software & online
Aerohive Mobility Suite
(www.aerohive.com)
Aerohive Networks has released the Aerohive Mobility Suite, a cloud-enabled mobile device management solution. The Mobility Suite includes three main components: the Client Management application, the ID Manager application, and integration with mobile device management software partners AirWatch and JAMF Software. The Mobility Suite simplifies enterprise networking and personalizes mobility for enterprises and IT staff by extending visibility and control over mobile devices to the edge of the network.
AirWatch Secure Content Locker
(www.air-watch.com)
AirWatch has announced that its Secure Content Locker software now integrates with 33 additional content repositories across iOS, Android, and Windows devices. Secure Content Locker provides flexible content storage, enterprise-grade security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), file sync and share, editing, annotation, and analytics.
Alma
(www.getalma.com)
Alma offers an affordable alternative to traditional student information and learning management systems by consolidating school, classroom, and information management into one secure, cloud-based system. Alma’s core services—including over 100 SIS/LMS features, gradebooks and parent/student portals—are available for free. Alma offers administrative features as well as productivity tools, to help administrators and teachers collaborate.
Channel One News Curriculum
(www.channelone.com)
Channel One, LLC, has announced a standards-based subscription offering to develop nonfiction literacy and critical thinking skills for students in grades 3-5 and 6-8. Channel One News’ curriculum is a three-part instructional routine that uses nonfiction video and text as a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary teaching resource. These student-centered activities integrate English language arts with core subject areas, like science, geography, and college and career readiness, and are supplemented with vocabulary, discussion questions, quiz questions, and information about the standards that align to the activities.
Florida Virtual School Anatomy & Physiology
(www.flvs.net)
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has launched Anatomy & Physiology, a new mobile-ready science course. Students explore the human body through the eyes of field experts and clinicians, learning new terminology and the effects of diseases on the body. Students can access all course materials, interactivities, and assessments from their tablets or smartphones. The two-segment course includes multimedia videos, audiovisual presentations, interactive case studies, and virtual labs.
Goalbook Toolkit ELL Content
(www.goalbookapp.com)
Goalbook has added English Language Learner (ELL) instructional resources to its repository of PK-12 academic and social emotional resources. Goalbook’s Toolkit supports educators in the design of instructional objectives aligned to academic standards, and the new content is differentiated according to language development level, such as WIDA and the California ELD Standards.
Math Shack
(www.shmoop.com)
Shmoop’s Math Shack has been upgraded to enable teachers to assign quizzes with infinite reps and drills. The library contains over 200 topics and concepts, to prepare students for the SAT and ACT. Teachers can schedule a time for individual students to complete personalized quizzes that focus on problem areas, or assign new quizzes with a mix of hard and warm-up question sets from the same topic. Once students complete their Math Shack quizzes, they can submit them to their teachers immediately.
Net Texts Educational Videos
(www.net-texts.com)
Net Texts has compiled collections of educational videos from the YouTube Education channel and providers such as the History Channel and PBS. The videos are organized by author, and tagged by subject and grade level. The video collection supports Net Texts’ OER Textbook Replacement Courses—a series of open educational resources with readymade courses for math, science, social studies, and English for grades 6-12.
Odysseyware CTE Courses
(www.odysseyware.com)
Odysseyware has added two new Career and Technical Education courses to its portfolio: Introduction to STEM, and Introduction to Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources. Every course is designed by educators to help students acquire core academic skills. Additionally, the Odyssey student interface has been redesigned and features a new “notes” tool for enhanced student-teacher communication, day-planning functions to boost productivity, and more flexibility to suit different learning styles. It’s designed for the 21st-century classroom, with mobile usage in mind.
PM UNIFY
(www.performancematters.com)
Performance Matters has released its next generation assessment platform, PM UNIFY. The social platform lets educators develop and administer assessments from any location. UNIFY provides the capacity to assess students in all course areas, not just those tested by states. The platform’s modular technology supports the end-to-end process of assessment development, including blueprinting, item authoring and review, test generation, and test administration.
PowerUp WHAT WORKS
(www.powerupwhatworks.org)
PowerUp WHAT WORKS, developed by the Center for Technology Implementation at the American Institutes for Research, is a free professional learning Web site that offers teachers, PD facilitators, and administrators resources for helping students—especially those with disabilities—meet the Common Core State Standards. The focus is on linking evidence-based practices and technology in English language arts and math.
PREY Device-Wipe for Android
(www.preyproject.com/education)
PREY has released Device- Wipe for Android, offering Prey Pro users the ability to wipe all data from missing or stolen devices. Device Wipe identifies and protects content on devices, such as student email and pictures, student or teacher information records, or district network access.
