EdTech Show Daily

Teachers, Students Get 'Aha!' Moments Via Web-Delivered Aha!Math

Teachers have all seen it: The blank stares of mentally checked-out students and disengaged, uninterested kids flopped over their desks. Energy seems to seep under the door and out of the room.
North Carolina elementary teacher Kelly Crowley knows those moments, too, and is pleased to have all but banished them from her fourth/fifth-grade class. She’s found Aha!Math, an engaging, Web-delivered supplemental math curriculum by Learning.com. Together with her interactive whiteboard, Aha!Math has made a big impact in her class.

When this Pine Valley Elementary School teacher uses Aha!Math, designed for grades K–5, “the whole class ends up participating—even kids who sit at the back of the room who don’t like to talk or raise their hand. They love it.”

For example, Crowley finds the Aha!Math/whiteboard combo effectively engages her students when she is introducing new math concepts and re-teaching tricky ones. While Aha!Math’s digital teacher provides instruction, she keeps an eye on her students. Aha!Math allows her to pause the action anywhere she wants to engage them, ask questions and prompt discussion. “I can do a quick auditory assessment and note who is being quiet and just how well students are responding,” she says. “That lets me know how we’re doing getting a particular concept.”

Aha!Math provides teachers with elements designed to work with interactive whiteboards or projectors. With engaging instruction modules, games and quizzes, teachers have everything they need for whole-class instruction. In fact, Crowley is particularly pleased that Aha!Math includes multiple models of instruction for critical math concepts.

“I had never taught multiplication using a number line, so Aha!Math gave me a whole new way for my students to see the equal groups,” Crowley says.
New methods, combined with lively presentation, make a big difference for these digitally savvy learners.

“It’s a way to get the kids more involved in what we’re learning. It adds variety to a regular math lesson, something new.”

But, Crowley adds, it’s also effective.

“My children have a very firm grasp, for example, of the decimal curriculum. They weren’t getting it with just me teaching them with the normal “lecture, listen and practice” class. But when I added Aha!Math to the mix, I could see the light bulbs go on.”

Most importantly, Aha!Math still puts her at the center of teaching—guiding and engaging students to those ‘aha’ moments.

“I am still teaching the class—not the computer. I am still engaged with my students. I’ve got new ways to present the curriculum, but I don’t have to invent something new. It’s all right there, ready to go and ready to use with the whiteboard.”

To see Aha!Math in action, visit Learning.com’s FETC booth 101. Watch a demo and receive a scratch card for a chance to win cool gifts, including a 2goPC.

Deep Learning Opportunities Abound With Innovative TI-Nspire Tech

By Melendy Lovett, President, Education Technology; Senior Vice President, Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (TI) is proud of the positive impacts TI-Nspire technology has had on student learning. With TI-Nspire technology, educators have access to parallel handheld and computer software. The dual platforms of handheld and software allow documents to be transferred back and forth between the two and represent a fresh approach for TI. This offering provides advancements, such as “Grab and Move” functionality, automatic resizing and “Dynamic Linking”—all around a save, edit and review document model.

TI-Nspire ™ technology enhances the ability to:

• Use documents that align with teaching practices proven to enhance learning.
• Save and continue work from one class to the next.
• Allow student reflection and revision of work.
• Organize the build-up and sequencing of ideas.
• Enable formative assessment of student understanding.
• Have materials prepared at the start of class, increasing time on task.

Research played a major part in the development of the TI-Nspire handheld and software. The research and educator benefits include:

• Effectiveness: The TI-Nspire math and science learning technology brings together graphing and formative assessment. Research shows that students who use graphing technology on a regular basis see increases with student achievement. TI-Nspire technology emphasizes problem solving and concepts, not just right answers. TI-Nspire technology also allows for assessment through TI-Nspire documents that stimulate student reasoning and explanation.
• Enhanced representation and communication of mathematics: TI-Nspire linked representations (equations, graphs, tables, geometric figures and words) enable students to master difficult concepts and explore the effects of changing variables, e.g. see the same mathematical idea across representations (grab and move a line on a graph and see how the equation and table data change). Teachers may also introduce topics such as modeling that were previously too time-consuming.
• Deeper opportunities to learn: Students learn more when they have more time. TI-Nspire documents allow for a teacher to prepare the context for student work. With TI-Nspire documents, teachers may also organize a sequence of tasks and create a common starting point, so students can succeed early and frequently. Using the document features of TI-Nspire technology, teachers can develop classroom practices that increase the time spent learning mathematics.

