EdTech Show Daily - Post Show TCEA Issue

March 2011

Oser Communications Group

TOOLS4EVER: I.T. ADMIN STREAMLINE USER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

James LozanoByerly, Senior Territory Manager with Tools4ever, discusses how the User Management Resource Administrator is being leveraged by school districts to create savings and efficiencies for network user account management.

Continued on Page 38

FORTRES GRAND DESKTOP SECURITY SOFTWARE RECEIVES HIGHEST RATING

Successfully Securing School Lab Computers: An interview with Wayne Rickman, Technical Administrator for Brockport Central School District.

ESD: Can you tell me about your Continued on Page 42

PANDA SECURITY COMBATS TODAYS AGGRESSIVE MALWARE LANDSCAPE An interview with Rick Carlson, President of Panda Security USA.

ESD: Tell our readers a little about your company. What’s your main line of business?

Continued on Page 44

KATY ISD—ENGAGES EVERY LEARNER WITH INTERACTIVE RESOURCES

Benchmark Education Company is leading a new age of innovation with technology resources for learning, teaching and assessment that will engage students in increasing their achievement. Through the Benchmark Universe™, Benchmark Continued on Page 40

HARRIS SOLUTIONS NEW ETRITION 7 SCHOOL NUTRITION SOLUTION

Brian Copeland, Sales Manager for eTrition Division of Harris School Solutions, discusses Harris Solutions and their new eTrition School Nutrition Solution system.

Continued on Page 42

QOMO HITEVISION PROVIDES INTERACTIVE CLASSROOM SOLUTIONS

QOMO HiteVision is a dynamic educational technology manufacturer/distributor specializing in providing complete interactive classroom solutions. All of QOMO’s products are designed to work seamlessly together to foster the most positive Continued on Page 44

www.edtechshowdaily.com

EDUCATION 2000 AIMS TO PUT MIMIO INTERACTIVE TECH IN EVERY CLASS

CREATOR OF UNITEDSTREAMING INTRODUCES ESPRESSO ELEMENTARY

ESD: Tell us about the MimioClassroom products you represent.

ESD: What is Espresso and why is it

Doug Pennekamp, CEO of Education 2000, explains how to effectively integrate interactive technology into the classroom.

Continued on Page 40

ISTATION GIVES EDUCATORS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED

Richard H. Collins, Chairman and CEO of istation, reveals how the company is using technology to transform education.

ESD: Tell us a little about your company and its role in K-12 education.

Continued on Page 42

COMIC LIFE ENCOURAGES CREATIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM

We’re talking with Robert Grant, CEO of plasq LLC, creator of Comic Life.

ESD: What is Comic Life?

RG: It’s a desktop publishing program Continued on Page 44

Johnjoe Farragher, CEO of Defined Learning, talks about bringing a new, unique, multimedia learning service from the UK to elementary schools across the U.S.

Continued on Page 38

NETSUPPORT OFFERS RANGE OF OPTIONS FOR CLASS MONITORING

M a r c u s Kingsley, CEO of NetSupport Inc., talks about bhow Classroom Management software monitors student activity.

ESD: Tell us about NetSupport and its product portfolio.

Continued on Page 43

SCHOOLWIRES: CONNECTS COMMUNITIES IN SUPPORT OF DISTRICT SUCCESS

Edward S. Marflak, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Schoolwires, discusses the issues facing today’s school district and how his company can help.

ESD: Tell our readers a little about your

Continued on Page 43

4

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

HITACHI RAISES THE BAR WITH THE IPJ-AW250N INTERACTIVE PROJECTOR The Hitachi iPJ-AW250N is Hitachi’s first ever interactive projector and has all the functionality of an interactive whiteboard built into it, eliminating the need for additional hardware. Hitachi delivered a new level of innovation to the education market when it introduced the Ultra Short Throw Projector series, which was developed for use with interactive whiteboards. With the introduction of the iPJ-AW250N, Hitachi raises the standard for performance by combining interactive whiteboard functionality with Hitachi’s industry-leading projector technology.

Designed for easy setup even in rooms where space is limited, the iPJAW250N features an ultra-short-throw

lens that enables it to be mounted close to a wall or projection surface. This prevents obstructed images and shadows, with no light shining in the presenter’s eyes. The user can write, draw, manipulate and resize projected images by using Hitachi’s pen-sized Interactive Control.

A remote control is also included.

The iPJ-AW250N features a simple menu system that provides ready access to all functions. The projector comes with a dynamic set of teaching and lesson-building tools for educators.

Business users will find a wealth of graphics tools, templates, colors and resources for creating compelling lessons and presentations, and PowerPoint, Word, PDF, JPEG and other formats can

OKI PRINTING SOLUTIONS OFFERS TAILORED SOLUTIONS THAT CAN SOLVE YOUR PRINTING CHALLENGES Ed Lydon, Consultative Public Sector Sales Manager for OKI Data Americas, answers your printing questions.

School IT Director: My school needs new printers for administrative areas and our

computer labs. Most printouts are black and white, but we still need the option for color. Our IT budget was reduced so we’re looking for affordable options.

Ed Lydon: We do have devices that are

Lee M. Oser

be imported directly into the iPJAW250N. The iPJ-AW250N offers a full complement of video and audio inputs including HDMI, S-Video and composite video inputs, RGB computer video inputs and outputs, stereo mini-jack, RCA and microphone audio inputs, and audio and video outputs. The projector incorporates extremely high-quality optics for clear, sharp images, with 2,500 ANSI lumens brightness, WXGA resolution and a throw distance of 56 cm (1.8 feet) for an 80-inch (16:10) diagonal image.

For more information, visit http://av.hitachi.com/projector. tailored to meet multiple printing needs and are affordably priced to accommodate reduced IT budgets. OKI has just refreshed a line of color MFPs providing the option of color when and where you need it, as well as a new line of mono products that are designed to help education professionals control the costs of printing. They are more compact, faster and have higher consumable yields for increased efficiency. These products also Continued on Page 42

CEO and Editor-in-Chief

Steve Cox Kate Seymour

Senior Associate Publishers

Kim Forrester Lyle Sapp

Associate Publishers

Lorrie Baumann

Editorial Director

Brandon Derrow Justyn Dillingham Associate Editors

Valerie Wilson Art Director

Yasmine Brown

Graphic Designer

Selene Pinuelas Traffic Manager

Paul Harris James Martin Bill Morris Robert Valencia John Wilkinson Deborah Yarbrough Account Managers

Enrico Cecchi

European Sales EdTech Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2011.

All rights reserved.

Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520-721-1300/Fax: 520-721-6300 www.oser.com / www.edtechshowdaily.com European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy.

6

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

SP CONTROLS’ REVOLUTIONARY IPAD INTERFACES REDEFINE TEACHER FREEDOM AND STUDENT INTERACTION The education market is a key focus for SP Controls of San Francisco, Calif.

Gary Arcudi, SP Controls Director of Marketing, says attendees at TCEA will see a revolutionary suite of products designed to give the instructor the freedom to teach and interact with all their technology tools anywhere in the classroom from an iPad.

ESD: SP Controls is well known for its educator-friendly audio-visual control systems.What’s new for 2011?

GA: We think that our new product offering will truly revolutionize and unify how teachers work with various technologies in the classroom.

This new suite of products will allow them to present lessons by taking control of the classroom computer, annotate [similar to the functions of an interactive whiteboard], and control the AV gear in the classroom, such as play the DVD player or document camera—all from anywhere in the room.

To give you some more detail, we are using the Apple iPad as the user interface to the system. We’ve created an application that controls the classroom computer, allowing the teacher to navigate seamlessly among all the digital resources at hand—whether they’re on the classroom computer or DVD, software-based or Web-based. Our application gives the teacher the flexibility to stand anywhere in the room, interact with the students, annotate the lesson, control software-based curriculum, and do free-form note-taking, all through a what you see is what you get interface from the iPad. ESD: What are you calling this new product?

GA: We are calling it Doceri™, which is

Latin for to be taught or shown.

ESD: Sounds like SP Controls is making the use of technologies in the classroom much simpler—no more multiple remotes!

GA: Our goal is to unify the classroom technology experience into one user interface, with the iPad controlling the many other things that are used in the typical classroom: DVD players, audio systems, projectors, etc. We have made cost-effective products to control these devices for the past 13 years, and our experience was incorporated into the development of the Doceri system.

When used with our Networked Room Controllers, Doceri allows the teacher Continued on Page 38

SMART INTRODUCES NEW INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD AT TCEA

WEEKLY READER CONNECT BUILDS BETTER READERS … ONLINE

EdTech Show Daily talks to Nancy Knowlton, CEO, about how SMART Technologies can help teachers in the classroom.

In our ultramodern, 24/7/365 world, one ancient skill still matters. Whether words are presented on a whiteboard or a billboard, an iPad or a memo pad, a computer screen or in a magazine, understanding what those words mean is absolutely essential.

That’s one explanation for the success of Weekly Reader Connect. Less than a year since it launched, this online reading-comprehension program for students in grades K through 6 is already being used in hundreds of schools across

ESD: What new products did SMART reveal at TCEA?

NK: The featured product was our new SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard. We’re calling it a new class of interactive whiteboard because it enhances collaboration by supporting

multiuser writing and common multitouch gestures. It offers features such as freestyle interactions, touch gestures and full object awareness, meaning that the whiteboard recognizes whether a user interacts using a finger, fist, pen or an eraser and responds accordingly. This series includes the 880 and 880i models and the widescreen 885, 885i and 885ix models. The fact that two people can work anywhere on the 800 series Continued on Page 40

44 states. It has been named one of the Top 100 products of 2010 by District Administration magazine.

The Massachusetts Innovation Technology Exchange proclaimed the digital editions one of “most innovative, effective, and compelling achievements in the development and implementation of interactive technologies.”

Weekly Reader Connect is a superb tool for teaching children to understand Continued on Page 8

8

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

TURN AN ORDINARY WHITEBOARD INTO AN INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD WITH THE MIMIOTEACH The new MimioTeach makes interactive learning easy and practical. The Mimio Interactive Whiteboard Solution, MimioTeach, transforms already existing whiteboards into interactive whiteboards.

Doug Pennekamp, CEO of Education 2000, an authorized Mimio reseller that has represented Mimio products for more than 10 years, says that technology should not get in the way of instruction.

Weekly Reader (Con’t. from p. 6)

what they read. It presents hundreds of high-interest nonfiction stories—all enriched with meaningful multimedia that deepens students’ understanding.

WR Connect complements those stories with 129 onscreen lessons that teach reading comprehension in a clear, concise, and consistent way.

“Weekly Reader Connect brings together elements that teachers have told us are crucial: easy-to-use 21st century technology; compelling, newsworthy nonfiction; exciting multimedia; and engaging, curriculum-rich lessons,” said Ira Wolfman, Senior Vice President of Weekly Reader. “WR Connect enables

“Technology should be welcomed into the classroom and should be easy to integrate into the classroom for lessons and activities,” Pennekamp said. “The MimioTeach makes it easy.”

While other interactive whiteboards require an installation of an actual board, MimioTeach is a bar that is placed on an existing wall or board.

The dry erase marker is still a valuable tool with the MimioTeach. Because the MimioTeach adheres to any whiteboard, schools to integrate technology seamlessly into the classroom and reach today’s tech-savvy kids directly where they live.”

WR Connect requires no additional software or tech expertise. Developed by Weekly Reader—the innovative, 108year-old educational publishing company that virtually invented current events coverage in the classroom—Weekly Reader Connect brings the following elements to all subscribing schools: • Exclusive interactive Weekly Reader digital editions, presenting timely, highinterest, and grade-specific nonfiction content that has been carefully crafted to align to state curricula.

• Downloadable companion Teacher’s Guides that incorporate wide-ranging

teachers can still use the whiteboard area for teaching and writing notes.

“With the MimioTeach, teachers and students can still walk up to their whiteboards and use a dry erase marker without worrying about damaging an expensive interactive whiteboard,” Pennekamp said. “Sometimes it is more efficient and convenient to take a dry erase marker to write on the board or point something out than it is to go through all the steps with the interactive whiteboard tools to highlight, underline or erase something.

Also, if a teacher is not using the interactive whiteboard for a particular lesson, they can still use the whiteboard space.”

Installation for the MimioTeach is simple; it is ready to use straight out of the box. The MimioTeach has magnetic strips built-in and is easily placed on a magnetic whiteboard. If the area where the MimioTeach will be used is not magnetic, magnetic plates can be attached to the MimioTeach bar to place on the board or wall.

Along with the built-in magnetic strips, the MimioTeach is compact and lightweight in size, and therefore can be easily moved to a different classroom.

“The MimioTeach is portable, and can easily be moved from classroom to classroom if needed,” Pennekamp said.

background information, informal assessments, and other engaging extension activities along with practical tips and techniques on how to broaden the lessons.

• 129 onscreen Concepts of Comprehension© Skill Builder lessons, with teacher tips and additional reading passages specifically designed to build reading skills and scores while improving students’ understanding of texts.

proven methods that teach kids to read for understanding.

Ease of use is another outstanding feature of WR Connect. Subscribing schools just log on to www.wrconnect.com for full access to the program. Teachers can project the content onto a screen or use an interactive whiteboard for group instruction. The program is also appropriate for individualized use on a single computer. With a simple password, instructors can also provide off-premises access to all students.

Want to know more? If you’re a principal, school district leader, media or technology specialist, or classroom teacher, visit www.wrconnect.com or call 1-877-344-2834 for a free demo and more information.

Weekly Reader Connect is built on the Concepts of Comprehension, a researchbased framework of 21 inferential thinking skills developed by the nonprofit Urban Education Exchange. This framework enables students to expand their reading skills from year to year, and uses

Continued on Page 12

10

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

RESULTS SHOW WHY AWARD CHOSEN FOR ELECTRONIC TEXTBOOK LISTING In 2010 Texas listed AWARD Reading as one of the electronic textbook programs to be used for digital learning across the state. As schools move forward to embrace new learning resources in this digital age, there is an increasing demand for online programs that have proven research results.

AWARD Reading was creatively developed for electronic instruction that

would teach and motivate digital natives.

The term ‘digital native,’ along with ‘digital immigrant,’ is being used more and more to explain the differences between those born after the ‘tech movement’ and those born before it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘natives’ are technically expert, but their thinking is different.

A study of kindergarten and first grade students in Texas, New York, and

CLOUD COMPUTING WITH CSI TECHNOLOGY OUTFITTERS OFFERS GREATER FLEXIBILITY You may not have seen this coming, but 2010 was the year for cloud computing and it had an astounding impact on our educational systems. CSI Technology Outfitters, CSI@K12 Education Cloud now offers greater flexibility utilizing cloud computing to implement an advanced platform in unified communication and collaboration.

At CSI Technology Outfitters, the goal is to create an instructional communication platform that continuously leverages evolving cloud technologies in

order to facilitate focused, safe and effective instructional communication for students, teachers, parents and community.

The first benefit to schools is financial.

In the K12 world, 1:1 computing is the goal, but most schools can’t afford to buy all the devices. With cloud technology, applications and full PC platforms can be quickly provided for students. This allows students to interface within the Continued on Page 12

New Jersey coordinated by Dr. Cathy Collins Block, Professor of Education at Texas Christian University, reviewed outcomes based on the use of AWARD Reading and control subjects using standard basal reading programs. Results showed that after only 20 weeks, the AWARD program significantly improved subjects’ abilities in phonics, continuous reading and attitudes toward reading.

Increases in positive attitudes toward reading were especially profound with African American students (48 percent increase) and Hispanics (15 percent). The students showed more enthusiasm for reading and that they engaged positively with the animated and interactive texts

and activities.

AWARD Reading significantly improves reading abilities in the critical early school years, in particular with ELLs, students with disabilities, those from low socioeconomic backgrounds and students who benefit from accelerated learning opportunities. Published by the balanced literacy publisher that first brought big books and guided readers such as Mrs. Wishy Washy to U.S. classrooms, AWARD Reading offers teachers and students an opportunity to interact with technology in new ways to create successful learning outcomes.

Continued on Page 38

ELIMINATE COMPUTER MISCHIEF! REDUCE HELP DESK CALLS! USE FORTRES 101 TO SECURE CLASSROOM COMPUTERS Keeping computers free of accidental or mischievous changes is an ongoing battle. Fortres 101 is powerful, restrictive security that limits computer access to only programs and files you allow.

Fortres 101 desktop security can easily lock down your Windows computers.

Fortres 101 prevents users from: altering the appearance of Windows; downloading dangerous programs; altering or deleting important files; changing

printer configurations; accessing unnecessary programs; and installing or removing software. Computers are always consistent and virus-free.

Prevent Unwanted Downloads With Fortres 101 installed, programs and viruses cannot be downloaded or installed. Fortres 101 locks down the Continued on Page 14

12

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

DISTRICTS SAVE MONEY WITH TOOLS4EVER’S SELF SERVICE RESET PASSWORD MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE James Lozano-Byerly, Enterprise Sales Manager with Tools4ever, discusses how the Self Service Reset Password Management [SSRPM] software is being used by school districts to create savings.

district staff. The Self Service Reset Password Management [SSRPM] empowers end users to reset their own passwords without having to call the help desk for support.

JLB: You can read any market research or browse tech help forums on password management and quickly see that the process for resetting or unlocking directory passwords is both time-consuming and cumbersome for end users and help desk personnel alike. The process is a drain on resources and opportunity for

JLB: Districts face security concerns along with costly employee downtime, increasing frustration and an underutilized support staff. The help desk resources should be tackling more critical issues rather than resetting or unlocking accounts. SSRPM provides a simple ‘Forgot My Password’ button on the Windows login screen and/or an ASP

ESD: How does the Self Service Reset Password Management software enable districts to save money?

