Products

January 2012, What’s New

1/11/2012 By:

Online & Software
Activengage Mobile
(www.prometheanworld.com)

Promethean has launched its first mobile app for the classroom. The virtual learner response system, designed for use on the iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, and Android, offers teachers an integrated solution that streamlines instruction and aids in assessment.

Aerohive Networks Branch on Demand
(www.aerohive.com/vip)

Aerohive Networks has announced a Network as a Service (Naas) solution that provides wired and wireless access, performance, and security management across districts. Optional 3G and 4G modem support extends the enterprise network to several locations.

Atomic Learning Assistive Technology
(www.atomiclearning.com)

The company recently added content to its online professional-development suite. The Assistive Technology collection now also includes Stages Assessment Software—Stage 6 tutorials. The expanded library helps educators understand the requirements for providing assistive technology under IDEA as well as how to create forms and documents that are accessible to students who use assistive technology.

Brigance iPad App
(www.curriculumassociates.com)

Curriculum Associates has developed an iPad app that provides users of the Brigance Inventory of Early Development (IED II) and Online Management System (OMS) with an easy way to assess and report on the educational strengths and needs of students performing below the developmental age of seven. IED II then enables teachers to upload the data into the oms for tracking and management. The app lets users record data and observations directly on their iPads and sync the information with the OMS.

Certiport Microsoft Office Specialist
(www.certiport.com)

The company has announced the availability of the Microsoft OneNote 2010 certification exam as part of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 2010 certification suite. this software helps teachers draw on all the features of Microsoft Office 2010 to validate their desktop skills.

Coach’s Eye App
(www.techsmith.com)

Techsmith has launched an iOS 5 application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It enables coaches, athletes, and parents to capture, analyze, and share athletic performance on video by using an everyday mobile device. Coaches can use the app for slow-motion frame-by-frame analysis, telestrating, and audio narration. Teachers can take advantage of AirPlay mirroring to output content from their devices to a television without cables.

Collaborize Classroom and Topic Library
(www.collaborizeclassroom.com)

Democrasoft, Inc. has launched Collaborize Classroom, a free online learning platform with which teachers can extend classroom discussions to a structured and private online community. The company also launched Topic Library, a free community resource that lets teachers share with other educators the best individual topic-based lessons they create.

Commoncore360.com
(www.commoncore360.com)

School Improvement Network has launched a new Common Core Web site. it provides a host of free resources for educators looking for ways to implement and teach the standards and will be updated with additional material continually.

Dragon Recorder App
(www.nuance.com)

Nuance Communications, Inc. has announced an app that is available free from the Apple iOS app store. It lets Dragon customers use an iOS mobile device as a voice recorder, then transcribe their recordings, via iTunes or a wireless network, into any application on a MAC or PC that has Dragon speech recognition.

Dropbox for Teams
(www.dropbox.com/Teams)

Dropbox, a free service that lets users transport their documents, photos, and videos between computers and mobile devices, has introduced a paid version that gives administrators new features, including centralized billing, phone support, and controls that let them add or delete users for a group of colleagues.

Encyclopaedia Britannica iPad App
(www.store.britannica.com)

Encyclopaedia Britannica is now available as an iPad app. The free version gives users access to high-resolution images, maps, 100 free articles and the first 100 words of all articles, as well as the Britannica “link map.” The paid version, $1.99 a month, allows users access to all articles (more than 80,000) in a fully searchable database.

Energybalance101.com
(www.energybalance101.com)

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation and Discovery Education have teamed up for the re-launch of this site, which educates students and teachers about wellness and balancing calories and features a variety of curricular resources. schools can also enter the “Healthy Playground Makeover Sweepstakes” for a chance to win a $30,000 grant from Sports Authority and a new playground from Playworld Systems, Inc.

Epals Learningspace 2.0 Integration Update
(www.epals.com)

The company has announced that the social learning platform now provides embedded access to third-party applications, like Microsoft Office Web Apps and Google Docs. Schools can now extend LearningSpace’s enterprise grade platform by incorporating leading applications and productivity tools in a safe, controlled, and K–12 appropriate environment.

Essay Workstation 2.1
(www.essaywritingwizard.com)

Niles Technology has released an essaywriting encyclopedia and mobile writing platform that teaches argument development and directs students step by step in how to write better essays. It is available for iPad and iPhone.

Faste
(www.performancematters.com)

Performance Matters’ new Formative Action System for Teacher Effectiveness offers a dashboard and analytics platform that supports educators on a continuous “formative” basis with actionable information. Teachers can monitor their performance against several measures, connect to differentiated professional-development resources, and receive summative rating reports at the end of the year.