Red Hat Academy
(www.redhat.com)
Red Hat, Inc. has announced updates to Red Hat Academy, the company’s open source education program that offers turnkey curriculum materials for educational programs in global secondary and higher education institutions. Red Hat Academy now includes an organized OpenStack offering, including a curriculum for instructors, textbooks, and labs. The upgrade also includes new tests and quizzes with performance tracking, and a new skills application lab system with self-checking performance feedback.
Schoology
(www.schoology.com)
The Schoology learning management system now offers the ability to measure student mastery of learning outcomes and standards. This enhancement to the Enterprise version of the software allows it to measure and quantify student learning over time using any learning object (such as quizzes and homework) that is aligned to outcomes. Schoology comes pre-loaded with state and Common Core standards, but administrators can add custom learning outcomes.
Scorant Class Manager
(www.scorant.com)
Scorant has released its Class Manager course management software for K-12. Combining analytics with an easy-to-use application and mobile client, Scorant offers teachers and students a variety of capabilities, from course creation and syllabus management to attendance tracking. Students can see their current and past performance records, simulate major changes, and participate in all class activities. Scorant offers its solutions through traditional browsers as well as mobile apps available for both iOS and Android devices.
Splashtop Classroom
(www.splashtop.com)
Splashtop has released Splashtop Classroom, enabling teachers to share their PC or Mac desktops or applications instantly with students. Once connected, students can view, control, and annotate lesson content from their mobile devices. Features include a PC or mac streamer, Splashtop center and a free app so students can join a session by taking a snap of the QR code. Initially available for the iPad, Chromebook and Windows or Mac using a Chrome browser, Splashtop plans to add support for iPhone, Android, and more devices.
SRA Number Worlds
(www.mheducation.com)
McGraw-Hill Education has launched SRA Number Worlds, an intensive PreK-8, CCSS-aligned math intervention program. Number Worlds helps students learn critical math skills through flexible options and provides support for students with varying intervention needs. It emphasizes project-based learning through both print and digital delivery. The program’s digital teaching and learning platform offers interactive games, embedded activities, videos and animations, and planning tools to help teachers map out their lessons.
TechSmith Relay
(www.techsmith.com)
TechSmith has released Relay, software that streamlines video creation and management for educators, allowing them to click one button to record, store, and distribute their class lecture content. Relay hosts the content for districts and allows students, teachers, and administrators to set up their own video libraries to share and collaborate on schoolwork. The accounts can be accessed across all mobile devices. Relay shows teachers how well students comprehend information through quizzing and analytics in every video.
Triumph Learning and the C2 Collaborative
(www.triumphlearning.com)
Triumph Learning has joined the C2 Collaborative, partnering with the Common Core Institute (CCI) and the Center for College & Career Readiness, to provide a variety of tools and professional services to support alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to College & Career Readiness requirements. Through this partnership, Triumph Learning customers can easily access CCI’s resources and professional development services.
Wandoo Planet
(www.evancedkids.com)
Evanced Solutions has announced a limited-feature test version of Wandoo Planet, a software platform that empowers kids to discover their interests and find relevant books, music, and other content through a recommendation engine. Through the Wandoo Planet interest discovery game, players find topics and activities that others have found to be interesting. They then decide if they love, like, or dislike what they see. Content related to the child’s interests are captured in a mystical Wandoo tree that enables them to watch their interests grow over time.
apps
Achieve3000 iPad App
(www.achieve3000.com)
Achieve3000 has released a free app for the iPad, allowing students to build literacy skills on their tablets without the need for an Internet connection. All offline activity will sync automatically once an Internet connection resumes, allowing students to seamlessly transition across multiple devices. The app also features embedded audio, providing additional support for struggling learners and English language learners. For students with special needs, the app offers accessibility features such as VoiceOver, Speak Select, and Guided Access.
AirWatch Teacher Tools
(www.air-watch.com)
AirWatch has launched Teacher Tools to simplify managing mobile devices in the classroom. The iOS application offers features like All Eyes Up Front, Single Application Mode, and Clear Passcode, in an intuitive user interface. AirWatch’s multi-tenant architecture allows for simple management across students, classrooms, schools, and districts. Teachers can associate each student with the assigned device and manage devices for different classes, groups of students, or individuals.
eduClipper
(www.educlipper.net)
eduClipper, the social learning platform for teachers and students to curate, create, and share educational content, is now available as an iPad app. The app allows users to build personalized learning portfolios that showcase personal achievement and academic growth. Teachers can create and administer project-based assessments and provide their students with feedback on their work.