The TI-Nspire handheld is permitted on the SAT, ACT, PSAT and AP exams and comes with an interchangeable TI-84 Plus keypad that provides the same keystrokes and functionality as the TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition graphing calculators. This dual functionality allows for districts and schools to continue using existing TI-84 materials, alignments and professional development and to integrate the TI-Nspire handheld technology over time.

TI-Nspire math and science learning technology is available from instructional dealers. We have professional development opportunities specifically designed for implementing TI-Nspire technology in the classroom. Visit www.ti-nspire.com for information and hands-on training opportunities in your state.

Engage, Motivate & Collaborate With Dynamic mimio Studio 6

Manny Perez, Director of Research and Development at mimio, discusses the new Studio 6 software.

ESD: What makes Studio 6 different from earlier versions of the software?
 
MP: This is the biggest upgrade since we first introduced the software. Multimedia content is quickly becoming a critical part of effective lesson plans. We focused development efforts on enabling teachers to quickly and easily use interactive content with mimio Interactive.

ESD: How did you improve Studio 6?

MP: Our goal was to create an all-in-one tool to help teachers create, store and share dynamic, interactive lesson plans. For example, you can easily add and control rich multimedia content, such as video, audio and Flash animations. In addition, you can also easily incorporate a variety of document formats, such as PowerPoint, Word and PDF files, directly into Studio. Finally, we took a cue from our teachers and streamlined the user interface to make it easier and faster to use.

ESD: What is your favorite feature?

MP: The content gallery. We preloaded educational content covering a wide range of subjects and grade levels. The live search function means you have quick access to images, movies and lesson plans—putting content at your fingertips at all times.

ESD: Do these features make Studio 6 hard to use?

MP: The challenge for any software developer is to make software easy to use. With a lot of feedback from our existing users, we tested and refined our application to be more intuitive. Studio 6 was developed to have a very small learning curve, but offer users a lot of depth. Like I mentioned earlier, our new tool bar offers more functionality, but has been reduced in size to fit nicely on the left side so you can keep tools available without minimizing and resizing. 

ESD: How do teachers get Studio 6?

MP: The new version is available *free* to all Windows Studio 5 users through the software updates menu. You can also discover more facets of Studio 6 through the mimio quicklearn and mimio masters training programs. See it at booth 329.

Making the Grad With AVI-SPL & SMART

“My students are so excited to the point of very audible giggles and highly visible smiles,” says Rosemary Fair, a kindergarten teacher for Brooker Creek Elementary School in Tarpon Springs, Fla. “It has been a great pleasure to see the excitement on the faces of my young learners as we use the SMART whiteboard.”

Fair’s dynamic new approach is made possible through the use of a SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard—a piece of technology that has had a tremendously positive effect at Brooker Creek. Designed with today’s educators in mind, SMART’s 600i series of interactive whiteboards deliver crisp, clear images at the quick touch of a button. Presentations are made easy with the flexibility to effortlessly switch between classroom peripherals, such as laptops, DVD players and digital cameras.

The integrated system produces high levels of brightness and delivers a clear, crisp image for the classroom. By adding optional speakers and a height-adjustable wall mount, you can turn the 600i into a complete multimedia center where every student can see, hear and participate. The research is clear: Students who have SMART Board interactive whiteboard technology in their classrooms have made significant improvements in their English, math and science scores.

In collaboration with SMART’s interactive tools, educators can depend on AVI-SPL, the leading integrator of audio video systems and services. AVI-SPL specializes in creating advanced educational environments that are customized, flexible and completely user-friendly.