CSI Technology Outfitters (Con’t. from p. 10)

cloud regardless of the device, while still providing access to special applications.

CSI Technology Outfitters helps provide schools with a solution set that provides a predictable cost structure.

Many technologies that were previously expensive or unavailable are now becoming free to anyone with a Web browser. This is true for websites, blogs, video sharing, collaboration software, editing/presentation and publishing.

Students already use many of these technologies in their personal lives. Education systems should take advantage of the trend, which will both enrich a student’s technology-enabled education, and most importantly, reduce the budget impact.

The second would be the practical daily benefits.

CSI cloud computing tools allow educational institutions to have the best of all worlds. By providing highly scalable and

ESD: What are some of the concerns with an elevated volume of help desk calls?

simple collaboration tools, data can be accessed using a Web browser or VoIP. CSI@K12 Voice provides natural communication through existing voice services.

Third is security.

The need for hardware or software isn’t being eliminated—it’s being shifted into the cloud. For example, intranet Webbased applications that are currently published by supported portals can be centrally authenticated through the use of CSI’s Simple Sign-On, which eliminates the need for a user to enter additional application logon names and passwords.

Lastly is collaboration.

With the CSI Education Cloud, students can create customized, personal Webbased environments to support their social and academic activities using whatever tools they prefer.

Schools are also taking advantage of CSI@K12 Education Cloud, which

Web Interface, prompting the end users to answer a series of challenge questions to reset or unlock their accounts. It is a very simple process.

ESD: What do other school districts say about how SSRPM and how it helped them?

JLB: Well, SSRPM really touches many areas within an organization. For example, SSRPM helps with password fatigue and end-user frustration. There are fewer instances of users placing sticky notes under their keyboards. Support for the reset is instant, which means they do not have to wait to be productive—especially when the staff or teachers need access to conduct classroom activities. I often hear how nice it is at the beginning of each school year or after a holiday not to have to reset as many passwords.

ESD: How do SSRPM and Tools4ever differ compared to similar solutions?

JLB: We have a very solid niche with the educational market. Tools4ever has been embeds Microsoft Live@EDU into a contextually-aware communications system that leverages Microsoft Live@EDU as the nexus for interpersonal, instructional communications, including e-mail, tasks and calendars. In partnership with Microsoft®, CSI is able to provide K12 specific enterprise hosted e-mail with the ability to take advantage of the standard components of Microsoft Exchange, Outlook®, and Outlook Web Access and now Voice.

The CSI Voice application is a very cost-effective alternative for expansion and enhancement of voice service. K-12 school systems are in the midst of major data network implementations and upgrades funded by E-Rate allocations and other information superhighway initiatives. When voice is treated as an IP data application and categorized as an enhanced data application, telephony systems can leverage existing data infrastructure investments.

For more information call 800-9536847 or visit www.csioutfitters.com/ver3.

called nimble, responsive and focused on the client’s needs and expectations.

SSRPM meets a very specific need, setting the stage for immediate ROI. It also has optional plug-ins to extend functionality for multi-platform support such as Google Apps or Live@edu password sync or other systems.

We are entrepreneurial in nature, which allows us to be incredibly responsive to our clients’ technical needs. With this elevated level of customer service coupled with a value-based price point, Tools4ever is considered the company of choice for school districts seeking user management and password management solutions.

ESD: Is it possible to test or review this solution? If so, how?

JLB: Network Administrators that are interested can visit our website at www.tools4ever.com. We offer a 30-day evaluation period and conduct WebEx demonstrations.

MimioTeach (Con’t. from p. 8)

“MimioTeach does not require an installation crew to set up, and it does not take up a lot of space in a classroom or get in the way of instruction since there are no legs or stand for students or teachers to trip over.”

A new feature for the MimioTeach that was not included on the previous model is built-in wireless capability.

There is no cord required to connect the MimioTeach to the computer.

The stylus that comes with the MimioTeach has also been revamped from the previous Mimio Xi model.

The MimioTeach comes with a slender, ergonomic pen that is shaped to fit comfortably in hands of all sizes.

The stylus pen is used to control information on the computer from the whiteboard.

For more information, visit www.edu2000plus.com, call 866-2904646 or contact mimio@earthlink.net.

14

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

THE eTRITION DIVISON OF HARRIS SCHOOL SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF ETRITION 7, AN ENTERPRISE SOLUTION FOR SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS More than just a new product, eTrition 7 was developed with a revolutionary new approach; it is the very first school nutrition solution designed with the idea that a school nutrition department is a business that requires the best business tools, and is therefore built with the best technology. It utilizes Microsofts .NET multitiered architecture and a centralized SQL

Server database. This platform allows eTrition 7 to support the data security procedures in place by school districts, rather than requiring work-around procedures.

At the heart of eTrition 7 is a robust point of service system with a complete back office, including profit and loss reporting. The eTrition 7 development

ISIP MATH IDENTIFIES STUDENTS IN NEED OF HELP ISIP™ (istation’s Indicators of Progress) Math is a computerized, Web-delivered assessment designed for 4th through 8th grade students.

Aligned to national content standards specified in the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum Focal Points published in 2006, ISIP Math consists of quick, student-friendly, easy to administer tests that identify students in need of intervention.

While supporting RTI as a benchmarking assessment, ISIP Math helps teachers identify students’ needs

within a three tier model of instruction.

Assessments and immediate scores are provided for an entire classroom in approximately 30 minutes. Student performance data is accessible to educators online in real time. These reports group students by need, make recommendations for additional targeted, differentiated instruction, and provide teacher-directed lessons in specific skills for use in small groups.

Reports are specially designed to allow for instructional decision making.

Information will be presented for individual students, classrooms, and

THE BENCHMARK UNIVERSE— ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD RESOURCES Benchmark Education Company is leading a new age of innovation with technology resources for learning, teaching and assessment that will engage students in increasing their achievement. Through the Benchmark Universe™, Benchmark Education Company reaches the 21st Century Classroom with digital content through interactive whiteboard resources, talking e-books, audio libraries, online assessment and on-demand professional development. All of the products are Web-based and accessible by teachers and students at any time and location with an Internet connection.

Interactive whiteboard resources Fortres Grand (Con’t. from p. 10)

desktop so when a user tries to download a game, unwanted program, or virus, Fortres 101 blocks the action. Keep your computer free of unwanted downloads with Fortres 101.

Save time and money keeping your computers secure and consistent Protecting not only the software and hardware applications, Fortres 101 also protects time and money by preventing damage to files and programs. You will no longer waste time re-imaging,

through the Benchmark Universe make instruction engaging and effective.

They are designed to work with all kinds of interactive whiteboard hardware including Smartboard™, Promethean™, RM™, Polyvision™, Mimio™, and more. In addition, each interactive title includes built-in pen tools that turn any computer projection and flat surface or monitor into an interactive whiteboard. This flexibility allows teachers to use Benchmark’s software in every classroom.

Benchmark Education Company’s language and literacy series of interactive whiteboard resources offers more than ghosting, or reinstalling software because of accidental or mischievous deletions and errors.

Achieve Complete Control Over Your Computers Fortres 101 provides complete control over every aspect of Windows operations. Prevent users from: interrupting the boot process; exiting Windows; accessing a command prompt; adding, moving, or deleting icons; altering anything about the appearance of Windows; installing, copying, or downloading

team recognized that the accounting needs and methods of school nutrition departments are unique, and they designed the system with these requirements in mind.

The system is Web-based for administrative users, while allowing school site personnel to conduct cafeteria service in a full disconnected environment in times of network failure. During normal operations, each school has a real-time synchronization to the central database.

The centralized database provides a higher level of control of administrative tasks and setup items, while relieving school site users of any responsibility for these tasks.

Flexibility is a key attribute of eTrition 7. It is scalable for any size of school nutrition operation, from 1 to

1,000 serving lines. It can be utilized as a self-hosted application, or it can be deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, in which users are not required to install or maintain any software. eTrition 7 supports multiple languages and is Section 508 compliant.

The system includes point of service, patron management, free and reduced applications, inventory, purchasing, menu planning, nutritional analysis, accounts payable, general ledger, state reporting and online payments as part of a parent information portal.

Harris School Solutions is a leader in providing technology solutions for the business of K-12 school districts.

For more information contact K12Solutions@harriscomputer.com or visit www.harrisschoolsolutions.com.

schools three times per year.

Items in the ISIP Math bank align with research presented by the National Research Council (NRC) Adding It Up Report and the Institutes for Education Science (IES) Practice Guide for Struggling Students in Math (K-8). ISIP Math measures conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and problemsolving, using cognitive engagement levels that students must develop to gain proficiency in mathematics.

Because formative assessments and intervention programs are most frequently designed to support students who struggle, addressing the needs of these students in the design and delivery of these materials is of the utmost importance for making valid decisions. ISIP Math was built on the

principles of universal design to create an assessment that is optimally accessible to students with disabilities.

ISIP Math is authored by Leanne Ketterlin Geller, Ph.D. Dr. Geller is an Associate Professor in Education Policy and Leadership at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on the development and validation of formative assessment systems in mathematics that provide instructionally relevant information to support students with diverse needs.

Her work is centered on using technology to provide accessible assessment systems through the integration of accommodations and principles of universal design.

For more information, visit www.istation.com.

500 science, math, social studies and fiction titles designed for use in the classroom. Each title contains leveled reading texts and activities to support core content standards and motivate students. The interactive titles may be used in conjunction with the print books during wholegroup and small-group instruction—or as stand-alone instructional tools to strengthen literacy. Learners at every reading level are engaged by being able to see, hear, speak and touch words.

Everything a teacher needs for instruction and whole-group demonstration is included with each title.

Teachers may use the supplied daily lesson plans or customize their own. An interactive talking e-book is also included for each title. The professionally recorded, dramatic audio track has synchronized highlighting providing modeling and practicing to build fluency and comprehension. Students build listening

and speaking skills with additional reading practice. The on-screen tools built into the software include pen tools to write, draw or highlight words. Zoom tools allow teachers to highlight or magnify areas to focus on.

New, highly interactive features for whole-group demonstration allow teachers to extend instruction with hyperlinks to external websites. Interactive games built into the newest interactive whiteboard resources build vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The games and activities make learning fun.

Additional features of each interactive title include on-screen comprehension activities and image banks so teachers may use the book images and photographs in other classroom presentations.

Individual classroom and schoolwide subscriptions are available to the Benchmark Universe. Visit the site at www.benchmarkuniverse.com.

software; running any programs not specified by the administrator; using low-level system tools; changing printer configurations; changing screen saver configurations; accessing unauthorized websites; erasing important system files; saving files on the hard disk; and even accessing files on the hard disk.

Fortres 101 will eliminate any fear you have of malicious or inexperienced users.

You can achieve 24/7 security.

Never again leave computers vulnerable. With Fortres 101 installed, your

computers will be secure, consistent, and trouble-free.

Fortres Grand Corporation Fortres Grand Corporation helps maintain secure, clean, consistent, and virus-free computers for education, business, law enforcement, emergency services, and government in all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide.

Learn more about using Fortres 101 and other robust Fortres Grand products to protect your computers. Visit www.fortres grand.com or call 800-331-0372.

16

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

E-PORTFOLIOS TAKE CENTER STAGE AT TEXAS LAMAR CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT E-Portfolios are fast emerging as the new technology trend to watch for in K-12 schools, and School Web Lockers is leading the drive with new digital portfolio capabilities that give students and teachers an easy and convenient way to maintain a library of their best and most important work through the years.

Available as a standard feature in School Web Lockers Web-based file sharing and storage platform, EPortfolios allow students to build a portfolio of projects that can travel with them year to year as they move up through elementary, middle and high school.

“School Web Lockers E-Portfolio

will help our students track their best work through the years, giving them, as well as teachers and administrators, an easy and convenient way to view their progress and success,” said Jeff Peterson, Campus Instructional Technology Specialist for Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, based in Rosenberg, Texas.

According to Kelly Smith, Manager of Sales and Marketing for School Web Lockers, “E-Portfolios offer an easy online way for students to store the cream of the crop of their projects in a single, centralized location. Students are already saving and storing everyday class files in the School Web Lockers system. Now

COMIC LIFE FOR IPAD: COMING SOON TO CLASSROOMS AROUND THE WORLD Plasq, creator of the award-winning Comic Life, has announced the forthcoming release of Comic Life for iPad. The user interface has been completely reworked to take advantage of touchbased interaction, and new features have been added to make creating and sharing comics in the classroom super easy.

Comic Life for iPad takes the core of the photo comic desktop application and wraps it in an easy to use touch interface.

Users familiar with Apples iWork applications for iPad will feel right at home in

Comic Life for iPad, as it implements many of the iWork conventions. And users will be excited when they find the features that take the application beyond just creation; drag and drop capability between iPads and support for VGA projection mean students can easily share and present their work during class.

Robert Grant, CEO of plasq LLC, said, “we know teachers love Comic Life, and we thought hard about how to make Comic Life on iPad an app that really lets students get fully engaged

BRITANNICA IMAGE QUEST GIVES STUDENTS, TEACHERS PHOTOS THEY CAN USE Students and teachers who need photos and other images for research and special projects can now find them easily in Britannica Image Quest, a new online resource from Britannica Digital Learning. Unlike other image collections, this collection automatically grants use for academic purposes to help schools avoid copyright violations.

Image Quest provides images from more than 60 of the best collections in the world, including Dorling Kindersley, Getty, the Granger

Collection, the National Portrait Gallery of London, the National Geographic Society and Oxford Scientific. These photos and illustrations are not available elsewhere on the public Internet.

The collection contains more than one million images with more added each month. Suppliers of content come from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Australia and New Zealand: “A truly global representation of the finest

HOW MUCH ENERGY IS BEING WASTED BY YOUR COMPUTERS? If your school district is searching for fresh green initiatives that save money, you need to consider a PC power management solution. It is one of the most immediate and cost-effective ways to reduce your school district’s power bill and energy consumption.

With the creation of its PC power management software, Faronics has become a recognized industry leader in reducing

enterprise IT energy waste. Faronics’ Power Save provides organizations with centralized computer energy management and real-time savings reports, allowing companies to continuously maximize their savings by powering IT down daily.

Faronics’ Power Save can deliver a full ROI in as little as eight months—less if you qualify for a rebate. Depending on the number of PCs, districts can annually

they have a special digital portfolio that’s conveniently located within that system, with the capability to access and share favorite projects and review their progress through the years.”

School Web Lockers E-Portfolios are also accessible to teachers and administrators, who can make use of a comments section to offer insight on individual files or even the portfolio as a whole. As students approach their college years, they can use the E-Portfolios to reflect on a document posted three years earlier to see how their writing style has progressed.

Offering easy 24/7 access to student and teacher data from any Internet location, School Web Lockers provides each user with a secure, passwordprotected Web locker or digital drop box. Students and teachers can start their work on one computer at school, and then stash it in their web locker to

finish at home or elsewhere.

The software offers a calendar; folders categorized by class; teacher blogging capabilities; message boards; and other features to keep instructors organized and to improve communication.

With a single click, teachers can distribute an assignment to an entire class, giving them a quick and paperless way to share documents.

“The E-Portfolios will soon also provide a stepping stone toward facilitating college applications processes,” said Smith.

Kelly also noted, “Our plan is to set up the software to allow users to share a link to their E-Portfolio. It will be password protected and designed for use with college admissions, scholarship programs and even potential employers.”

For more information, contact School Web Lockers at 866-499-6527 or visit www.schoolweblockers.com.

with their classroom projects. We think we succeeded.”

At the end of 2010, Plasq also introduced Comic Life 2 for Mac OS X with a host of new features that bring even more excitement and engagement in the classroom. Many of these features were specifically designed with educators in mind.

User generated templates provide a focused launch pad for a project. Now you can design a template with all the elements you need—title, panel layout, captions, balloons—and let the students complete it. Comic Life 2 comes with a number of templates to get you and your students started, and you can easily create your own.

Shapes such as arrows let students point out key features of interest in their

work (or identify flow direction through the comic panels). A new free form line tool lets them get totally creative by drawing any shape directly on the page.

These shapes can also be turned into comic panels for further layout options.

With Comic Life 2’s new drawing engine, your comics look better, too.

Balloons are sharper and text fits complicated shapes better. Plus, you can bend and warp balloon tails and other shapes to really let your creativity go wild.

Improved camera support means you’re more likely to get the picture you want the first time.

Comic Life 2 is available now for Mac OS X and later this year for Windows.

historical, fine arts and contemporary images,” according to Michael Ross, a Senior Vice President at Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., and General Manager of Britannica Digital Learning.

Image Quest provides easy access to high-quality photos and illustrations from trustworthy sources for students of all ages on a wide range of topics.

Images are organized by subject matter, and the site is fully searchable. Each image, which is cleared for educational use, includes a caption, citation, copyright information, etc. With all the images in one convenient place, it simplifies the search for photos because researchers dont have to comb through multiple websites or worry about permission to use them.

The product has many uses. Students

can turn to Image Quest for homework assignments and course projects, and teachers can use the images in lesson plans and classroom activities. Its ideal for whiteboards, school web sites, newsletters, newspapers and bulletins.

