EdTech Show Daily

Texas Instruments from the FETC Show!

From the FETC Show, Texas Instruments talks about some of their new issued products available at the show!

For more information, visit Texas Instruments.

Mentor InterActive Releases My Virtual Tutor – Reading For Nintendo DSTM

 

Mentor InterActive has released My Virtual Tutor - Reading, an interactive game that improves children’s reading and comprehension skills. The product, which will be exclusively available for Nintendo DS™, offers a new use for the popular system that makes learning to read fun, affordable, and portable. My Virtual Tutor - Reading gives moms and dads effective solution to aid children in learning to read on a system they already love.

Derived from a teaching system and proprietary software developed by faculty from the University of Colorado’s Center for Spoken Language Research, My Virtual Tutor – Reading lets children practice reading skills on Nintendo DS through interactive books, fun reading and word exercises and quizzes that allow the child to earn a prize. The child holds the DS vertically like a book and is guided through the different game modes by an animated tutor that reads, repeats and provides encouraging words.

My Virtual Tutor - Reading concentrates on five reading areas including Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension, Fluency, and Vocabulary–all recommended by the Department of Education to improve reading proficiency. My Virtual Tutor - Reading will be available in different packages (Pre-K to kindergarten, kindergarten to first grade, and first grade to second grade), each based on age appropriate curriculum and books.

My Virtual Tutor - Reading was developed by 1st Playable Productions, LLC. My Virtual Tutor - Reading for Nintendo DS will be available at mass and specialty retailers throughout North America such as Toy R’ Us, GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon.com in early September for a suggested retail price of $29.99. The Pre-K- K SKUs is rated EC (Early Childhood) and the K-1st Grade and 1st-2nd Grade SKUs are rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB.

For More Information, visit My Virtual Tutor: Reading.

Mangahigh Launches First Curriculum-Compliant Online Maths Games For 11-16 Year-Olds

Games and Education Innovators Team Up to Boost Maths Learning

Against a backdrop of UK maths standards falling to an all-time low (UK students now rank only 24th in maths proficiency, according to the PISA international league table), Mangahigh today launches the first curriculum-compliant, games-based learning site focusing on maths for secondary school students. Mangahigh is led by Dr. Marcus du Sautoy (maths professor at the University of Oxford and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science) and Toby Rowland (co-founder of King.com, one of the world’s largest casual games companies), who have teamed up to improve children’s maths ability.

Mangahigh’s games are designed with maths at their core and feature commercial-quality gameplay, rewarding students with curriculum-compliant achievements that celebrate their progress. Through gameplay, Mangahigh aims to provoke students to explore sophisticated maths concepts and reinforce skills through repetition. The games are supported by Prodigi, the world’s first adaptive maths learning engine for Key Stages 3 and 4.

Mangahigh will launch with five completely original maths games that are free and fun to play and are designed to make maths challenging, yet playable in a gaming context. The games allow students to grasp and practice sophisticated maths concepts in an entertaining way. The launch games are:

1. Save Our Dumb Planet – protect Earth from meteors and other space hazards by using algebra skills to calculate accurate trajectories for a life-saving surface-to-space missile. Players use algebraic substitution, indices, coordinates and graph-plotting to plan their missile flight paths, leading them through linear, quadratic and, eventually, cubic equations.
2. Flower Power – grow and harvest valuable and exotic flowers to make your horticultural fortune. Players practice their knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentages with beautiful results.
3. Pyramid Panic – help a prematurely-entombed mummy escape from a pyramid by solving geometry puzzles to build a path across the burial chamber to the exit. Set in Ancient Egypt, players start with simple puzzles involving areas and lengths of rectangles, triangles and kites, through more complex applications of Pythagoras’ rule, to the ultimate challenge of solving problems involving trigonometry.
4. BIDMAS Blaster – Professor BIDMAS' roborators have run amok and need to be destroyed. In this fast-paced action game, players practice their skills with brackets, indices, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction.
5. Mangahigh’s most powerful game is Prodigi, a maths learning engine that features thousands of maths problems with worked solutions and hints that adapt to each student’s ability and learning speed. Students, teachers and parents can customise Prodigi by skipping items that have already been mastered in the classroom, or focusing on areas that need specific attention. If necessary, students can learn using Prodigi with a minimum of intervention from educators, as it guides the student through the maths curriculum in a logical, pedagogic order.