From easy-to-use projection systems, interactive whiteboards and more, AVI-SPL stands as the A/V integrator of choice among educators. Whether meeting the needs of K-12 schools or distance learners for higher education, AVI-SPL applies the dynamic design, build and installation of cutting-edge presentation solutions for classrooms nationwide.

“As SMART is constantly bringing out innovative technology, we provide very comprehensive implementation and training for our educators,” adds Bob Mallory, Vice President of Education Marketing Development for AVI-SPL. “There are a variety of school districts we’ve worked with, from small to large. We’ve seen time and time again: The possibilities behind SMART interactive learning tools are endless.”

For additional information about AVI-SPL’s line of SMART products, visit www.avispl.com, call 800-282-6733 or stop by booth 1419.

SchoolFusion Brings School Communications Into the 21st Century

This past November, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning released A Transition Brief: Policy Recommendations on Preparing Americans for the Global Skills Race. The brief emphasizes the skill sets needed to prepare the American workforce for 21st century challenges, stressing the necessity that schools be “equipped with a 21st century technology infrastructure and 21st century technology tools,” to help their community of learners succeed in a competitive environment.

SchoolFusion, a Denver, Colo.-based education company serving 3,000 schools in 43 states, offers Web-based solutions that create an infrastructure central to the 21st century learning environment. With more than 93 percent of youth and 94 percent of parents online, ignoring online resources challenges schools with effectively disseminating information. Homework and special event information, progress reports, reports cards and more sometimes—or often—miss their marks.

SchoolFusion’s Web-based Four Key Pieces—content management, online calendars, classroom Web sites and personal space—drive an unprecedented level of school communications. Starting with the creation of a customized Web site for each school served, Web-based services constantly keep the entire school community in the loop. Students stay in control with an online daily calendar that helps them prioritize assignments and projects while they communicate with other students to solve challenging problems. They can also download additional information on class topics that may have sparked their interest.

Teachers can easily set up a daily Web calendar that includes students’ assignments, while also incorporating additional resources to fire curiosity. They can post announcements that are accessible in real time and engage students in AfterClass, SchoolFusion’s blogging tool that continues school discussion during out-of-school time. Online assignments and auto-graded assessments make manual grading a thing of the past.

Parents have up-to-the-minute knowledge of their student’s assignments, progress and of school events, holidays, breaks, early release days, etc. Knowledge-based online communication with teachers can improve the teacher-parent relationship.

Finally, administrators can revel in the customized look and feel of their school’s Web site—and the ease with which anyone on their staff can keep the Web site’s information fresh—while they take the credit for making communication easy, timely and relevant for their community of teachers, parents and students.

QOMO HiteVision Offers Variety of Interactive Classroom, Boardroom Solutions

QOMO HiteVision is a dynamic educational technology manufacturer/distributor that specializes in providing the complete interactive classroom solution. All of QOMO’s products are designed to work together seamlessly to foster the most positive learning experience possible.

The QD Document Camera series, Interactive Whiteboards, RF Interactive Wireless tablets and Audience Response Systems combine to create a powerful technology-enabled classroom environment. To accomplish this, QOMO HiteVision engineers have designed the document camera to serve as the one-stop media center for connectivity and control. With a complete multimedia switching system, video scaler and projector control, users can connect two Mac or PC computers (with audio), a DVD player and a VCR directly to a QD document camera of choice and need only one VGA cable to connect to the display device or projector, saving hundreds of dollars in installation costs.

The Interactive Whiteboard series is created with educators in mind: Utilizing infrared technology, users can annotate and draw simply using the touch of a finger—no special pens or pointers required! The board’s hard surface is virtually indestructible and the writing speed makes it superior to the competition: At 120 inches per second, the board keeps up with teachers’ annotations with absolutely no delay. QOMO also just introduced electromagnetic technology to its product line. This is a very cost-effective solution that utilizes a special electromagnetic pen to communicate with the board itself.

Many teachers and presenters complain of being rooted to the front of the room: instructing a group while being stuck to the whiteboard. QOMO HiteVision’s Interactive Wireless Tablet—the Prodigy—frees the presenter to navigate around the room, interacting with his or her audience while still having all of the power and control of being up at the whiteboard. The RF technology communicates wirelessly via a USB dongle attached to the user’s PC or Mac. Simply plug it in and annotate via the lightweight pad from anywhere in the room.

