department of Education’s Karen Cator and John White on access for all This summer the Department of assets as well that we can leverage to Education hosted a gathering of provide access to quality education. education-technology experts and There is a working knowledge about rural-school leaders in Washington, the students and their families that D.C., to discuss using technology you don’t find other places. to overcome distance and increase JW: What a lot of innovative rural access to good teaching and learnschools do is to make it contextual, to ing for students and teachers. More equate the local community to what than 100 people came from places the kids are learning in schools. For as far apart as Alaska, North Dakota, example, in Kansas there is a school Nebraska, Vermont, and New York that partners every classroom with to attend. Also present were U.S. a family farm. As they learn, they Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; are also able to hear from the comthe secretary of the Smithsonian, G. munity how that learning applies to Wayne Clough; the chairman of the their lives and their work. In remote FCC, Julius Genachowski; and USDA locations, another way to share this Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. kind of information, and bring qualTo find out more about this initiaity experiences to schools, is through tive and other national educationtechnology. technology plans, T&L’s managing Karen Cator, director of education technology for the editor, Christine Weiser, sat down U.S. Department of Education T&L: How do you hope to help bring with the Department of Education’s technology to rural areas, and how Karen Cator, director of the departcan it help these schools? ment’s Office of Educational Technology, and John White, JW: A lot of the rural state superintendents are asking deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach. us to find ways to use technology in a greater way to help with AP, professional development, credit recovery, and so T&L: What inspired this summit, and what are challenges on. That’s the reason we started this conversation, to start that are unique to rural education? leveraging the use of technology. Karen came out with the JW: We wanted to bring all the secretaries to the table National Education Technology Plan shortly before the with experts in education and industry so we could start a summit, so it was very timely. KC: Technology can be a great multiplier. So, if you dialog and start looking for some solutions. KC: I think that the challenge is making sure everybody have a fantastic course online, for example, it has this kind in this whole country has access to high-quality education. of multiplier effect. It helps students, but it also amplifies Because of the low population density of rural areas, and the efforts of the in-classroom teacher. So if the teacher also because of the distance between urban centers and doesn’t have the content expertise, they can leverage the online expertise and manage a more personalized learning rural places, gaining access may be more expensive in rural areas. The other rural issue is finding resources to teach a environment for their students. Online learning is definitely the main thing we think about when we think about rural variety of courses. We sometimes focus on the difficulties of rural commu- areas, but there are other access solutions such as in Vail, nities, but rural communities have an unbelievable set of AZ, where they put routers in their school buses so students

3 4 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

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FEATURESTORY

who have very long bus rides can do their work. It’s about extending that school day. The Technology Plan really is the platform that we’re standing on. The National Education Technology Plan articulates not only the vision, but also recommendations and actions for what we can do to support learning, to support a highly personalized learning environment, that meets the needs of all students, and amplifies the effect of great teachers. We do not think that technology is going to replace teachers, we think it’s going to make teachers much more powerful. The assessment RFP that was just awarded to two consortia of states to create a new generation of assessments is a huge new project that holds great promise to help leverage technology to give us better information about how our students and schools are doing. T&L: How do communities with limited resources get access to what they need? JW: The Recovery Act was a big investment. Rural schools in particular also have a supplemental fund called REAP, Rural Education Achievement Program. They can use these funds for technology, and there are a lot of opensource products they can use.

3 6 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

KC: Funding is always a challenge across the education spectrum. And what we are really trying to figure out is how technology can be funded by integrating it into the core context of school programs. So whether you are trying to teach reading, or math, or social studies, or whatever, that

We do not think that technology is going to replace teachers; we think it’s going to make teachers much more powerful. technology is a slice. For example, some schools are using a technology-based Algebra program. They are giving each student a device that they can use for that and other work as well; they can do writing, translation, calculations—there are so many different applications they can access once they have the device in their hands and if they can use it 24/7, even better. Also, when we talk about funding the broadband infrastructure required for online learning, the Recovery Act money, through the Departments of Agriculture and

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FEATURESTORY

T&L: Any advice to schools dealing with teachers who are reluctant to embrace technology? KC: The biggest thing that teachers should remember is what they know. They know their content, their kids, and the pedagogy. If they don’t know the technology, I don’t see that as a really huge problem. Programs are getting easier and easier to use and we can think of supporting a Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education; G. Wayne Clough, secretary, Smithsonian Institution; direct-to-student model. If the student has Julius Genachowski, chairman, Federal Communications Commission; and Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, begin a conversation about the potential for the technology to do their own work, they technology to overcome distance and increase access in quality teaching and learning in rural will use it and learn the technology in the schools during a National Rural Education Technology Summit in July in Washington DC. context of their assignments. The goal is to be found and repurposed and combined in interesting and amplify what the teacher can do and make it easier for both creative ways by users. We’re hoping to launch this Registry teachers and students to access what they need for teachservice in 12-18 months. ing and learning when and where they need it. T&L: This question came from one of our Twitter followers: T&L: How are you trying to provide more content and What level of integration between the National Education resources to schools? Technology Plan and ESEA 2.0 do you hope for? JW: The rural education summit was an example of how KC: The way we’re thinking about re-authorization is agencies can work together within the pushing that envelope, by really figurgovernment. You had the secretary of ing out how to ensure integration. So the Smithsonian, you had the chairman whether we’re trying to support the of the FCC for broadband, and you had better assessments, support literacy the secretary of agriculture there who development, STEM subjects, teacher is providing huge amounts of dollars effectiveness, etc. we want to make to schools that many people may not sure that technology is part and parknow about, whether it’s construction cel with supporting the goals, not a or technology or food. They can even sideshow. save schools on energy costs. Then you have the secretary of education, T&L: Looking at the big picture, where all coming together. We are also startdo you hope to see education technoling a “Learning Registry.” This Learning ogy in, say, five years? Registry will pull resources together so you don’t have to go KC: I would love to see technology not as a huge part of hunting for them. the conversation, as in how are we going to fund technoloKC: The Learning Registry will provide an opportunity gy or how are we going to get these things to work togethto find resources within some of the vertical repositories er. I really would like to see a scenario where every student of content. Even if you do the search with Bing or Google, and teacher, every learner in this education enterprise, has it may not reach down inside these repositories of content access: has the device they need, has the access at home, at and provide the resources that you need. For example, school, and in between so learning can happen everywhere. across the government we have the National Archives, I’d like to see everybody supporting themselves and each National Science Digital Library, and dozens of other places other. The technology becomes simply a vehicle that’s that have created education-based content. We’re work- completely commonplace and somewhat transparent in the ing with the Department of Defense and others to figure process of teaching and learning. I think there are a lot of out how to create this kind of a registry—a layered service things that need to be invented in order to get there, but I that would allow these vertical repositories of content to can see that happening in the next five years.

