EdTech Show Daily

Mobile App for Education Industry Launches

Industry Dive, a business-to-business digital media company, announced today it launched Education Dive, a free smartphone app serving leaders in education. The app pulls together the best in higher education and K-12 news, social commentary, jobs and more.

Education Dive can already be found via mobile-friendly HTML5 website and email newsletter, which meant the company was able to learn from existing user data to build the app.

Read more here.

Microsoft Campaigns for School Adoption of Windows 8

To help school leaders and educators better understand how technology can be used in the classroom, Microsoft is conducting 700 Windows in the Classroom seminars across the country before the end of the school year. Those wanting to sign up for a session and to learn more about how technology can be incorporated into existing curriculum and how 1:1 device programs can help expand learning outside the traditional classroom walls should visit http://mie.ncce.org/wic.  Schools can also register for the Partners in Learning Network (http://www.pil-network.com) to access a global network of educators sharing best practices, free software tools and tutorials, and lesson plans. Specific Windows 8 training materials can be found at http://www.pil-network.com/pd/course/wic.

Read more here. 

eBackpack Announces the Launch of Enhanced, Innovative iPad App

 eBackpack, Inc, a provider of cross-platform cloud assignment and classroom workflow management solutions, announced today the launch of its enhanced eBackpack App for iPhones and iPads. The app gives both students and teachers a paperless assignment system as well as free-hand annotation functionality.

eBackpack, in conjunction with the iPad app, is saving schools and districts nationwide hundreds of thousands of dollars on printing expenses. Says Layne Schiffelbein of Garden City Public Schools, an eBackpack district, "When we launched eBackpack, students and teachers hit the ground running.  The user-friendly interface allowed students to engage more, become more organized, and provided a way to collaborate.  Teachers began communicating and teaching in a way that just 'fit' our kids.  eBackpack is continually making upgrades to this service, but the one that has our teachers thrilled is the ability to annotate right on the iPad. The teachers say it's just like grading a piece of paper, since they can use their stylus or finger to mark right on the iPad screen and send it back to the students with the click of a button."  

Furthermore, implementing eBackpack had a return on investment in under six weeks according to Schiffelbein. "By incorporating eBackpack's solution, Garden City is saving at least $1,200 each week by eliminating paper copies. We can't wait to see what eBackpack thinks of next!"

With no central storage on an iPad, students and teachers have struggled with the ability to save files to share or access from a different device. eBackpack's popular paperless homework solution offers iPad integration to provide an easy way for students and teachers to collaborate and share classroom materials.  

"The iPad is an excellent educational tool, but eBackpack helps unlock its full potential to collaborate on classroom materials and provide a paperless workflow," says Michael Zilinskas, eBackpack's CEO.     

The eBackpack app offers a variety of features that make the assignment workflow seamless. Teachers create a document on their device, then open the document into their class folder in eBackpack to put it in an assignment. This sends out a notification to every student enrolled in the class letting them know a new assignment has been posted for them to work on. The built-in annotation tools give students the ability to type text, highlight sections they find interesting, and even write freehand on the document using a stylus or just their finger. When finished, students simply tap the turn in button, and the document is sent right back to the teacher.

Grading work for teachers on the iPad using eBackpack is just like grading a physical piece of paper. Teachers open an assignment and see everything that is submitted. With the built-in annotation tools, teachers can write on top of the students' documents, enter a grade, and send it back to the students with the tap of a button.  

The eBackpack App also offers full camera roll access for pictures and video and WebDAV integration to maximize compatibility with third party applications.

SparkFun Electronics to Offer Workshops, Presentations at POSSCON

SparkFun Electronics, a provider of parts, knowledge and passion for electronics creation, has announced that the company's going to be offering some workshops and speeches at the Palmetto Open Source Software Conference (POSSCON), taking place March 27-28 in Columbia, SC. The conference brings together visionaries, representatives and enthusiasts from the burgeoning open source community.

