T&L News(150)

Week of: October 13, 2008

• Put to the Test: T&L Editors test Drive Tom Snyder's TimeLiner XE
  Retail Price: $99 one computer; $2,600 unlimited site license.
  Description: Software program for producing graphical sequences of history in all subject areas.
  How to use in the classroom: When discussing the development of atomic theory in a science class, the teacher can use TimeLiner XE to show the timeline and add graphics of all the people that were involved in this evolution. In a computer application class, the teacher can show the development of the computer over the last 200 years. There are many other possible uses for this graphical timeline software for any curriculum.
• How Do You Stream?
  More than ever, teachers are using digital video to enhance their lessons. In fact, the number of schools using video streaming increased from 30 percent to 45 percent between 2004 and 2006, according to Market Data Retrieval. Why the popularity? For starters, video-streaming products are easy to use. They allow teachers to punctuate lessons with a visual and aural punch, both of which help students retain what they've learned. And students love watching videos. As the song goes, "A picture paints a thousand words." If your district hasn't yet joined the digital bandwagon, the following chart can help you find the best method.
• WHAT'S NEW ONLINE
  Product: Adobe ColdFusion 8
  Price: Free
  Description: Adobe ColdFusion 8 lets users integrate their ColdFusion applications with other RIA technologies such as Adobe Flex and AIR (both of which are free to educators), AJAX, and PDF. Teachers and students can now use ColdFusion to connect to databases, Web services, and any other server-side infrastructure to create Internet applications for learning purposes.
  Category: Internet application development
  Grade level: 10-12+
  Curriculum: Cross-Curricular
• The New Rules of Copyright
  Complying with, and teaching young people about, copyright in an educational setting often feels burdensome. That's because copyright laws were not designed to facilitate the sort of sharing and collaborating that has become widespread in the digital age. The innovative non-profit organization Creative Commons turns the process around, making the concept of protecting and sharing work online not onerous but positive. We asked Ahrash Bissell, Executive Director of Creative Commons' ccLearn division, for a primer.
  
• WHAT'S NEW HARDWARE
  Turning Technologies' ResponseWare Web is a web-based polling application that allows participants to submit responses to interactive PowerPoint questions via Internet-connected devices. These devices include the iPhone, BlackBerry smartphones, other cell phones, and mobile devices, laptops, or a standard desktop computer. Currently, ResponseWare Web is certified on the AT&T wireless network. Turning's Web-based response solution allows alphanumeric entry for single response, multiple response, fill-in-the-blank ,and essay questions via a cell phone style input or a QWERTY style keyboard. ResponseWare Web also displays the question and answer choices on the device while polling.