“Maths is frequently perceived as boring and irrelevant by students. Mangahigh aims to make maths fun and engaging through the use of games and also to spark an interest that reaches beyond the curriculum,” said Dr. Marcus du Sautoy. “Mangahigh will enrich students beyond the nuts and bolts of GSCE; it will give them context and a deeper insight into maths, as well as interesting facts that they can share with their friends.”

“Mangahigh aims to fuse online games and maths. Having observed millions of players hone their game-playing skills at King.com, I realised that, if this same motivation and stimulation could be bought to mathematics education, it could be a game-changer,” added Toby Rowland.

About Mangahigh

Mangahigh is the developer and publisher of the first curriculum-compliant maths games for 11-16 year-old students. Mangahigh is led by an experienced team of mathematicians, educationalists and games designers; key executives include: Toby Rowland, CEO and founder of Mangahigh, formerly the co-CEO and co-founder of King.com, one of the world’s largest casual games companies; and Dr. Marcus du Sautoy, Chairman of Mangahigh’s Board of Advisors, currently Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science.

For more information, visit Mangahigh.

Elluminate Announces General Availability Of Elluminate Plan! V2

Enables Educators to Organize, Script, and Package Content and Activities to Simplify and Facilitate Live Online Delivery

Elluminate, Inc., the leading provider of web, audio and video solutions for real-time online learning and collaboration, today announced general availability of the latest version of Elluminate Plan!™, which enables educators to organize and package content and activities before the live, online session, automating routine tasks and allowing instructors to focus on delivering material, facilitating interaction, and optimizing the online learning experience.

With Elluminate Plan! V2, users can decrease session plan development time by 50%. The Elluminate Learning Suite™, which includes Elluminate Plan! as well as flagship product Elluminate Live!® for real-time interaction and collaboration and Elluminate Publish!™ for creating post-session content for mobile learning, supports the entire online instructional cycle.

Unlike other products designed for self-paced exploration, Elluminate Plan! was specifically developed for use in a multiuser, instructor-led, real-time eLearning environment. Instructors or course designers organize, script and package content and activities ahead of time. Then during the Elluminate Live! session, each action, like advancing to the next slide, creating breakout rooms, loading and presenting a quiz, web touring, or playing a multimedia file, is triggered with a single click.

Elluminate Plan! V2 enhancements include:

• Significantly expanded command set to build in even more interactivity
  
• Ability to set session parameters for easy automatic setup before class begins
  
• Drag-and-drop construction and editing that facilitates plan development
  
• Plan validation tool that enables self-service troubleshooting and cuts development time
  
• Support for Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese in addition to English
  

Elluminate Plan! ensures that content is delivered consistently across multiple sessions by multiple presenters. Institutions can package content and methodologies for real-time delivery by a wider group of instructors to facilitate the use of live eLearning and collaboration systemwide.

Elluminate Plan! is sold as part of the Elluminate Next>™ bundle, which also includes Elluminate Publish! for creating standalone files or industry-standard video files from Elluminate Live! recordings. In addition, Elluminate Professional Services offers the Next> Boot Camp, an intensive, one-day, onsite training session for Elluminate Plan! and Elluminate Publish!

“This spring, we conducted an Elluminate Plan! pilot with a group of volunteer middle school math teachers,” said Guadalupe Vander Ploeg, Sr. Manager, Teacher Effectiveness, K12, Inc. “Using the lesson plans we developed, each session was delivered multiple times by different teachers. As a result of the pilot, parents reported very high satisfaction rates with the additional support. We are currently analyzing student academic achievement scores and hope the additional instruction had a positive effect.”