GoClass
(www.goclass.com)
GoClass, LearningMate Solutions’ cloud-based teaching and learning application, now lets users sign into the app using their Google Accounts. The integration allows instructors and students, including Google Apps for Education users, to seamlessly log in to the application using their Google Accounts.
Graphical Analysis for Android
(www.vernier.com)
Vernier has released Graphical Analysis for Android. The app allows students to wirelessly stream data from Vernier’s LabQuest 2 and from Logger Pro to an Android device and then analyze scientific data. Students can use the app with existing Vernier sensors to simultaneously collect and graph data from multiple sensors. Additionally, students can graph manually entered data, and access the same analysis and annotation features used for sensor-based data collection.
HMH and Google Play for Education
(www.hmhco.com)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed up with Google to deliver K-12 core curriculum through Google Play for Education. Popular HMH titles such as GO Math! and Journeys Common Core are the first available titles. The partnership will also feature many of HMH’s curriculum-aligned literature titles. The content is available on Android tablets, Google Chromebooks, or online via the Play Books reader.
Mobento
(www.mobento.com)
The K-12 video learning platform Mobento has introduced a new video player interface, as well as Android and iOS apps for viewing Mobento’s free educational videos. Educators and students ages 12 and up can download the apps to their devices free of charge.
NetSupport School
(www.netsupportschool.com)
The latest version of NetSupport School classroom management software enables teachers to collaborate with any mix of technology. NetSupport Student apps are now available for Android, Kindle, and iOS devices. The NetSupport School Student app for Android now offers thumbnail views of connected student tablets. Teachers can remotely launch Web sites on one or more student tablets and assign student rewards.
Reach for the Stars: Touch, Look, Listen, Learn
(www.sas.com)
SAS has created an ebook on stellar evolution, for 10 to 12–year-old students with visual impairments. Reach for the Stars: Touch, Look, Listen, Learn is currently being developed for the iPad and will be available on the App Store this summer. SAS is creating the ebook in partnership with Elena Sabbi, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Sabbi is the lead researcher on the latest Hubble image of 30 Doradus, nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula.
hardware
Epson (www.epsonbrighterfutures.com) has introduced the PowerLite 570, 575W, 580, and 585W (pictured) ultra-short throw projectors, designed for the connected K-12 classroom. Offering a Moderator functionality that allows a network of up to 50 personal devices to connect to the projectors, teachers can wirelessly control which personal devices are displayed, with up to four student screens shown simultaneously. In addition, the new projectors feature two HDMI ports, one with MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) support for connecting multiple digital devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices, for enriched high definition viewing capabilities.
Lenovo (www.lenovo.com) has announced the ThinkPad 11e series of laptops, designed for education and ruggedized for classroom performance. The devices are available in two form factors—traditional laptop or Lenovo’s Yoga multimode form—and with the choice of Windows 8 or Chrome OS.
Trident Case (www.tridentcase.com) has partnered with Today I Can Do Anything to offer a new line of Today I Can Do Anything-inspired cases. With several models available for the iPhone 5 & 5s, plus one for the Samsung Galaxy S4, the line offers multiple levels of protection for a variety of devices. The new TICDA line includes Motivate Series, Encourage Series, and Inspire Series cases for the iPhone 5 & 5s, as well as an Inspire Series case for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Inspire cases consist of a polycarbonate shell that provides lightweight protection.
TabPilot (www.tabpilot.com) has launched the Breea series of tablets for wireless broadcasting to classroom projectors. The 9.7” Breea Freedom HD offers a high-definition screen and long battery life, as well as 16GB internal storage. The Android-based tablet is powered by a quad-core processor and offers 2048 X 1536 resolution. Paired with TabPilot’s Breea Freedom wireless receiver, teachers can use the tablet while moving around the classroom to share Web sites, presentations, videos, or other content with the class. TabPilot also offers a tablet stand that effectively turns the Breea Freedom HD into a portable, wireless document camera.
InFocus (www.infocus.com) has released the two-pound, seven-inch LightPro IN1146 mobile light-emitting-diode (LED) projector. It turns on and off instantly, without any warmup or cool-down time. It’s quick to connect and displays content from laptops, tablets, and smartphones through a variety of connections, such as HDMI and VGA hookups, USB and SD card slots, or wirelessly through a USB Wi-Fi adapter. The LightPro IN1146 delivers 800 lumens of brightness and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio that shows detailed images and vivid colors. It is also rated for up to 30,000 hours of use.