The way we’re thinking about reauthorization is really figuring out how to make sure that technology is integrated in all of the parts of the plan.

3 8 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Commerce, funded broadband in many parts of the country. That’s obviously a key piece of the scaffolding to make sure kids have equal access.

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PRODUCTGUIDE

More Bang for Your Bucks It’s hard to argue against virtualization. Server-based setups enable schools to create and maintain many servers on one big box, which saves time, space, and energy. Desktop-based virtualization lets them manage many end-user machines from one desktop. The technology’s use in school is nascent, but these schools have already taken the first steps. Read what they have to say: TERESA KRATZER SUPERVISOR OF TECHNOLOGY BEECH GROVE (IN) CITY SCHOOLS

PRODUCTS USED

CITRIX PRESENTATION SERVER 4.5 ON WINDOWS 2003, WYSE V10L THIN CLIENTS, WYSE DEVICE MANAGER

WHY VIRTUALIZATION?

“In the last two years, our tech staff went from seven to three, and our district tripled the number of handhelds and other devices. I thought, ‘There’s no way three people can manage all these devices,” Kratzer says. But with virtualization, it gets done.

DISCUSS THE LEARNING CURVE

Managing thin clients is a big change from managing a local computer, Kratzer says, but she likes having more of a business model. It took a year to get everything working, but it’s a “piece of cake to maintain.” Wyse helped train her staff, and Kratzer attended a summer training session.

DESCRIBE SOME OF THE BENEFITS

“It takes about 10 minutes to set up a thin-client machine; setting up a PC used to take an hour. Logging in used to take five minutes; now it takes 30 seconds. Applications open quicker since the processing is done at the server level.” Kratzer can set up a lab of 30 thin-client systems in an hour. She anticipates saving close to $30,000 in electricity costs.

Other Virtualization Vendors ■ CITRIX www.citrix.com ■ DELL www.dell.com ■ IBM www.ibm.com ■ LENOVO www.lenovo.com ■ NETAPP www.netapp.com

ANY NEGATIVES?

“We had some push-back from the high school. They wanted PCs instead of the thin clients, so I went with regular computers at the high school. All our other schools have thin clients in classrooms and in labs.”

■ ORACLE

HOW MUCH DID IT COST?

Since Kratzer started from scratch, she had a lot of startup costs, including servers. She spent approximately $250,000 but expects to start seeing a return on her investment next year.

■ VMWARE

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www.oracle.com

www.vmware.com

W W W . TE C H L EA RN IN G . COM

JASON WILLIS

RON REYER

NETWORK MANAGER MINOOKA (IL) COMMUNITY CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT 201

DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY

HP COMPAQ T5740 AND T5630 THIN CLIENTS, HP L1710 AND L1711 MONITORS, HP DEVICE MANAGER, WINDOWS(R) EMBEDDED STANDARD 2009, CITRIX XENDESKTOP, CITRIX XENSERVER

MATT JOHNSON APPLICATION SPECIALIST BETHEL PARK (PA) SCHOOL DISTRICT HP PROLIANT DL380 G6 COMPUTER, MICROSOFT APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION FOR TERMINAL SERVICES, MICROSOFT APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION, MICROSOFT DESKTOP OPTIMIZATION PACK, WINDOWS SERVER 2008 R2 ENTERPRISE, WINDOWS 7, WINDOWS VISTA, MICROSOFT HYPER-V

PRODUCTS USED

Five years ago, the district used Macs. Willis was asked to increase the availability of desktop units for students while upgrading the technology, and the cost was prohibitive. His superintendent wanted to try something new, so Willis bought some thin clients. Last year Minooka built two new buildings and completed two additions. A vendor suggested virtualization, as it would save money, space, and resources.

“It seemed to be the way to go,” Reyer says; Johnson adds that “one of the more compelling reasons was getting back up and running quickly in the event of a server-based problem. Virtualization allowed us to take a giant machine and turn it into many machines doing whatever we want.”

“I came from the Mac world, so it was a little challenging,” Willis says. “The hardest notion is that you can’t walk up to a keyboard and work on it. You have to understand that the servers aren’t physically there.” The software has a nice, simple interface, he says; using it is more of an adjustment than an actual learning curve.

Reyer did lots of reading. “When we first started about four years ago, not many people in western Pennsylvania were doing it.” He started cautiously by building servers for the tech department. Once they had proven themselves, he expanded.

“I can copy a prebuilt server and in less than five minutes, I have a new server set up with a base configuration.” Previously, this would take up to half a day. Willis also likes being able to balance loads easily. If 800 students are doing papers, he creates a new server for the necessary time. “One person can administer a lot of different things.”

“The biggest benefit is time saved,” Johnson says. “I can save many hours, if not days, by installing once and pushing [applications] out.” The district is also saving money. “There are a lot of applications that don’t play well with each other; you’d need two servers to handle that. With virtualization, we can run six or seven servers off one server and they can do different things.”

DESCRIBE SOME OF THE BENEFITS

There are challenges occasionally, such as when a server has a problem or the resources aren’t sufficient. “I’ll have servers that max out the CPU sometimes, and that’s a challenge. Other than that, I haven’t found too many downsides.”

Be careful when allocating memory, Reyer advises. “If you don’t have virtual servers sized right, they do not quit gracefully. We learned early on that if you don’t allocate memory properly or have enough overhead, servers quit suddenly, and with no warning.”