SparkFun’s Director of IT Chris Clark will speak on using GitHub for open hardware. His session will address the risks, challenges and rewards of open sourcing hardware projects using a highly collaborative platform like GitHub. Clark will detail the challenges faced by SparkFun as it began loading an entire catalog of open hardware projects into GitHub and collaborating with the community to fix bugs, add features and advance the technology.

“Releasing the source is only half the battle. Collaborating with the community to improve it is what can set an open source project apart,” said Clark. “Turning to GitHub, we’re now developing a sustainable open hardware feedback loop across a wide swath of our product line.”

Lindsay Craig, one of SparkFun’s educational outreach coordinators, will speak on open source education, the emerging definition of open source education in connection with SparkFun’s upcoming National Tour (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tour), and helping educators bootstrap their tech and STEM education efforts. His discussion will highlight how to effectively use open source in education, as well as its pitfalls and advantages.

SparkFun will also host two workshops and a demo for 30 attendees. The first workshop will teach through-hole soldering with the Simon Says kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10547?). The second workshop will add an FTDI to the Simon kit to cover the five basic concepts in an “Intro to Arduino programming” class. For the final demo, class participants will add an XBee Series 1 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8664?) to their Simon kits and upload new code to play Wireless Battle Mode against each other.

POSSCON is hosted by IT-ology, a non-profit center for open source IT skill development. For more information, to purchase a ticket to POSSCON or to register for SparkFun’s workshops, visit (http://posscon.org/get-registered/).

About SparkFun Electronics

Founded in 2003, SparkFun shares its passion by providing parts, knowledge, and innovation for those looking to explore the world of embedded electronics. It helps anyone discover their inner inventor and enables individuals to create their own electronics projects. SparkFun currently offers more than 1,800 products, ranging from simple components, like capacitors and resistors, to GPS units and Bluetooth modules. The company employs 138 people and is based in Boulder, Colorado.Find SparkFun on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and Google+.

Kickstarter Launch for MiiPC - The First Family Friendly Android Computer

MiiPC, a new Kickstarter project, has been launched today by Young Song, the founder of eMachines. Young is looking to upset the traditional PC market again by launching the first family computer on Android, starting from $89 on a Kickstarter early bird discount. MiiPC allows parents to give their young children access to the Internet under their supervision from a companion mobile app.

http://www.miipc.com/kickstarter

MiiPC offers parents the chance to let their children surf the web, play games, watch media and do their homework, safe in the knowledge that they can make sure their children are not exposed to disturbing videos, unsuitable apps and inappropriate websites. The device comes with a HDMI connection, so it can be hooked up to computer monitors and most modern TVs, and with two USB ports the whole experience is optimized to provide a true keyboard and mouse experience.

Read more here.

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Casio Introduces Latest Addition To The ClassPad Series

 Casio America, Inc. is pleased to announce the fx-CP400, which is the latest advancement in the company's ClassPad series of graphing scientific calculators. Designed with a large color touch-panel and slightly oval shape, the new fx-CP400 fits comfortably in a user's hand and offers a variety of superior technological functions beneficial for educators and students. Casio's fx-CP400 will debut at the National Council of Teachers in Mathematics (NCTM) annual meeting in Denver, CO, April 17-20, 2013 in Casio's booth # 2121.

"The introduction of the fx-CP400 represents our continued commitment to the education space. The fx-CP400 is the first in the ClassPad series with a large colored LCD display, making it easier for students to operate and understand formulas, graphs and images," said Takero Itonaga, Senior General Manager of Casio's Consumer Products Division. "Casio takes great pride in developing products that offer innovative education solutions, and the fx-CP400 is designed to help students overcome the difficulties of mathematics."

Read more here.

Blackboard Recognized as Award Finalist in Multiple Categories

Blackboard Inc. was honored as a finalist in ten different categories in the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards, the company announced today. 

