WHAT’S NEW: NEW TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

Software & Online

11TREES ANNOTATE PRO
(www.11trees.com)

11trees.com announced new versions of their Annotate PRO apps for Office365 and Google Chrome, making it easy for teachers to create impactful feedback for learners. Optimized for Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Canvas, Google Classroom - the platforms you already love - Annotate PRO brings lightning fast access to comment libraries so you can write once, mindfully, and reuse forever. Collaborate to share libraries meaningful to your curriculum or select from a growing selection of 11trees’ content.

ALMA MODERN SIS AND DATA INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORM
(www.GetAlma.com) & (www.schoology.com)

Alma Technologies, Inc. announces it has integrated its K-12 student information system (SIS) with the learning management system (LMS) from Schoology. The new partnership enables schools and districts to customize a solution that supports their unique teaching and learning needs and helps them achieve their progressive educational goals. The solution unites SIS and LMS capabilities along with reporting, analytics, grades and assessment tracking, scheduling, enrollment, school-to-home communications, and more to support the entire learning community.

BENCHMARK EDUCATION SOUND SPELLING TRANSFER KIT
(www.benchmarkeducation.com)

Benchmark Education Company (BEC) announced a new Sound-Spelling Transfer Kit to support students in grades K–2 as they become bilingual readers in English and Spanish. The cross-linguistic Sound-Spelling Transfer Kit provides routines, literacy manipulatives, picture-word cards and other resources to facilitate intentional, strategic and systematic cross-linguistic instruction. Assessment tools are included as an online, downloadable print resource to facilitate monitoring students’ biliteracy trajectories. Each lesson includes suggestions for formative assessment and dictation.

BOXLIGHT MIMIOCONNECT
(www.mimioconnect.com)

Boxlight’s has announced MimioConnect, a website for thousands of free lesson plans and activities, many of them teacher-created. The lesson plans span the preK-12 curriculum and include world languages, history and social studies, and much more. Additionally, MimioConnect users have access to monthly calendar and morning meeting packs, which are content bundles that contain lessons, activities and other materials that support instruction for that particular month.

CAPSTONE COMMUNITY
(www.myCapstone.com)

Capstone announced Capstone Community, an online forum for educators to find resources and communicate with a community of PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next users. The forum includes a “Resources” section which features lesson plans, activities, videos and more. The “Discussions” board connects users with each other and is a place for them to post questions and discuss ideas. The “Find Answers” section offers technical support with answers to FAQs and allows users to create new cases.

CEV MULTIMEDIA CTE COURSE FOR ASPIRING TEACHERS
(www.icevonline.com/courses/instructional-practices-education-training)

CEV Multimedia announces the release of an instructional practices in education and training course to enable future educators to begin preparing for their careers sooner. Offered through iCEV, an online learning platform, the instructional practices in education and training course offers 20 lessons which cover educational assessments, learning styles, special education and more. This course also identifies ethical conduct, professional development, career preparation, and the many opportunities for students in the teaching and training industry.

CLASSFLOW IKEEPSAFE STUDENT PRIVACY CERTIFICATIONS
(www.classflow.com)

ClassFlow was recognized by iKeepSafe for its compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA). As part of this achievement, ClassFlow will display both the FERPA and SOPIPA badges to note that the software has been assessed and approved by iKeepSafe. In order to keep the badge, iKeepSafe conducts an annual renewal to ensure that ClassFlow remains in good standing with FERPA and SOPIPA.

CLEVERBOOKS AR GEOMETRY WORKBOOK
(www.cleverbooks.eu/cleverbooks-argeometry-app/)

CleverBooks presented to the public their Geometry Workbook for Primary school that has Free Augmented Reality (AR) Learning solution incorporated to it and announced the launch of a new product – free Geography App with AR. CleverBooks aims to complement traditional teaching with innovative technology and focusing on primary education sector. The application for all subjects is free to use to provide all children with access to innovative technology and help them exceed their learning.

DREAMBOX LEARNING ASSIGNFOCUS BY PRINT PROGRAM
(www.dreambox.com)

DreamBox Learning announced AssignFocus by Print Program, a new capability that provides teachers with a strong connection between DreamBox Learning Math and their classroom curriculum. With AssignFocus, educators can create comprehensive and differentiated math experiences for students by blending the power of DreamBox Learning’s online K-8 math solution with popular print programs like Eureka, EngageNY, and Contexts for Learning Mathematics. This represents the newest application of DreamBox Learning’s technology to support teaching and learning.

DISCOVERY EDUCATION AND TATA CONSULTANCY
(www.discoveryeducation.com) and (www.tcs.com)

Tata Consultancy Services and Discovery Education have partnered to launch Ignite My Future in School, an initiative aiming to prepare one million students for 21st century careers by 2021. It will equip over 20,000 teachers nationwide with resources to get students solving problems at an advanced level through computational thinking. The initiative will connect teachers to leaders in education and technology, providing them with hands-on experience they can bring back to their classrooms.