QOMO’s QClick Audience Response System is simple, affordable and extremely effective. With varying model levels, according to your classroom or boardroom needs, QOMO HiteVision ensures that specific needs are being met. Its software is perhaps the easiest to use on the market—simply create the content of choice in PowerPoint and with one click of a button, all is converted into quiz form.
To tie together its product line, QOMO HiteVision offers Flow!Works software, a user-friendly program. It allows for the user to annotate over Microsoft Office files, including PowerPoint, Word and Excel, as well as over live video. This results in unique interactivity with a classroom or audience. Notes and files are saved with annotations included!

QOMO HiteVision strives to be competitive on price point, while offering the best quality technology on the market today. Its product line speaks for itself, and with an energetic staff known for their passion and creativity, end users are sure to be pleased.

Lewis & Clark CC Empowered by Insight Software

Georgia Voils shares her experiences with a popular classroom management solution

“Our online education computer lab has more than 60 workstations, which makes it extremely difficult for an instructor to accommodate several types of activity at once,” says Georgia Voils, Internet Course Technician for Lewis and Clark Community College. “Now that we have Insight, I can answer the phone at my desk, check students into an examination and monitor the students in the lab—all from one location and at the same time. It’s been great!”

With an annual enrollment of more than 12,000 students, Illinois’ Lewis and Clark Community College recently started using Insight to transform their standard computer labs into collaborative learning environments. For instructors such as Georgia Voils, Insight, a classroom management software product developed by Faronics Corporation, has empowered instructors with the ability to educate, collaborate, assist and monitor students using computers in the classroom.

“Before, faculty who sent their online students in for proctored paper-and-pencil exams worried about student access to computer resources during testing. Using Insight, instructors have the ability to disable classroom Internet access down to the workstation level, so it’s no longer an issue,” Voils says. “I’ve found that once I was introduced to Insight, it didn’t take long to learn how to use it in a variety of ways. During the last round of HESI nursing entrance exams, I was sitting at the teacher’s station in an 80-computer theater classroom trying to determine from the students’ body language who was finished with each section of the test, and who was not. It occurred to me that Insight might help me, so I opened the thumbnail views of the student screens and found that I could see individual screens in enough detail to tell whether students were still answering questions, or had completed a section of the test and were sitting at the main screen, waiting to move on. I was able to save a total of 40 minutes out of a four-hour testing session for the entire group, because I could safely announce that it looked like everyone was finished with, for example, the vocabulary test and could move on to the math section. The students were all interested to learn how I could possibly know that for sure.”

Lewis and Clark Community College has also found ways to use Insight to enhance the professional development of the instructors. “Our campus users of WebCT receive monthly instruction using a classroom projector system. A couple of months ago, the projector failed during a WebCT session. I spent some time trying to get the projector running when it struck me that everyone was sitting at a computer in a lab dedicated to online education. So we fired up Insight at the instructor’s station and sent the screen to all the participants’ workstations, while excluding a student worker’s computer so that she could continue with her work.”

Educators can download a free 30-day evaluation version of Insight from www.faronics.com.

Activsoftware Inspire Edition Boasts Single-Platform Functionality

Activsoftware Inspire Edition is taking center stage at FETC 2009. The next generation of interactive whiteboard software from Promethean is set to revolutionize teaching and learning with an exciting range of functionality intuitively packaged into a single platform. Primary or secondary; Windows, Mac or Linux; Activboard or quite simply, any interactive whiteboard—Activsoftware Inspire Edition is the only software needed to take teaching environments to new levels of excitement and engagement.

Promethean is offering all members of its online global teaching community, Promethean Planet, the opportunity to be among the first to preview a special edition of Activsoftware Inspire Edition by downloading a unique pre-release version from www.prometheanplanet.com/activsoftware completely free of charge, prior to the official global launch in March. Educators who are not Promethean Planet members can register at www.prometheanplanet.com.