“Students today don’t just write reports; they produce rich expositions that combine research and relevant illustrations,” said Ross. But it can be hard to find the right images, to identify what’s in them and to know if youre allowed to use them. We’ve made all of that a lot easier.

Britannica Image Quest is produced in collaboration with the Universal Images Group. Schools, universities and libraries interested in Britannica Image Quest can call 1-800-621-3900 or go to http://info.eb.com for more information or trial subscriptions.

save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Earlier this year Faronics teamed up with industry analyst Forrester Consulting and conducted a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study verifying that organizations reducing their computer energy waste by deploying Power Save can achieve a substantial and rapid return on investment (ROI). The study focused on the deployment of Power Save on more than 8,000 computers at a Canada-based utility giant. Power Save outperformed initial estimates and saved the organization 1.2 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity. Also among the

Visit plasq online at www.plasq.com.

growing list of more than 1,000 Power Save customers is Calif.-based Chaffey Joint Union High School District, which is currently saving $350,000 annually by shutting down their inactive PCs. As regulations slowly increase, more and more schools will be mandated to adopt a green IT approach. Educational facilities have a strong responsibility to help create a greener, cleaner future. Irresponsible PC energy consumption is not just a waste of energy; it’s a waste of money.

To learn how your organization can benefit from PC power management, visit www.faronics.com.

18

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

WAKE UP YOUR LESSONS WITH ESPRESSO ELEMENTARY Espresso Elementary is a Pre-K to 5th grade interactive teaching and learning site with a wide range of interactive, multimedia resources that inspire children to learn, and it’s new to the US! Espresso comes to us from the UK where is it loved by teachers and students in over 10,000 elementary schools―that’s 60% of all its schools!

Espresso is built around ‘learning modules,’ a unique collection of full screen video clips, interactives, games, photos, printable worksheets, multimedia fact files and fun lively characters: all working towards the achievement of Common Core and State curriculum standards.

Recognizing that students have different learning styles and abilities, many schools implement strategies to differentiate instruction. Espresso is ready to support you in these strategies.

Route Creator The ‘Route creator’ enables you to create learning paths for individual students through Espresso. With the ability to ‘pull together’ any combination of resources and then add objectives, notes and /or instructions, this tool is perfect for creating a differentiated path that your students can work through at their own pace, either independently or in groups. Personalize the Espresso

SCHOOLWIRES CENTRICITY2 GIVES TEXAS SCHOOL A MORE EFFICIENT OPTION Getting the biggest bang for the buck will be a catchphrase often heard in school board meetings across Texas this year, as the state of Texas is facing a severe budget shortfall in this legislative session. At the direction of the Legislature, the Texas Education Agency is evaluating districts in order to determine their levels of efficiency so they can do more with less in this crucial time of budget shortfalls. The Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) is expected to provide a method for equitably comparing districts of all sizes. An important requirement is that the state receives input from practitioners who strive every day to allocate their resources to efficiently improve student performance.

In tough economic times, districts

often look internally at their various processes and associated technology solutions that make up a modern educational institutions suite of applications.

Smart districts recognize that there is an opportunity to save costs by looking for areas of overlap, consolidating where possible, and leveraging any solution that has the capability to unify the disparate systems, thereby increasing efficiency while reducing operating costs.

Schoolwires delivers a cost-effective solution, Centricity2, that delivers these cost-saving efficiencies while fostering stronger communications and connections between districts and their constituents. Schoolwires has been connecting K-12 communities since 2002, and has recently extended its platform to

PANDA SECURITY REMOVES COMPLEXITY OF SECURITY FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company and one of the leading security vendors in the world, represents the best choice for educators who need security solutions for districts of all sizes. Working with schools ranging from 50 all the way to 70,000 seats, Panda Security is a completely scalable and customizable solution that ensures that the PCs of school administrators, district IT networks, teachers and students are protected from today’s vast and

sophisticated malware environment.

In today’s educational environment, it is an unfortunate but widely known fact that budgets are continually decreasing. As such, greater responsibility is being put on network administrators to manage the security of entire districts, even multiple districts, in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. In addition, as more servers and workstations are added to growing networks, these managers are finding that traditional security solutions can no

MORE THAN 250 NEW ACTIVITY PACKS FOR THE SMART TABLE NOW AVAILABLE Thousands Of Multi-touch, Multi-user Activities Available Via The SMART Exchange™

SMART Technologies announces the addition of more than 250 activity packs for the SMART Table interactive learning center.

experience for students and address different subjects, learning styles and abilities. This is also a great tool to use as an extension activity for Gifted and Talented students or as a reinforcement activity as part of an “RTI” plan for students requiring additional support.

The routes are so easy to follow that schools can also get parents involved.

Students can show parents at home what they’ve been doing in school and encourage them to play an active, supporting role in their learning experience.

Interactive Whiteboards Espresso will help your school get 100 times more use out of your whiteboards.

The full screen video combined with engaging interactive activities provides a visual, ‘hands on’ experience that your students will instantly respond to. Show a video full screen to introduce a lesson or

topic area. Play a small group learning activity for reinforcement of key concepts. There are hundreds of resources on Espresso that will instantly make your whiteboard come to life!

Accessibility Settings Espresso’s aim is that our site should be both accessible and easy to use for everyone, at any level. Espresso can be customized to further support special education. For example, pages can be simplified to help students focus on the important information on the screen or the color scheme can be changed for those who require high visibility contrast.

Espresso can even be programmed to use with a switch.

Visit www.espressoeducation.com to see these tools for yourself and find out how you can wake up your lessons with Espresso.

create a more open Technology Ecosystem for unifying the key technologies that support school districts.

Centricity2 is the leading community-based solution that encompasses the strategic technologies that are essential to district success. Its open integration framework allows easy and seamless integration of district technology systems, data and third-party applications into the platform. Administrators, teachers, parents and students gain single sign-on access to the information, content, tools and people that are integral to their success.

“Districts will gain extraordinary operational efficiency, as well as unmatched flexibility and extensibility with Centricity2,” emphasized Jeff Windsor, Product Manager of Schoolwires Website and Community Management Solutions. “Additionally,” Jeff added, “with the Schoolwires Builder™ and access to a library of apps, templates and more, districts will be able to extend and customize the

functionality of their platform in order to meet their needs.”

Another valuable part of the Technology Ecosystem is the Schoolwires Developers Network, a thriving community of clients, partners and developers that adds even more value for clients. “Through the Schoolwires Partner Program we work with companies to integrate third-party software solutions within our unifying platform to offer our clients increased ease of use, improved data sharing and more robust functionality,” said Andrew Vincent, Product Manager for Schoolwires Community Network Solutions.

longer scale effectively to support the growing infrastructure.

Panda Cloud Protection (PCP), one of the company’s flagship products, is a highly robust solution for managing email, endpoint and Internet security from an easy-to-use console. Since PCP is entirely cloud-based, network administrators can eliminate the need for complex and expensive servers, yet still give individual school staff access rights while retaining global management control at the district level. Cloudbased security is especially important in the educational setting because malware samples are immediately identified and remediated, which should be a crucial requirement for any school district security solution. Virus updates are exponentially faster with cloud-based

security, happening in minutes, as opposed to traditional client-server solutions, which can take up to 48 hours for updated protection.

PCP is also becoming a top choice for school districts across the country because hardware is no longer needed to be maintained and additional cost savings are realized, which is always a boon for educational institutions. With expedient threat resolution and instantaneous malware identification and remediation, along with the securityas-a-service delivery model, Panda’s solutions are quickly becoming the de facto choice for educational institutions.

For more information on Panda Security products, please visit www .pandasecurity.com/usa.

Themed activity packs each contain a number of individual activities for the SMART Table, which can be downloaded at no charge via the SMART Exchange website (exchange.smarttech.com). With more than 250 subject- and grade-specific activity packs, such as the Learning Colors activity pack for the SMART Table for K3, teachers now have access to thousands of multi-touch, multi-user SMART

Table activities.

Teachers can use the SMART Table Toolkit to quickly and easily modify existing activities to suit their lesson themes and learning objectives. Teachers can also create custom-made lesson activities to use and share via the SMART Exchange. The comprehensive

Centricity2 enables districts to connect their key technologies, engage students and create active communities through a single, unified platform that can be fully customized and extended to meet their needs. Centricity2 is truly the revolutionary platform of the possible. To learn more about Schoolwires Centricity2, visit www.schoolwires.com.

Continued on Page 28

20

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

FASTER, SAFER, MORE ACCURATE, MORE EFFICIENT: TOOLS4EVER STREAMLINES SCHOOL DISTRICTS USER-ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT Case Study: Judson ISD

Summary Judson Independent School District is located in San Antonio, Texas. The public school district covers nearly 56 square miles and serves the cities of Converse, Kirby and Selma, as well as portions of Live Oak, Universal City and San Antonio. Like nearly every other school district in the U.S., Judson is suffering from increased financial pressure.

Steve Young, Judson’s Chief Technology Officer, stated, “because of tight funding, we’re unlikely to gear up staff-wise. But on the other hand, we’re still adding more schools and more students, and pressure for system support is also on the rise. Each year we see more systems that need to be brought online, which means more users and administrators. That means we’re expected to do things cleaner, leaner and more efficiently.

That also counts for user administration.”

Keeping Systems Connected The Active Directory, SIS (eSchoolPlus) and the ERP system comprise the core of Judson’s network. All of these systems are interconnected and require users/data to be synchronized. However, Judson didn’t have a way to automate synchronization of identities between systems.

The lack of automation in this complex network resulted in user errors and added a substantial amount of man hours for maintenance tasks such as adding and removing users and creating file shares.

To make student-account management more accurate and efficient, Judson decided to implement User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA) by Tools4ever.

“When we started looking for software to automate these administration tasks, we talked to several vendors,” said

DIGITAL LITERACY PROGAM ATTRACTS ATTENTION OF EDUCATORS Electronic textbooks are a new innovation for some teachers. However, there are other teachers, especially those who use interactive whiteboards daily in their classrooms, who readily embrace these accessible textbooks. They find programs like AWARD Reading to be a powerful resource that connects with their students. They are able to share hundreds of carefully graded stories with their students and extend instruction with

vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and writing tasks. The technology behind AWARD allows students to progress at their own pace and practice until the essential literacy skills are learned.

One of the strengths of AWARD Reading—listed as one of a limited number providing electronic textbooks in Texas—is that it offers interactive extension activities in all the reading skills, as well as a range of software packages

CHANGING THE WAY TEACHERS INTEGRATE CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY: DOCERI FROM SP CONTROLS MAKES IT SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE At this year’s TCEA show, SP Controls introduced the DoceriTM System. Doceri gives the instructor the mobility to teach and interact with all their classroom technology tools from the one simple to use interface—the Apple iPad. They can present lessons by taking control of the classroom computer, annotate (similar to the functions of an interactive whiteboard), and control the AV gear in the classroom, such as play the DVD player

or document camera—all from anywhere in the room.

The interface starts with Doceri Remote, allowing teachers to see and control a computer desktop on their iPad from anywhere in the room. Run a presentation, select applications, bring up a Web browser– anything the computer can do can be done wirelessly via the iPad. AV control is also simple, with a tap of the screen bringing up a control panel for

TEACH FROM ANYWHERE IN YOUR CLASSROOM WITH A LADIBUG The World’s Only Document Camera!

Truly

Wireless

Ladibugs are the world’s first wireless document cameras designed to address

Young. “Most of the products we investigated were too complex or completely out of our price range. We needed a simple, high-quality, affordable solution with the right service. We found all that in UMRA.” With UMRA, student information is now automatically synchronized between systems. When a new student account is entered into the SIS system, UMRA detects it and automatically creates an account in the interconnected systems.

Increasing Security Tools4ever’s solution ensures accounts are immediately de-provisioned so users can’t gain unauthorized access to the network. “Security isn’t something you can quantify,” Young said, “but it is something you know you should put money into. It’s a way to ensure users can’t access the things they shouldn’t.

Thanks to UMRA, we’re able to be proactive on security by quickly disabling accounts.”

useful across the K–2 curriculum.

One example is Snappy Slide Show. This open-ended software allows students to use illustrations from the text and then write captions, add visual effects and music to create an individual interpretation of the story. This activity encourages a range of writing experiences and highlights for the teacher a student’s understanding of the text. Students can also create their own science or social studies presentation using images sourced from personal picture libraries or downloaded from the Internet.

Another example is Newspaper Front Page. Students write a newspaper story based on a text they have read in

class, or they can create their own story.

Illustrations from the texts and a choice of headlines are provided, or students can source their own. The finished story can be printed and filed in the student’s digital portfolio.

These are just two examples of the hundreds of activities and games featured as extensions to the 200 electronic textbooks available from AWARD Reading, where content and technology integrates diverse media tools to reinforce traditional learning and expand comprehension.

Contact AWARD Publishing Ltd. at 800-831-1688 or online at www.awardinteractive.com and www.awardreadingonline.com.

selection of media, buttons for playing, pausing, etc., along with volume controls. The iPad interface is rounded out by free-form annotation that can be done over any presentation. Doceri allows teachers to draw, circle, graph and write on the iPad screen using a “what you see is what you get” interface, with the results going out in real-time over the classroom projector. Doceri automatically saves your annotated images, which can be edited and replayed at any time.

“Doceri gives you an amazing amount of freedom while keeping your class engaged,” said Gary Arcudi, SP Controls’ Director of Marketing.

“Teachers love the technologies that are available to enhance the learning experience, but they’ve been frustrated by the actual use of those technologies.

Interactive whiteboards tether the teacher to the front of the room, frequently with their back to the class as they make notes or annotate content. The teacher usually has to move back and forth to activate devices or launch a software application.

With Doceri, the teacher can access all digital resources in the classroom, annotate the content that students are viewing, and always remain in control of the technology in the room.”

SP Controls’ mission is to make classroom technology simple and intuitive. Said Arcudi, “Doceri takes the use of technology to the next level. We’re extremely excited about this product and what it represents for seamless classroom flow.”

For more information, visit www.spcontrols.com.

the need for teachers to present from any location in their classroom. With this increased range, teachers can determine the optimal teaching location, encouraging students to pay closer attention to lessons as they are presented.

Students are becoming more

tech-nologically savvy, so teachers must find innovative ways to capture their attention. The Lumens line of Ladibug Document Cameras provides educators an interactive tool to present a wide

Stabilizing Labor Costs According to Young, the benefits gained from implementing this project are clear. While the workload of the back office is increasing, UMRA keeps account maintenance man hours from growing in tandem. Additionally, the IT department is now able to redirect resources and take on tasks that previously would have gone by the wayside.

For users, UMRA now creates accounts immediately, meaning they get online faster. A new student coming into the district will have access to the network and home directories the very next day.

“We’ve never had this kind of speed before,” Young explained. “It usually took maybe a week before students had an account.”

Enable Full Provisioning In the final phases of deployment, Judson will also be using UMRA to manage its staff accounts. Judson staff needs immediate access to their accounts; providing staff members with readily available user accounts will reap huge benefits for the district. In a final component of the project, Tools4ever will be installing a Live@edu connector to manage e-mail related entities.

“Tools4ever really knows what they are talking about,” Young said. “They have a deep understanding of the problems we face trying to manage identities, users and data, and they offer the right service and support behind the products.”

For more information on the UMRA, visit www.tools4ever.com.

Continued on Page 26

22

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

WHY EVOLVING MALWARE NOW REQUIRES A LAYERED SECURITY APPROACH There was once a time when IT professionals relied exclusively on one technology to protect their computers and networks. With the number and complexity of malware threats steadily increasing, relying solely on an anti-virus solution to ensure IT security is no longer enough. A layered security approach is absolutely necessary now to effectively protect an IT environment.

Faronics, winner of multiple educational software awards, provides workstation security solutions that can help achieve educational facilities a more comprehensive security approach. As the core layer, Deep Freeze delivers enterprise-wide protection against

accidental or malicious damage without restricting user access. As the application layer, Anti-Executables whitelisting technology ensures only approved applications run. As the fundamental layer, Faronics Anti-Virus ensures proactive, resource-efficient malware protection without compromising system performance.

Faronics Deep Freeze is widely recognized for protecting and preserving original computer configurations and eliminating routine IT maintenance while allowing complete, unrestricted workstation access. Faronics Deep Freeze helps eliminate workstation damage and downtime by making computer configurations

MAKE EVERY LESSON MEMORABLE WITH ESPRESSO ELEMENTARY What is Espresso Elementary?

Espresso Elementary is a crosscurricular, multimedia learning site with a wide range of interactive, videorich resources that inspire children to learn. Espresso is new to the US! It comes to us from the UK where it is loved by teachers and students in over 10,000 elementary schools―that’s 60 percent of all its schools.

Espresso … is more than just video clips Espresso is built around ‘learning modules,’ a unique combination of full screen video clips, multimedia activities, games, photos, printable worksheets , interactive fact files and fun lively characters all working in conjunction towards curriculum objectives.

Our weekly ‘News Roundup’ videos and USA Today articles bring the real

world into the classroom through topical, age-appropriate stories, helping your students understand the world around them.

What’s more, fresh curriculum material is added to Espresso Elementary each week, saving teachers time by having a large bank of resources at their fingertips.

