EdTech Show Daily

'Innovator Of The Future' Scholarships Awarded

Rambus Inc., one of the premier technology licensing companies that specializes in high-speed memory architectures, announced it has awarded its annual “Innovator of the Future” scholarships to Sravanthi (Srav) Puranam of St. Francis High School and Louis Smith of Mountain View High School.

Established in 2005, the Rambus “Innovator of the Future” scholarship program seeks to broaden the educational opportunities of students who demonstrate a passion for science and technology that extends beyond the classroom, by virtue of their academic and extracurricular achievement.

These students have each been awarded $10,000 for college or university tuition and books at a U.S. or foreign college or university. The scholarship money will be distributed in equal increments over four years at the beginning of each academic year.

“Innovation is the lifeblood for Rambus and essential to the future of technology,” said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “We were very impressed by this year’s winners and are proud to help these exceptional graduates with their continued education.”

In addition to the scholarship awards, a one-time award of $1,000 will go to each of the four finalists in this year's scholarship program: Nima Emami of Los Altos High School, Leslie Hamachi of Mountain View High School, and Michelle Kang and Sam Levy of Saint Francis High School .

Eligibility for the Rambus “Innovator of the Future” scholarship award extends to individuals attending a high school located in either Mountain View or Los Altos, California and graduating before fall 2009 with plans to attend a four-year college or university program of study beginning in fall 2009. Applications for the 2010 Rambus “Innovator of the Future” scholarship awards will be available during the 2009-2010 academic year.

For more information visit Rambus.

LanSchool 7.3 Sets The Standard

LanSchool Technologies LLC, a leading provider of classroom management software, announced the availability of their latest version of LanSchool.  Version 7.3 is now available.

“For the past 6 months we’ve been working closely with current customers that are using LanSchool in their 1:1 schools.” said Dana Doggett, president of LanSchool. “We love putting engineers in the classroom, because it allows them to interact with teachers and solve real problems. Battery monitoring and the ability to quickly load a class with the associated settings were a direct result of listening to teachers.”

LanSchool is a leader and innovator in wireless performance. The efficient use of wireless bandwidth is the foundation for a successful implementation of classroom management software.  LanSchool 7.3 extends that advantage by providing the following features

• Class lists and settings profiles allow teachers to start class in seconds vs. minutes.

• Battery monitoring gives critical insight to the state of laptop batteries.

• Co-browse the Internet.

• Randomly select a student.

• Students can ask the teacher questions electronically without raising their hand.

• Up to 300 student can be monitored from a single console.

The new version of LanSchool now supports Windows Vista 64 and Windows Server 2008.  Many new features were added such as the ability to blocked IP address browsing, randomize test questions, immediately block current web pages, show students available web sites, unlimited Internet history and snap-to-grid in the thumbnail layout.

LanSchool 7.3 is free for customers that have already purchased LanSchool 7.2 during the past year. Educational pricing starts at $299 for classrooms with less than 10 computers and $599 for larger classrooms. Volume discounts, competitive upgrades, K-12 school and district site licenses are available.

For more information visit LanSchool.

SoftChalk Releases New Integrated Solution For Online Content Creation

SoftChalk has released version 5 of its e-Learning software.  The latest version of SoftChalk includes updates that make it a true integrated suite of of products to create online learning content.

“The release of SoftChalk V5 offers a solution for institutions that want to maximize their investment in eLearning, create an environment of shared ideas and information, and lower their costs,” said Sue Evans, CEO of SoftChalk. “The new features of V5 that really speak to these issues are the ability to embed widgets into a lesson and the digital repository search and eCourse builder tools.”

Some new features include:

• With the digital repository users have the ability to perform keyword searches across multiple media repositories at a time, including media from open sources (YouTube, Flicker), fee-based premium services (Intelecom), or library repositories available through the organization itself.

• The embedding of widgets offers the option of including Web 2.0 features. Blogs, polls, surveys, widgets, wikis, and videos can now easily be inserted to create dynamic lessons.

• The eCourseBuilder tool combines multiple lessons into larger eCourse modules with automatic calculation and tracking of score information between and within lessons.

The new features work to decrease the total cost of education (TCE) by lessening time spent creating lessons. Educators without a technological background can create professional looking content faster, which is both time efficient and productive because skilled technologists can be repurposed to do things that require their skills rather than creating content for faculty.

Other features and enhancements within the new release include an option that will allow lessons to directly publish to Blackboard, as well as, a new photo album activity, quiz group function, table of contents, and accessibility options.

For more information on SoftChalk’s latest version visit their WEBSITE.

Elluminate Learning Suite Improved & Enhanced

Enhanced Usability and Accessibility, Extended International Support, and Additional LMS Integrations Enable Best-in Class learning Experience and Facilitate System-Wide Adoption

Elluminate, a leader in next-generation solutions for a new generation of learners, has announced improvements to its Learning Suite technology.  The improvements include the Elluminate Live!® V9.5, Elluminate Plan! V2™ and technologies.