Glencoe Writer’s Workspace
(www.mcgraw-hill.com)

Mcgraw-Hill Education has launched its first online language-arts program for middle school and high school students. It offers rigorous instruction that meets the common core state standards and standards of english-language proficiency and college/career readiness. it also helps students handle the demands of high-level assessments, like the act and sat, and supports english-language leaders and students in need of intervention.

Istartsmart Mobile
(www.hatchearlychildhood.com)

Hatch has released a mobile version of its learning system designed to improve critical skills for kindergarten readiness. The system gives teachers access to a Web-based, password-protected system for reporting children’s progress. The system offers more than 500 activities that guide children toward mastering 18 skills.

Knowledge Delivery Systems Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Courses
(www.kdsi.org)

The company has developed two courses on internet safety and cyberbullying as part of its online professional-development product suite. “Cyber Savvy: Promoting Students’ Safe and Civil Internet Practice” offers teachers insights into promoting safe and responsible use of digital technologies. “Cyberbullying: Empowering Students Against Digital Aggression, Abuse, and Exploitation” provides recommended strategies for preventing risk and intervention initiatives for addressing digital dangers. Courses can be purchased together or individually.

Learn360 Video Content Aligned To CCSS and 21st-Century Skills
(www.learn360.com)

Learn360 has announced an update of its online video content to correlate with Common Core Standards and 21st-century skills. Teachers, parents, and students have been given access to this content to support fully integrating technology into the classroom.

Lectora Snap! Empower
(www.trivantis.com)

Lectora has added a social-networking dimension to its e-Learning suite of products that helps users easily publish and share their presentations on social networks and mobile devices. A static PowerPoint slide deck can be spruced up with Flash animation, video, and narration without the user’s having to learn complex programming.

Letz Talk Inc.
(www.letztalknow.com)

This new product line gives teens a creative outlet where they can open up to the adults in their lives and share their feelings and concerns. It includes Caremail, which includes age-appropriate cards for kids aged five to 18. Used by organizations including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Caremail helps children talk to parents and teachers to build supportive relationships.

Livescribe Pencasts
(www.livescribek12.com)

The Livescribe K12 blog now includes pencasts. Teachers can record daily discussions and lessons and make them available to absentee students to avoid having to teach the same lesson again and so that the students can hear, see, and relive the notes the way they were produced.

Math Buddies
(www.mymathbuddies.com)

Marshall Cavendish has introduced a flexible online learning platform developed to support the teaching of Singapore Math in the US to grades one through five. Math Buddies includes multimedia lessons that explain each concept, step-by-step practice problems for independent and group learning, and comprehensive assessments for tracking students’ progress.

Mentormob.com
(www.mentormob.com)

This new free Web site helps students learn through a repository of cultivated crowd-sourced educational content organized into step-bystep directions. It aggregates and categorizes the online material, such as YouTube videos and About.com articles, into intuitive “how-to” courses called Learning Playlists.

MyGovernment
(www.cengage.com)

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, has announced an online subscriptionbased resource that provides key information about U.S. elected officials and political candidates and their main topics as well as on how the government functions. MyGovernment provides detailed facts on representatives at the federal, state, and local levels.

NBC Learn Decision 2012
(www.nbclearn.com)

The company has launched a special collection that will help students research and analyze the 2012 election by looking at the candidates, the major issues, events, and the process behind the campaigns. The collection of NBC News reports will be updated continually on weekdays through the inauguration in 2013.

New Dimension Media STEM Streaming-Media Program
(www.ndmquestar.com)

The company announced that it will offer an exclusively STEM-focused streaming-media program in January 2012 to help bolster students’ achievement in these areas. The service will feature more than 300 programs from NDM’s content catalog, including standards-based programming from Bill Nye the Science Guy and the National Science Foundation.

Nitro Pro 7
(www.nitropdf.com)

Nitro has released the latest version of its desktop product designed to “Make PDF easy.” With it, users can create, edit, secure, sign, and share PDF files more intuitively. new features include Redaction, QuickSign, and Digital Signature Profiles along with support for static XFA forms and Optional Content Groups (OCG layers).

Note Taker HD
(www.notetakerhd.com)

Now available as an iPad app, Note Taker HD enables users to write directly on the iPad screen. Other features include a Zoom window to let users focus on a portion of the screen and highlight key text; the ability to write on a PDF form that is stored, then save or email the form; folders for organizing and storing documents; and pens of many colors and widths that users can preset.