ANY NEGATIVES?

The district spent $120,000 on servers, hosting, upgrading the LAN, software, and licensing.

Both men recommend starting small. “We found Microsoft extremely cost competitive when compared with VMWare, which requires the appropriate Microsoft licenses plus VMWare licenses,” Reyer says.

WHY VIRTUALIZATION?

DISCUSS THE LEARNING CURVE

HOW MUCH DID IT COST?

TE C H & L EA RN IN G | 4 1

PRODUCTGUIDE

PRODUCTS USED

WHY VIRTUALIZATION?

DISCUSS THE LEARNING CURVE

DESCRIBE SOME OF THE BENEFITS

ANY NEGATIVES?

HOW MUCH DID IT COST?

MARVIN REECE

MARIE EVANS

DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY SOUTHWESTERN JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL IN HANOVER, IN

CAREER TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION SUPERVISOR

NCOMPUTING VIRTUAL DESKTOPS, INCLUDING THE L230, L130, AND THE X300; VSPACE DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE

RICHARD WEAVER FORMER NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR DONNA (TX) INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT (ISD) QUEST VWORKSPACE 6.2, PARALLELS VIRTUOZZO CONTAINERS FOR WINDOWS, PVA FOR PARALLELS VIRTUOZZO, WYSE TERMINALS—WDM, WYSE TCX SUITE 4.0, DELL POWEREDGE 2970 SERVERS, WINDOWS 2003 X64 DATACENTER, WYSE V10L TERMINALS

When Reece came on board 10 years ago, he was a one-man tech department, running just a couple of servers. By 2008, he had eight servers and 700 workstations, so when he saw an ad for NComputing, he thought, ‘That’s the way to go.’ Now the elementary school, which couldn’t afford to have more than one computer in each classroom, has four workstations in each room that run off a single XP box with NComputing software. “We get a lot more seats without increasing my workload,” Reece says.

It was out of necessity, Evans says. In 2007, there were 3,000 desktops for 14,500 students, and 90 percent of them were out of warranty and/or not working. The district was planning to phase in computers but, on examining other options, decided to try virtualization instead. “It let us double the number of instructional units on campus.”

“A piece of cake,” he says. Once he sets the passwords on the box, plugs it in, and tells it which servers to look for, everything works automatically.

“It was a difficult first year while we worked to get everything how we wanted. We were a large implementation. Now, though, lots of companies and districts have come to us for observation.”

“I load a program once and everyone can use it. That’s 15 minutes versus 15 minutes times 26 machines. The time savings is enormous.” To upgrade, he’ll need to replace only one server in one room for about $2,000, rather than replace 26 computers.

Two network administrators can manage all 6,000 end units. Work orders have been reduced from 800, with the old PCs, to fewer than 100 at any given time, and inventory management is much easier. “On a PC, if something goes wrong, it’s dead until it’s repaired. With virtualization, the end user always has another terminal automatically,” Richard Weaver says. “At our high school, 16 servers run 1,000 seats. Two of the servers were down for a week and a half, and no one noticed; others picked up the load.”

As with any system, Reece says, there are occasional glitches, but it’s simple to fix them. “At times a Microsoft update would cause some problems, but that’s better now. I’m not fighting the computers or the program.”

On the technology side, virtualization is dependent on the network. “If your network goes down or something happens, the terminals do not function,” Weaver says, “but that’s the only downside.” Getting teachers to buy in was difficult at first, Evans says.

Reece spent $8,000 to get 26 units and a server into the classrooms. Thanks to virtualization, he says, he saved at least $10,000 a classroom.

For 6,000 seats, including hardware, software, licensing, and professional services, the district spent approximately $4 million.

42 | TEC H & L EA R N IN G

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WHAT’SNEW

Hardware/AV

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The Toughtech (www.CRU-dataport.com) storage enclosure now includes government-strength encryption and stores up to two TBs on 3.5-inch SATA HDDs with the new Toughtech Secure Q. If your drive is lost or stolen, no one will be able to view its contents without the proper AES Encryption Key.

Califone’s (www.califone.com) USB Digital Microscope has been upgraded to feature Windows 7 compatibility. Now the microscope can connect to any classroom computer and accommodate large group lessons when wired to a projector. In addition, the new light adjustment and several filter options allow educators to display different details in snapshots on-screen.

 The Kensington (www.kensington.com) Laptop Locking Station is made with an all-steel backbone and deflector plates that resist cutting, drilling, and prying. It also features a high-security disk lock that resists bumping and picking; a dock that allows the laptop to be rotated, slid, and tilted; and easy installation without the hassle of cables. The Kensington Locking Station is compatible with a variety of laptops from 13.3 inches to 17 inches.

For more of the latest product releases, visit us online at Techlearning.com.

44 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G



The IN3914 (shown) and IN3916 series projectors (www.infocus.com) can be used from a tabletop, a media cart, a wall mount, or a ceiling mount and can project images of up to five feet wide from only three feet away. The maximum projected image size is 12.5 feet. The IN3900 series includes 20-watt stereo sound, advanced audio processing, microphone input, and assignable audio sources. Both projectors connect with PC, Mac, and video sources commonly used in classrooms and conference rooms.

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The SnapStream (www.snapstream.com) Server streams live or recorded television directly to classrooms over the existing local area network. By being able to easily schedule, search, and clip recordings from the PCs on their desks, teachers no longer have to wait their turn for shared A/V setups, or rely on other people to make recordings for them. One SnapStream Server can record 10 television shows simultaneously and store up to 17,000 hours of TV.





Premier Mounts (www.premiermounts.com) is shipping the CPA-50, a 50-watt (2x25W RMS) compact power amplifier, as a stand-alone product. Three stereo inputs and a discrete microphone input with mixer, along with separate line and microphone gain adjustments, make it perfect for connecting to a projector, a wireless microphone receiver, and other sound sources. The amplifier also features a control port for an optional external volume control box and the WP-50, which can be located up to 100 feet away from the CPA-50. The energy-efficient CPA50 consumes little power and automatically goes into standby mode if no input signal is detected for 20 minutes.

