Online & Software
ACUITY PHD
(WWW.ACUITYFORSCHOOL.COM)
With Acuity PhD, educators can monitor their understanding of Acuity and learn how to use Acuity data to accurately inform instruction and decision making. The features of Acuity PhD include a professionaldevelopment program, detailed tracking, and performance reporting for self-assessment. A Web-based, all-inclusive site license provides unlimited anytime, anywhere access and flexible levels of training for different roles.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: professional development
APLUS+ AND IT’S LEARNING COLLABORATION
(WWW.THEAPLUS.ORG AND WWW.ITSLEARNING.NET)
APLUS+ will use the it’s learning platform to create an online personalized learning portal for APLUS+’s member schools. The it’s learning–APLUS+ community portal will use the Global Community feature of the it’s learning platform to allow students and instructors to join courses created by educators at other schools. Once enrolled, these individuals can then invite users from other schools to join the courses, opening up new avenues for both personalized learning and nextgeneration collaboration.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: Web portal
BLACKBOARD INC.
(WWW.BLACKBOARD.COM)
The new features for Blackboard Connect include the first point of integration between the Blackboard Connect and the Blackboard Learn platforms, which is accomplished with the Connect Integration Toolkit for Learn™ (CITL), a feature that helps facilitate communication and collaboration between instructors and students. In addition, Blackboard has added secure document links and made Blackboard Connect messages more accessible.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: administrative tools
CENTRICITY2
(WWW.CENTRICITY.COM)
Centricity2 includes several new components, including a Future-Ready Technology Ecosystem, designed to enable districts’ current technology investments to work together; the technology ecosystem’s open API framework helps districts integrate compliant systems, data, and third-party applications into the platform. There is also a Community Engagement Engine, which includes a Social Media Framework; a Community Engagement Dashboard; and other key functionalities for driving deeper engagement and measurement across the district.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: Web portal
CLASSLINK ONTRACK
(WWW.CLASSLINK.COM)
ClassLink OnTrack is a comprehensive curriculum- management and lesson-planning solution. This latest release includes several major enhancements: the incorporation of Moodle, which allows districts to create customized online courses; a differentiation module, which permits lessons to be customized by each student; the Blooms Taxonomy module, which creates instructionally customized lesson plans aligned with Blooms’ six levels of higher-order thinking; and a student datadriven assessment piece.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: curriculum management
EASYTECH KEYBOARDING
(WWW.LEARNING.COM/EASYTECH/KEYBOARDING)
Learning.com has released EasyTech Keyboarding, a solution that adapts lessons to students’ touch-typing skill progress. The product’s advanced prescriptive technology adapts immediately to students’ progress and automatically builds custom exercises that focus students’ learning and progression. EasyTech Keyboarding can be used along with teachers’ own hands-on instruction and in class or computer labs with varied student pacing.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: keyboarding skills
EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATORS 1:1 READINESS TOOL
(WWW.EDUCOLLABORATORS.COM)
The Educational Collaborators 1:1 Readiness Tool helps schools and districts measure how culturally ready they are for a oneto-one program. It also helps schools identify areas that require further work to ensure a successful program and provides them with a detailed report of areas requiring additional attention as well as specific recommendations for achieving success in those areas.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: one-to-one
IGNITE! LEARNING ION (IGNITE!-OVER-NETWORK)
(WWW.IGNITELEARNING.COM)
Ignite! Learning introduces an enhanced version of its ION (Ignite!-Over-Network) middle school enterprise solution. The ION system consists of interactive whiteboard lessons, instructional support services, and integrated common assessment. The new ION enhancements include a streamlined deployment methodology, the ability for teachers to narrow the range of content to exactly what they need, integrations with a wider variety of clickers, and the incorporation of state and Common Core academic standards, as well as a district’s local scope and sequence or pacing calendar.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: courseware & assessment
IT’S LEARNING, INC.