Espresso … supports differentiated instruction and personalized learning The flexible nature of Espresso means that it is perfect for supporting all your learners. Our ‘Route Creator’ tool provides directed learning opportunities by enabling you to quickly and easily create a personalized learning path through the site for any or all of your students. In the UK, Espresso won the 2008 premier BETT Award for ‘Inclusion’ which recognized the accessibility of Espresso’s design for use with a wide range of learners. With Espresso, children can take

NETSUPPORT SCHOOL—A CENTRAL APPROACH TO CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT, WHEN LESS EQUALS MORE Often, classroom management products are perceived as being a ‘teacher only’ tool–a single application aimed at delivering greater control and interaction within a classroom environment. That’s understandable, given the wealth of instruction and monitoring tools included, but with education budgets continuing to face increasing pressures, more robust and innovative functionality is being demanded along with economies of scale, where one solution performs a range of tasks traditionally managed by multiple applications.

NetSupport School v10.5 offers the secret to classroom management with its centralization–one product offering many solutions. Of course it

includes those features you’d expect, including the ability to view active thumbnails of each student, control and manage the applications they use and the internet sites they visit, as well as exhibit the teacher screen or just a specific application on that desktop to the class. It will even reduce your costs by controlling class printing activity, preventing duplicate print jobs and setting individual student printing thresholds, as well as remove the need for expensive whiteboards with the inclusion of its standard virtual alternative.

But where NetSupport School really expands its appeal is with its nontraditional Continued on Page 43

indestructible. Once Deep Freeze is installed on a workstation, any changes made to the computer are automatically erased upon a simple restart.

Anti-Executable ensures total endpoint security by scanning a workstation’s hard drive and creating a whitelist of all authorized programs, thereby preventing unwelcome applications from executing or installing. Any other programs―whether they are unwanted, unlicensed, or simply unnecessary―are from ever executing. blocked Organizations benefit from productive user sessions each and every time, while IT personnel are guaranteed that desktop computers, notebooks, and servers are compliant with acceptable use policies, regulatory requirements, and software deployment schedules.

Faronics Anti-Virus provides highperformance, proactive endpoint malware protection without the sluggish performance and resource drain that can

plague traditional anti-virus solutions. Its most innovative feature allows it to integrate seamlessly with Faronics Deep Freeze, so anti-virus updates can be applied even while computers are protected in a Frozen state. Faronics Anti-Virus has been developed as an integrated solution that combines anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit technology to provide a coordinated, pre-emptive response to advanced malware.

Schools everywhere are quickly recognizing that the threat of day-zero attacks and information theft are simply too costly to risk permitting gaps in security. Invest today in a comprehensive solution to safeguard your vital resources.

To see how Faronics Deep Freeze, Anti-Executable, and Faronics AntiVirus can simplify your workstation software management tasks and help you achieve an additional layer of security, visit www.faronics.com.

control of their own learning.

cross-curricular connections for you, helping you to easily support a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching. For example, teach the cross-curricular element of the Common Core standards for Language Arts. All resources are aligned to national, state and local curriculum standards and our ‘curriculum search’ tool allows you to easily locate resources that meet your specific standards.

Espresso … is designed with both the teacher and child in mind Espresso has been built specifically for education and has evolved over the last 13 years to ensure that it continually meets the needs of teachers and students.

Intuitive site navigation means there is a quick learning curve for new users. A simplified interface, including larger graphics and a text reader, means that even the very youngest learners can engage with the resources.

Espresso is a unique combination of resources that enrich the learning experience. All resources are selected and customized to ensure they are both educational and age appropriate delivering a rich experience for children within a safe environment, supporting the development of 21st century IT skills.

Espresso … includes cross-curricular links and correlations to standards Espresso has already made the

Espresso … is perfect for your whiteboard With interactive activities and full screen video, Espresso is the perfect complement to your interactive whiteboard.

Watch children instantly engage! The flexible nature of resources means that it can be used for whole class, small group or individual instruction as well as extending individual learning opportunities into the home, involving parents in the learning process.

Visit www.espressoeducation.com for your very own ‘sip’ of Espresso and to sign up for a FREE 30 day trial.

SURVEY SAYS: WEEKLY READER CONNECT IS HUGE HIT What do the users of Weekly Reader Connect think of this new K through 6 online reading-comprehension program?

Fully 98 percent of respondents to a recent poll said they would recommend WR Connect to a colleague.

Now listen to what they said when asked why they would recommend the program: • It is an excellent way to teach current events and teach reading comprehension strategies together. -Angie Taub, Rutherford County Schools, Cliffside, NC • It has available all comprehension strategies that students need to assist with comprehension skills.

- Kim Chatman, Alma Intermediate School, Alma, AR • It fulfills the needs of the visual learner. -Deborah Famini, Meadowvale Elementary, Maryland • It is an excellent resource to have in the classroom. -Lisa Newberry, Cross

Street Christian School, Anderson, IN • It is such an interactive teaching tool. -Marcia Jolley, Harris Elementary, Forest City, NC

Less than a year after its launch, Weekly Reader Connect has already been adopted by hundreds of schools in 44 states, and has won major educational and technology awards. But the highest accolades the program has received are from educators who say that Weekly Reader Connect is a superb teaching tool. The program presents hundreds of high-interest nonfiction articles, enriched with meaningful multimedia that deepens students’ understanding. WR Connect complements those stories with 129 onscreen lessons that teach reading comprehension in a clear, concise, and consistent way.

WR Connect requires no additional Continued on Page 43

24

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

K-12 SCHOOLS GO GREEN WITH NEW GENERATION OF PAPERLESS HOMEWORK SYSTEMS Going green has never been easier for todays K-12 schools, and advances in technology are allowing teachers and students alike to reduce their use of paper by an order of magnitude. At Clarkstown Central School District (CCSD), based in New City, N.Y., school administrators estimate that for every 16.7 reams of paper used, one tree is cut down. This fact alone has motivated teachers and students alike at the award-winning district to get the most out of their paperless homework system from School Web Lockers, a leader in the Web-based file sharing and storage market.

Over a five-month period, CCSD teachers uploaded 91,000 total documents

to School Web Lockers, potentially saving more than 5 million sheets of paper (when you consider that each uploaded document would typically be printed and shared with up to 60 students.)

CCSD students are also playing a role in the green initiative through School Web Lockers. During that same fivemonth period, student usage on the system increased to an average of 13,000 logins per month and an average of 21,220 files exchanged—either uploaded, downloaded or both—in the same five month period.

At another school district in the San Diego area, teachers have calculated a savings of approximately 260 reams of

EDUCATION 2000 PROMOTES NEW LINE OF MIMIO PRODUCTS: SLEEK, AFFORDABLE AND PRACTICAL Mimio has released a new family of products to use in the classroom. The MimioClassroom products are designed to be easy to use, practical and are affordable when compared to other interactive technologies on the market today. The MimioClassroom products are made to fully integrate with each other and also work on their own as individual products.

The MimioTeach is a bar that is placed on an existing whiteboard and transforms an ordinary whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard. There is no need to buy or set up a complicated and expensive board to have an interactive classroom.

The MimioTeach is the updated and

redesigned version of the Mimio Xi Interactive. The new version of the MimioTeach comes with wireless capabilities already in place; there are no wires connecting the computer to the board. Another new addition to the MimioTeach is that the bar comes with magnets already built-in; this allows for easy portability and ensures that the bar will stay securely on the board when in use. The MimioTeach also comes with a redesigned ergonomic stylus pen that is shaped to fit comfortably in hands of all sizes.

Mimio has also introduced MimioVote, a new student response pad system that tracks student progress

SMART JOINS IMS GLOBAL LEARNING CONSORTIUM SMART To Collaborate With IMS Members To Further Interactive Technology Adoption In Education

SMART Technologies announces that the company has joined the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC), a leading nonprofit organization for the advancement of educational technology adoption and interoperability standards to support and enhance K-12, higher education and corporate education worldwide.

As a contributing member, SMART will work with IMS GLC to advance global interoperability standards for interactive whiteboards and interactive response systems for classroom, school, district and online learning systems. As SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and SMART Response™ interactive response systems continue to become more widely used in K-12 and higher education classrooms, interoperability with existing systems becomes increasingly important and offers significant benefits to educators and students alike.

Educators around the world continue

to adopt interactive technology products into their classrooms, lecture halls and meeting spaces. Interoperability with back-office systems, such as School Information Systems (SIS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS), provides teachers and administrators greater flexibility to track, monitor and assess student learning. Seamless integration between products ensures that student learning results are quickly and easily consolidated into SIS and LMS, enabling teachers, administrators and parents to develop a longitudinal assessment of student learning. Collaborating with IMS GLC members, SMART will work toward the development and proliferation of global interoperability standards to benefit interactive whiteboard and interactive response system adopters around the world.

“We are pleased to welcome SMART Technologies as a contributing member of IMS Global Learning Consortium,” said Dr. Rob Abel, Chief Executive Officer of IMS GLC. “As a market leader in interactive whiteboards, and with an extensive history researching

paper per year with School Web Lockers, and students use of the system is bringing further savings as well.

Its very gratifying that paperless homework systems such as ours are dramatically reducing paper usage, said Kelly Smith, Manager of Sales and Marketing for School Web Lockers. It’s also an added bonus that this translates into a significant cost savings for todays budget-strapped schools.

With School Web Lockers, each student and teacher is given access to their own Web locker, which is available via password from a secure, centralized website. The idea behind the system is that users can create work on one computer, and then stash files in their personal Web locker for completion later—either on the same computer or on another one at home or elsewhere—without the need for a single sheet of paper.

The paper-saving process begins with teachers simply uploading a

document file and posting it into all student lockers, instead of making multiple handout copies. This process takes seconds, requiring only a single mouse click to distribute a file to an entire class. In turn, students complete the assignment on any Internet-connected computer, uploading the finished product into the teachers “homework due” folder.

“From there, a new digital mark up feature makes it easier than ever for teachers to go about grading assignments online,” said Smith.

“Teachers love our new mark-up feature because it allows them to mark directly on the files that students have submitted through School Web Lockers, and then return the marked up files to the students electronically,” said Smith. “It not only saves paper, but a tremendous amount of time as well.”

To learn more about School Web Lockers call 866-499-6527 or go online to www.schoolweblockers.com.

through instant feedback and also tallies scores over time. The MimioVote system comes with many unique features and is designed to be intuitive and easy to use for both teachers and students. The response pads ensure student accuracy because only the available answer button options light up. There is no need to replace batteries because the response pads charge while they are in their storage tray. Also, the handsets can be placed anywhere in the storage tray because each pad renumbers automatically to the corresponding slot where it is placed.

The MimioView is a document camera that allows educators to easily add pictures or live video to their lessons. The document camera connects to the computer through a USB port and also functions as the power source; the USB cord is the only cord required to operate the MimioView. The gooseneck camera arm and two gooseneck lights on the document camera allow for optimum image

capturing.

MimioCapture is an ink recording system that saves whiteboard notes and drawings into the computer. This allows educators to pull up the same whiteboard notes for multiple classes. MimioCapture also lets students who were absent easily get the notes they missed.

The MimioPad is a lightweight wireless tablet that controls the computer from anywhere in the classroom. This allows for better classroom management because educators can easily move around.

Multiple MimioPads can be connected to one computer. Students can then take turns using the MimioPad to click on the whiteboard without leaving their seats.

There are also shortcuts embedded on the MimioPad that gives easy access to the MimioStudio software tools.

For more information about the MimioClassroom products, visit www.edu2000plus.com, call 866-2904646 or contact mimio@earthlink.net.

and developing interactive technology products, SMART’s membership will surely prove beneficial—not only to IMS GLC members, but to adopters of interactive technology, wherever they might be.”

“As classrooms are re-engineered to support technology-rich pedagogy, we continue to look to SMART as a leader in developing and refining interactive technology products,” said Tim Cliby, Executive Director of Instructional Technology, Division of Teaching and Learning, at Rochester City School District in Rochester, N.Y. “With districts continuing to invest in technology products, training and infrastructure, interoperability between these complementary technology solutions is critical in extending investments and building the framework needed to create student-centered, active-learning environments.”

“As educators continue to adopt classroom technology products, they need to know that their purchases function with their existing information systems and learning management systems,” said Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “We are pleased to join IMS Global Learning Consortium to advance global interoperability standards for the benefit of our customers and all users of interactive technology products around the world.”

About IMS Global Learning Consortium IMS Global Learning Consortium is a nonprofit member organization that strives to enable the growth and impact of learning technology in higher education, K-12, and corporate education worldwide. IMS GLC members are leading corporations, higher education institutions, school districts and government organizations worldwide that are enabling the future of education by collaborating on interoperability standards and major adoption projects for the digital support of education and learning. IMS GLC also sponsors Learning Impact, a global awards program and conference that recognizes the impact of innovative technology on education access, affordability and quality. For more information on IMS GLC, visit imsglobal.org.

About SMART SMART Technologies is a leading provider of collaboration solutions that transform the way the world works and learns. We believe that collaboration and interaction should be easy. As the global leader in interactive whiteboards, we bring more than two decades of collaboration research and development to a broad range

Continued on Page 28

26

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily NCTM focal points and correlated to each state’s curriculum standards and the common core standards.

Formative assessment is also an integral part of SmartMath. Teachers and administrators have access to reports to inform subsequent instruction according to an individual student’s academic needs or the progress of entire classes and grades. These assessments drive differentiation and maximize what each student learns without putting an extra burden on teachers. There is less grading to be done and more time for teachers to really analyze and respond to student results.

“This is the future of math instruction,” said Michael Ross, a Senior Vice President at Encyclopaedia Britannica and General Manager of Britannica Digital Learning. “It’s fun and engaging for

students and a powerful, easy-to-use formative assessment tool for teachers. It’s on the cutting edge of incorporating feedback into the learning process. Educators, parents and students now have real-time measurable results of student performance and a way to track student progress.”

SmartMath joins the company’s mathematics-instruction portfolio alongside the Mathematics in Context middle school core mathematics curriculum.

Ross said that the two initiatives exemplify Britannica’s intention to move beyond its historical focus on reference and provide more products that are highly useful in classrooms.

Schools interested in Britannica SmartMath or any of Britannica’s products can visit http://info.eb.com or call 1800-621-3900.

trait through a variety of guided practice exercises. Students then synthesize their comprehension and writing skills by writing their own paragraph using each trait.

Students are able to assess their own writing on an electronic checklist before it is evaluated by teachers.

After completing instruction in paragraph building, students work on writing essays in the narrative, expository, and persuasive genres. While continuing to employ The Six Traits of Good Writing, Writing Rules! teaches each essay genre by incorporating its specific characteristics as well as paragraph formatting and transitions.

Narrative essays feature concepts such as characterization, setting, plotline, conflict and resolution, autobiography, and analytically reflective writing.

Expository essays feature elements such as compare and contrast, cause and effect, third-person formal voice, and writing for specific audiences.

Persuasive essays feature components such as writing for or against an issue, writing strong arguments, and persuasive language.

All essays are written using a fivestep writing process which assists students with guided organizers to prewrite, opportunities to revise with their six-trait checklist, and to assess their own work with their student rubric. Teachers access student writing electronically and score on electronic rubrics.

All assessments are evaluated trait by trait, so teachers and students see exactly where strengths and weaknesses lie within the writing. Students’ work is saved, so they are able to access it and see the progress of their writing as they gain skills and proficiency. Printable teacher-directed lessons are provided for students who are in need of more targeted, small group instruction.

For more information, visit www.istation.com.

According to their 2009 Speak Up survey, the students articulated their vision for 21st century learning to include social-based learning. Students responded emphatically that they wanted to leverage emerging communication and collaboration tools to create and personalize their networks of experts and to inform their education process.

Todays students don’t want limitations on their learning, and often go beyond the classroom, beyond teachers, and even beyond the education process to find the information they need to best inform their learning. Students are immersed in the use of digital media, tools and content in most aspects of their lives. They use social technologies to document their lives with photos, videos, blog posts, favorites, networks of friends,

status postings and rankings from online games, and opinions on just about everything. As digital natives, these resources and applications are highly engaging for the students, while providing them with new ways to approach self-directed learning and educational productivity. By creating their own learning environments including the use of a wide range of learning resources, tools, applications, outside experts and their peers—they are generating their own personalized experiences. They are essentially taking their educational destiny into their own hands.

Students learn best from interactions with peers. Alan November, Founder of November Learning, states that The strongest learning occurs in a collaborative environment, and this requires that districts provide new ways for teachers to engage students in the learning process so that they have the skills to apply knowledge in the real world.

This research suggests that in order for districts to positively impact student

achievement, it is a strategic imperative for districts to provide students with a collaborative and interactive learning environment that engages them in the learning process. Likewise, districts must find ways to safely integrate new, social and emerging technologies into the classroom experience so that students will learn the skills they need to be successful in the real world. With Centricity2, districts can provide students with the tools they desire. The solution features snapon Web 2.0/social media functionality for almost every aspect of the districts family of websites to create a fully integrated and socially interactive experience for learners, teachers, parents and the community at large.

Many districts today are using the integrated communication technologies within Centricity2 to create more engaging learning experiences for their students to achieve better academic success.

To learn more about Schoolwires Centricity2, visit www.schoolwires.com.

classroom control panels or unwieldy carts.

“Teachers are doing it for themselves,” proclaimed Lumens Product Manager Chris Laughary, who is a former Broward County teacher and technologist. “You no longer have to sacrifice image quality when a long VGA cable or USB connection isn’t feasible,” he continued.

As with any valuable teaching tool, the Ladibug wireless document camera is intended to empower educators to spend more time teaching and less time transitioning between teaching materials.

Freedom from wires allows teachers to send an image from any location in the classroom. This means that no teachable moment will be missed, whether it is

from a lab table, classroom learning station, or a student’s desk.