Video Mount Products (www.videomount.com) has announced its new large flat-panel digital-signage mount, the FP-LDSB. The FP-LDSB holds most 32-inchto-63-inch flat panels with a maximum flat-panel hole pattern of 810 mm x 530 mm (810 mm x 810 mm with extensions). The FP-LDSB has an adjustable tilt of -5 degrees to +15 degrees in lockable five-degree increments.

Teradek (www.teradek.com/cube.html) introduces the Cube camera-top HD video encoder. Cube encodes HD video of up to 1,080p30 using advanced compression, H.264 High Profile Level 4.1. Cube is housed in a miniaturized rugged milled-aluminum enclosure and weighs only seven ounces. Use Cube to turn seminars into live webinars; broadcast youth, high school, and college sports; and stream local theater, talent shows, and community events over the Web.

TE C H & L EA RN IN G | 45



WHAT’SNEW

Avid (www.avid.com) has released the completely redesigned Pro Tools Mbox—a complete, integrated, computer-based music creation and production system. The Mbox, Mbox Pro, and Mbox Mini deliver flexible analog and digital connectivity and feature a premium analog signal path and highperformance converters for exceptional sound. Pro Tools 8 LE is included, as are third-party drivers for rock-solid integration with Logic, Live, Record, Reason, Fruity Loops, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, and more. With Mbox, your sessions will move at the speed of your creativity.

The DP-10 (www.olympusamerica.com) features the simple design and operation of analog recorders but has the memory, recording quality, battery life, and storage capacity of a digital device. About the size of a deck of cards, the DP-10 measures 1.78 inches wide and features a large, easy-toread font. Recording in high-quality WMA format, the DP-10 boasts 63 hours of battery life and can record for more than 131 consecutive hours in LP mode. The Noise Cancellation blocks out unnecessary background noises, and the Microphone Sense Setting adjusts the microphones to pick up faint sounds easier or soften loud sounds to permit the best audio recording.

46 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

Hitachi (www.hitachi-america.us/digitalmedia) has introduced the Full HD Series CP-WUX645 3LCD projector. With native WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution, the CP-WUX645 projector can display 1080p content and more, while offering a brightness of 4,200 ANSI Lumens. Horizontal and vertical lens shift allows users to precisely center the image as needed. With Picture by Picture functionality, the CP-WUX645 can simultaneously project images from two separate sources, side by side. The CP-WUX645 also offers advanced connectivity, with an HDMI input allowing for the transmission of uncompressed digital audio/video streams.





The XP1Power (www.xp1power.com) Cable acts as a battery backup for times when your mobiledevice battery runs low and there is no time to charge. It also acts as your charge-sync cable when you do have the time to charge or sync data and adds surge protection while charging your costly mobile device. The XP1Power Cable isn’t for mobile phones only; with the interchangeable iXP1 adapters, you have endless possibilities, such as smartphones and cell phones; tablet devices; iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad; portable GPS devices; and PDAs.

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

The XGA-resolution LV-7590 Multimedia Projector (www.usa. canon.com) delivers 7,000 lumens of brightness and a contrast ratio of 1,800:1. This new projector offers five optional lenses that enable it to be customized for a variety of front- and rearprojection applications. The LV-7590 Multimedia Projector also employs a Color Control Device, an advanced technology that helps deliver exceptional image clarity and precise color.

The detail-enhancing light from Aven’s (www.aveninc.com) OptiVue Magnifying Lamp helps students examine biology, geology, earth science, and chemistry specimens. A crystal-clear three-diopter lens provides magnification within a 3.5-inch viewing area. A 13-watt fluorescent bulb guarantees clarity, while a flexible goose neck allows fingertip height and angle adjustments.



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WHAT’SNEW

The redesigned HP (www.hp.com) Mini 210 gives users all-day computing, optional high-definition (HD) video playback, and a broad range of color options in a new slim and stylish design. The Mini 210 includes a built-in WLAN webcam, a microphone, and a nearly full-size island-style keyboard. An optional 10.1-inch diagonal HD display and optional Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator enable smooth 720p and 1,080p HD content playback and video streaming from popular Web sites. Dolby Advanced Audio delivers optimal playback for movies, music, and gaming. New software on the laptop is HP Media Suite, Evernote, and HP Navigator.

The Epson (www.epsonbrighterfutures.com) DC-11 document camera makes it easy to display textbooks, experiments, and 3-D objects. It features a fivemegapixel sensor, a 10x digital zoom, and 30 framesper-second video at full resolution for stunning image quality and performance. Using the convenient built-in microphone and included software, the DC-11 allows teachers to easily record audio and video to capture classroom lessons and student presentations.

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Online & Software

AIMSWEB

(WWW.AIMSWEB.COM) The newly launched AIMSweb Behavior module offers a set of behavioral tools that work in tandem with the system’s academic assessment and data management features to implement a comprehensive RTI framework in the classroom. AIMSweb’s new behavior and social skills tool kit provides a way to identify, intervene in, and monitor behaviors and social skills in the classroom. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment

ASPEN 3.0

(WWW.X2DEV.COM) The Aspen 3.0 Community Learning Pages are like mini Web sites; they facilitate the exchange of information between any number of groups. Pages can be enhanced by adding features

such as announcements, blogs, news feeds, graphics, class statistics, shared files, and homework assignments. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: Web portal

BLENDED LEARNING COURSES (WWW.ATOMICLEARNING.COM)

Atomic Learning’s new Blended Learning Courses incorporates opportunities for professionaldevelopment participants to coach and collaborate with one another, learn new technology skills, and reflect on the experience. Participants are given two weeks to complete this self-paced work before the group meets for a day of live instruction delivered on-site or via the Web. During the two weeks following the live training day, participants continue to work together and apply the skills and techniques they’ve learned. All courses include ample opportunity to collaborate online with other participants and with the Atomic Learning facilitator. Initial courses feature 21st Century Skills & Technology Integration. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: professional development

Room with a View...great, ...with Kramer Summitview™ ...spectacular! Kramer’s new SummitView™ system is a complete and economical solution for the integration of AV signal distribution and simple, yet sophisticated media system control in classrooms, training rooms and presentation rooms.