EMMA IDENTITY
(emmaidentity.com)

Emma Identity is a brand new product from the developers of Unicheck, professional full-fledged plagiarism checker for higher education and K-12. Emma technology utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP, the field of the AI) to learn a person’s individual writing style and determine whether all the subsequent texts you upload belong to the same author. Effective authorship attribution with regards to the students’ papers could become a unique solution to detect and prevent contract plagiarism.

GOZEN! OCD ONLINE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
(www.gozen.com)

GoZen! has unveiled an animated, online educational program that teaches kids how to manage and understand Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The online program serves as an approachable mentor and speaks to kids in a way that is engaging, entertaining and compassionate. The unique animations are designed for use at home, schools, and by therapists and keep children wanting to learn more while striving to allow them to embrace their individuality.

HOONUIT EARLY WARNING SOLUTION
(www.hoonuit.com)

The Hoonuit Early Warning solution helps educators identify at-risk students early and integrate the intervention workflow to track the progress of each implementation. The solution uses predictive analytics based on proven research to streamline the execution of intervention strategies through a user-friendly interface. The solution’s user experience fits into an educator’s workflow, giving the visualization on mobile and desktop devices, identifying where to provide additional support to specific students, and then track each strategy’s effect.

IXL LEARNING IXL SPANISH
(www.ixl.com/spanish/level-1)

IXL Learning introduced IXL Spanish as its first world language curriculum. IXL Spanish covers Level 1 Spanish curriculum and is geared towards middle and high school students. In addition to Spanish, IXL covers math, English language arts, science and social studies, and is aligned to the Common Core and all state standards. IXL offers 10 free practice questions each day for students not subscribed to IXL; subscribers can practice unlimited questions across all grade levels.

INSIGHT ADVANCE
(www.insightadvance.com)

Insight ADVANCE announced the launch of powerful real-time data and data management features to complement its ADVANCEfeedback solution, an online tool used in K-12 and higher education for educator self-reflection and evaluation. ADVANCEfeedback allows teachers to record and upload video to share with peers and request feedback through embedded notes at key moments in the video. Administrators can also track observations in progress, ensure teachers and observers are paired appropriately, and more.

LEGENDS OF LEARNING & PHET INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS
(www.legendsoflearning.com) & (phet.colorado.edu)

Legends of Learning and University of Colorado Boulder’s PhET Interactive Simulations project announced a partnership that will bring thousands of educational games, assessment items, and simulations to middle school science students. Ten interactive simulations for middle school sciences will be hosted on the Legends of Learning platform this month with more coming in the future. Teachers now have a comprehensive library of engaging content and interactive exercises for their classroom as well.

MICROSOFT EDUCATION
(www.microsoft.com/en-us/education)

Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Education – a single, affordable technology solution built for education. Microsoft 365 Education brings together Office 365, Windows 10, Intune for Education, Minecraft: Education Edition and Enterprise Mobility + Security, getting schools up and running faster through simplified acquisition and deployment, eliminating wasted time and delivering new capabilities to teachers and students to help them learn and work in new ways. Additional management and security features are also included.

NETSUPPORT DNA VERSION 4.5: EDUCATION EDITION
(www.netsupportschool.com)

NetSupport has announced the latest update to its IT Asset Management solution, NetSupport DNA: version 4.5 – Education Edition. Having extended its support to include iOS and Chrome as well as enhancing Mac OS X, the Education Edition of NetSupport DNA can now monitor and support users in a multiplatform environment. It also features real-time monitoring, internet metering, internet safety tools, keyword alerting, new user management features, and more.

NWEA AND PEARSON SUCCESSMAKER
(www.nwea.org) & (www.pearson.com/us/)

NWEA announced a partnership with Pearson to provide individualized instructional opportunities in math and literacy to students on Pearson’s SuccessMaker. SuccessMaker is an adaptive digital learning platform where instruction adjusts to reflect student responses and guide each learner toward targeted performance goals. SuccessMaker also gives real-time feedback to educators. With insights from MAP Growth and RIT scores, SuccessMaker can generate a customized instructional path in math and literacy designed to support each student’s success.

ORIGO EDUCATION EARLY GEOMETRY CONCEPTS
(www.origoeducation.com) & (www.edweb.net)

ORIGO Education introduced Early Geometry Concepts: Making Connections to the Real World, the fifth in the series of free, live stream videos posted on edWeb.net, a popular web community for professional development and networking among PreK-12 and post-secondary educators. Mathematics for Young Learners, is part of ORIGO Education’s professional learning community about mathematics. Educators may join ORIGO’s community to watch previously recorded sessions and receive notifications about upcoming edWebinars.

SIEMENS AND HP SIEMENS NX AM FOR HP MULTI JET FUSION
(www.siemens.com) and (www.hp.com)

HP Inc. and Siemens have announced a new software module, Siemens NX AM for HP Multi Jet Fusion. The NX software module will allow customers to develop and manage parts in a single software environment for their HP 3D Printing projects, avoid costly, time-consuming data conversions and third-party tools, and improve workflow efficiency. Siemens and HP are also helping enable designers and engineers to expand opportunities for the industrial 3D printing of innovative designs.