All Lumens Ladibug document cameras are compatible with Interactive Whiteboards and boast superior image clarity with an unmatched, unlimited five-year replacement warranty. For more information on the Lumens Wireless Ladibug document cameras, visit www.myladibug.com.

BRITANNICA SMARTMATH PERSONALIZES LEARNING For schools and districts looking to help students improve their math skills, Britannica Digital Learning offers SmartMath: an online math practice and formative assessment tool. Britannica SmartMath encourages math practice by making it enjoyable, and adapts to each student’s performance for truly individualized instruction.

Dealing with differences in student skill levels has always been a challenge, particularly in math. But SmartMath’s adaptive platform builds differentiation into every question by adjusting content difficulty based on each student’s

practice performance. In this way, teachers reach all students, even those who are falling behind and those who are well ahead. The result is that students achieve success in math and move through each topic at their own pace until the material is mastered.

A highly interactive program, Britannica SmartMath uses amusing characters and an award system to create a fun, game-like environment that engages students. Students have fun practicing math problems, meaning more time-on-task and a greater mastery of the subject. SmartMath is designed around

WRITING RULES! WITH CALVIN COOL ADDRESSES THE NEEDS OF STUDENT WRITERS IN GRADES 3-12 Writing Rules! is an engaging, interactive approach to helping students master essential writing skills. Students who are struggling with basic skills need a strong foundation from which to further develop their writing in order to communicate effectively. Adhering to the methodology of The Six Traits of Good Writing, Writing Rules! offers learning experiences across a spectrum of writing skills.

The Writing Rules! program offers instruction and practice in sentence structure, paragraph building and essay writing.

To address the needs of beginning writers, the building blocks of sentence structure such as nouns, verb tenses, subjects, predicates, sentence combining,

and capitalization are taught. Teach and guided practice exercises help students comprehend each skill. Students are then provided independent practice opportunities to synthesize the material and create their own work using each acquired concept.

For writers who are ready to organize and elaborate their ideas, Writing Rules! moves forward with paragraph building.

Each of The Six Traits of Good Writing–Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Convention–is addressed during its own writing session. Students learn each trait through a teaching and modeling segment.

Students practice their knowledge of each

ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA Schoolwires Centricity2 helps K-12 school districts across the nation support collaborative teaching and learning by providing access to a variety of technologies and Web 2.0 tools that enable their staff to create the learning environments that are so critical to student engagement and success.

These technologies allow teachers to create stronger collaboration and interaction between students and their peers, and give them the capabilities to develop social-based learning experiences that transcend the classroom wallsall within a safe, secure environment.

At the end of 2009, Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit organization, surveyed more than 368,000 K-12 students, parents, teachers and administrators in regard to their vision for 21st century learning.

Lumens (Con’t. from p. 20)

variety of materials with the best image clarity and color reproduction in the industry. Teachers are more effective when they have the ability to utilize all areas of the classroom, but the ability to teach by moving around the classroom can be hindered by poorly placed

28

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

CLEAN SLATE IS VASTLY SUPERIOR TO REBOOT TO RESTORE PRODUCTS AT PROTECTING SCHOOL COMPUTERS Achieve reliable Windows computer security to reduce support costs and eliminate computer downtime. Clean Slate is ideal to secure school computers. Students are allowed full computer access to learn and explore, then at log off and reboot, the computers return to the original configuration, removing all changes the user made.

Keeping your lab and 1:1 computers free of accidental or mischievous changes is an ongoing battle. With Clean Slate desktop protection software, your computers are secure all day, every day.

Benefits of using Clean Slate to

protect school computers: • User changes are cleared at reboot and logoff providing a clean and trouble-free computer for every user.

• Students have full computer access to learn.

• Computers are safe from accidental or mischievous use.

• Computers are virus-free.

• Computers look and act the same for every user, no matter what changes the previous user made.

• Drastically reduces help desk calls.

• Ideal for 1:1 computing.

• The computers always work.

• Your computers are secure, clean,

MORE EFFECTIVE LEARNING WITH FARONICS INSIGHT 7.5: THERE IS AN APP FOR THIS Faronics is pleased to announce the release of Faronics Insight 7.5, a popular classroom management software for instructors in the lab. This latest version offers 35 new feature additions and enhancements to help instructors monitor students more easily and strengthen instructor control over the classroom while improving lesson quality and increasing teaching effectiveness.

Student monitoring is improved with keystroke alerts for banned words and dual monitoring for both the instructor

and the student side. Instructors can now limit Web browsing on all Windows browsers such as the popular Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. To get students’ attention more effectively at the beginning of class, instructors can immediately shut down all applications appearing on selected students’ desktops with a Clear Desktop feature. Meanwhile lesson quality and student experience are enhanced by the ability to broadcast both audio and video. The latest release features an expanded Mac feature set

HARRIS SCHOOL SOLUTIONS eTRITION 7: INCREASE SCHOOL NUTRITION PRODUCTIVITY Harris School Solutions has recently released eTrition 7, an enterprise school nutrition solution. Built on the best technology, eTrition 7 will significantly increase the productivity of school nutrition departments and offer benefits that have not been available until now. eTrition 7 utilizes a secure, centralized SQL Server database. This means that the data is maintained in just one place. Backup and other maintenance SMART (Con’t. from p. 24)

collection includes SMART Table activities created by teachers from around the world, activities created by SMART and activities created by a number of thirdparty publishing companies. In an effort to provide teachers and students with a broad selection of engaging activities, SMART is committed to continually working with third-party publishers to develop additional content. Additional information on the SMART Table interactive learning center can be found at smarttech.com/table.

tasks are done only at the administrative level and do not rely on non-technical users for these critical functions.

Preferences and setup options are also done centrally, which prevents invalid or harmful data from being introduced by school site users.

With the responsibility of maintaining the data in the hands of central office staff, the data is less prone to corruption. Administrative users will take “The SMART Exchange website is a teacher’s dream—you can sort activities by standard, by grade level or by state,” said Mary Kate Hagmann, first grade teacher at Gilbert Elementary in Buena Park, Calif. “I’m constantly downloading activities, providing feedback, gathering information and uploading my own activities so they can be useful for everyone.

It’s a great tool that gives me all the activities and support I need in one place.”

“As teachers around the world continue to adopt interactive technology products into their classrooms, they require content and activities that will

consistent and cirus-free.

Compare Clean Slate to other protection software by trying the 30 day demo at www.fortresgrand.com. Clean Slate provides flexibility and security that cannot be found in similar products.

Clean Slate offers many advantages over traditional reboot to restore products: • All user changes are cleared at log off providing a clean, consistent, and virus free computer for every user instantly, with no need to waste time to reboot to restore.

• Windows Updates run normally and are permanently saved while security is on; no configuration or security downtime is needed.

• Perfect for 1:1 computers because no security downtime is needed, which leaves computers vulnerable to security risks.

• Zero-day rootkit and master boot record (MBR) protection.

• Antivirus updates run properly and are permanently saved while security is on with no configuration or security downtime needed.

• Works well with third party administrative software while security is on (LANDesk, Altiris, Zenworks).

• Computer security is disabled, enabled, and altered on the fly; no time is wasted rebooting the computer to make security changes.

• Can easily restrict executables running from flash drives with the flexibility to still allow saving to the drive.

• Free technical support.

Achieve 24/7 security. Never again leave computers vulnerable. Keep security consistently on, even when running Windows Updates, antivirus updates, or using third party administration tools like Altiris or LANDesk.

Learn more about Clean Slate to protect your computers.

Visit www.fortres grand.com or call 800-331-0372.

matching the comprehensive Windows set and also supports Apple iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Faronics Insight empowers instructors to educate, monitor, and communicate with an entire class from one central computer or portable device, such as Apple iPod, iPhone, or iPad. Instructors can share their screen with students, control student access to applications and websites, and monitor classroom screens to ensure students are on task. Students can interact with the instructor directly through Insight’s chat, voting, and remote assistance capabilities. Instructors no longer need to deal with classroom distractions such as games, instant messaging, and web surfing when teaching a class. Insight students are kept on task and engaged in an environment where

technology accelerates their learning.

“This version offers increased flexibility for instructors making it easier than ever to monitor students’ activities, remove distractions for more effective learning, and strengthen control over the classroom,” said Graham Vair, Product Manager for Faronics Insight.

“Instructors can fully benefit from computers as educational tools minus all the student distraction of messaging, browsing and playing.”

Classroom-specific solutions are the most effective means to achieve complete collaboration within educational environments. To see how Faronics Insight can you help you gain classroom control and help you achieve your mandate of a stronger learning environment, visit www.faronics.com.

comfort in the fact that data is safe and secure.

The centralized database also means that patrons (both students and adults) are eligible for service at any location. This enables school districts with special feeding programs to provide meals when and where they need. Students who attend one school and receive services in other schools are readily recognized and eligible at any location. This ability will increase sales and reimbursements by allowing school districts to take advantage of every opportunity to serve students, regardless of where they may be.

Students are also able to share a meal account balance with siblings, even if they attend different schools within the

district. This is a tremendous convenience for parents because they can make a single payment at any location to provide the funds for all their students.

Because administrative users require only a connection to the database and a browser, they are free to work from virtually anywhere, including from their home if allowed to by the school district. This empowers central office staff to be more productive and not be constrained to a single computer workstation.

To learn more about eTrition 7 or any of the technology solutions for K-12 school districts, contact K12Solutions@ harriscomputer.com or visit www.harris schoolsolutions.com.

engage early learners,” said Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “With the broad range of multi-touch, multi-user activity packs available for the SMART Table, teachers have the necessary tools to help their young students collaborate, explore and succeed.”

SMART Technologies brings more than two decades of collaborative research and development to a broad range of easy to use, integrated solutions that free people from their desks and computer screens so collaborating and learning with digital resources are more natural.

About SMART SMART Technologies is a leading provider of collaboration solutions that transform the way the world works and learns. They believe that collaboration and interaction should be easy. As the global leader in interactive whiteboards,

2010 SMART Technologies. SMART Table, SMART Exchange, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies in the U.S. and/or other countries. Find more information on SMART Technologies at www.smarttech.com.

30

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

THE BENCHMARK UNIVERSE— EXTEND LITERACY AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME WITH TALKING E-BOOKS Benchmark Education Company is leading a new age of innovation with technology resources for learning, teaching and assessment that will engage students in increasing their achievement.

Through the Benchmark Universe™, Benchmark Education Company reaches the 21st Century Classroom with digital content through interactive whiteboard resources, talking e-books, audio libraries, online assessment and ondemand professional development. All of the products are Web-based and accessible by teachers and students at any time and location with an Internet connection.

Talking e-books through the

Benchmark Universe extends literacy instruction at school and at home. The e-books are compatible with PCs and MACs through all Web browsers with the free Adobe Flash plug-in. In addition, they are designed to work with all kinds of interactive whiteboard hardware including Smartboard™, Promethean™, RM™, Polyvision™, Mimio™ and more. In addition, every talking e-book includes built-in pen tools that turn any computer projection and flat surface or monitor into an interactive whiteboard. This flexibility allows teachers to use Benchmark’s software in every classroom.

Benchmark Education Company’s

WEB LOCKERS BRING COST SAVINGS AND STORAGE SUCCESS TO TOP-PERFORMING CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT From iMovie projects to podcasts and 3D document cameras, the Del Mar Union School District (DMUSD) advances 21st century learning skills across its eight elementary schools through use of all the latest technology tools. When this topperforming California school district recently needed to solve its file sharing and data storage challenges, DMUSD once again turned to innovation, choosing School Web Lockers—a Web-based service offering students and teachers safe and convenient access to digital projects from any Internet location.

“All the podcasting and moviemaking is great, but if students and teachers don’t have an easy way to access and

share their work beyond the school day, our technology investments lose some of their value,” said Michael Casey, Director of Technology for DMUSD. Combining online storage, backup, collaboration and file sharing in a single system, School Web Lockers allows students to create work on one computer, and then stash files in their personal, password-protected Web locker for completion later—either on the same computer, or on another one at home or elsewhere.

Until recently, accessing digital projects from home was not possible for DMUSD students due to security constraints built into the existing computer

CHANGING THE WAY TEACHERS INTEGRATE CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY: DOCERI FROM SP CONTROLS MAKES IT SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE At this year’s TCEA show, SP Controls demonstrated the new DoceriTM System–an application that gives the instructor the mobility to teach and interact with all their classroom technology tools from one simple to use interface— the Apple iPad. They can present lessons by taking control of the classroom computer, annotate—similar to the functions of an interactive whiteboard—and control the AV gear in the classroom, such as

play the DVD player or document camera, from anywhere in the room.

The interface starts with an iPad application called Doceri Remote, which allows teachers to see and control a computer via their iPad from anywhere in the room. Anything that can be done on the computer can be done wirelessly via the iPad: run a presentation, select applications, bring up a Web browser. Doceri will also allow the teacher to do

EDCO PRESENTS ITS NEW COMPLETE ASSESSMENT SOLUTION EDCO now offers a NEW technology solution linking Student Response Systems (SRS) to a district wide

teacher/student assessment database eliminating the need for traditional bubble sheets and scanners. Tests can be

language and literacy series of talking ebooks offers more than 1,400 science, math, social studies and fiction titles designed for use in the classroom and at home by students and their parents for independent reading. Each title contains leveled reading texts and activities to support core content standards and motivate students. The interactive titles may be used in conjunction with the print books during whole-group and smallgroup instruction—or as stand-alone instructional tools to strengthen literacy.

Learners at every reading level are engaged by being able to see, hear, speak and touch words.

Through the Benchmark Universe website, teachers may differentiate instruction by creating groups of students and assigning talking e-books selected by content area, reading level and theme. Students then have their own group login to the site where they may

access their library of assigned books.

Teachers also have online access to instructional resources, including the teacher’s guide and comprehension questions for each title.

Every talking e-book title includes a professionally recorded, dramatic audio track with synchronized highlighting providing modeling and practicing to build fluency and comprehension.

Students build listening and speaking skills with additional reading practice.

The on-screen tools built into the software include pen tools to write, draw or highlight words. Zoom tools allow teachers to highlight or magnify areas to focus on. Additional features of each interactive title include on-screen comprehension activities.

Individual classroom and schoolwide subscriptions are available to the Benchmark Universe. Visit the site at www.benchmarkuniverse.com.

servers. At the same time, as Casey considered replacing these aging servers at a cost of nearly $32,000 under the district’s distributed computing model, he came across School Web Lockers, which represented a significantly more cost-effective alternative.

Projected to deliver an annual cost savings of $5,000 to DMUSD, School Web Lockers is not only priced affordably (at $1.00 per student per year), but it also offers unlimited data storage, giving students the ability to maintain a vast online portfolio of video projects, presentations and everyday assignments. All of this data is stored off-site in a secure data center that is managed and monitored by School Web Lockers, requiring no maintenance or upkeep on the district’s part.

Although a number of free Webbased storage services are beginning to emerge, Casey selected School Web Lockers because of its exclusive focus on K-12 education and its highly secure approach to maintaining student and

teacher personal data.

“The fly-by-night free services can potentially harvest and sell your information,” Casey said. “We don’t know how safe they are. With School Web Lockers, you get a secure, password-protected website that is free of ads and other distractions. It was our top priority to protect our students, and that’s another reason why School Web Lockers was an easy choice.”

A completely paperless homework system, School Web Lockers works with any type of computer platform, including Apple. To use the system, teachers simply upload a document and post it in all student lockers, instead of making multiple handout copies. In turn, students can complete an assignment on the computer and upload the document into the “homework due” folder, from which it is then sent directly to the teacher as an electronic file.

For more information about School Web Lockers call 866-499-6527 or go to their website, www.schoolweblockers.com.

free-form annotation over any presentation or image, and will allow teachers to draw, circle, graph and write on the iPad screen using a “what you see is what you get” interface, with the results going out in real-time over the classroom projector.

Doceri automatically saves your annotated images, which can be edited and replayed at any time. To round out the application, Doceri provides AV control functionality. A tap of the screen brings up a control panel for selection of media, with buttons for playing, pausing, etc. along with volume controls.

“Doceri gives you an amazing amount of freedom while keeping your class engaged,” said Gary Arcudi, SP Controls’ Director of Marketing. “Teachers love the technologies that are available to enhance the learning experience, but they’ve been

frustrated by the actual use of those technologies. Interactive whiteboards tether the teacher to the front of the room, frequently with their back to the class as they make notes or annotate content. The teacher usually has to move back and forth to activate devices or launch a software application. With Doceri, the teacher can access all digital resources in the classroom, annotate the content that students are viewing, and always remain in control of the technology in the room.”

SP Controls’ mission is to make classroom technology simple and intuitive. Said Arcudi, “Doceri takes the use of technology to the next level. We’re extremely excited about this product and what it represents for seamless classroom flow.”

For more information, visit www.spcontrols.com.

delivered and analyzed by grade level from the classroom or by the District Curriculum Department.

EDCO (Education Consultant Specialists), in partnership with EduTrax and iRespond, offers a realtime, integrated management solution for electronically assessing and

measuring student/teacher performance at the classroom level.

AssessTrax, a module of EduTrax, is a Web-based test management solution that monitors student performance on standards-based benchmark and unit Continued on Page 36

32

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

SUPER START: WR CONNECT WINS MULTIPLE AWARDS IN FIRST YEAR Weekly Reader Connect—an online reading-comprehension program for grades K through 6—was launched in January 2010, and has already won multiple awards for its outstanding content and seamless integration of technology into the classroom.