For more information please visit www.kramerus.com or call 888-275-6311. In Canada visit www.kramercanada.com or call 1-866-726-9921. ©2010 Kramer Electronics, Ltd. All rights reserved. SummitView™ is a trademark of Kramer Electronics, Ltd.

WHAT’SNEW

BOOK BUDDY

(WWW.BOOKBUDDYAUDIO.COM) The Book Buddy is an MP3 audiobook that comes loaded with complete books from any library, even your own. The photos and captions in each book are referenced repeatedly by a narrator on the audio to compel students to follow along with the book as they listen. The Book Buddy allows students to navigate with ease through the audiobook at their own pace: They can pause, fast-forward, rewind, or skip directly to any chapter. Each Book Buddy audiobook is paced appropriately; lower-level versions of a text are read slower than higher-level versions. Price: Starts at $20 a unit. Category: reading, audiobooks

BUILDER RESEARCH PAPER EDITION (WWW.MEADBUILDER.COM)

Mead’s Builder Research Paper Edition not only helps students organize and create better papers but also frees teachers from drawn-out format and structure lessons. The Builder program is completely contained on a flash drive, with nothing to download to the computer, and it guides students through building a better research paper, from keeping organized to staying on deadline to developing a thesis and citing sources properly. Price: $39.99 per USB Category: organizational tools

CCC! ENHANCEMENTS (WWW.CCCVOD.COM)

New Dimension Media’s CCC! Core Curriculum Content enhanced features integrates with a leading streaming-video engine. This streaming engine converts CCC!’s H.264 video files to Flash, but CCC! is not limited to that format for future applications. The system features applications for integration with interactive-whiteboard and presentation software and allows teachers to create videos, teaching materials, lesson plans, and assessment components for use in the classroom or by individual students. In addition, CCC! includes Classroom LIVE!, a distance-learning application; and the capacity for webcasting live productions by the adopting school. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: video streaming

CIVCC.ORG

Selestra LLC announces CIVCC. ORG, an Internet community focused on collecting and disseminating interactive-videoconferencing content-supplier information and user feedback for K–12. CIVCC.ORG makes it easy for an instructor to choose a virtual field trip or workshop for students. Teachers utilize the CIVCC Guide,

50 | T EC H & L EA R N IN G

an ever-evolving directory of videoconferencing-content venues, to aid them in evaluating content suppliers and interactive-video content and price directly or by collaborating with other practitioners who have previously shared their opinions and reviews. Price: free Category: videoconferencing

COMPASSLEARNING IMPACT TEACHER ACADEMY (WWW.COMPASSLEARNING.COM)

CompassLearning Impact Teacher Academy provides innovative professional learning opportunities for educators. It is a blend of workshops, leadership planning, real-world instructional coaching, and always-on technology. Virtual and in-person services are offered to help educators delve into specialized topics that help optimize Odyssey for educators and students. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: professional development

CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENT STUDIO ENHANCEMENTS (WWW.CLIHOME.COM)

The Curriculum Improvement Studio suite of Web-based productivity software has been enhanced for easy alignment of instruction plans, assignments, and operational curriculum with the just-released Common Core State Standards. This upgrade lets teachers and administrators quickly identify and customize appropriate benchmarks and core standards for their students. They also can easily choose strands, attach custom standards that reflect their unique needs, and provide proactive reporting based on collected data. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: productivity software

DATAMETRICS COLLABORATION WITH ETS (WWW.TESTWIZ.COM)

dataMetrics has collaborated with Educational Testing Service to offer ETS’s Formative Assessment Item Bank, which contains more than 60,000 highquality items within its TestWiz assessment analysis system. Items are aligned to the standards of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and are available for measuring mathematics and Englishlanguage arts standards for grades K–12 and science standards for grades three through 12. The ETS item bank consists of multiplechoice items and short and extended constructed-response items with item-specific and generic rubrics. After they administer a test, educators can scan the answer documents back into the TestWiz system and analyze the results using several data elements. Price: $3 per student per year for registered TestWiz users Category: assessment

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DIMENSIONL

(WWW.DIMENSIONU.COM) With almost 200 literacy skills embedded in curriculum packs for elementary, middle, and high school students, interactive DimensionL instructional software introduces and reinforces such topics as language conventions, parts of speech, reading and writing processes, spelling, and vocabulary. The enhanced Educator Portal on DimensionU.com includes comprehensive reporting functions that offer a beneficial look at each child’s progress and mastery. Improved formatting of on-screen and spreadsheet-based reports, as well as graphical representation of data, help teachers track student progress in fluency and identification of specific grammatical forms, conventions, and rules. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: reading

DOODLE

(WWW.DOODLE.COM) Teachers can use Doodle to schedule meetings and activities with faculty and parents as well as to invite students to participate in polls. Additionally, students can schedule times for study groups with many

participants (up to an entire class) and take polls for reports by using Doodle. By bringing Doodle in their “backpacks,” students can let it organize their projects, and since a shared-calendar system isn’t needed, everyone can participate. Price: free; see Web site for premiumversion price Category: management

DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING VERSION 11 (WWW.NUANCE.COM/NATURALLYSPEAKING) The new version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11 includes a more intuitive user interface, a new accent model tuned for younger speakers, voice commands, correcting and editing tools, and an audio transcriber. The Dragon 11 family enables students, teachers, and school administrators simply to speak and watch their words appear accurately in essays, reports, reviews, emails, and more. Price: Dragon Premium Student/Teacher boxed edition for individual users, $99; more prices listed on Web site Category: linguistics

WHAT’SNEW

FAST FORWORD

MICROSOFT ADD-INS TO OFFICE

BrainPro Services combines Fast ForWord techniques with the remote support of a trained and experienced tutor. Effectiveness studies show that the Fast ForWord software used in BrainPro can improve some children’s reading skills by as much as two grade levels in as little as 12 to 16 weeks. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: reading