“Although the Next> Boot Camp is designed as an onsite session, Elluminate Professional Services was very responsive in adjusting the training to meet the needs of our remote population," Vander Ploeg added. “Throughout the school year, we offered 10 boot camps of four online sessions each, which received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the teachers.”

"Live interaction in the virtual classroom is key to transforming teaching and learning on a global level, but the eLearning landscape is evolving,” said Maurice Heiblum, President, Elluminate, Inc. "Elluminate’s ’learning-edge’ solutions take educators beyond the virtual classroom with tools for session planning and post-session content distribution. Our solutions address activities across the entire instructional cycle, integrate with existing applications in the academic infrastructure, and scale easily from the department or campus level to complex, multicampus enterprisewide deployments.”

For more information, visit Elluminate.

Super Stars Literacy Students Make Substantial Gains In Literacy Achievement

Highlights from 2008-09 Evaluation Report

Super Stars Literacy (SSL) today announced results of its 2008-09 program evaluation, which showed that the award-winning after-school program was able to surmount challenges posed by growth and the struggling economy to succeed in achieving its goal of significantly improving the literacy and behavioral development of students in underserved areas. Results showed that an overwhelming majority of SSL’s 270 students improved their literacy skills by at least one skill level and demonstrated improved emotional and behavioral maturity. SSL was also within reach of its graduation goal of 80 percent of students who had been in the program for three years achieving grade-level benchmark literacy skills by the end of second grade.

“2008-09 was a benchmark year for Super Stars, not only did we establish ourselves as an independent non-profit organization, we tripled our size, both in terms of the number of students served, as well as the infrastructure required to operate the larger organization,” remarked Super Stars Literacy Executive Director Mike Mowery. “Despite the challenges these changes posed, the evaluation results show that our dynamic curriculum is effective on any scale and adapted to any education environment to deliver success in improving the academic performance and emotional development of our students.”

The Oakland-based education and community evaluation firm Gibson and Associates (G&A) conducted the SSL evaluation, which included development and piloting of observation rubrics; interview protocols and surveys; two rounds of classroom observations; SSL staff, parent, classroom teacher surveys; SSL staff interviews; as well as analysis of program data, parent participation, and planning documents. G&A measured SSL’s effectiveness against the program’s four strategic Program Outcomes. These outcomes and highlights of the results include:

Outcome 1: At the end of each program year, 80 percent of SSL participants will improve by at least one literacy skill level.

According to G&A, results suggest SSL is within striking distance of its 80 percent goal, which is a stretch target. In 2008-09, target performance was met by over 70% of students tested.

Outcome 2: At the end of their third year in the program, 80 percent of SSL second grade participants will achieve benchmark in reading accuracy and fluency skills or reach proficiency on California Standards Test (CST) in English Language Arts.

Though the total number of students who have completed the seven year-old program’s three- year curriculum remains small, according to the G&A report, the results of the small pool of SSL graduates is “impressive and suggests a positive pattern.” At Hoover and Parker Elementary Schools, where students have been in the SSL program for at least three years, 74% of the 2nd graders achieved benchmark in reading accuracy and fluency skills.

Outcome 3: At the end of each program year, 80 percent of students, parents and teachers will report improvement in participants’ academic, social-emotional and behavioral skills as measured by student, parent and teacher surveys.

According to the G&A results, over 80% of SSL staff, parents, and classroom teachers who were surveyed noted improvement in nearly all measures of SSL students’ academic, social-emotional skills, and behavior.

Outcome 4: each program year, 80 percent of SSL participants’ parents will attend at least one program event.

According to G&A results, “the strong participation of parents in the SSL events and field trips mirrors the positive view that the majority of parents have of SSL in general.” 82% of SSL parents attended at least one event during the 2008-09 school year, which included field trips to the Chabot Space and Science Center and the San Jose Tech Museum, as well as library trips and parent’s night.

About Super Stars Literacy

Dedicated to building early literacy skills in primary grade children in communities with limited resources, Super Stars Literacy currently serves over 200 students at five Oakland, Calif., elementary schools. The program was originally founded in 2002 as a program of the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, Inc., and earned independent non-profit 501(c)(3) status in 2008. 