Observation 360
(www.schoolimprovement.com)

This product has been upgraded to offer extended features for the iPad. Version 1.5 enables users to watch Pd 360 videos on the iPad, control email and notifications, manage sharing options, and more. The application works online or offline on the iPhone, iPod touch, Android phones and tablets, and PC laptops and desktops.

ParentLink Trusend
(www.parentlink.net)

The ParentLink communication platform enables school administrators to improve the appearance, delivery, and management of email messages. TruSend includes a set of email templates and editing tools and presents a series of email delivery reports.

Plato Learning vCourses
(www.plato.com)

The company has introduced rigorous research-based courses that are optimized for virtual programs. They offer a streamlined workflow for teachers and administrators, an intuitive user interface for learners, and support services to help schools implement an effective virtual program quickly and cost-effectively. vCourses are aligned to Common Core, state, and national standards, and they follow the iNACOL National Standards of Quality for Online Courses.

Reading Eggspress
(www.archipelagolearning.com)

Archipelago learning has launched a Web-based reading and comprehension program for grades two through six. It provides learning resources, lessons, motivational games, e-books, and reporting capabilities in an interactive virtual environment.

RM Easiteach Next Generation 1.3
(www.rmeducation.com)

RM Education has released an update of the program for Windows. Teachers can create and deliver lessons and activities that incorporate text, clip art, animation, video, Flash, and hyperlinks using RM Easiteach’s tools. The update also lets users import files directly from PowerPoint and includes the integrated Download Center, which provides thousands of lessons that can be downloaded from www.easilearn.com.

Safari Books Online New Titles
(www.safaribooksonline.com)

The company has expanded the titles from independent publisher Berrett- Koehler that it offers in its online digital library, pushing the number of books and videos available through safari to more than 17,000. The Berrett-Koehler titles emphasize business and leadership and are useful for professional development.

Schoolwires Nimbus
(www.schoolwires.com)

Schoolwires is launching a safe sociallearning environment designed to foster student engagement beyond the classroom. Nimbus ensures that district networking activity is structured and secure. Administrators can manage users, access, and settings; monitor network activity; and apply filters. Reporting tools help guarantee compliance.

Shmoop Sat Subject Test Biology E/M
(www.shmoop.com/sat-biology)

The company has launched an online course prep program focusing on both ecology and molecular biology. It combines two exams in one and incorporates pop-culture trivia to keep students engaged.

STEM 417: Global Climate Change Education for high school
(www.pbs.org/teacherline)

PBS TeacherLine is offering an online course for high school teachers that is part of a series of professional-development resources on climate change. Funded by a NASA grant, the course is designed to engage high school students in understanding the causes and effects of climate change.

StudyBlue Mobile App
(www.studyblue.com)

StudyBlue has launched an updated mobile app for iPhone and Android devices that enables students to create flash cards on their smartphones. With the free app, they can snap and insert photos and transcribe speech to text directly into the flash cards.

Super Duper Mobile Apps
(www.superduperinc.com)

Super Duper has expanded its original Data Tracker Mobile App to help educators gather on their iPhone, iPod touch, and iPads even more information about students’ progress. The new features let users create many goals for each student, choose from several types of response, “undo” the last recorded response, and track correct and incorrect responses to questions discreetly and efficiently. The company has also launched four new apps.

Teachscape Modules for Leaders and Teachers
(www.teachscape.com)

The company has developed the Data-Driven instruction Series content library, which has four new modules for helping educators use data to plan and implement effective instruction. The Modules for Leaders help teachers get up to speed on using data to engage in continuous improvement. The Modules for Teachers focus on ways to collect and analyze data and on conducting alternative methods of formative assessment, respectively.

Texthelp Systems Cloud-based Apps for Mobile Devices
(www.texthelp.com)

The company has announced the release of a suite of Web Apps, including Read&Write Web and eBook Reader for Bookshare eBooks. These Web Apps work on the iPad, iPod touch, and other mobile devices as well as PCs and Macs. Read&Write GOLD users benefit from using familiar features along with flexible mobility and instant accessibility to these powerful web support tools.

Vizzle Player App for iPad
(www.monarchtt.com)

Monarch Teaching Technologies has announced that the app is now available for the iPad on the Apple App Store. The app gives children with autism access to visual support and lessons through a fun multi-touch display and helps educators retrieve important academic and socialskill- building lessons.