Activsoftware Inspire Edition is fun, friendly and relentlessly versatile. Combining the very best of Promethean’s Activstudio and Activprimary software with new and enhanced functionalities, Activsoftware Inspire Edition will take the teaching and interactivity of Activclassrooms to the next level.

Created by teachers for teachers, the intuitive and user-friendly design of Activsoftware Inspire Edition offers educators greater flexibility from a single software solution—incorporating Promethean’s award-winning user interface—while maintaining separate, age-specific platforms for a unique and inspiring classroom experience.

Users have the ability to customize their whole Activsoftware Inspire Edition experience from choosing which interface they want to interact with—opting for the familiar bright and inviting skin for primary ages or a sophisticated, modern skin for learners 11 years and beyond—to customizing toolbars and saving multiple user profiles for different teachers, subjects or year-groups. Activsoftware Inspire Edition allows educators to style the layout and operation of the software to suit their teaching and comfort levels.

The possibilities for personalizing lessons are endless. Extended access to a vast library of resources via Promethean Planet offers a bounty of ready-to-use flipcharts, backgrounds, images, shapes and activities. In addition to the unique tools offered in previous Promethean software, Activsoftware Inspire Edition gives even more opportunity to personalize lesson content with new, innovative tools and numerous enhancements to existing functions. Teachers can integrate media players into storytelling exercises—images and audio can be instantly imported and snapshots edited, allowing students to use the images and present the story in their own words.

Activsoftware Inspire Edition has also been designed to make life much easier in the classroom. For quick lesson-building, educators can choose from a variety of themed templates, search for resources more easily in the improved browsing tabs and now tools can be dragged onto flipcharts, while shortcuts can be embedded within pages to enable actions to be applied instantly. Straightforward navigation accessibility and a bit of extra comfort are realized in a toolbar that updates automatically with the most-frequently and last-used tools. Existing resources, even if they’re from different interactive whiteboard software, can be used in Activsoftware Inspire Edition: PowerPointTM resources can be imported, too. 
What’s more, all of Promethean’s Activclassroom technologies are fully integrated into the software, Learner Response Systems can now be seamlessly incorporated into lessons and true real-time collaboration is achieved with dual-input capability of the Activboard or by using an Activslate from anywhere in the classroom (subject to hardware compatibility).

The new software doesn’t mean educators have to change the way they teach—it will however, save time and effort and allow them to focus on their students and teaching. To support the transition to Activsoftware Inspire Edition, Promethean is offering free conversion courses to existing users. This exciting new portfolio of professional development is designed to suit interactive whiteboard users of any level and experience.

Here at FETC, Promethean is launching a special pre-release edition of Activsoftware Inspire Edition, which will be completely free to download and explore until March. At that time, everyone can enjoy the benefits of Activsoftware Inspire Personal Edition at no cost, and all existing users of Promethean’s previous software—Activstudio and Activprimary—will be entitled to a free upgrade to the latest edition of Activsoftware Inspire Professional Edition. New customers will be able to purchase the full version for a promotional fee of only $99.

Promethean at www.prometheanplanet.com/activlearning or booth 513 for more information.

BrainPOP Educators: A New Resource With Free Tips, Tools & Ideas

BrainPOP has added a multi-faceted new resource—BrainPOP Educators (www.brainpop.com/educators)—that offers tips, tools and best practices for the teaching community. User-generated content is encouraged, and access is entirely free with registration.

Like its siblings BrainPOP (grades 3 and up) and BrainPOP Jr. (K–3), BrainPOP Educators is easy to navigate and requires no software installation. Members will find downloadable, proven lesson plans for multiple grade levels, as well as the option to add their own. Virtual classroom visits highlight the ways BrainPOP can be used in different settings, with a variety of different technology arrangements. Using the curricular tie-in feature and state standards tool, educators can search by for content that enriches their lessons about holidays, special occasions, current events or any other academic theme.  BrainPOP-powered graphic organizers help students grasp and express complex concepts, while professional development tools help teachers train their colleagues on how to use BrainPOP. The BrainPOP Educators blog enables teachers to communicate with one another, share ideas and stay up-to-date. 