SECOND STEP PROGRAM AND PANORAMA EDUCATION
(www.secondstep.org) & (www.panoramaed.com)

The Second Step Program and Panorama Education announced a new partnership to help schools and districts nationwide understand and develop students’ social-emotional skills. Now schools and districts that use Panorama can administer social-emotional learning assessments and reports that align with the social, emotional, and relational skills fostered by the Second Step Program. The partnership between these programs supports district administrators, principals, counselors, and teachers who are focused on growing students’ social, emotional, and relationship skills.

STUDYSYNC
(www.studysync.com)

StudySync has two new additions in its array of teacher tools. An embedded gradebook provides a user-friendly format for analyzing students’ progress on assignments. Users can filter gradebook entries and view student grades. An enhanced StudySync search tool makes it easier for teachers to search StudySync’s lessons library for specific standards. Teachers can use the tool to view how often a standard was covered by assignments as well as individual student mastery of the standard.

TEXTHELP AND DESMOS
(www.texthelp.com) & (www.desmos.com)

Texthelp announced its partnership with Desmos, which will integrate Desmos’s graphing solution into EquatIO, the tool that makes it easy to create equations, formulas and other mathematical expressions digitally. With the addition of Desmos’s API, EquatIO users can add graphing to its list of capabilities. Desmos’s graphing solution will be integrated into the web app, ‘EquatIO mathspace,’ followed by ‘EquatIO for Google,’ the Chrome Extension, and ‘EquatIO for Windows and Mac,’ the desktop offerings.

TINYBOP SCHOOLS
(tinybopschools.com)

Tinybop, Inc. has launched Tinybop Schools — web-based interactive STEM for the classroom — to make science more accessible to young students, on any computer or device. Suitable for grades K-5, Tinybop Schools teaches science literacy through exploration and discovery in interactive STEM models. The models cover a variety of topics: anatomy, zoology, geography, physics, geology, meteorology, engineering, and astronomy. Tinybop Schools also offer data-driven metrics to help teachers keep track of their students’ progress.

THE BEACON PERIODIC TABLE OF TECHNOLOGY
(fios.verizon.com/beacon/periodic-table-of-tech-intro/)

The Beacon at Verizon Fios have created a periodic table of technology to teach about science and technology by showing how elements are used in everyday tech-use. By clicking on the table, users can inspect the list and find a brief description next to each element detailing its applicability in technology. For example, users can learn of hydrogen’s use in clean energy tech, helium’s cooling properties when applied to satellite instruments, and more.

UL XPLORLABS
(ulxplorlabs.org/fire-forensics/)

UL Xplorlabs has released its new module, Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence. The interactive module is designed to give students a first-hand look at what it takes to read a fire scene and build a claim for the fire’s location of origin and cause. Detailed teacher guides, interactive videos and investigations, and student worksheets to deepen understanding of the principles of fire. A fun, interactive environment for students to learn from scientists solving real-world problems.

Hardware

Epson (www.epson.com) announced the Epson PowerLite 685W Ultra Short-Throw Presentation Display for SMART (home.smarttech.com). The PowerLite 685W for SMART leverages Epson’s proprietary 3LCD technology which offers up to 3x higher color brightness than competitive models. The new presentation display offers seamless integration with the SMART Extended Control Panel (ECP), delivers 3,500 lumens of color and white brightness, and offers WXGA resolution versatile connectivity to meet a variety of classroom needs.

Shure (www.shure.com) is shipping the ANIUSB-MATRIX and the ANI22. The ANIUSB-MATRIX connects four Microflex Advance or Microflex Wireless microphone channels to a room’s audio/video conferencing system or a PC-based soft codec through USB or analog. The ANI22 can connect up to two line/mic signals to a Dante network for easy audio routing and convenient browser-based remote control. The ANI22 features a compact form factor and Power-over-Ethernet eliminates the need for an outboard power supply.

NEC Display Solutions of America (www.necdisplay.com) announced updates to its line of Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) compliant computers that integrate directly into displays to produce rich content and expand functionality. The OPS computers now include 64-bit Windows 10 Pro as well as updated Intel dual and quad-core processors, among other features. In addition, the OPS-TCISPS includes Intel’s powerful Vpro technology, providing hardware-enhanced security with multifactor identity protection and remote access to help reduce IT operating costs.

Lumens Integration Inc. (www.MyLumens.com) introduced the new VC-B30U HDPTZ USB 3.0 camera. The PTZ camera comes in Full HD, 1080p, 60fps resolution and a 12x optical zoom lens. The camera comes with a 72° horizontal view angle to cover the span of medium to large sized rooms. The HDMI and USB interface is able to output video simultaneously. The camera is applicable for educational classrooms, meeting rooms, medical facilities and other environments.