Blackboard has previously won a number of CODiE awards, including Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution, Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution and Best Corporate Learning Solution. This year Blackboard earned finalist recognition for a number of different teaching and learning products as well as administrative platforms including Blackboard Analytics^™ and Blackboard Transact ^™. In all, Blackboard was named a finalist in the following categories:

• Best Postsecondary Learning Solution: Blackboard Learn^™
• Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution: Blackboard Learn
• Best Postsecondary Personalized Learning Solution: Blackboard Learn
• Best Cross-Curricular Solution:CourseSites by Blackboard™
• Best Education Community Solution: CourseSites by Blackboard
• Best Educational Use of a Mobile Device: Blackboard Mobile^™ Learn
• Best Postsecondary Enterprise Solution: Blackboard Analytics
• Best Postsecondary Enterprise Solution: Blackboard Transact 
• Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution: Blackboard Engage^™
• Best Corporate Learning/Workforce Development Solution: Blackboard Learn for Salesforce

"It's a real honor to be recognized as finalists across so many categories," said Ray Henderson, Chief Technology Officer and President of Academic Platforms for Blackboard. "This is our best showing ever in the CODiE finals and we are grateful that our diligence in refining user experience is getting consistent approval from clients and industry observers."

The awards have over 75 categories and are organized by industry focus of  Content,  Education  and Software. This year's program features 23 education categories, several of which are new or updated to reflect the latest industry trends and business models. Winners will be announced during a special awards dinner at the Ed Tech Industry Summit, in San Francisco on May 6.

"We're pleased with the innovative educational technology products that made it to this stage. All of this year's finalists show great promise, and they should be proud of their finalist status," said Karen Billings, Vice President of the SIIA Education Division.

Details about each finalist are listed at http://siia.net/codies/2013/finalists.asp.

For more information about Blackboard's products and services, visit http://www.blackboard.com.

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Ten Teams of Middle and High School Students Win National Mobile App Design Competition

Ten teams of creative middle and high school students across the country are the winners of a national competition to develop mobile applications that address a need or problem in the students' communities or schools. The winning apps range from encouraging a community to do more recycling, to making it easier for students with disabilities to take notes in class, to identifying invasive plant species in lakes.

The competition, the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, was created by the Verizon Foundation in partnership with theTechnology Student Association to help boost student engagement and interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.  The students were asked to use their STEM skills to design app concepts that provided real-world solutions for issues in their communities or schools.     

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab will continue to work with students of the winning teams to refine their projects. Verizon will provide the teams with professional support and training to help them bring their concepts to market.  In addition, each winning team's school will receive a $10,000 Verizon Foundation grant to advance STEM education, and each team member will receive the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, courtesy of Samsung Mobile.

The winning teams – from five middle schools and five high schools – and their app concepts are:

• Bronx Academy of Promise, New York City – Quest Math, which helps students increase their speed in basic math computations through a mythology-themed game.
• Emory H. Markle Intermediate, Hanover, Pa. – Voice Notes, which revolutionizes note-taking for students with disabilities and organizes information to create effective study guides.
• Friends' Central School, Wynnewood, Pa. – STEAMnet, which is designed to support creative thinking and virtual collaboration, especially outside the standard school day.
• Forney High School , Forney, Texas – One|Place, which offers students, faculty and the community one location to find details about upcoming school and community events.  
• Hampstead Academy, Hampstead, N.H. – Chow Checker, which easily identifies the ingredients of food products to help individuals with allergies avoid problem foods.
• Jefferson Township Middle School, Oak Ridge, N.J. – Invase Erase, which identifies invasive plant species that attack the environment and provides solutions to minimize and/or contain them.
• Rock Canyon High School, Highlands Ranch, Colo. – CaringHands, which increases awareness of global problems and allows the user to donate directly to charities supporting solutions to these issues.
• South River High School , Edgewater, Md. – Study Buddy, which helps students develop better time-management skills to get assignments done on time.  
• Spalding Catholic High School , Granville, Iowa – AgNote MAX, which makes it easier to track all aspects of farming.
• STEM Center Middle School, West Fargo, N.D. – Recycling Bin, which encourages members of local communities to increase recycling efforts and reduce the need for landfills.