In December, District Administration magazine named Weekly Reader Connect one of their Reader’s Choice Top 100 products of 2010. The 2010 winners were selected from hundreds of nominations. “Weekly Reader provides economical yet informative and entertaining reading to my district’s English language learners,” Lynne Ewing, ESOL program director in the Queen Anne’s County (MD) Public Schools, told the magazine.

Weekly Reader Connect’s digital editions also won a prestigious award from the Massachusetts Innovation

Technology Exchange. That organization—which describes itself as a “growing community of thought leaders, collaborators, and individuals in search of insight, education, and opportunity”— proclaimed Weekly Reader Connect’s digital editions one of the “most innovative, effective, and compelling achievements in the development and implementation of interactive technologies.”

The honors for Weekly Reader Connect were matched by enthusiasm from users. “Every teacher [in my school] … has been super excited to try out Weekly Reader Connect on our new whiteboards,” wrote Karen Small, SI Title 1 reading coordinator at the Crittenton Community School in Columbus, OH. “Some comments have been, ‘Wow, I’m just going to use this instead of trying to make all my own flipcharts for everything’ and ‘This has all

MAKE EVERY LESSON MEMORABLE WITH ESPRESSO ELEMENTARY What is Espresso Elementary?

Espresso Elementary is a cross-curricular, multimedia learning site with a wide range of interactive, video-rich resources that inspire children to learn.

Espresso is new to the US! It comes to us from the UK where it is loved by teachers and students in over 10,000 elementary schools―that’s 60 percent of all its schools.

Espresso … is more than just video clips Espresso is built around ‘learning modules,’ a unique combination of full screen video clips, multimedia activities, games, photos, printable worksheets , interactive fact files and fun lively characters all working in conjunction towards curriculum objectives.

Our weekly ‘News Roundup’ videos and USA Today articles bring the

real world into the classroom through topical, age-appropriate stories, helping your students understand the world around them.

What’s more, fresh curriculum material is added to Espresso Elementary each week, saving teachers time by having a large bank of resources at their fingertips.

Espresso … supports differentiated instruction and personalized learning The flexible nature of Espresso means that it is perfect for supporting all your learners. Our ‘Route Creator’ tool provides directed learning opportunities by enabling you to quickly and easily create a personalized learning path through the site for any or all of your students. In the UK, Espresso won the 2008 premier BETT Award for ‘Inclusion’ which recognized the accessibility of Espresso’s design for use with a wide range of

EDUCATION 2000 WORKS WITH TEXAS SCHOOLS TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY Education 2000 is an authorized Mimio reseller that strives to place affordable interactive teaching tools in every classroom in Texas. Texas school districts that Education 2000 currently works with include Aldine ISD, Los Fresnos ISD, Port-Neches-Groves ISD, Conroe ISD and West Oso ISD. The MimioClassroom products include the MimioTeach, a bar that is placed on an existing whiteboard and transforms an ordinary whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard, as well as MimioView, MimioVote, MimioCapture and MimioPad. Education 2000 realizes that schools often have tight budgets. “One of the things I really emphasize to schools is

that the MimioTeach interactive whiteboard solution will do the same thing as other interactive whiteboards but for considerably less,” Doug Pennekamp, CEO of Education 2000, said. “The lower cost allows schools and districts to buy more and can therefore impact more students.”

Education 2000 has represented the Mimio Interactive Classroom Solutions for more than 10 years and knows the importance of using technology in the classroom. “One of my favorite sayings is ‘Technology won’t replace teachers, but teachers using technology will replace those who don’t,’ ” Pennekamp said. “Technology is essential to the way teachers teach today.”

the content areas covered, plus the short cycle assessment? Too cool!’”

Weekly Reader Connect requires no additional software or tech expertise.

Developed by Weekly Reader—the innovative, 108-year-old educational publishing company that virtually invented current-events coverage in the classroom —Weekly Reader Connect brings the following elements to all subscribing schools: • Dozens of exclusive interactive Weekly Reader digital editions presenting timely, high-interest, and grade-specific nonfiction content that has been carefully crafted to align to state curricula.

• Downloadable companion Teacher’s Guides that incorporate wide-ranging background information, informal assessments, and other engaging extension activities along with practical tips and techniques on how to broaden the lessons.

• 129 onscreen Concepts of Comprehension© Skill Builder lessons, with teacher tips and additional reading passages specifically designed to build learners. With Espresso, children can take control of their own learning.

Espresso … is designed with both the teacher and child in mind Espresso has been built specifically for education and has evolved over the last 13 years to ensure that it continually meets the needs of teachers and students.

Intuitive site navigation means there is a quick learning curve for new users. A simplified interface, including larger graphics and a text reader, means that even the very youngest learners can engage with the resources.

Espresso is a unique combination of resources that enrich the learning experience. All resources are selected and customized to ensure they are both educational and age appropriate delivering a rich experience for children within a safe environment, supporting the development of 21st century IT skills.

reading skills and scores while improving students’ understanding of texts.

Weekly Reader Connect is built on the Concepts of Comprehension, a researchbased framework of 21 inferential thinking skills developed by the nonprofit Urban Education Exchange. This framework enables students to expand their reading skills from year to year, and uses proven methods that teach kids to read for understanding.

Subscribing schools just log on to www.wrconnect.com for full access to the program. Teachers can project the content onto a screen or use an interactive whiteboard for group instruction. The program is also appropriate for individualized use on a single computer. With a simple password, instructors can also provide offpremises access to all students.

Want to know more? If you’re a principal, school district leader, media or technology specialist, or classroom teacher, visit www.wrconnect.com or call 1-877-344-2834 for a free demo and more information. curricular connections for you, helping you to easily support a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching. For example, teach the cross-curricular element of the Common Core standards for Language Arts. All resources are aligned to national, state and local curriculum standards and our ‘curriculum search’ tool allows you to easily locate resources that meet your specific standards.

Espresso … is perfect for your whiteboard With interactive activities and full screen video, Espresso is the perfect complement to your interactive whiteboard.

Watch children instantly engage! The flexible nature of resources means that it can be used for whole class, small group or individual instruction as well as extending individual learning opportunities into the home, involving parents in the learning process.

Espresso … includes cross-curricular links and correlations to standards Espresso has already made the cross-

Visit www.espressoeducation.com for your very own ‘sip’ of Espresso and to sign up for a FREE 30 day trial.

In order to help ease the stress some teachers may feel when new technology is brought into the classroom, Education 2000 offers a free two-hour training with the initial purchase of five or more MimioClassroom products to help teachers make the transition.

“We offer free training to ensure that schools and teachers can integrate the technology they purchase into everyday lessons and activities with the students,” Pennekamp said. “We want teachers to feel confident and comfortable with the technology. The MimioClassroom system and MimioTeach are relatively easy to learn; teachers who are eager to use the technology learn how to use it relatively quickly. Two hours for the introductory training is usually more than enough time to get teachers started using the Mimio products.”

Education 2000 has several sales representatives spread throughout Texas

to offer a free demonstration of the MimioClassroom products and to provide support if there is ever a problem operating the MimioClassroom products.

The official Mimio website, mimio.com, has free online video tutorials showing how to use the Mimio products and the various features that come with the Mimio products. Another website, Mimioconnect.com, is a free online community where educators can publish and share created Mimio lesson plans with one another.

“Mimioconnect.com is an extremely valuable site for Mimio users,” Pennekamp said. “The most important thing for Education 2000 is that teachers and schools actually use the products they purchase from us and that they get the most they can out of the technology and the resources that are available.”

For more information, visit , call 866-290-4646 or contact mimio@earthlink.net.

36

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

PERSONALIZED LITERACY ENVIRONMENT CONNECTS STUDENT INTERESTS AND READING ABILITIES Capstone Digital, developer of personalized learning environments for students, announces the launch of myON™ reader.

The first of its kind, myON reader is a personalized literacy environment that provides access to the largest integrated library of digital books with multimedia supports, customized to a student’s interest and reading ability. myON reader enables students to take ownership of their reading growth while rating and sharing their reviews with classmates.

Designed for PreK-8 and remedial readers, myON reader creates individual, personalized reading programs for students. The online platform offers a growing library of more than 1,000 books from award-winning Capstone imprints. Embedded reading scaffolds (including highlighting, audio and dictionary) increase student confidence. To personalize the reading experience, myON reader develops an individual profile for each student based on interests and reading ability, and generates a recommended book list to encourage students to read more and further improve their reading skills. “myON reader gives students the power to choose what they want to read,” said Todd Brekhus, President of Capstone Digital. “Today’s students personalize their lives digitally on a daily basis through music, games and social networks. myON reader leverages those

skills to engage students in an online, integrated reading environment using the same premise: digital personalization.”

Capstone Digital partnered with MetaMetrics to embed The Lexile® Framework for Reading, which measures student reading ability and text complexity on the same developmental scale within myON reader. Educators use Lexile measures to match a student with books that will provide the right level of challenge for that student’s ability and goals. Research shows that students can improve their reading skills by reading books within their Lexile range (100L below to 50L above the student’s Lexile measure) and on their favorite interests―two factors that myON reader uses to recommend books.

Through embedded assessments, myON reader enables educators to monitor, track and measure student reading growth based on the Lexile Framework. Benchmark tests measure reading levels, and end-of-book quizzes determine comprehension. In addition, myON reader accurately tracks number of books read and time spent reading. To monitor their own growth, students have access to a personalized trajectory report that can forecast their expected reading level. myON reader is supported by several

Further advancing collaboration in the classroom, Texas Instruments (TI) DLP® Products announced dual-pen and 3D interactive projectors at FETC 2011.

With this technology comes richer and broader engagements between teachers and their students as well as between students and their classmates.

The versatility of DLP’s EDCO (Con’t. from p. 30)

assessments. Gathering student data at the classroom level via iRespond (SRS) clickers, the data is delivered electronically to the AssessTrax database.

Analysis of the data can then be done at both the school and district curriculum department levels.

Real-time analysis of student performance utilizing instant test results provides a snapshot of a student’s level of understanding. This snapshot enables respective classroom teachers and administration the opportunity to immediately

Originally created in response to teacher demand for safe social networking tools for the classroom, Edmodo has become a powerful communications tool for school districts as teachers and administrators discover new ways to communicate with their school communities through the free online service. Offering a comprehensive communication and content distribution center for school districts, Edmodo provides school administrators with an instant and targeted delivery platform to enable rapid communication and school community engagement among teachers, students, administrators, and parents.

Through Edmodo, schools can easily distribute a variety of administrative content, including district-wide alerts and emergency notifications, club and activity updates, parent notifications, principal announcements, differentiated instruction

lessons, professional development opportunities, and much more. Accessible from any networked device, Edmodo provides updates to school communities through individuals’ preferred delivery method including RSS feed, SMS, smart phone applications, and e-mail.

“Edmodo began as a tool for teachers and students, and grew into a platform for school-wide communication.

Now, it has become a critical component of district-wide activities,” noted Nic Borg, President and Co-founder of Edmodo. “It’s been astounding to see the viral growth of the service; there really are no limits to where schools will take things next.”

For more information on implementing Edmodo in your district and to reserve your unique district sub-domain, visit www.edmodo.com/institutions.

LEARNINGSTATION ANNOUNCES PLANS TO AWARD OVER 2,000 TEACHER GRANTS LearningStation announced at FETC 2011 that it has rolled out a campaign to award 2,011 individual grants to teachers to deploy its Classroom Insight Assessment and Learning Platform in the coming year. The Insight Platform allows teachers to access a unique assessment and test creation tool via a Web-based interface, and deliver the assessment via interactive whiteboards using student response devices.

LearningStation’s CEO, Jim Kirchner, pointed out that the Insight Assessment platform can turn any set of ‘clickers’ into an a premier tool for monitoring student progress. “In short, the platform can transform a very neat idea (clickers) into a device to monitor student progress real-time in the classroom.”

Find out more at www.learning station.com.

micro-mirror chip design also extends to technological collaboration. DLP technology has the unique ability to work with both passive and active 3D displays as well as a variety of light sources including lamp, laser and LED, offering schools and manufacturers a variety of options for displaying and interacting with projected content.

One example of this is DLP’s interactive projector, which allows teachers and students to manipulate projected images on any surface with the touch of a pen or from a distance without the need

for calibration. Using a special interactive pen that functions similarly to a wireless mouse, teachers and students can interact with an image on the screen from up to 7 meters away by simply rolling, pointing, clicking, scrolling, navigating and writing.

With new dual-pen capabilities classrooms can have two students interacting with the projected image at the same time.

DLP dual-pen interactive projectors also work in conjunction with 3D to create interactive 3D teaching opportunities.

Imagine multiple students racing each other to solve math equations projected on the ceiling or students viewing Earth in 3D and taking turns using the pen to break apart the earth into layers―all from wherever they are sitting in the classroom.

In addition, projectors such as the one launching this week from Acer are now

available with SXGA+ chipsets. This chip provides increased resolution for readable text and graphics at a distance. The 1400x1050 resolution ensures students sitting in the back of the room see crisp, clear images, which is especially important for viewing letters, numbers and other highly detailed objects. This higher resolution also displays more content on the screen at one time, making it easier to view complex, detailed spreadsheets without having to scroll.

“Technology is a powerful enabler for positive change in classrooms and something Texas Instruments has been dedicated to for decades,” said Roger Carver, Manager of Front Projection, DLP Products. “In collaboration with our projector manufacturing and education

develop intervention and remedial strategies when necessary and the option to redirect curriculum delivery.

Eliminating the need to administer bubble sheets, the Comprehensive Assessment Solution saves time and provides a faster response to instructional needs to further student achievement.

AssessTrax is advantageous to any school district which utilizes benchmark or standardized test scores, surveys, etc., to gauge student performance. EduTrax stores the data, provides analysis options, and produces easily understood reports and

graphs suitable for use across all levels of curriculum and classroom management. In addition, iRespond offers customized reports to be used at the classroom level for performance analysis and remedial recommendations for individual students.

Utilizing AssessTrax in conjunction with iRespond’s (SRS) hand-held units school systems can: monitor student performance on standards-based benchmark and unit tests; target instruction to address any needs prior to state and federal assessment; and test as desired (benchmark, unit, or pre/post tests).

EDCO partners with school systems to plan and implement solutions focused on improving student achievement. Whether implementing a comprehensive district-wide assessment plan, managing district benchmark testing, or providing a wide range of data analysis programs for student/teacher performance, EDCO is committed to helping school systems reach their maximum potential.

Please visit EDCO at www.edcousa.biz or call 770-720-0222 to learn more about their education solutions.

Continued on Page 38

TI DLP UNVEILS INTERACTIVITY FOR 3D LEARNING AND MULTIUSER ABILITY FOR DLP INTERACTIVE PROJECTORS The Combined 3D-Ready And Interactive Projector With Dual-pen Capability Offers More Opportunities For Student Engagement

EDMODO: BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Continued on Page 44

38

March 2011

Tools4ever (Con’t. from p. 1)

ESD: What is the User Management Resource Administrator?

JLB: The User Management Resource Administrator, or UMRA, is an enterprise level solution for Active Directory, local server account management and other Network Directory systems.

UMRA completely eliminates the need to manage user accounts via scripting or manual data entry. As your network continues to grow, you will need to move to a more sophisticated solution for Identity Management, Task Delegation and Information Systems integration.

ESD: How exactly does UMRA make an impact?

JLB: UMRA saves time by letting you securely and rapidly make bulk changes to the Active Directory by referencing CSV files or integrating with your information systems. The benefit is that it Espresso (Con’t. from p. 1)

good for schools?

JF: It is a multimedia-based service designed specifically for Pre K-5th graders. In today’s world, it’s so important to engage kids in learning in a variety of ways. Espresso has thousands of fantastic videos, interactives and learning paths that bring lessons to life.

ESD: What subjects does Espresso cover?

JF: Espresso covers math, English, social studies, science, health and the arts. It also includes cross-curricular connections, an important element of the Common Core. And, it has a weekly current events section called ‘News Roundup’ with topical news clips, ageappropriate voice-overs and a quiz that bring the real world into the classroom. Espresso introduces fresh SP Controls (Con’t. from p. 6)

to control all of the AV gear in the room effortlessly through the iPad interface.

The Networked part means that the NRC sits on the network, so it can be centrally maintained and managed by the schools IT/AV staff.

AWARD (Con’t. from p. 10)

One reason why AWARD has proven so successful in creating readers and changing attitudes to reading and learning lies in the richness of the texts.

They aren’t e-books; they are animated and fully voiced for students to hear the words and understand the instructions.

Each text is scaffolded to provide a gradual progression and the over 700 SMART (Con’t. from p. 24)

of easy to use, integrated solutions that free people from their desks and computer screens, so collaboration and learning with digital materials are more natural.

removes the need to manage and maintain complicated or cumbersome scripts, allowing your administrator to focus on more critical tasks. The UMRA basically bridges the gap between the SIS or HRMS systems to Active Directory and other director services while creating accounts in downstream systems.

ESD: What do you ‘downstream systems?’

mean

by

JLB: Administrators are faced with having to enter data many times in several different formats for various other systems. For example, UMRA can be leveraged to create accounts in Google Apps or Live@edu to synchronize with Active Directory and the student information system. We have worked with many other systems like Blackboard, Moodle, Skyward and Destiny, and have out-of-the-box connectors to many other systems. If you are curious about the connectors, please visit www.tools4ever.com. resources each week and the news is archived in the site for future use in lessons.

ESD: How would a school use Espresso?