This latest version of the Live! technology product focuses on facilitating the accessibility, flexibility, and interactivity you need to transform the teaching and learning experience.

With the Elluminate Learning Suite, administrators can meet student demands, leverage limited instructor resources, provide sustainable professional development, create a culture of collaboration, and promote technology adoption system wide, while dramatically reducing travel and infrastructure costs.

Enhancements to the Elluminate Live!® V9.5 technology include:

• Improved audio fidelity and significantly reduced audio time lag for high-bandwidth users, along with higher video frame rates with reduced video bandwidth requirements, for easier, more natural communication and smoother video motion with near-lip-sync audio.
• Enhanced, easy-to-use teaching tools, including refreshed user interface, redesigned whiteboard text editor, drag-and-drop graphical screen explorer, application sharing configuration preferences, recording reminder, and streamlined recording playback, that increase moderator control, facilitate presenting, enhance participant experience, and simplify use of recordings
• More robust breakout functionality with ability to drag and drop participants to and from rooms for easy distribution. Instructors can quickly copy content to selected or all rooms and easily move student-created content back to the main room for class discussion.  Moderator can allow participants to move from room to room on their own for round-robin exercises or multiple tutoring sessions.
• Expanded accessibility for the visually impaired with audio notifications of recording start and stop, improved navigation for screen reader users, and option to include speaker notes in whiteboard slides for screen reader narration.
• Added support for users worldwide with Ubuntu Linux client, streamlined deployment of multiple languages without disruption to localized users, and ability to display local telephone number formats outside of North America for audio conferencing integration.
• Client user interface enhancements, including modernized graphical icons and more intuitive placement of polling response options.

Elluminate Live! V9.5, Elluminate Plan! V2, and the enhanced Elluminate Bridge will be available in July.  To learn more, visit the Elluminate website, HERE.

 

 

New Book 'Chemistry Through Inquiry' offers Investigative Experiments

Vernier Software & Technology has announced the release of their new lab book, Investigating Chemistry Through Inquiry.  The new book is aimed at helping students in high school and college think critically about chemistry experiments, while providing educators with easy-to-use labs.

Authors Donald L. Volz and Ray Smola provide strong emphasis on investigation and uniquely provide direction for both open and guided inquiry, methods they both use as chemistry instructors.  The new book includes 25 inquiry-based chemistry experiments that consist of a preliminary activity, teacher information, sample research questions, and sample data for those research questions.

Each experiment in the book is based on recommendations from the National Research Council report, “Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools” (2002), and from leading inquiry-based learning experts.

The book’s table of contents lists the different labs by topic area so that teachers can quickly reference the experiments they wish to use in instruction. Educators can also access a free sample lab online that focuses on evaporation and intermolecular attractions in alkaline and alcohols.

Visit Vernier Software and Technology for more information.

Portland Schools Partner with Certica to Improve Data Quality

Certica Solutions today announced that Portland Public Schools (PPS), the largest district in Oregon with 46,000 students, has chosen Certica’s K-12 data certification software to implement a new data quality improvement process to support student achievement, ensuring the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the data the district is required to submit to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) several times each year.

Certica’s software, called Certify™, provides daily, personalized, Web-based data certification scorecards to central office and school personnel, so they can easily review, investigate and correct data errors. This capability will allow PPS to significantly shorten the time it takes to identify and resolve data problems and improve data quality. Certify will also allow PPS to monitor data for program compliance and policy issues, such as student dropout rate, providing alerts to patterns of attendance data that could indicate that certain students are at risk of dropping out and are in need of intervention services.

PPS is initially applying Certify and the data certification process to its preparation for ODE’s Average Daily Membership data submission, which ties to the district’s funding. Says Dona Lehr, program director for data and policy analysis at PPS, “Certify will give us the ability to make data certification a daily, ongoing, year-round process. The software eases the pressure on school personnel and allows us to measure the quality of our data at any point in time. We anticipate that Certify will give us increased confidence that the data we use for decision making and submit to the state is as accurate as possible, helping to ensure that we receive the state funding necessary to educate our students.”

Carnegie Wins 'Best in Tech' Award from Scholastic Administrator

Carnegie Learning, Inc. has received the Best in Tech Award for the 2008–2009 school year from Scholastic Administrator Magazine, the company reports. This competitive national award recognizes Carnegie Learning® Math Programs as a leading Supplemental Math Solution.

Carnegie Learning and the Best in Tech Award Winners from the 2008—2009 year will be recognized at a formal awards ceremony at the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2009.

Scholastic Administrator is a resource for a quarter-million results-driven school leaders. The monthly print publication and Web site focus on leadership for education executives and insight and analysis into what's next in education.