(WWW.ITSLEARNING.NET)
it’s learning inc. has added more than 120 features that support increased customizing; better teacher workflow; more individualized instruction; and more effective communication among students, their parents, and teachers. These include applications and plug-ins from educators, developers, and publishers that allow teachers to embed digital learning elements; an application store that lets educators find and license extensions; and a Parent Dashboard, which permits parents to be involved in and updated on their children’s progress. My Library lets users manage personal and course dashboards.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: Web portal
KALTURA, INC. AND BLACKBOARD ALLIANCE
(WWW.KALTURA.COM AND WWW.BLACKBOARD.COM)
Kaltura, Inc. has joined the Blackboard Alliance Program and released a new video-management Blackboard Building Block for the Blackboard Learn platform. Kaltura’s video Blackboard Building Block allows students and faculty to upload, edit, record from Webcam, manage, view, and interact with rich media from within the Blackboard environment.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: online courses
ODYSSEY COMMUNITY
(WWW.COMPASSLEARNING.COM)
Teachers and students will be able to access Odyssey Community through the CompassLearning Odyssey login. They can interact with each other as they learn in this integrated platform. Teachers can also create additional prompts in Odyssey activities, as well as set up discussion threads.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: online community
PAPERTOOLSPRO
(WWW.PAPERTOOLSPRO.NET)
PaperToolsPro, an online tool that helps facilitate the writing process, now features an outline page in its program. The outline page enables students to effectively manage their research notes by highlighting key themes and ideas that will later be incorporated into their research papers. The outline page provides an easy-to-use template that allows students to organize their notes. It guides users through the writing process and explains the importance of implementing this formal writing process.
Category: Writing
Price: Starts at $20/year for students.
PEARSON AND NING
(WWW.ABOUT.NING.COM/PEARSONSPONSORSHIP)
Under the Pearson sponsorship of Ning’s education networks, existing participants will have the opportunity to opt in to the program and maintain everyone’s seamless, uninterrupted access to their networks. New education networks joining will also be able to enjoy Ning’s robust features free of charge.
Price: N/A
Category: online community
READING EGGS
(WWW.ARCHIPELAGOLEARNING.COM)
Archipelago Learning announced today that it has become the exclusive U.S. distributor of the school version of Blake Publishing’s Reading Eggs. This playful, online early literacy program from Australia and is designed to support core literacy teaching that will drive early reading successes and help students, ages three to eight, become proficient readers. Reading Eggs comprises 100 research-based lessons within a motivational framework. The program includes an assortment of instructional tutorials, review activities, and games.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: reading
SCIENCE FUNDAMENTALS: EARTH SERIES
(WWW.CEREBELLUM.COM)
The Science Fundamentals: Earth video series focuses on core Earth science topics, including ecosystems and biomes, seeds and plants, rocks and minerals, weather, habitats, and matter. Each title in the series fills a lingering void in comprehensive learning tools designed to teach Earth science in elementary and middle school. Each video gathers difficult information based on state curricula and presents it as colorful, entertaining, and easy-to-understand modules for students.
Price: Starts at $39.95.
Category: science
SMART CLASSROOM SUITE 2010
(WWW.SMARTTECH.COM/CLASSROOMSUITE)
Classroom Suite 2010 interactive learning software combines classroom management, assessment, lesson creation, and assignment- management tools in one offering. Upgrades include improved wireless capability, formative assessment, and enhancements of Teacher Tools.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: classroom management
SUBLIME LEARNING
(WWW.SUBLIMELEARNING.COM)
Sublime Learning helps schools integrate the technology they already have— Kidspiration, Inspiration, interactive whiteboards and assistive technology— into instruction to directly impact students’ reading, writing, math, and thinking skills. Teachers use libraries of eTeachables that combine instructional videos for teachers with templates for use in the classroom to quickly apply proven teaching strategies. Services include online and in-person seminars, professional community, classroom demonstrations, and personal support. Curriculum for visual learning and differentiation for special needs are also offered.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: professional development
SUCCESSNET PLUS
(WWW.SUCCESSNETPLUS.COM)
Through SuccessNet Plus, teachers can tailor their instruction by customizing and rearranging individual content items within Pearson curriculum programs or by adding school, third-party, and selfcreated content and open educational resources (OER). Supplemental content, like virtual labs and experiments, educational videos, interactive problem-solving questions, and graphing and mapping tools, is available for students in programs available on the system. In addition, students can log in every day to see classroom announcements, a calendar of to-do’s based on the lessons and assignments chosen by their teachers, and reports on their grades and academic progress.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: learning management, courseware, and assessment
TESTWIZ CORRELATION REPORT
(WWW.TESTWIZ.COM)
The TestWiz Correlation Report lets educators select any two assessments that were given to the same students and calculate the correlation between them in the form of a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (-1 to +1). The Correlation Report can be run to compare two kinds of scores within the same assessment (e.g., multiple choice and open response) or to compare two scores on two kinds of assessments (local and state).