“We wanted to create a place where teachers everywhere—whether they use BrainPOP regularly or not—could find and exchange creative ideas with colleagues,” says Allisyn Levy, Director of BrainPOP Educators. “As a former classroom teacher myself, I know how valuable that exchange can be. The accessibility of free resources on BrainPOP Educators, and the sharing of perspectives it fosters, makes it an ideal forum no matter what or where you teach—one that can truly transform a classroom.”

BrainPOP Educators launched in September and already boasts nearly 10,000 members.  Thanks to submissions from all across the country, new content is continually added to the Lesson Plan section. The growing library of topics currently covers subjects as diverse as acceleration, Ezra Jack Keats, Cesar Chavez, ancient civilizations, addition, subtraction and animal habitats—to name just a few. 

Within these ideas, creativity abounds. A lesson plan sent in by Robert Miller, who teaches 4th- and 5th-grade science at Port Orange Elementary School in Port Orange, Fla., uses snack-sized candy bars to study density, mass and volume. Illinois social studies teacher Holly Brown (Mascoutah Middle School) shared the way her students designed their own mock election.

Via video tutorials, educators get a close-up look at the ways their colleagues work BrainPOP into lessons on subjects as divers as acids and bases, Lewis and Clark, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the Reconstruction era. Other tutorials available include, “Differentiating with BrainPOP Jr.,” “BrainPOP on an Interactive Whiteboard” and “BrainPOP Jr. in the Classroom.”

To learn more about BrainPOP Educators, BrainPOP itself or BrainPOP Jr., or simply to chat with their staff and pick up some great giveaways, visit FETC booth 567.

Microsoft Offers Teachers Free Info, Tutorials in Weekly Tech Webcasts

Join Microsoft each week to get practical tips and information on how to use Microsoft products and technologies in the classroom. Each Webcast is a 40- to 45-minute presentation and demo with a live question and answer session at the end.

Teacher Tech Tuesday is designed to address the challenges educators face in teaching technology students. It takes time and preparation to keep students engaged while giving them a fundamental understanding of theory, to provide labs and assignments that inspire innovation and to integrate professional tools and skills that will prepare students for successful careers. The full schedule of Teacher Tech Tuesday webcasts can be found at www.microsoft.com/education/events/teachertech.aspx.

To aid teacher preparation and save time, Microsoft’s Teacher Tech Tuesday features webcasts about valuable tools that are exclusive, free and designed to support technology educators everywhere.
Software products, technologies and tools continue to improve. As Microsoft develops new technologies and releases new products/versions, it’s committed to providing teachers with the latest for academic evaluation and use. Plus, Teacher Tech Tuesday webcasts allow teachers to connect with colleagues to share knowledge, concerns, challenges and successes. Teachers can submit ideas, collaborate with peers and get the information they’re looking for!

Here are some of the Teacher Tech webcasts scheduled or available online at www.microsoft.com/education/events/teachertech.aspx:

• OneNote 2007: Save Time, Save Paper, Engage Students—Get tips on how OneNote can help organize class materials and class work, create collaborative work environments and share workspaces.
• Microsoft Student/Microsoft Math/Learning Essentials—Learn how these tools for students and educators can deliver engaging content right at their fingertips.
• Free tools and resources from Microsoft—Explore both the latest and recently released technologies from Microsoft and see their potential for the classroom.
• Live Service Solutions for K–12—Create a collaborative academic community that extends beyond classroom walls, and enhance the learning experience for students.
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers—Learn about the perfect resource to help teachers get more organized with OneNote. Teachers can fill out a survey after the webinar and receive a free copy of OneNote.
• Building, creating and leveraging communities—Learn how to safely support and encourage school use of new media, such as podcasting, blogging, wikis, social networking, mobile devices, mash-ups, YouTube and distance learning.
• Creating effective communications with OneNote and Outlook—Learn how Microsoft tools can help teachers stay in touch with students, parents, fellow teachers and administration.
• Everyone can be an astronaut with World Wide Telescope—Take classes on a journey with the World Wide Telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes.
• Introduction to Photosynth—Change the way digital photos are explored. Photosynth creates an amazing new experience.