JF: Espresso is perfect for use on whiteboards. Kids really engage in class when a video is played full screen or they are up at the board completing an interactive. Espresso can also be used in a computer lab for collaborative learning in small groups or for independent learning. I think Espresso is an excellent way for districts and schools to make best use of their technology and to gain value out of the investments made in hardware and infrastructure.

ESD: Is Espresso aligned to the Common Core?

JF: Yes, Espresso is correlated to the

ESD: Are there cost advantages to the Doceri system?

ESD: You mentioned that UMRA creates and manages account within Active Directory; do you also work Novell?

JLB: Yes, we can indeed manage user accounts within e-Directory. I think that is where UMRA exhibits great flexibility by being able to work with many different platforms. We have several implementations that keep data synchronized between AD and e-Directory. UMRA can also manage GroupWise and Exchange in these mixed environments.

ESD: What distinguishes your company from the competition?

EdTech Show Daily allows us to be incredibly responsive to our client’s technical needs. With this elevated level of customer service coupled with value-based price point, Tools4ever is considered the company of choice for school districts seeking a user management solution.

ESD: If a school district is interested in UMRA or a demonstration, how can you be contacted?

Please visit us at JLB: www.tools4ever.com, or feel free to call us at 888-770-4242.

JLB: We have a very solid niche with the educational market. Tools4ever has been called nimble, responsive and focused on the client’s needs and expectations. It is pretty simple really; we like to stand in the shoes of the people we are working with as we engage with them. We are very entrepreneurial in nature, which

User Management Resource Administrator solves identity management problems and lets your I.T. department focus on other tasks. A reliable, fully-automated solution, UMRA manages user accounts and resources in Active Directory [AD] and other directory services offering a complete user-lifecycle management solution. For more information, visit www.tools4ever.com.

new Common Core and all applicable state standards.

ESD: We understand you discovered Espresso on a trip to the UK?

ESD: What instruction?

about

differentiated

JF: A lot of our customers are using Espresso’s specific “learning paths” for differentiated instruction in school and at home. One of the nice features is that a teacher can adapt our learning paths or make their own to address the needs of individual students.

ESD: What makes Espresso different from other services?

JF: We believe Espresso is the one of the world’s largest producers of multimedia content for Pre-K to Grade 5. It’s like no other service available today. The combination of videos, Web-based simulations and individualized learning paths empower and motivate children to learn at such an important stage of their education.

JF: Yes, I was visiting BETT [the largest educational technology show in Europe] and immediately saw its potential to fill the gap here for resources in Pre-K to Grade 5. Founded in 1997 by Lewis Bronze, CEO, Espresso is used in 10,000 schools (nearly 60 percent of the elementary schools) in the UK. It has a loyal following and has won numerous awards. I met with Lewis and Richard McGrath, Managing Director, who were enthusiastic about extending Espresso to schools in the US. We developed a partnership, and started developing US content and selling the service in September.

ESD: Why the name ‘Espresso’?

JF: It’s an unusual name but a memorable one. Like the name, Espresso is fresh, energizing, and hot!

GA: Its surprisingly inexpensive. Like other SP Controls products, this system is priced so school districts can afford to put them into every classroom—not just one or two specialized AV rooms.

Also, because Doceri can easily integrate with your existing technologies, there is no need to buy expensive, new all-in-one solutions that can cost several thousand dollars per room.

Doceri from SP Controls brings it all together, giving the instructor mobile

and intuitive access to the technology in their classroom. Easier to use and control, these devices now become a seamless resource to connect with students and creatively integrate into lessons.

interactive activities support and extend learning of essential skills.

The U.S. Department of Education sparked a national discussion around digital learning with the release in 2010 of the National Education Technology Plan.

Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology calls for applying the advanced technologies used in daily life to our entire education system to improve student learning,

accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices, and use data and information for continuous improvement. AWARD’s instructional materials parallel the recommendations of this plan and its principles connected to learning, assessing and teaching.

Teachers appreciate the program, too. “AWARD is balanced literacy with a twist of technology and ELL scaffolds all in one package. It is not a scripted

program but rather a treasure chest filled with authentic, engaging materials teachers can pull from in order to best educate the students,” said ELL teacher Kathryn Castellano. “It never feels like traditional, antiquated schooling but rather exploration and fun!”

Contact AWARD Publishing Ltd. at 800-831-1688 or online at www.awardinteractive.com and www.awardreadingonline.com.

© 2010 SMART Technologies. SMART Board, SMART Response, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Capstone Digital (Con’t. from p. 36)

research studies on how students read, how technology plays a part in reading, and what motivates students to read.

These three indicators together influenced

For more information, visit www .spcontrols.com.

the development of myON reader. For more information on the research behind myON reader, view the white paper entitled “Building Proficiency Through Personalized Reading.” To download a copy, visit www.capstonedigital.com.

40

March 2011

Mimio (Con’t. from p. 1)

DP: Mimio has recently released the new MimioClassroom family of products.

Mimio has made vast improvements to the previous Mimio interactive whiteboard solution model and have even added new products to complement the Mimio interactive whiteboard solution.

Education 2000 is now able to offer a total interactive solution for the classroom with the new line of Mimio products.

MimioTeach is the new and redesigned Mimio interactive whiteboard device; MimioView is Mimio’s new easy-to-use document camera; and MimioVote lets all students participate and answer questions during instruction, letting teachers get results and student feedback immediately.

Add the MimioPad to all of this and MimioClassroom products are affordable and easy to use in the classroom.

ESD: Why does Education 2000 solely Benchmark Education Co. (Con’t. from p. 1)

Education Company reaches the 21st century classroom with digital content through Interactive Whiteboard Resources and Talking E-Books. In 2010 Katy ISD purchased subscriptions to Benchmark’s Interactive Whiteboard Resources and Talking E-Books for use with their population of more than 8,000 ESOL students.

Shalon Thomas, Director of Technology at Benchmark Education Company sits down with Linda Shepherd, Instructional Officer for Elementary ESOL at Katy ISD to discuss the decision to subscribe to Benchmark’s Interactive Whiteboard Resources and Talking E-Books. They also discuss the effectiveness of using the interactive resources in the classroom and independent reading by students.

ST: Tell us about your population of LEP Students. How many LEP students are in your district?

LS: Katy ISD has over 8,000 LEP students. Eighty-five percent are at the SMART Technologies (Con’t. from p. 6)

interactive whiteboard at the same time will help teachers make effective use of class time, engage in meaningful collaboration and motivate all types of learners.

Another product that will be shown is the SMART Table interactive learning center.

Although not new, it continues to garner considerable interest from educators and be very popular. We are excited, and think our customers will be too, about our recently announced addition of more than 250 activity packs which can be downloaded at no charge via the SMART Exchange website [www.exchange.smarttech.com]. These new resources mean teachers now have access to thousands of multi-touch, multiuser SMART Table activities.

ESD: Your company recently went public. How is that affecting how SMART operates, and how has it affected the way

EdTech Show Daily represent the Mimio interactive whiteboard solution?

DP: Education 2000 represents only the Mimio interactive whiteboard solution, MimioTeach, because it is cost-efficient, easy to use and portable. Districts and campuses are spending too much money on expensive interactive whiteboards. The Mimio solution will do the same thing as expensive interactive whiteboards but for considerably less money. This allows schools to impact more classrooms and frees up money to purchase additional teaching tools for the classroom.

ESD: How does Education 2000 envision the Mimio interactive whiteboard solution being used in schools and by educators?

DP: The three basic things a teacher does with an interactive whiteboard is click, move and write. MimioTeach does all of those things and schools are discovering

elementary level, and 15 percent are at the secondary level. The prevalent language is Spanish. In addition, we have a large of number of Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Urdu speaking English Language Learners. We also have a large immigrant population in Katy ISD. We have over 2,200 immigrants. The LEP and immigrant population in Katy ISD represents over 70 diverse languages.

ST: What are the special needs of the LEP students in your district?

LS: The Katy ISD Elementary ESOL program seeks to provide a quality content-based ESL program that differentiates instruction according to each student’s level of language proficiency in order to scaffold instruction across all content areas while supporting the affective, linguistic and cognitive needs of each elementary ESOL student. Katy ISD focuses on a balance of social and academic language commensurate with each student’s language proficiency.

ST: How will the Interactive Whiteboard you offer your education solutions?

NK: It was an interesting step for SMART, but also just another along the growth path of our company. It means some changes for the way we do things internally—but what hasn’t changed is our commitment to our customers. We remain passionate about providing our customers with education solutions that will enable them to better engage and motivate students.

ESD: There have been recent reports in the media about SMART products and other classroom technology being used more as a fad rather than having positive results for students. What is your take on that?

NK: Some articles in the media tend to talk about our products and other classroom technology products in isolation. At SMART we have consistently said that simply putting our products in the classroom is not the answer—its how they are

that the Mimio solution can impact more classrooms with their budgets. Education 2000 envisions a MimioTeach in every classroom in Texas. With school districts having less money to spend on technology, MimioTeach becomes the affordable interactive whiteboard solution.

One district in Texas allocated $3 million for interactive whiteboards. Had they decided to go with the Mimio solution, the district could have placed interactive whiteboards in about 5,000 classrooms. With the route they ended up choosing, the district will only impact about 700 classrooms.

ESD: How does your previous teaching experience help with your business?

DP: As an educator with more than 20 years of classroom experience, it really helps to know what a teacher actually does. Knowing what teachers encounter daily, I understand the need for products Resources and Talking E-Books from Benchmark Education Company be used in your district?

LS: Teachers will be able to assign books to groups of students to differentiate instruction commensurate with the student’s proficiency level. The interactivity will build fluency and comprehension. The resources are also advantageous because students can view, listen and read at school and at home. Because of the search feature, teachers can search for specific academic concepts aligned to their grade level curriculum. This will allow English Learners to build and expand their knowledge of the vocabulary they will encounter in the content areas.

ST: Are your teachers already using interactive whiteboards in the classroom?

LS: Yes, all of our elementary campuses are equipped with interactive whiteboards. Last year, the Director of Other Languages, MayDell Jenks, initiated the purchase of Smartboards™ for all campuses to be used with immigrant students. The Department of Other

put to use. We believe SMART products are a valuable tool that, when combined with effective teaching and appropriate pedagogy, can help transform the learning experience. There is a considerable body of research posted on our website from national and international sources indicating that our products, when properly used, can increase student motivation and engagement and improve learning outcomes and teacher effectiveness

ESD: Beyond products, tell us what SMART offers?

NK: SMART is committed to providing a wealth of resources and support for teachers to fully utilize SMART products and create dynamic learning activities for students. For example, SMART Exchange, an online community that helps educators share information on various topics, now has almost 50,000 classroom-ready resources. Teachers are also

that are 100 percent reliable and easy to use. Teachers don’t have time, or often the desire, to spend hours learning how use an interactive whiteboard. The MimioClassroom products can easily be learned and quickly implemented in a classroom.

ESD: What distinguishes Education 2000 from the competition?

DP: Education 2000 has represented Mimio products for more than 10 years.

Training is key to Education 2000’s success. We provide a free two-hour training with an initial Mimio purchase. We provide free training because we want teachers to know how to successfully integrate the MimioClassroom products into their lectures and feel comfortable using the technology. more information, visit For www.edu2000plus.com, call 866-2904646 or contact mimio@earthlink.net.

Languages provided each elementary campus with two SMART Boards through the use immigrant funding. This fall, ESOL teachers were trained on the use of SMART Boards in the classroom, and had an opportunity to expand their knowledge on activities that would increase language acquisition.

ST: What other resources do they use with their interactive whiteboards?

LS: Many of our teachers are using SMART Exchange to create and share SMART Board lessons aligned to the curriculum objectives.

ST: How are the students in Katy ISD responding to instruction on the interactive whiteboards?

LS: Students are energized, and they are more actively engaged in learning when technology, such as an interactive whiteboard, is utilized.

Learn how Benchmark Education Company can help your district by calling 877-236-2465 or visiting www.benchmarkeducation.com.

able to connect with educators around the world to exchange ideas. We’ve announced a new, free membership program to SMART Exchange that will mean even more exciting features for users. SMART also believes strongly in supporting our customers after their purchase, so we offer a variety of online training options, certification and professional development opportunities.

ESD: Any final thoughts on SMART in 2011?

NK: Engage with us regularly to learn what is new in our product offerings and other materials supporting the use of our products. With over 400 people on our R&D team, we are and will continue to be very active in new product releases and upgrades.

Find out more on SMART Technologies at www.smarttech.com.

42

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily

DC: istation was founded in 1998 from the desire to drive innovation in the classroom and transform our schools. The bulk of students sitting in classrooms today are at least a year behind from where they should be. They are in need of immediate intervention to prevent future failure in all subjects. Our market focus is developing computer-based products for these students: Pre-K through 6th grade intervention students that are simply struggling to learn how to read.

what students are experiencing at home with all media versus the traditional school experience. Our mission has always been to create inexpensive, easy to use, cost-effective programs that make computer-based learning easily available and simple for teachers and students to use, while enhancing the classroom experience. We have successfully utilized video gaming technology with Disney-like animation that allows students to be engaged in an interactive assessment or curriculum that closes the achievement gap.

through 3rd grade Spanish reading assessment called ISIP Español. In Fall 2011 we will introduce our ISIP Math assessment for 4th and 5th grade students, as well as a new interactive writing program called Writing Rules! for 4th through 12th grade students.

DC: We design and develop our technology and curriculum, keeping in mind

DC: We introduce new products each year. We now have a complete Pre-K

ESD: What distinguishes your products from the competition?

problems stemming from everyday user experiences. Our best ideas come from our customers. We strive to combine the very best technology with ease of use to solve the problems of school administrators and give them the tools they need to satisfy their stakeholders.

example of this. The system is completely Web-based for many users.

istation (Con’t. from p. 1)

ESD: What would you say makes your company unique?

Harris School Solutions (Con’t. from p. 1)

ESD: What are the competitive strengths of Harris School Solutions?

BC: Harris School Solutions is unique in that we offer a complete line of software solutions for business operations of the K12 market. We have everything from child nutrition to transportation to full accounting systems. Because of this, we can leverage a great deal of experience and bring a deep pool of talent to bear when designing solutions for school districts.

ESD: What is your development philosophy?

software

BC: Harris aims to solve real-world Clean Slate (Con’t. from p. 1)

security audit?

RW: Our district hired a company to do an audit of all our technology. Our security software, Fortres 101, Clean Slate, and Central Control, rated as excellent. After seeing how secure our computers are, the auditing company started recommending Fortres Grand software to other schools.

ESD: What is the benefit of Fortres 101 and Central Control?

RW: To deny access to the C drive.

Fortres 101 locks down the desktop to limit student’s access. Once we installed Fortres 101, our support calls went down.

ESD: Why did you add Clean Slate?

OKI Printing Solutions (Con’t. from p. 4)

feature banner capabilities and, as an added bonus, OKI provides a free School Communications Pack DVD filled with over 100 educational banners perfect for the classroom.

School IT Director: Half of my IT budget goes towards printing. I know printed materials are important to the students’ education, but the costs have been overwhelming.

Ed Lydon: It sounds like you’re having issues with properly managing your print fleet, and we can help you with that. OKI Printing Solutions conducts a

ESD: Are you introducing any new products?

ESD: What is your current product emphasis?

BC: Web-based abilities—our focus is on making it easier to get our systems operational with minimal investment of hardware and time for our customers. We’re making it easier to exchange data within Harris products and with third-party systems. The eTrition school nutrition solution is a good

RW: Specifically to clear spyware and viruses. Clean Slate clears computer changes at log off and reboot. We have been using Fortres 101 since 2000. In 2004, web-based spyware started to hit so we added Clean Slate, which eliminated the spyware issues. I remember there was a virus that was spreading like wildfire. We just rebooted the computers in the classrooms and the virus was completely gone. Even now, I will get support calls about a virus. I just tell them to log off and that always fixes the issue.

ESD: What do you like best about Central Control?

WR: Central Control is a huge time saver. I can just sit at any computer in a classroom to make a change and with Central Control the change gets pushed

free, comprehensive assessment which analyzes device usage and the level of color and mono printing to better understand your schools’ printing habits. We then propose a strategic plan of action that will help you better manage your printing operations and save you money.

This may consist of removing underutilized products, consolidating devices and/or replacing expensive printers with cost-efficient OKI products to significantly improve overall performance. As a testament to the potential cost-savings, just recently OKI identified a savings of more than a million dollars over a fiveyear time span for the Donna Independent School District, in Donna, Texas by upgrading their old fleet to

ESD: Where is your current product emphasis?

DC: The cornerstone of our products and emphasis will continue to be reading and language arts. We will continue to add assessments and programs in other content areas to enhance the total educational experience.

ESD: What is different about eTrition?

BC: It is the only system on the market with an evolutionary trail going back 40 years. It is the culmination of this experience tied to the very best technology available that makes it so exciting. eTrition is a centralized database, Web-based system that allows local serving workstations to operate completely independent of the network if needed.

ESD: What does a typical eTrition customer look like?

DC: We were convinced that, by designing best practices into Internet-based teaching and continuous assessment software, individualized instruction could become the norm. The automaticity of our assessments, curriculum and reporting tools gives educators the information they need to drive instruction. Many educators discuss the lack of time available to meet the needs of all students. Our products save them hours of time, which can be used to instill best practices and differentiation into their teaching. It is critical that today’s students receive the most innovative education, so that they are prepared to compete in the world.