Price: Free for TestWiz users.
Category: assessment
TRAKAXPC IN THE CLASSROOM
(WWW.TRAKAX.COM)
TrakaxPC In The Classroom allows teachers to download a variety of lessons. Sample lessons include Podcasting, Making a Newscast, Creating a Public Service Announcement, and Making a Mini Documentary. Each lesson can be tailored to fit into a curriculum of subjects such as languages, history, geography, the sciences, music, civic studies, social studies, and religious studies.
Price: $24.95 (single copy)
Category: lesson planning
WAYFIND
(WWW.LEARNING.COM/WAYFIND)
Learning.com’s WayFind Teacher Assessment enables districts to identify their best teachers as master teachers and provide professional development for those who need it. The assessment supplies psychometrically valid data in reports that show four levels of proficiency against the overall ISTE NETS-T standards. WayFind also offers a portfolio assessment in which teachers can demonstrate and practice their skills and also use that project with their own students.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: assessment
WORLD GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE ONLINE
(WWW.FACTSONFILE.COM)
World Geography and Culture Online is an online resource for studying the geography and cultures of the world. A new and improved version of Facts on File’s World Atlas includes descriptions of more than 200 countries, facts and figures, images, and news articles, as well as descriptions of all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Price: Contact company for pricing.
Category: geography, culture
Hardware/AV
Califone International, Inc. (www.califone.com) has upgraded its Kids Keyboard, which uses a color-coded layout to help beginning readers identify and locate the function, number, consonant, and vowel keys. Building their confidence as they learn writing and keyboarding skills, the design also introduces students to the standard QWERTY format and Microsoft Office Hot Keys, the icon-coded keys for Playback, Volume Control, Favorites, Track Selections, Standby, E-mail, Search, and more.
Intel (www.intel.com) has unveiled the new Intel-powered, convertible classmate PC (www.classmatepc.com). Featuring the Intel Atom processor and a 10.1-inch LCD monitor, the new convertible classmate PC includes increased memory and storage with which to run education applications. The new design can change instantly from a clamshell to a tablet PC and has a touch screen with a user interface optimized for eReading applications, a water-resistant keyboard, a touchpad and screen, improved ruggedness, bump- and scratch-resistant surfaces, and an optional antimicrobial keyboard.
The RM (www.rmeducation.com) SecureAudio System is a full-featured classroom audio-enhancement system that incorporates a security-alert function, enabling teachers to signal an alert with a single button in any emergency. In addition, RM SecureAudio is a high-quality audio system with a True Stereo Amplifier that provides 50 watts of total output power. The teacher microphone features a remote control that allows the teacher to adjust the system’s volume.
Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. (www.lutron.com) has expanded its family of Maestro and Maestro Wireless sensors and controls. The new wireless-control products include a three-wire fluorescent dimmer, an ELV dimmer, a plugin module that enables wireless lamp dimming, another plug-in module that permits wireless lamp switching, a twobutton (on-off) handheld Pico wireless control, and a two-button (on-off and raise-lower) Pico wireless control.
ELMO USA (www.elmousa.com) has announced that its P30S digital document cameras are now integrated into the SAFARI Montage 4.1 system (www.safarimontage). When connected to the SAFARI Montage system, the P30S is autodetected to give teachers immediate control of all functions of the document camera from the SAFARI Montage Media Player, including autofocus, brightness, and zoom.
Samsung (www.samsung.com) and 3LCD (www.3LCD.com) have teamed up to deliver a 3LCD LED projector, the F10M. The F10M delivers 1,000 lumens with a light life of 30,000+ hours and offers XGA resolution and an imagesize range of 40 to 300 inches, as well as HDMI input and connectivity. Every 3LCD projector has 3LCD features and technology advantages, including a three-chip optical engine that delivers incredibly bright, true-to-life color and high color and white light output.