Microsoft is releasing two free education-specific add-ins, 20 new education templates, and new teacher how-to materials for its Office suite. For example, the Interactive Classroom addin helps increase collaboration between educators and students and provides real-time assessment through polls and interactive note taking. The Mathematics add-in uses 3-D graphs and charts to help educators illustrate complex math problems and concepts. The Learning Essentials templates are a set of predesigned Office templates created specifically for the educational setting. Price: free Category: productivity

(WWW.BRAINSPARKLEARNING.COM/BRAINPRO)

IADMISSIONS

(WWW.IADMISSIONS.COM ) iAdmissions uses virtual classrooms to connect students with former admissions officers who provide guidance through the college application process. iAdmissions was founded in 2009, when a group of experienced admissions officers from Harvard, Brown, Stanford, and other top universities came together to find a way to help students get the feedback they need to get into college. Price: starting at $149; scholarships available. Category: College prep

LINGUEE

(WWW.LINGUEE.COM) Linguee is a contextual translation search engine that uses human expertise to turn the entire Web into a concise and free online dictionary. The service is available for bidirectional translations in five new languages, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. Linguee works like this: Take the word set in English. When you search for the Spanish equivalent with Google, it gives you several different words that have completely different meanings. Using Linguee, you get actual examples of how the term is used so that you can determine the exact meaning. Price: free Category: translation

LUCKY STAR

(WWW.PBSKIDSGO.ORG/CYBERCHASE/WHITEBOARD) The daily animated math series Cyberchase will engage kids in a whole new way with Lucky Star, an application for SMART Board interactive whiteboards. Lucky Star combines age-appropriate math and problem solving while allowing kids to have fun competing for top scores. Price: free Category: math

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(WWW.MICROSOFT.COM)

MICROSOFT EXCEL TUTORIAL (WWW.EXCELEVEREST.COM)

Duffy Ventures, LLC has launched Excel Everest , an interactive Microsoft Excel tutorial that automatically grades you as you learn. Excel Everest contains 41 topics, 155 exercises, 339 buttons, and 87 embedded videos. Price: $34.95. Category: professional development

NESTEST.COM ENHANCEMENTS (NESTEST.COM)

Now at NEStest.com, teacher licensure candidates and faculty members will find complete testing information, candidate preparation materials, and college and university faculty preparation resources for the computer-based testing program. Through NEStest.com’s new My Account feature, teacher licensure candidates have a single online point of access for all their testing information and services. My Account users can register for tests, manage existing registrations, access score reports, and view testing history at their convenience through a streamlined interface. The redesigned site also includes policies and procedures for taking all 33 NES tests, including the rules of test participation and alternative testing arrangements for candidates with disabilities. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: professional development

PBS KIDS PLAY! (WWW.PBSKIDSPLAY.ORG)

PBS KIDS PLAY! educational games for children in preschool, kindergarten, and special education can now be licensed for classroom use. The online game-based learning program includes content in mathematics, science, language development, literacy, creativity,

W W W . TE C H L EA RN IN G . CO M

healthy development, and social studies. The program also features exclusive new foreign-language learning games in Spanish, French, and Mandarin from LITTLE PIM, the award-winning DVD language series. It also includes classroom management for up to 30 students, with individual progress tracking and personalized learning for each student. Price: $499 for an account (serves 30 students) Category: educational games

PCI EDUCATION

(WWW.PCIEDUCATION.COM) PCI Education, provider of resources for students with special needs, announces the expansion of its reading and math intervention offerings through the acquisition of five products from Kaplan K12 Learning Services, a division of Kaplan, Inc. Four of the products purchased are SpellRead, TextConnections, Summer Ventures, and Momentum Math. A fifth product, an Algebra remediation curriculum, will be released in the coming year. Price: n/a Category: special education

QUESTIONMARK MOODLE CONNECTOR (WWW.QUESTIONMARK.COM/US/CONNECTORS/MOODLE.ASPEX)

The Questionmark Moodle Connector enables instructors to link their Moodle courses to course evaluations, quizzes, tests, and exams deployed using Perception. Instructors may specify assess-

ment dates and limit the number of times students may access assessments. Using the connector, students authenticated in Moodle can link directly to Perception assessments, which are scored automatically. The Connector then passes test results back for reporting via Moodle’s Grade Report. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment

RESULTSMANAGER

(WWW.TURNINGTECHNOLOGIES.COM) ResultsManager extends the existing comprehensive reporting functionality of the company’s TurningPoint and TurningPoint AnyWhere software to allow instructors and presenters to store, track, and administer several interactive polling sessions. Features and functionality include cumulative scores for individuals, groups, and courses; integration with LMS solutions, such as Blackboard, WebCT, Sakai, and Moodle; matrix display of data for statistics; and no installation required. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment

Mrs. Blossom’s Online SMART Board™ Course • Comprehensive 8 chapter online course • Affordable, convenient and easy to use • Learn at your own pace • Ideal for beginner and advanced SMART Board™ users • Designed by teachers using real classroom examples • Easy distribution and tracking for administrators

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Visit www.blossomlearning.com for more information or call toll-free 1-877-390-7560 for volume pricing.