For more information, visit Super Stars Literacy.

Study Shows Multimedia Math Program May Hold Key To Mathematics Improvement For Struggling Students

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's iSUCCEED MATH™ generates dramatic improvement in Virginia math scores

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today announced the results of a recent Virginia study evaluating the instructional effectiveness of its iSUCCEED MATH™ program. The study reveals that iSUCCEED MATH not only improves students' mathematics problem-solving skills and strategy use, but enables struggling students to outperform higher-performing classmates.

"The results of this study continue to support innovative multimedia solutions for students who struggle with mathematics," said Mike Lavelle, K–12 president, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "We are committed to equipping teachers and students with programs like iSUCCEED MATH that are proven to positively impact achievement by providing students with the necessary tools for success."

The study, performed by Educational Research Institute of America (ERIA) included two middle schools (students in grades 5–8) in a Virginia school district. Results of the math portions of state and local school assessments separated the students into high-performing and low-performing classroom groups, and only the low-performing group utilized the iSUCCEED MATH curriculum throughout the 2008-2009 school year. According to post-study test results, the iSUCCEED MATH students outperformed their peers — a particularly significant achievement considering that their pre-study test performance was statistically inferior.

Research shows that programs like iSUCCEED MATH, which focus on fundamental mathematics skills early on, can minimize and even prevent later math learning difficulties, allowing students to develop an affinity for math and achieve success in advanced courses. The iSUCCEED 5-Step Teaching Cycle guides instructors through diagnosing individual needs, prescribing appropriate lessons, directing practice and recapitulation opportunities and assessing student progress.

The iSUCCEED MATH™ program is a premier data-driven math intervention solution for grade 3–8 students who struggle to master mathematics fundamentals. The program's age-appropriate, individualized instruction is specifically designed to close gaps in conceptual understanding. This innovative system combines technology and print material with multimedia, multisensory instruction, incorporating the best practices of teacher-directed group instruction, interactive courseware and active practice with games, fact fluency and one-on-one tutoring. Additionally, comprehensive courseware scaffolds systematic, "step-by-step" individualized instruction with skill building, problem solving and computational fluency building, and every lesson includes powerful assessments that correlate to state standards.

iSUCCEED MATH's multimedia, multisensory system principles derive from compelling research that identifies effective approaches to mathematics teaching and intervention. The program's curriculum aligns with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards, as well as individual state standards, providing ideal depth of coverage while emphasizing the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world's largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of best-in-class educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards — based assessments for students and educators. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. 

To learn more, visit Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Pioneering One-to-One Laptop District Selects Carnegie Learning Math Curricula For Core Classroom Instruction

Greene County, NC Purchases Research-Based Math Textbooks and Software for All Middle School and High School Students

The full suite of Carnegie Learning® Math Curricula Solutions has been adopted by Greene County North Carolina Schools for the District’s middle school and two high schools beginning in August. The 1800-student implementation includes Carnegie Learning® Blended Math Curricula Solutions which integrate interactive software, textbooks, and collaborative classroom activity supported by ongoing formative assessments and professional development services.

Located in rural Snow Hill in eastern North Carolina, Greene County Schools is an innovative leader in integrating technology in the classroom. In 2003, the District instituted iTECH, an initiative giving every middle school and high school student a laptop as part of the District’s mission to offer students challenging curricula to prepare them for the 21st century. iTECH has impacted End Of Course scores which rose from 67%-78% during the first year of implementation, and the college-going rate among Greene Central High School students has increased to 94% in the most recent school year, from 26% when the program was introduced.

“Technology is much more than equipment,” said Dr. Pat MacNeill, Assistant Superintendent of Greene County Schools. “We are committed to using our laptops and infrastructure to deliver engaging, effective curriculum that is rigorous and relevant to all students. Carnegie Learning® Math Curricula Solutions met these objectives, and we look forward to delivering individualized, self-paced programs that get our students excited about math.”