The Xerox (www.office.xerox.com) WorkCentre 3550 desktop black-and-white laser multifunction printer copies, scans, faxes, and prints up to 35 pages a minute and is equipped to handle the printing tasks of busy offices. The WorkCentre 3550 also comes with a standard paper capacity of 550 sheets; secure print, which keeps documents from printing until the user provides a PIN code to release the job; color scanning; and easily transferable files through the print-from and scan-to USB thumb drive on the front of the MFP.
Atdec’s (www.atdec.com) Telehook TH-1040-VFM utilizes a balljoint mechanism that allows easy adjustment for any screen-viewing angle up to 40 degrees with simple tension adjustment. Even after the screen has been installed, it is easy to change its position from landscape to portrait mode, and the educator has virtually 360-degree screen adjustment.
HP (www.hp.com) has announced the HP Mini 100e Education Edition, which includes software from Microsoft. The computer also features a spill-resistant keyboard. The HP Mini 100e offers optional Wi-Fi certified WLAN as well as an integrated worldwide modem that is compatible in all countries that use the V.92 standard. Along with a VGA Webcam, it includes separate headphone and MIC ports and so can easily connect to other devices.
Broadcast Pix (www.broadcastpix.com) is launching its Live Production & Streaming Bundles, a promotion that packages the provider’s Granite and Slate video production systems with a ViewCast Niagara streaming-media appliance and a Yamaha audio mixer. Software included in each bundle enables the Broadcast Pix control panel and user interface, through TCP/IP control, to select, monitor, and control up to 12 ViewCast streams.
One Laptop per Child (www.laptop.org) and Marvell (www.marvell.com) have agreed to jointly develop a family of next-generation OLPC XO tablet computers based on the Marvell Moby reference design. This new partnership will provide designs and technologies to enable a range of new educational tablets, delivered by OLPC and other education-industry leaders, aimed at schools in both the United States and developing markets.
The Epson (www.epsonbrightfutures.com) PowerLite S9 includes USB plug and play; extended lamp life; monitorout and audio-out ports, which permit connectivity to external devices; Instant On/Off, which enables presenters to prevent delays when starting and finishing presentations and to be up and running in only five seconds; A/V Mute Slide, which instantly turns off the sound; easy portability; and the latest 3LCD technology.
The Crestron (www.crestron.com) PSPHD high-definition 7.3 surround-sound audio processor includes three independent subwoofer outputs to provide a powerful bass sensation that is evenly distributed to all seats. Intelligent pairing enables sophisticated communication between the PSPHD and the PROAMP-7X400 or PROAMP-7X250 seven-channel amplifier. The built-in three-channel line mixer and distribution amplifier in the PSPHD enable the combination of multichannel HD audio and video teleconferencing.
Bretford Manufacturing, Inc. (www.bretford.com) has launched the NETBOOK42-CT, a new cart that vertically stores, charges, and protects 42 netbook computers. The NETBOOK42 incorporates a sophisticated Power Management System, or “brain,” that redistributes power every three minutes, not only to ensure consistent charging but also to keep the netbooks cool, thereby enabling them to charge faster. The auxiliary power outlets on the cart’s top shelf allow it to double as a presentation cart in the classroom; it also has room for a video projector or a printer.
The PAPERSHOW (www.papershow.com) Teacher’s Edition has added functions and features useful for K-12 teachers, including an interactive calculator, a magnifying glass, two measurement tools, lined paper for students learning to write, and 72 colors. PAPERSHOW consists of three elements, a wireless Bluetooth pen, a USB Key, and interactive paper, that work together to allow the user to create a digital flip chart or annotate a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation live.
Olympus (www.olympusamerica.com) has released two new models in its VN Series, the VN-7000 (left) and the VN-8100PC (right) digital audio recorders. The VN-8100PC now records in MP3 format in addition to Windows Media Audio. The VN-7000 has 39 hours of battery life, and the VN-8100PC lasts 51 hours. Set on LP mode, the VN-7000 can record for more than 1,200 consecutive hours; the VN-8100PC, for more than 850 hours.
Numonics Corporation (www.interactivewhiteboards.com) has announced the release of the Intellitrac Rail system, a wall-mounted rail system designed to hold any large-format interactive whiteboard and slide it horizontally to provide access to a fixed chalk or dry-erase-marker board on the wall behind it. The Intellitrac accommodates a standard-height, 48-inch-tall existing board with a chalk tray of up to 58.25 inches.