This is the second national award for Carnegie Learning this month. Carnegie Learning Adaptive Math software was recognized as the Best Mathematics Instructional Solution by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), which presented Carnegie Learning with a CODiE Award on May 5.

“This is an exciting time for Carnegie Learning and the districts we serve,” said Dennis Ciccone, Chief Executive Officer of Carnegie Learning, Inc. “The bar has been raised on the quality of education resources and effectiveness in teaching and learning. It is an honor to be recognized by Scholastic Administrator and the SIIA, two organizations that look closely at education strategy and help the industry stay focused on innovation and improvement.”

For more information, visit www.carnegielearning.com.

MY Access! Helps Martin County Become No. 1 in Florida on FCAT Writing Exam

Teachers and students in the Martin County School District are celebrating becoming No. 1 in the state of Florida after a dramatic increase in test scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) writing assessment, thanks to the district’s recent implementation of online writing tool MY Access! ®. This award-winning, Web-based program from Vantage Learning builds better writers by instantly scoring class essays, and providing immediate response to intervention (RTI) that engages and motivates students. South Fork High School rose to 82 percent, scoring 3.5 or above in 2009, while Andersen Middle School showed an increase from 83 percent to 95 percent. Both schools showed the highest increase in the district, and both used the MY Access! program to prepare for the FCATs and improve writing skills among students.

“MY Access!’s ability to give students immediate feedback on their writing assignments has been such a tremendous help to us,” says South Fork Principal Pat Schmoyer. “In addition to preparing for the FCAT writing assessment, we used MY Access! to challenge students to continually revise their writing. The evidence is there that the more students write, the better writers they become. This year’s No. 1 ranking on the FCAT writing exam is an incredible testament to our students’ desire to learn and succeed, and the learning environment created by MY Access!.”

Broward Students Put Math Skills to the Test

Students in Intra-District Tournament Will Compete Head-to-Head Using Tabula Digita’s DimensionM Gaming Software

Most people might know the answer to the basic equation of x + 79 = 194, but can they find the value for “y” in the linear equation y = 2x + 1? That’s what 160 students from 24 Broward County Middle Schools will find out when they compete this month in the first countywide multiplayer math video game tournament.

The tournament, hosted by Tabula Digita, developer of the award-winning DimensionM™ educational video game software, will be held at IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach, FL on Thurs., May 21 from, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Other district-wide tournaments will be held in New York City, NY on May 15 and in Garland, TX on May 12. The three events comprise Tabula Digita’s MegaBowl 2009 educational video game competitions. Additional information about the Broward tournament or the MegaBowl 2009 can be found at www.DimensionM.com/Megabowl

“By engaging in this immensely competitive yet academically-driven tournament, Broward County is proving itself a leader in the trend of combining traditional math competitions with advanced video game technology. It’s the new and winning equation in the instruction of math – kids having fun, learning math and developing critical thinking and problem solving skills,” said Ntiedo Etuk, CEO of Tabula Digita.

During the energy-packed contest, students in grades six to eight will go head-to-head using their math skills to advance through several distinct “missions” offered in the DimensionM gaming platform. To most observers it might appear as though the student players are just having fun. In fact they are, but they are also tackling numerous mathematical obstacles that require an elevated level of knowledge of the math content to successfully score the most points. And while they are busy demonstrating their math proficiency, they are also vying for a chance at prizes including Nintendo DS, iPod Shuffles and iTunes gift cards.

Children’s Home Society Launches PlayBright® Early Learning System

First Integrated System Designed to Give Parents Roadmap for Early Learning Success with Child

This Mother’s Day, parents now have a new way to maximize the brain development of their children ages birth to five thanks to the launch of an innovative new product – the PlayBright Early Learning System (PlayBright). PlayBright makes early learning fun for parents and effective for children by breaking down the latest brain development research and applying it to easy-to-use activities displayed in colorful, engaging guidebooks. The system was developed by practitioners at Children’s Home Society of Washington (CHSW) with decades of experience in early learning and brain development, is based on early learning assessments and maps to federal and state benchmarks.

“As parents, we want to do the best job we can to support the development of our children,” said Sharon Osborne, President and CEO of Children’s Home Society. “One of the best ways to help a child develop is through play, but it can be challenging as a parent to know how. PlayBright is really the first guidebook we’ve seen that shows parents exactly how to play with a child, from selecting the right toys and books, to creating games and other ways to share time together.”

Research has shown that the first five years of a child’s life are the most important in brain development, and that the best way young children learn is through play. When kids play, they develop new intellectual, motor, and social skills; learn language and problem-solving skills; explore how the world works; and form strong bonds to their favorite playmates: family and caregivers. In short, everyday play experiences with a child create a powerful foundation for healthy growth and future success.

More information can be found at www.playbright.org.