Vernier Software & Technology (www.vernier.com) has launched the Go Wireless and NODE+ families of wireless sensors. Go Wireless Temp, the first product in the series, is a rugged, stainless steel temperature sensor that collects temperature data when used with an iOS device. The new sensor allows students to explore temperature in the environment and in systems such as fish tanks, greenhouses, thermal mugs, or heating and cooling devices. The NODE+ wireless sensors allow students to explore concepts in topics such as Earth science, environmental science, and physical science, using mobile devices. These sensors are compatible with Graphical Analysis for iPad and a collection of iOS and Android apps from Variable, Inc.
BenQ American (www.benq.us) has introduced the P Series line of professional installation projectors. Consisting of the PX 9600 and PW 9500, the P Series’ XGA and WXGA models deliver high brightness of 6,500 and 5,700 lumens, respectively, as well as crisp 2800:1 contrast ratios. Equipped with HQV image processing, the technology allows the devices to scale outputs, enabling the projectors to cast full resolutions that enhance both image details and overall picture quality.
Ergotron, Inc. (www.ergotron.com) offers a variety of education-specific mounting, mobility, and device management solutions. The portfolio includes technology-enabled classroom carts, sit-stand computer workstations, and charging carts and cabinets. The tablet charging carts for Apple, Android, Chromebook, and Windows-based tablets offer the ability to secure, charge, and sync up to 48 devices in a compact form, with smooth gliding casters for easy transport. The Tablet Management Station 16 is a space-saving tower that offers the means to sync and charge up to 16 Apple, Android, and ereader devices using wired USB connections.
SMART Technologies (www.smarttech.com) has released the SMART flex centralized computing platform, a combination of hardware and software that enables control of up to ten interactive displays with only one computer. The platform works by connecting the flex client hardware to one host PC. Each SMART flex hardware client is then connected to a SMART interactive display to allow multiple collaborative learning stations to run from the processing power of a single computer.
ELMO USA (www.elmousa.com) has introduced the BOX i T-200 HD LED video projector. The 10.6- ounce, 150-lumen DLP projector offers a small footprint of less than 4x6 inches, but produces sharp, bright, high contrast images as large as 68 inches diagonally. The BOXi T-200 features a single HDMI connection for video sources and incorporates a 1-watt mono speaker as well as a mini-stereo output jack for sending sound through an audio system, speakers, or headphones. The projector is also equipped with ELMO’s short-throw lens, allowing it to create the fullsize picture at a distance of 52 inches from the screen.
Acer (www.acer.com) has released the Aspire S7 Ultrabooks, featuring WQHD IPS displays with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 in a 16:9 aspect ratio. IPS technology provides consistent and accurate color from viewing angles up to 178 degrees. At less than 12.9 mm, the S7 is the thinnest in the Ultrabook series. A dual-torque hinge keeps the display stable when used for touch control.
Dell (www.dell.com) has announced the latest release of the Dell KA CE K2000 DeploymentAppliance to further automate, accelerate, and simplify OS and application migrations. The Dell KACE K2000 v3.6 features advanced multicasting capabilities and a new task engine that makes it easier to capture and deploy system images across a range of tablets, laptops, and desktops.
Kensington (www.kensington.com) has announced 14 new cases that provide drop and spill protection for iPad Air and iPad mini tablets. The new additions join the existing series of Kensington BlackBelt and SafeGrip (pictured) cases. The BlackBelt cases offer military-grade tablet protection in three degrees to cover a variety of needs. The SafeGrip cases are designed to provide a first line of defense for tablets used by children in the classroom environment. SafeGrip cases provide strong, cushioned protection and are built from non-toxic materials.
Belkin (www.belkin.com) has introduced two new products for classroom use: the Portable Stage (pictured) for tablet and smartphone presentations, and a new Secure Wired Keyboard for iPad and Samsung tablets. The Portable Stage allows teachers to transform a smartphone or tablet into a document camera. Users can capture live video and overlay text and labels, or highlight key points throughout the presentation. The Secure Wired Keyboard offers a durable, child-friendly structure and configuration, and eliminates the need for batteries.
Harman’s JBL Professional (www.harman.com) has released the EON 600 series of portable loudspeakers, delivering studio monitor quality sound in a portable PA system. The EON615 15-inch two-way loudspeaker features built-in, 1000-watt power amplification. An iOS and Android supported interface can be paired with the Bluetooth Smart Ready 4.0 for controlling master volume, adjusting the five-way, user-definable parametric EQ, and saving and recalling user presets.