Untitled-4 1

9/17/2010 3:08:52 PM

WHAT’SNEW

SCIENCE POWER

STUDENT TRACKER

World Book introduced Science Power, a new science Web site designed for students in the upper elementary grades. Science Power lessons cover all science curriculum topics, with highlighted vocabulary, rich multimedia, custom-made animations, and review questions. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: science

Administrators and teachers can now create communication groups for every student, or groups of students, with School Loop’s Student Tracker. This tool allows everyone involved in a student’s education to monitor that student’s academic performance, communicate about his or her problems and successes, and ensure that appropriate steps are being taken to keep the student’s academic performance and social/ emotional behavior on track. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: student learning

(WWW.WORLDBOOKONLINE.COM)

SCUTTLEPAD

(WWW.SCUTTLEPAD.COM) ScuttlePad is a social network for kids that allows members to interact online while building language skills. With ScuttlePad, kids express themselves using guided communication to learn how to share information responsibly. Once they’re part of the ScuttlePad community, kids can connect with their friends in a fun and safe way. Price: free Category: online community

SHMOOP PRE-ALGEBRA LEARNING GUIDES (WWW.SHMOOP.COM)

Shmoop’s free online PreAlgebra Learning Guides contain hundreds of topics with succinct explanations in a welcoming, conversational voice designed for students. Each topic comes with diagrams, interactive stepby-step examples, practice problems, and real-world applications. Price: free Category: math

SOCIAL MEDIA CACHE (WWW.SUPERLUMIN.COM)

The SuperLumin Social Media Cache alleviates the enormous impact that social-media Web sites have on institutional bandwidth. The SuperLumin Social Media Cache can determine if an object has already been retrieved from another server and vend it from the existing cache inventory. It also integrates with existing proxies, caches only social-media requests, performs as a reverse proxy, minimizes bandwidth consumption, and more. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: media management

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(WWW.SCHOOLLOOP.COM)

TALENTED PERFORM (WWW.NETCHEMIA.COM)

TalentEd Perform offers a wide variety of customizable features that make the evaluation process easier for educators and more accurate. Online evaluation forms allow employees to easily complete their own walk-throughs, observations, and other forms online. Supervisors can use TalentEd Perform’s Supervisor Dashboard and Evaluation Management functions to schedule and track upcoming tasks and meetings. TalentEd Perform includes a configurable Standards Manager that lets users align assessment forms and evaluations with a variety of standards. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assessment

TEACHBOOK.COM (WWW.TEACHBOOK.COM)

Teachbook.com has begun a soft launch of their website teachbook.com, a Web site for educators, despite a lawsuit filed by Facebook for trademark infringement. Teachbook.com will be selecting Teachbook Ambassadors, who will be the initial users of the website, and who will generate lesson plans and online courses within the website’s database. Price: free Category: social networking

TEACHING SYSTEMS: BIOLOGY (WWW.CEREBELLUM.COM)

Teaching Systems: Biology covers the core high school–level biology topics, presenting them in seven DVDs, including: Molecules & Cells, Heredity & Inheritance, Molecular Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, Organisms & Populations, Human Physiology & Immune Response, and Ecology. Each module includes a video plus a digital workbook. Price: Titles cost $49.98 each; complete collection is $314.88 (on October 15, 2010). Category: science

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TEXT-TO-SPEECH ADDITIONS TO EBSCOHOST DATABASES (WWW.EBSCOHOST.COM)

EBSCO Publishing has added text-to-speech (read-aloud) support to EBSCOhost databases, including its major school and public library databases, by embedding Texthelp Systems’ SpeechStream toolbar. Users can take advantage of this new feature with any full-text articles available in HTML. The support toolbar provides assistance to those by whom text-to-speech capabilities are highly valued, such as English-language learners and users with poor vision or slight physical and/or learning disabilities, as well as eBook and PDA users. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: assistive tech

TOTAL TRAINING DVDS (WWW.JOURNEYED.COM)

skills with award-winning training in Photoshop, Flash,Acrobat,Dreamweaver,Fireworks,Illustrator, and InDesign. Total Training for Microsoft Office 2010NewFeaturescoversthenewandenhanced featuresfoundintheOffice2010applicationsaswell as changes to the interface. Price: Starts at $64.95. Category: professional development

XPLANA

(WWW.XPLANA.COM) With Xplana, students can now get instant searchable and well-organized access to hundreds of thousands of academic resources. At the same time, they can interact, share, and collaborate with each other, all online and outside the print or digital book. Xplana is using MarkLogic to manage and deliver all information. MarkLogic’s advanced capabilities also power the Xplana search engine and create an intelligent connection to unlimited volumes of disparate unstructured pieces of academicrelated information, tools, and popular socialnetworking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: organizational tools

TheTotalTrainingAdobeCreativeSuite5DesignBundleofvideo-trainingcourses givesusersafoundationinthedesignsoftware.Usersenhancedesignandcreative

THE NET RESULT: MORE ACCESS FOR MORE STUDENTS With our NETBOOK42 micro computer cart, you can easily integrate technology into any classroom activity. The cart’s “brain” proportionally distributes the charge to the netbooks that need it most. So up to 42 students will have access that supports your lesson plan when and how you need it.

Contact Bretford at 800.521.9614 or visit BRETFORD.COM FORWARD THINKING SINCE 1948

WHAT’SNEW

Cool School Apps

ABC ON THE GO 1.0 (WWW.I-ITCH.COM)

ABC On The Go 1.0 is a reading-readiness app for iOS that reinforces recognition of letters and their sounds through the playing of interactive games. Each game builds on the previous one, reinforcing skills that are the foundation of early reading. The games are intuitive and easy to navigate and have a kid-friendly interface with audio for the correct pronunciattion of each letter. Price: $1.99 Category: reading

ADAPSTER (WWW.ADAPSTER.COM)

Adapster, an adaptive test-preparation app available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, now offers adaptive tests and a free diagnostic exam with detailed score reports. The full version comes loaded with 150 lessons and more than 1,000 questions written by a team of professional educators to mimic SAT math problems as closely as possible. The “flex” version provides a diagnostic test and allows you to purchase only the parts you need based on a number of subject areas and subtopics related to the math portion of the SAT exam. Price: full version, $9.99; “flex” version, free Category: test prep

ALGEBRA TOUCH 1.1 (WWW.ALGEBRATOUCH.COM)

Algebra Touch 1.1 is an educational app for learning and practicing algebra. The app features 17 interactive-lesson topics, interactive prac-

tice problems, and the ability to create unlimited new problems. All actions and responses are touch activated and animated. Topics include Simplification, Like Terms, Order of Operations, and Commutativity. Price: $2.99 Category: math

BLACKBOARD MOBILE LEARN (WWW.BLACKBOARD.COM)

Blackboard Mobile Learn for Blackberry, Android, and iPhone OS brings two-way teaching and learning to mobile devices. With the apps, students can check grades and assignments, email their classmates and instructors, add discussion-board comments and blog posts, and more. Price: free Category: mobile learning

CRESTRON IPAD (WWW.CRESTRON.COM)

The newest version of the Crestron iPad includes automatic portrait/landscape rotation and gesture navigation on the iPad for Crestron and Prodigy control systems. A graphic template with user-selectable backgrounds designed especially for the iPad is available from the Crestron Web site. Using Wi-Fi locally or a 3G

AD INDEX COMPANY Atomic

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Logitech

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Bretford Manufacturing

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Lumens

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Inspiration Software Intel

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For more information about the advertisers in this issue, please visit www.techlearning.com and click on the Advertiser Index.