Students in Greene County will be using Cognitive Tutor® Bridge to Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II programs. The Cognitive Tutor® Software is based upon an artificial intelligence model that incorporates ongoing formative and summative assessments that individualize and differentiate instruction based upon students’ prior knowledge and needs. Carnegie Learning® Textbooks engage students in solving problems that encourage collaboration that strengthens both declarative and procedural knowledge of mathematics. Carnegie Learning® Textbooks will replace McGraw-Hill’s Glencoe math textbooks in the middle school and Pearson’s Prentice Hall math textbooks in the high schools.

Professional development services include implementation training and in-classroom support and coaching, as well as a leadership seminar for district administrators and principals providing an overview of data tools and strategies to support mathematics teachers using Carnegie Learning® instructional materials.

For additional information visit Carnegie Learning, Inc. 

ebrary Offers IGI Global’s Award-Winning InfoSci-Books

ebrary®, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, today announced that it is offering InfoSci-Books, an award-winning selection of all books and reference works published since the year 2000 by IGI Global, an industry-leading publisher on advanced computer science and information technology research. InfoSci-Books features over 25,000 chapters from more than 900 scholarly titles spanning all areas of information/computer science and technology applied to business and public administration, engineering, education, medical and healthcare, and social science.

Libraries, corporations, and other organizations may choose to acquire the InfoSci-Books database with annual subscription or perpetual options, including current year packages. Individual e-books are also available for purchase at list price directly through ebrary, its global network of resellers, and select book vendors including YBP, Ambassador, Blackwell, and Matthews.

“ebrary’s flexible payment and access options enable us to provide InfoSci-Books under models that fit the needs and budget requirements of libraries, corporations and other organizations around the world,” said Jan Travers, Vice President of IGI Global. “We are also excited that customers can benefit from ebrary’s powerful research tools, which allow end-users to easily and efficiently find, use, and manage the information in InfoSci-Books.”

“We are proud to help IGI Global in its mission to disseminate the most current research on the role, impact, and effective use of technology across a variety of settings, including business, education, health care, government, and more,” said Leslie Lees, Vice President of Content Development at ebrary. “InfoSci-Books has been rated 10 out of 10 by Library Journal and was recently named ‘Best Reference Database,’ proof of the endorsement IGI Global receives from the library community.”

Customers may supplement their IGI Global collection by acquiring additional ebrary e-books and licensing the company’s technology to host their own materials in related subject areas, creating a customized, integrated database that can be delivered via a single, easy-to-use interface. Key features and benefits include the following:

• Anytime/anywhere access.
• ebrary InfoTools™ networks every word with other online resources.
• Multiple options for searching and navigating.
• Personal bookshelves automatically store links to highlights, notes, and more, providing an archive of research. Folders can be emailed to peers.
• Automatic citations when text is printed or copied and pasted into Word or any text applications. Citations include an automatic URL hyperlink back to the source.
• Highlighting and annotating.
• Ability to transform text into a hyperlink to a URL of the end-user’s choice.
• Text-to-speech and other keyboard shortcuts to assist end-users with special accessibility needs.

To request a free trial, title list or more information, please email sales@ebrary.com.

For additional informaiton visit ebrary.

Hundreds Of North American High School Students To Compete At 2009 Canon Envirothon

Teams Convene at University of North Carolina – Asheville for One of North America’s Largest High School Environmental Education Competitions

More than 260 teenagers from 45 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces will meet at the University of North Carolina – Asheville, from August 2 through August 8, to participate as finalists in one of North America’s largest high school environmental education competition, the 2009 Canon Envirothon.

Throughout the competition, teams will be tested on their knowledge of soils and land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife and a current environmental issue. This year’s current issue topic for the competition is Biodiversity in a Changing World. Students will analyze the long-term and short-term impact of natural environmental occurrences and human activities on genes, species and ecosystems relative to how each may influence or directly impact their future.

As they continue to learn about environmental issues affecting natural resources, participants will have the opportunity to compete for a share of more than $125,000 in educational scholarships, as well as Canon products. The competition is organized by the National Association of Conservation Districts, the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Forest Service and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. and in Canada by the Provincial Forestry Associations.