To learn more about istation, visit www.istation.com. many of our customers have been with us for 30 years or more. These customers value the relationship and the mutual trust, while always pushing for new and better software features.

For more information contact Brian Copeland, Sales Manager for eTrition Division of Harris School Solutions, at 316-494-6331 or bcopeland@ harriscomputer.com.

Harris School Solutions is a leader in providing technology solutions for the business of K-12 school districts.

BC: We take a lot of pride in the fact that

For more information, contact K12Solutions@harriscomputer.com or visit www.harrisschoolsolutions.com.

out to the entire district. The change is made and applied to the entire district in minutes.

also like the ability to have different security for different users based on the user login.

WR: Making changes on the fly. We don’t have to shut down the computer to make a change. Everything is quick and easy. With other products, you have to reboot computers to make a security change. When Clean Slate and Central Control are used together, the change I make is instant for the entire district. I was helping another school who switched from a reboot to restore product to Clean Slate. They commented to me that they are happy they switched to Clean Slate and I was smart for going with Clean Slate from the beginning. I

WR: Support is great. When I call support, I talk to someone in Indiana. I can understand them and they are easy to talk to. If support can’t fix the problem while on the phone, they keep working with us until we get the issue resolved. Not to mention the support is included in the purchase price so there is no yearly cost.

In addition to the great products and reliable support, the fact that support is free is huge.

ESD: What do you like better about Clean Slate over reboot to restore products?

OKI Printing Solutions.

School IT Director: I’ve read studies on how color print-outs help enhance students’ learning, but I don’t think my school can afford the costs associated with color printing. Is it possible to bring color into the classroom affordably?

Ed Lydon: I’m familiar with the studies which support our belief that colorful, educational materials really do improve a student’s learning experience; in fact, one study shows that color documents increase learning and retention by up to 78 percent.

Recognizing the impact of color, OKI developed Color Access Policy Manager (CAPM), allowing schools to utilize color

ESD: Do you have anything you want to add?

Visit www.FortresGrand.com or call 800-331-0372.

printing without waste through accountability. With CAPM, schools can control everything from user-name to application to the number of color or black and white pages printed, helping you better manage your color printing and have more control over costs.

For more information, please visit www.okiprintingsolutions.com/education.

1Loyola

College, Maryland, U.S.A., by Ellen Hoadley, Ph.D.,Laurette Simmons, Ph.D., and Faith Gilroy, Ph.D. Case & Company, Management Consultants Bureau of Advertising, Color in Newspaper Advertising Maritz Motivation, Inc., Southern Illinois

March 2011

EdTech Show Daily Schoolwires (Con’t. from p. 1)

company.

EM: Our priority is the success of K-12 districts. Schoolwires provides one of the leading website and community management platforms to more than 1,200 districts. We make technology easy to use, increasing the usage and value of the tools. Administrators and staff easily add content to their district websites. Teachers interact with students and parents, extending classroom content online to engage students and drive parental involvement.

Our platform makes it easy to connect various Web-based technologies for easier access and seamless workability.

ESD: What are the biggest issues facing education that are addressed by your solutions?

EM: Five key themes keep rising to the top…

First, districts need to be better NetSupport (Con’t. from p. 1)

MK: Providers of Classroom Management [NetSupport School], PC Remote Control [NetSupport Manager] and Asset Management [NetSupport DNA] solutions for the past 20 years to both the education and corporate space.

ESD: What is Classroom Management Software and how is it relevant to today’s classroom?

MK: With an increased investment in educational IT infrastructure, including a greater focus on one to one computing initiatives, there is a need to ensure that investment is used appropriately and effectively. Classroom Management software allows instructors to better monitor student activity, ensure they are working on task and offer protection from any adverse external influences [Internet]–all from a central intuitive console, all while enhancing the quality of instruction delivered.

NetSupport (Con’t. from p. 22)

feature set, such as Student Journals.

During a typical class, all appropriate items relating to the topic being discussed can be captured and automatically included into a PDF file for post lesson review by each student. Furthermore, NetSupport School can now act as an effective language laboratory tool, allowing student microphone and PC WR Connect (Con’t. from p. 22)

software or tech expertise, and brings the following elements to all subscribing schools: - Exclusive interactive Weekly Reader digital editions, presenting timely, high-interest, and grade-specific nonfiction content that has been carefully crafted to align to state curricula.

- Downloadable companion Teacher’s Guides that incorporate wideranging background information, informal assessments, and other engaging

connected at the school, district and community levels. The success of the district and superintendent pivots on the community connection.

Second, districts struggle with multiple technologies that operate in silos and are costly to maintain. The greater cost is that these discrete technologies make access difficult. Districts want to provide users with easy, seamless access to the information and services to succeed.

Third, districts want to effectively measure and drive engagement. The availability of data helps districts adjust their tactics to increase engagement.

Fourth, as Project Tomorrows 2009 national research study showed, students apply knowledge when learning occurs in a collaborative and interactive environment. Many districts are unable to provide the technology platform to support 21st century learning.

Lastly, given the economy, districts need

ESD: What distinguishes your product from the competition?

MK: We position our product as being a Classroom Management solution, but not just for the classroom. With the introduction of a range of new features, it’s now positioned as a centralized solution offering the feature set you’d expect for the classroom or instructional lab, with wider capabilities such as the Technician Console allowing support staff to remotely connect to classroom PCs and perform discreet diagnostics and deliver technical support.

to gain efficiencies to save time and money.

Schoolwires software and services enables districts to create a 21st century teaching and learning environment; engages teachers, students, parents and other constituents; and seamlessly unifies technologies over a multitude of devices to activate communities. By implementing the Centricity2 platform, districts gain efficiencies, saving time and money.

ESD: What are some of the most significant achievements of the company in the past year?

EM: Our primary accomplishment is delivering our Centricity2-solution to districts to address their key issues even better.

We reached a milestone when over 10 percent of the 200 largest districts chose Schoolwires. We ranked on Inc. Magazines Top 500|5000 for the fourth with less. Gaining economies of scale while improving the levels of quality will be a primary objective. In terms of general technology trends, I see the market accelerating its adoption of desktop/client virtualization, hence our strategic relationships with NComputing, Wyse, HP and Microsoft [Multipoint Launch Partner].

ESD: What specific impact has the past 12 months made on your product development efforts?

43

consecutive year and remain in the top 20 fastest growing companies in the private education sector. We achieved this growth in a flat economy because our products and people deliver solid results and remarkable satisfaction. Our exceptionally high client retention rate has averaged 98 percent since our founding.

ESD: Do you have any customers in Texas?

EM: Yes, Denton ISD became our first client in Texas. Today over 130 Texas districts of all sizesfrom Callisburg ISD to Dallas ISDdepend on Centricity as their website and community management platform, and enjoy increased efficiency and cost savings as a result. Additionally, we have a long-standing relationship with Education Service Center (ESC) Region XI for certified hosting of our solutions to Texas districts.

To learn more, www.schoolwires.com.

go

to

monitoring and much more as part of its standard core feature set.

ESD: What is your outlook in general for this product line?

MK: Overall pretty positive, but with a few anticipated bumps in the road. While the education space has faced a pretty unique set of challenges, we’ve witnessed strong growth in terms of our installation base during the past 12 months, proving that investment continues to be made into technology. The key is to help educators justify that investment by evolving products to meet the unique needs of the education environment. Having a strong and established brand no longer offers any guarantees, so we intend to continue offering the richest feature set, an aggressive feature roadmap combined with unrivalled levels of customer care and technical support.

MK: First and foremost, I think we all expect to see the education space continue to face the fiscal challenges of the current economic climate. With that in mind, I think the market will be attempting to achieve the ‘holy grail’ of doing more

MK: Following the theme of ‘doing more with less,’ we’ve expanded our classroom management solution [NetSupport School] to include additional functionality that was performed historically by multiple separate solutions. We now offer a solution that not only incorporates the traditional student monitoring and collaboration abilities, but also printer management, Internet and application controls, device/endpoint protection, language lab/audio

audio output to be listened to, monitored and recorded to file.

Recognizing the level of investment being made into offering the latest IT infrastructure, NetSupport School ensures that equipment is available at all times and when most needed. Utilized by lab technicians or network managers, the unique Technician Console allows all computers across the school network to

be monitored in a single view, including their internet and application usage. With the ability to transfers files, view processes and applications running, power on/off/reboot as well as perform diagnostics by generating full hardware and software inventory reports, NetSupport School minimizes equipment downtime and classroom distractions.

Offering flexible levels of

platform support for traditional Windows environments including Win7, as well as fully optimized for wireless environments and virtual desktops/thin client computing, NetSupport School rises to the challenge of the modern classroom. To take the first step to centralizing your classroom IT efforts, visit www.netsupport school.com or call 888-665-0808.

extension activities along with practical tips and techniques on how to broaden the lessons.

- Concepts of Comprehension© Skill Builder lessons, with teacher tips and additional reading passages specifically designed to build reading skills and scores while improving students’ understanding of texts.

Urban Education Exchange. This framework enables students to expand their reading skills from year to year, and uses proven methods that teach kids to read for understanding.

We could tell you more. But we’d rather let a teacher tell you: “I am thrilled with what Weekly Reader Connect provides me,” says Laura Havill of the Turning Point Elementary Program in Ithaca, N.Y. “The material is highly motivational for my students. … The multimedia resources are targeted and appealing. The

additional work sheets support classroom learning and have been an excellent way for my students to go home as ‘experts’ to their family and demonstrate their new learning. In short, you have made us believers! Thank you for providing this terrific resource!”

ESD: How do you see the next year in terms of economy, sales, technology, and product evolution?

Weekly Reader Connect is built on the Concepts of Comprehension, a researchbased framework of 21 inferential thinking skills developed by the nonprofit

To learn more, go to www.netsupport school.com.

Want to know more? If you’re a principal, school district leader, media or technology specialist, or classroom teacher, visit www.wrconnect.com or call 1-877-344-2834 for a free demo and more information.

44

March 2011

Panda Security (Con’t. from p. 1)

RC: Panda Security is one of the worlds largest security companies and has established itself as an innovator in cloud-based security. Using proprietary technology, Panda’s unique security model enables real-time detection, analysis and remediation of malware that can wreak havoc on computer systems.

ESD: What would you say makes your company unique?

RC: Panda prides itself on being one of the first companies in the security industry to standardize on cloud-based security across its product line, and set a new precedent for creating technology to stay one step ahead of todays increasingly sophisticated malware landscape.

ESD: What was the most significant event or series of events affecting your company in the past year?

RC: In early 2010, Panda set an aggressive goal to continue its thought leadership in cloud security and focus on increased adoption of its cloud products by organizations of all sizes. Evaluating the company’s success at the end of the QOMO HiteVision (Con’t. from p. 1)

learning experience possible. The QView Document Camera series, Interactive Whiteboards, RF Interactive Wireless tablets and QClick Audience Response Systems combine to create a powerful technology-enabled classroom environment.

To accomplish this, QOMO engineers have designed the document camera to serve as your one-stop media center for connectivity and control. With a complete multimedia switching system, video scaler and projector control, you can connect two Mac or PC computers and video sources, such as a DVD player directly to your document camera. You only need one VGA cable to connect to your projector, saving hundreds of dollars in installation costs. QOMO’s new QD 8000 document camera with HDMI Plasq (Con’t. from p. 1)

focused on creating comic book-style publications.

ESD: Was it created for the education market?

RG: Actually, no. It was originally aimed at the consumer market as a way to let people do more with their digital photos.

Digital cameras had become cheap enough that they were starting to be used by kids. We thought they’d have fun taking photos and turning them into comic book stories.

ESD: How did Comic Life enter the education world?

RG: Not through any marketing magic Texas Instruments (Con’t. from p. 36)

ecosystem partners, we’re developing

EdTech Show Daily year demonstrated that not only did the company meet its goals, but far surpassed them. Major accomplishments revolved around growing our partner base and increasing global awareness of how much more effective cloud security is in addressing todays type of malware.

One of the highlights for us was the increased revenue we realized from Panda Cloud Protection—our anti-malware managed services product line for endpoints, email and Web protection. Unbelievably, we increased profits by 65 percent over the previous year, and Panda Cloud Protection now represents 15 percent of the company’s total worldwide revenues.

We expect this number to exceed 20 percent by the end of 2011. In addition, overall U.S. sales increased by 25 percent from 2009, further validating our leadership position as the cloud security company.

ESD: What distinguishes your products from the competition?

RC: Panda Security research proves that a third of all malware ever recorded was created in the first 10 months of 2010, and over 50 percent of malware is active for only 24 hours. The traditional clientserver protection model simply cannot

scale with this situation: It requires additional IT infrastructure and staff to manage the surge in threats, not to mention increases strain on individual PCs.

By bringing malware detection and remediation processes into the cloud, partners can provide security at a lower total cost of ownership since no hardware infrastructure is required. Its a proven approach; Panda continuously scores among the highest in the industry for malware detection rates.

The remote management component of our products also means it only takes one person to manage thousands of seats at a time, and they spend less time making office visits since client security can be managed remotely. In short, cloud security services address the economies of scale issue in IT security that many providers are currently struggling with.

ESD: Why is Panda Security a good choice for educational institutions and school districts?

RC: Panda Securitys goal is to keep computers and, in turn, their users completely protected. In the face of today’s pervasive and relentless malware

environment, schools are especially vulnerable to malware attacks, given their distributed networks. It is important that those responsible for monitoring the networks of school districts and educational institutions as a whole have a robust solution that not only protects in real-time, but is also easy to manage and control.

Panda Securitys cloud-based solutions like Panda Cloud Protection, which protects endpoint, Internet and e-mail, is recognized as a perfect choice for school systems for its ability to be controlled remotely: a boon to any school network manager who is responsible for monitoring the security of several different distributed networks. In addition, as budgets continue to decrease, our no extra hardware needed approach to protection is bringing more and more schools on board because it eliminates the costs affiliated with maintaining servers. Using cloudbased security like ours, network administrators can remain confident that they are protecting their PCs with fast automated detection and remediation at a lower cost than traditional client-server solutions.

For more information on Panda Security products, please visit www.panda security.com/usa.

1080p output, onboard color monitor and touch controls delivers a new standard of quality in document cameras. The QPC30 offers brilliant color in a versatile portable form factor, making intricate viewing angles possible.

The Interactive Whiteboard series is created with you in mind. By using infrared technology, users can annotate and draw simply using the touch of a finger—no special pens or pointers required!

The board’s hard surface is virtually indestructible, and the writing speed makes it superior to the competition. QOMO’s electromagnetic whiteboards are very cost effective and feature dual pen technology, allowing for team collaboration.

The new analogue resistive board is a low cost alternative to IR touch technology— perfect for cost conscious users that require touch technology.

Many teachers and presenters

complain of being rooted to the front of the room, instructing a group while stuck to the blackboard. QOMO’s Interactive Wireless Tablet frees the presenter to navigate around the room, interacting with their audience while still having all the power and control of being at the front of the room. The RF technology communicates wirelessly via a USB dongle; simply plug the dongle into your PC or MAC and you are ready to go!

QOMO’s QClick Audience Response System is simple, affordable and extremely effective. With varying model levels equipped with RF and IR technologies, QOMO ensures that your specific needs are being met. Newly introduced QRF700 features an all new student remote design with a backlit LCD display for all the information a student needs. In addition to commonly used exam modes, homework and session

modes allow exams to be done without relying on a computer. The software is easy to use with a large collection of reporting features.

To tie together the product line, QOMO HiteVision offers Flow!Works software. It allows the user to annotate over various documents, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, as well as video. This results in unique interactivity with the audience, allowing your files to be saved with annotations included!

QOMO HiteVision strives to be competitive on price point, while offering the best quality technology on the market today. Their product line speaks for itself, and the staff is known for their passion and creativity. End users are sure to be pleased!

on our side! It was actually a bottom up thing. Teachers very quickly realized that the comic book style would get a positive reaction from todays students, both in reading and writing.

in the 3rd through 8th grade range, as these students generally love comic books and the projects are small enough that they can be produced in comic form. But we also have teachers making worksheets and how-to guides and high school students producing graphic novels and storyboards.

a well-rounded set of features. For example: making sure comics could be presented through a projector and shared between iPads. It’s Comic Life and a whole lot more!

ESD: So it was a grass roots movement?

RG: Definitely—teachers started using Comic Life in the classrooms, and their success led them to promote it to other teachers within their communities and in forums such as TCEA.

ESD: The software has been available for a few years. What’s new for 2011?

RG: It turns out that the program can be applied to a wide variety of material: English (naturally), foreign languages, history, science, etc. We see most uses

RG: We’re on the cusp of releasing Comic Life for iPad. iPad has been taking off around the world and we’ve had many inquiries about when we would have a version of Comic Life for iPad. However, we didn’t want to just slap something together. Instead we looked at how it would be used in the classroom and made sure that it would have

innovative technologies to transform education for the better, and these interactive solutions are great examples of

that. Not only do they foster an environment of collaboration, they’re reliable and easy to use, so teachers can spend

ESD: What kinds of things can they do with Comic Life?

For more information call 866-990QOMO (7666) or visit www.qomo.com.

In other news, we released Comic Life 2 for Mac OS X at the end of 2010, and will be releasing the Windows version later this year. The main new feature is full template support; this allows educators to create comic templates that give the student a well structured starting point for their project. Another big request was for shapes, such as arrows, when working on science and history projects. We’ve also added freehand shapes to let students get really creative.

For more information, visit plasq online at www.plasq.com. more time teaching.”

For more information, www.ti.com.

go

to