EdTech Show Daily

TI-Nspire CX Handheld by Texas Instruments Brings Color and Images to Math and Science Learning

Texas Instruments rolls out its Nspired Learning solution with the introduction of the new color-display TI-Nspire™ CX handheld. With the Nspired Learning solution, teachers are able to build their own interactive and engaging math and science classrooms.

The TI-Nspire CX handheld offers a set of fully-integrated tools that allow dynamic links among multiple representations of a problem. With the TI-Nspire CX and TI-Nspire CAS handhelds' new 3D graphing capabilities, students can explore concepts from multiple points of view to develop deeper conceptual understanding. The TI-Nspire CX and TI-Nspire CX CAS handhelds deliver a 16-bit, 320 x 240 pixel high-resolution color display for clear, crisp viewing. With this display, teachers and students can see sharp, full-color images and animations.

 

UBM TechWeb's Cloud Connect Supports Bay Area Public Schools

Cloud Connect, produced by UBM TechWeb, today kicks off a program with DonorsChoose.org that will benefit Bay Area public schools' science and math projects in order to support STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education.

Cloud Connect, the premier technology event for cloud computing, featuring the latest technologies, strategies and innovations within cloud computing, will take place March 7-10, 2011 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/charity/.

InFocus Interactive Projector Wins Scholastic Administr@tor’s Head of Class Award

InFocus® Corp. today announced it won the 2010 Scholastic Administr@tor Head of the Class award for its IN3916 interactive projector. The only other product to receive this new annual distinction was Apple’s iPad. As the company’s second-generation interactive projector, the IN3916 makes it easy and affordable to use interactive digital content in the classroom to inspire, engage and collaborate.

The InFocus LiteBoard™ interactive technology allows teachers and students to interact with projected images at the screen or up to 40 feet (12.2 meters) away. Teachers are free to move around the room, and the redesigned LiteBoard Wand is comfortable to hold and easy to use by both children and adults. Unlike other interactive projectors, the IN3916 does not require calibration and its wand includes motion stability algorithms to ensure smooth cursor movement.

Arkansas Department of Education Receives $35,000 Grant From Verizon

The Arkansas Department of Education has received a $35,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to train teachers to use the free educational resources available on Thinkfinity.org and raise awareness of the resources. With the grant, announced Wednesday (Feb. 23), the Verizon Foundation has now invested $70,000 with the education department to provide innovative online resources and professional development for teachers throughout the state.

Verizon's grant to the education department will be used to:

• Raise awareness of the Thinkfinity portal with educational institutions in Arkansas.

• Promote integration of technology into the curriculum, improvement of the teaching practice and improved student achievement in the standards-led curriculum.

• Provide demonstrations on how to use the Thinkfinity portal in the classroom.

• Modeling of technology integrated lessons and resources in the Thinkfinity portal.

• Share with small and large groups the work in the area of 21st century skills, in preparation for the NAEP 2014 Technology Literacy Assessment.

• Collaborate with the regional service centers, higher education institutions and educational associations to provide training in the use of the Thinkfinity portal.

 

LeapPad Explorer Tablet for Children to be Released this Summer

LeapFrog is proud to announce the arrival of LeapPad Explorer™, a multifunctional learning tablet device that introduces the next generation of learning, digital reading and personal creativity for children ages four and up. LeapPad Explorer builds on the success of 2010's award winning handheld; Leapster Explorer and—just like an adult tablet—LeapPad Explorer combines the latest technology, educational content and entertainment features, specially tailored for young learners with a robust and durable design.

This innovative new device will be available in summer 2011 for $99.99. Downloadable apps will be priced at $7.99 each and cartridges will cost $24.99.

Nefsis Video Conferencing Releases Advanced Whiteboarding Features

Online video conferencing services innovator Nefsis® today announced new advanced whiteboarding features. The new features highlight the advantages of cloud-based video conferencing, which include built-in collaboration capabilities that are easy to update, versus alternative infrastructure hardware solutions whose feature-functionality is fixed.

Nefsis is a cloud-based video conferencing software and online service solution for business. It includes multipoint HD video conferencing for desktops and rooms. In addition, Nefsis includes built-in advanced collaboration capabilities providing all the tools customers need for productive online meetings. In addition to whiteboarding, Nefsis includes application and desktop sharing, annotation over live applications, PowerPoint® presentation and document sharing, media sharing (playing movie files), electronic hand-outs and more.

Classroom Technology Grants Available Through Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow Contest

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow will give away $1,000,000 worth of technology grants to schools around the country. Samsung and its partners called on public school teachers to try to raise their students interest in science, technology, engineering and math by challenging them to answer the question, "How can science or math help the environment in your community?" Fifty schools chosen and sent video creation kits, which contained a Samsung laptop, camcorder and software from Adobe.

The top 10 finalists have been narrowed down and are featured on this site. Please click on the videos below to view and then vote for your favorite. Just by clicking to vote for your favorite video, you could be helping to make a difference in a child’s education. Public voting closes on February 18th!

Sacred Heart School-Winnetka Captures Prestigious Technology Award for Second Year

For the second straight year, Sacred Heart School-Winnetka, Ill. has been named an Apple Distinguished School in recognition of its commitment to integrate state-of-the-art technology into its learning environments across all grades.

Included among the technology enhancements are SmartBoards in all teaching classrooms, a large computer lab with iMacs, skills reinforcement in Kindergarten through third grade using iPod touch and shared notebook computers in fourth and fifth grades. Most recently, Sacred Heart-Winnetka implemented a program providing each junior high student use of his/her own MacBook to fully support the learning environment.

Additionally, Sacred Heart-Winnetka has implemented keyboarding accounts that track student’s progress both at school and at home, kid-safe educational search engines, Discovery Education Science, math resources and a host of sites that teachers have tailored to meet classroom needs. The school also utilizes PowerSchool software. Both parents and students can see academic progress in real time, greatly enhancing organization and accountability for schoolwork.

 

Unicon and Kaltura to Host Webinar on Open Source Full-Video Solution

Unicon, Inc. has announced that it will host an interactive webinar, “Kaltura Online Video Solutions for the Campus and Classroom in Higher Education,” featuring special guest Leah Belsky, Vice President of Strategic Development for Kaltura. Kaltura is the creator of the leading open source online video platform for education. This webinar will discuss how online video impacts the needs of education professionals, and how the Kaltura Video Platform meets the rich-media needs of faculty, staff and students.

Join Unicon at 2:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST) on Tuesday, Feb. 22, to experience live demos of the Kaltura Cross-Campus Media Suite (a full-video solution), including the Kaltura MediaSpace™ application (an internal campus “YouTube”). Attendees will also discover how the Kaltura Video Tool integrates with the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment, in an exclusive demo from Aaron Zeckoski, Software Engineer at Unicon.

 

Enterprise Publishers Adopt Adobe Digital Publishing Suite for Android Tablets

At Mobile World Congress, Adobe Systems Incorporated announced leading global publishers, including Condé Nast, Dennis Publishing, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and National Geographic are leveraging Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite tools to create and distribute their iconic and influential titles on Android™ tablets. By employing new Content Viewer for Android, part of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, publishers can significantly expand the reach of their content by enabling consumption across the broad range of Android tablets expected to come to market soon, led by the much-anticipated Motorola Xoom.

Available today through the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite prerelease program, Content Viewer for Android technology provides a rich reading experience with support for intuitive navigation, rich visualizations and highly interactive overlays and HTML5 support. Additionally, a robust set of metrics can be captured through the Content Viewer, providing publishers with the opportunity for in-depth analysis of editorial and advertising engagement.