Weejot
(www.weejot.com)

Jadu, Inc. announces a service that helps organizations publish apps to the mobile Web. Schools can deploy and manage mobile Web applications based on apps and icons that can be deployed to mobile devices supporting HTML5 and CSS3 standards

Hardware/AV

Califone (www.califone.com) has introduced the WB80 interactive whiteboard. it can be mounted on any surface, regardless of whether there are electrical outlets or the strength of the wall. The WB80 comes with sensor pieces that attach to any blank wall, creating a 48-inch-by-64-inch interactive space. The whiteboard runs solely on USB power, so it’s easily set up for classroom instruction.

Video Mount Products (videomount.com) has launched the DVR-MB1 Mobile/Rackmount DVR Lockbox. The product can be mounted on the left, right, bottom, and rear sides for mobile applications, includes securing strips for DVR in mobile applications, and comes in a black static-resistant powder-coat finish.

Casio America (www.casiousa.com) has expanded its Pro High Brightness Series of projectors with the XJ-H1700 and XJ-H1750. They have 4,000-lumen output and feature the company’s Laser and LED Hybrid light source technology. This technology increases the color spectrum compared with a mercury lamp life while lowering a projector’s total cost of ownership. The projectors are DLP 3-D ready and can display 3-D content from a 3-D–capable computer.

HP (www1.hp.com) has announced two new products for the classroom. The Slate 2 Tablet PC (bottom) offers multi-touch technology that enables easy navigation and better multitasking. its new Swype keyboard lets users enter data with one continuous motion of finger or stylus across the screen. The HP 3115m (top) offers up to 11.5 hours of battery life, flexible wireless capabilities, an 11.6-inch diagonal led back-lighted HD display, and a high-definition Webcam.

ViewSonic (www.viewsonic.com) has announced the latest addition to its line of ViewPad tablets, the 7e. The Android-based tablet is ideal for Flash video and Web browsing and has preinstalled Amazon applications for delivering e-reading capabilities. It offers a seveninch display and Gingerbread 2.3 operating system and presents an intuitive screen layout with holographic visual effects, thanks to the ViewScene 3D interface.

Aver Information (www.averusa.com) has launched the U10 portable USB document camera. The ultra-compact camera connects direct to a laptop or desktop PC and displays live documents and 3-D objects. It presents materials of up to 720p HD at 30 frames per second and provides both video and power flow through the USB connection.

Canon (www.usa.canon.com) has three new projectors ideal for classrooms. The 2500-lumen LV-8235 Ultra-Short Throw Projector (left) can display an 80-inch picture from only 1.04 ft. The 2500-lumen LV-8225 (right) has Auto Set-Up Functions and a Wide-Angle 1.2x Zoom Lens. The 3000-lumen LV-8320 (middle) includes an Intelligent Lamp Dimming System for extended lamp life and power-saving “green” operation. All offer WXGA-resolution wide-screen 16:10 images. The LV-8235 and LV-8320 also include an HDMI digital input for projection of 1080p video from Blu-ray players.

Hitachi America (www.hitachi.us) has announced the availability of its CP-X3021WN and CP-X2521WN networkable mobile projectors. Both model offer versatile networking and connectivity options for educational applications. The 3LCD projectors provide a variety of upgraded performance and convenience features, such as the company’s new intelligent Eco, which automatically changes the lamp’s brightness according to the level of the input signal.

Amplivox Sound Systems (www.ampli.com) has announced an upscale redesign of its Pinnacle Multimedia Lecterns. The new models feature a hard-shell polyurethane exterior for more durability and better performance. Divided front panels are available in four classic wood finishes, and a top grill cover camouflages a flat reading shelf that has room for notes or a laptop. A deep interior shelf supports multimedia devices, water, and supplies.

SMART Technologies (www.smarttech.com) has launched the SMART Board 400 series interactive display overlay. it can be added to any LCD or plasma flat-panel display to enable touch and ink interactivity and features SMART’s DViT technology for facilitating effective touch control and accurate writing. The new overlay for education includes SMART Notebook collaborative learning software to let users work together more effectively in classrooms.

Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) has announced the Toughpad family of Android-powered rugged tablets. They include a 10-inch and a seven- inch device and are durable enough for classroom use. Both tablets meet durability certifications and ingress protection ratings consistent with other Toughbook devices. The Toughpad A1 also offers optional 4G (LTE or WINMAX) mobile broadband as well as satellite GPS.

Luidia Inc. (www.luidia.com) has teamed with NEC Display Solutions Europe to feature Luidia’s eBeam technology in NEC’s new NPO1Wi line of interactive whiteboard kits. The integration enables NEC’s short and ultra-short throw projectors to deliver advanced data interactivity to customers, allowing them to collaborate on projected content in real time.