"As a global corporate citizen, Canon is aware that decisions about the conservation and preservation of our environment will shape the future of our planet," said Jack Suzuki, senior director and general manager, Corporate Communications Division, Canon U.S.A., Inc. "Canon is guided by the philosophy of Kyosei – all people, regardless of race, religion, or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future. Embracing this philosophy, Canon U.S.A. believes environmental education is the key to a sustainable future. The students competing at the Canon Envirothon will have a direct hand in solving the complex environmental issues related to conserving and preserving the planet’s limited resources for future generations."

Since 1997, Canon U.S.A. has been a sponsor of this annual competition. The Canon Envirothon is one of North America’s largest high school environmental education competitions, in which more than 500,000 teenagers are involved in a year-long learning process that combines in-class curricula with hands-on field experiences. Five-member teams from schools and organizations compete for the distinction of representing their state, Canadian province or territory in the Canon Envirothon by first competing in local competitions organized by environmental agencies. Under the supervision of foresters, soil scientists and wildlife specialists, teams participate in a series of field-oriented tests. Students also prepare and deliver oral presentations to panels of judges who evaluate each team on their problem-solving capabilities, oral presentation skills and recommendations to help solve the specific environmental challenge presented during the competition.

In addition to the Canon Envirothon, Canon U.S.A. supports a wide range of environmental education and youth programs including, the PBS Nature series; programs at Yellowstone National Park; and many additional local programs. 

For more information visit Canon USA.

INNEX SHARES SUCCESS WITH KIDS IN NEED

Videogame Distributor Donates Percentage to Kids in Need Foundation Helping Provide Free School Supplies to Impoverished Children

Innex, a major distributor of videogame peripherals and accessories, announced that it has signed a cause marketing license agreement with the KIDS IN NEED FOUNDATION. Marathon Projects Ltd, the licensing agency for the Kids In Need Foundation negotiated the transaction. This will be the latest partnership agreement under the Kids In Need Foundation cause licensing program.

Believing that the meaning of success is the ability to help others, Innex, Inc. has announced that it will donate a percentage of its sales revenue to the KIDS IN NEED FOUNDATION, a charity that provides free school supplies to impoverished children. Moving forward, Innex will allocate a portion of all revenue, including sales of its exclusive brands (Komodo, Retro-Bit, Exo-Flex) to KIDS IN NEED.

Innex was established by Titi and Joey Ngoy, brothers whose family fled to a Thai Refugee Camp from Cambodia in 1979 while the country was suffering from violent revolution and extreme poverty inflicted by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Titi and Joey’s parents arrived in America with nothing, but managed, through hard work, to provide their children with the education necessary to prosper.

“Through our own family experience, we are very aware of the importance of an education and the difficulties faced by impoverished children,” stated Titi Ngoy, President of Innex. “Teaming up with KIDS IN NEED offers us the opportunity to make a contribution to a charity that is near to our heart and will hopefully make a difference in the lives of kids who need an extra hand getting ahead.”

David Smith, Executive Director of the KIDS IN NEED FOUNDATION stated, “KIDS IN NEED is very excited to partner with Innex since videogames are an important part of our youth’s culture. To be able to integrate Innex’s videogame peripheral and accessory program with KIDS IN NEED has fundamental appeal for both companies and helps strengthen KIDS IN NEED’S mission to provide school supplies for more children who need them.

Craig Kalter, President of Marathon Projects added, “As the momentum of the KIDS IN NEED FOUNDATION cause marketing licensing  program continues, we hope that more potential licensees will realize the multiple benefits that working together in such a program can provide.  It really can be a win-win situation for all.”

Research shows that when children are provided with basic school supplies their grades go up, their confidence increases and their attitude toward learning improves. KIDS IN NEED is the number 1 charity focused on America’s under-funded educational system. KIDS IN NEED provides free school supplies to impoverished children as well as curriculum grants to under-funded teachers.

For more information visit The Kids In Need Foundation or Innex.