Moodle Educloud Native App Transforms Android and iPad Tablets Into Full-Featured Mobile Learning Devices

Seabridge Technology Partners, LLC, a provider of technology for the mobile classroom and workplace, today announced the availability of Moodle Educloud Native App. Developed byNetherlands-based Smart Learning Apps™, Moodle Educloud allows students and teachers to use open source Moodle as a full-featured learning management system (LMS) on Android tablets with Apple® iPad support soon to follow.  Together with Anise Asia, a cloud company based in Malaysia, Moodle Educloud is the result of pilots run by Smart Learning Apps at several universities using the Moodle platform on tablets.

Learners Encountered Limitations on Tablets 
Until today, thousands of universities and millions of students struggled to use Moodle, the leading open source LMS, on their new generation Android and iPad tablets. Because of standard tablet browsers' limitations, complete Moodle courses cannot be delivered on these mobile learning devices. Key features, such as downloading, editing and uploading files to teachers and lecturers are not supported. Even with new HTML5 browser technology, Moodle courses perform slowly and do not provide the native user experience students expect from their tablet device.

Native Moodle App Empowers Students and Teachers
The Moodle Educloud Native App turns any Android tablet, into a full-featured learning device offering flow-based HD video courses, social media support like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and current cloud based file storage technology.  File exchange between students and lecturers are managed from the powerful cloud. Also, students can now use collaboration features like course-based chat, forums, Skype, video communication support, push notifications, and additional hardware features today's tablets offer. A demo is available in Google Play.

Moodle Users 
As of October 2012 Moodle had a user base of 70,793 sites, serving 63,204,814 users in 6.7+ million courses with 1.2+ million trainers, teachers and lecturers.

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Educational Robots Demonstrated Today at TCEA

Teaching math and science has never been more engaging. A new product launched today, is allowing teachers to use quadcopters, robotic arms and rovers to teach math and science using dedicated educational apps aligned with mandated standards.

Students' aversion to math is clearly demonstrated by the fact that in 2011, upon graduation, only 32 percent of all US high school students were determined to be proficient in math. This creates a huge challenge as over the next 10 years 62 percent of American jobs will require entry-level workers to be proficient in algebra, geometry and other STEM topics.

"We are bridging this gap using robotics," said Elad Inbar, CEO of RobotsLAB."Students are much more engaged and excited when seeing abstract subjects like algebra coming to life using robots. This repeating feedback has inspired us to create the BOX."

The revolutionary product utilizes robotics technology as an easy-to-use teaching-aid for STEM topics. A standards-aligned curriculum was developed with educators; each lesson is an app on the included tablet which controls the robots in the package. Every module comes with an instructional video, a demonstrative touch-based lesson, a quiz, and supplemental teaching materials.

The BOX is synergistic with President Obama's "Educate to Innovate" campaign; aiding in the race towards the U.S. becoming one of the leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by inspiring students to be the next generation of makers, discoverers, and innovators and helping teachers to easily demonstrate abstract concepts such as quadratic equations in real life.

"You can open the box, turn-on the preloaded tablet and within minutes explain quadratic equations with a quadcopter," explains Professor Peter Stone of the University of Texas Austin."You don't need to be experienced with robotics or have a degree in computer science, just an enthusiasm for your subject area."

Stone is the head of the 14-teacher panel selected to review, experience and test the state-of-the-art RobotsLAB-BOX in classrooms prior to the launch.

The company set out to create an affordable solution for schools; equipping the BOX with several robots: AR.Drone the quadcopter, Sphero the robotic ball, ArmBot the robotic arm and Mobot the mobile robot that demonstrate core concepts in algebra, physics, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. 

The standard edition of the BOX costs $3,500. It comes with 50 lessons, four robots, one tablet, 12 accessories and a one-year warranty, all in a transport case. The deluxe edition costs $3,999; it adds extended warranty and a yearly subscription for additional lessons.

Demonstrations are being held on Feb 6-8 at booth #2560 during the Texas Computer Education Association conference, inside the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Workshops are also scheduled following the conference in various states.