Web Resources
In commemoration of Earth Day, BrainPOP will show four free feature movies on environmental topics during the month of April. Topics are Earth, Global Warming, Recycling, and Earth's Atmosphere.
iEARN and the Daniel Pearl Foundation have launched PEARL World Youth News, an international news service that features articles written by students from around the world. Students interested in becoming PEARL reporters can enroll in a free online training and certification course at www.iearn.org/pearlproject/reporters.html.
eLearning school AnimationMentor.com pairs animation students with mentors from studios like PIXAR, Sony, Disney, and Blue Sky, who provide weekly "eCritiques" of students' work. The Web campus also includes instant messaging, buddy lists, and links to helpful animation resources.
At AnimationMentor.com, students can chat in real time with professional animators.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston has added Live Ink Reading Help to ¡Expresate!, the online version of its Spanish program for middle and high school students. Expresate! contains more than 40 hours of resources for Spanish instruction.
Questia Media subscribers now have access to a new program that provides articles and books chosen by librarians on a variety of research topics, including American history, world history, and American literature. Reading Lists contains at least five full-text citations for each search topic.
The U.S. Geological Survey has released an online earthquake hazard resource, Living in Earthquake Country: A Teaching Box. The teaching box contains an earthquake curriculum and handouts developed by technology and instructional experts and USGS scientists and teachers from the San Francisco Bay Area. A new publication called Earthquake Science Explained is also available.
Hardware
The DV5200 camera from Mustek costs less then $100 .
The DV5200, from Mustek, is a compact handheld camera appropriate for use by children and teens. The camcorder has a built-in speaker and microphone and an internal memory of 32 MB; additional memory cards can be inserted for increased storage.
The AN-130 portable P.A. system from Anchor Audio weighs less than nine pounds, comes with a choice of five microphones, and costs about $525.
A new document camera from AVerMedia, the AVerVision300p, features 3 megapixel resolution, 8X digital zoom, and a 24 FPS shooting speed. The portable camera can store 80 images internally.
Software
inResonance has upgraded Portal 3.0, its admission management solution for independent K-12 schools. The program, based on FileMaker Pro 8, is customizable and lets users track and report on applications, transcripts, and letters of recommendation, as well as generate name tags, contracts, and mailing labels.
The WordLogic Corp. has released version 4.3 of its WordLogic Predictive Keyboard. The predictive software, which acts as a portal, enables users to search for words or phrases using Internet resources like Google, Wikipedia, and Dictionary.com. The program is customizable and lets users incorporate recurring phrases, phone numbers, and addresses into their work.
A new offering from Merit Software, Merit Text Talker, uses a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading. Users double-click on a passage, question, answer, or tip, and the program reads the text out loud. Text Talker comes with two North American voices; additional regional voices may be added.
Scholastic Education's Read 180, The Enterprise Edition is a major revision to the Read 180 software originally released in 1999. The program features a new teaching system and management tools, as well as support for English Language Learners in five languages.
Tool Factory has released a new software program called Science Diagrams. Using clipart, teachers and students access a library of science diagrams (and can create their own) to help make science experiments, algorithms, and flow charts visual. Software starts at about $80 for one user.
This image was made using Tool Factory's Science Diagrams program.
Professional Development
A new interactive information center has been created for online educators. The Center for Online Educators offers teachers access to professional development like free tutorials, expert chats, and research and features job and discussion boards.
The Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation's 2006 Annual Conference takes place at Northeastern University in Boston June 21-23. K-12 educators, administrators, and school and district technology leaders interested in 1:1 computing are invited to attend. A draft conference schedule and registration information can be found at www.aalf.org/Events/cf_main.aspx.