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network remotely, educators can access and control Crestron and Prodigy systems anywhere, anytime. Price: Contact company for pricing. Category: mobile management

JOURN(I)E MOBILE (WWW.THINKQED.COM)

journ(i)e mobile is a free Android application for K–12 students and teachers who are using the company’s student-centered learning network, journ(i)e. journ(i)e mobile enables users to access journ(i)e via their mobile smartphones, providing greater access to the network and new opportunities to engage and collaborate with students and teachers. With journ(i) e mobile, users can safely update their status, view and comment on streaming updates from people and groups they are connected to, share and publish content, subscribe to other blogs, send messages to peers and teachers, and more. Price: free Category: mobile management

MINIMOD FRACTIONS LITE (WWW.ESKILLSLEARNING.NET)

e Skills Learning announces the release of minimod Fractions Lite, which offers two levels of play on four levels of difficulty. Students can play the Lite version in practice mode or single-player mode with a 100-ques-

tion database. The full version, to be introduced shortly, will contain a database of more than 400 questions and also include a multi-player competitive mode. This iPod app helps students practice basic fractions, advanced fractions, fraction math, and ordering fractions. Price: free Category: math

MYCALC (WWW.MYCALC.COM)

myCalc supplies its users with the three most fundamental tools needed to solve equations: an empty work space, a tool to write with, and plenty of room to think. The myCalc app allows any user to input diverse mathematical equations and procure answers for them at a speed limited only by their ability to reason their way through a given equation. myCalc was recently released for the iPhone, the iPod, and the iPad. Price: See iTunes for pricing. Category: math/apps

MYNATURE TREE GUIDE 1.1 (WWW.MYNATURESITE.COM)

Using the MyNature Tree Guide 1.1 app, the user answers as many questions as possible about a tree that he or she is trying to identify. The app searches its database for the tree that most closely resembles the answers. Once the tree is identified, the user can see photos of it and maps of its range or read more to learn about the tree and its growth cycle. Price: $6.99 Category: science




Come push the limits with us ... TCEA 2011 Convention & Exposition Join us at TCEA 2011, the largest ed tech conference in the Southwest, February 7-11, 2011 in the heart of downtown Austin. STELLAR KEYNOTES Leigh Anne Tuohy ■ Mark Nizer ■ David Pogue LATEST TRENDS & HOT TOPICS Gaming in Education ■ Distance Learning ■ Web 2.0 ■ Film Festival ■ Interactive Learning ■ TEXAS-SIZED EVENTS 900+ Exhibits ■ 400+ Sessions and Workshops ■ Peer to Peer Learning ■ Bring Your Own Devices and One-to-One Workshops

It’s all about NO LIMITS!

register today! www.tcea2011.org Texas Computer Education Association

THEY SAID IT

The Tech Coach To-Do List T&L advisor Kim Cofino, 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the Yokohama International School Bangkok in Japan, shares her priorities for starting the year off right. For the full list go to her blog post at http://www.techlearning.com/ blogs/32732 or http://kimcofino.com/blog. Build Relationships: I learned that the absolute key to helping teachers try new things in their classroom is for them to trust you. When you have a positive relationship with another teacher you are much more willing to work with them and to take risks. These first few weeks and months are critical to begin making connections on a personal level. Even if I sometimes push people out of their comfort zone, I want them to know that I am always there to help. Be Approachable: Make the technology office a welcoming place by greeting people when they come in, treating their questions with respect, and answering with simple step-by-step instructions. There is no limit to what a little patience, a friendly tone of voice, and simple responses can do to build a welcoming and approachable vibe in a technology team. Once people see that you can actually help them, they will come back for more! Be Available: I’m not a fan of talking tech at lunch, but I know how important it is that people feel supported. Getting questions answered in the hallway, on the sidewalk, over dinner or in the grocery store is a clear signal to teachers that you are ready and willing to help. Be Proactive: Each week I make sure to spend some time walking around to all classrooms in my division, just popping in to see how things are going and to make sure previous requests have been completed. I certainly haven’t been able to solve everything, but demonstrating that I

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care and want to make sure everything is functioning makes people feel supported and listened to. Every now and again all it takes is a sympathetic ear and an understanding of the issue for a problem to resolve itself. Build Community: Every school has a group of keen teachers who are ready and willing to learn, but they don’t always know each other. Finding ways to bring those teachers together, as well as support those teachers who are not ready yet, is so important. For the last five years I’ve run after school walk-in tech support. There is something about an open-door tech support session in a classroom that helps put people at ease. It also engages the more advanced users in a technology leadership role. In addition to those general walk-in sessions, I’m also going to run a weekly “Pimp My Mac” session for tips and tricks to help teachers be more productive with tech.`

INSPIRE STUDENT SUCCESS WITH INTEGRATED EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES Let’s Build the Classroom of Tomorrow, Together

Follett Software Company combines proven thought leadership with digitally powered K-12 technology solutions to support the life cycle of active learning.

See us at ASBO Booth #823!

Maximize district resources, from library materials, textbooks and other assets, to digital content and data. Sustain a rich, collaborative learning environment that helps you instill 21st century learning skills. And give educators more time to spend with their students, along with the right tools and training to achieve better results.

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Learn more about Follett Software Company’s complete range of innovative solutions, training, services and support at www.FollettSoftware.com/TL.

www.FollettSoftware.com 800.323.3397