Interactive whiteboards are used in many schools as replacements for traditional whiteboards or flipcharts. They provide ways to show students any thing which can be presented on a computer's desktop (educational software, web sites, and others). In addition, interactive whiteboards allow teachers to record their instruction and post the material for review by students at a later time. This can be a very effective instructional strategy for students who benefit from repetition, who need to see the material presented again, for students who are absent from school, for struggling learners, and for review for examinations. Brief instructional blocks can be recorded for review by students—they will see the exact presentation that occurred in the classroom with the teacher's audio input. This can help transform learning and instruction. (Wikipedia)
FX-Duo at a glance:
• Robust surface – The surface is robust and the whiteboard works even if there are scratches/dents on the surface • Low relection – Projector relection is minimized making it gentle on the eyes • Input Methods – Use a inger/object or an electronic Pen to operate the whiteboard • Simultaneous Inputs – Operate the whiteboard using both hands (gestures). Scroll and Zoom-in/Zoom-out • Field Replaceable Digitizer – A detachable digitizer makes it unnecessary to send the whole unit for repairing • Electronic Pen – Equipped with three conigurable side buttons Key Benefits: • Constant learning – robust surface means no downtime • Flexible learning – can use inger or electronic pen • Interactive group work – two or more can use board at once • Control – The electronic pen enables the teacher to take control over group sessions at the board at any time• Kind to your eyes – low-relection surface coating The Kno divides its home screen into three tabs: My Apps, My Courses and My Library. Under the Apps tab, the tablet — which runs a version of embedded Linux operating system — has a browser, notebooks, news apps and an RSS reader. Kno plans to release a SDK (software developers kit) so independent programmers can create applications for the device.
The My Courses tab features all e-textbooks sorted by semester. The company plans to have its own bookstore where students can download textbooks. Overall, e-textbooks from the Kno bookstore will be about 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than their hardcover versions. The 14-inch Kno has the same relationship to the 6-inch Kindle that college textbooks have to trade paperbacks. Textbooks are big, heavy, they cost a lot of money, they’ve got expensive illustrations and the publishers are all different. A new dual-screen tablet from California startup Kno aims to make electronic textbooks into a viable business.
The device has two 14-inch LCD touchscreens that fold in like a book. The idea is to make textbook pages fit perfectly across the screen and flow from one digital page to another. Kno made its public debut at the D8 technology conference Wednesday The tablet will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra processor. It will include a stylus for handwriting recognition, have a full browser, support Flash and offer six to eight hours of battery life. The Kno will offer 16 GB or 32 GB of storage–enough to store 10 semesters’ worth of files, documents and books, says Rashid. Called Etude, the app displays digitized sheet music and teaches you to play piano songs with an on-screen keyboard.
On its main screen, Etude, developed by independent iPhone programmer Dan Grover, uses the familiar Delicious Library metaphor of a book shelf from which you choose your score. Tap a title and the app launches the sheet music. Hit the play button and the app plays back the music while scrolling to the right to display the score as the song progresses. The neatest part to me is an animated keyboard at bottom, which lights up the position of the keys for each note of the song. That should really come in handy for beginners still learning to read sheet music. The app includes some classics such as Green Sleeves and Moonlight Sonata, but you can also download additional titles through an in-app store. Currently most of the songs available are public domain, but Grover and his partners hope to finish negotiations with sheet-music publishers to offer more contemporary music such as pop songs and film soundtracks. Link. A seven-inch tablet computer/e-reader made by Brainchild, the Kineo allows schools to control the information students access. Made specifically for the education market, the Kineo is currently only available in 10 states, because its maker actually offers content specific to the education standards in each state.
Using a simple Web interface, school officials can control the books and lessons that appear on each student's Kineo. This removes the fears caused by other e-readers/tablets, which can access the Internet. In addition, the Kineo device has no camera or messaging capabilities, so schools don't need to worry about these features posing a danger. Not everyone has Microsoft Publisher, but you dont need it with My Brochure Maker. This online template-driven tool is a snap to use. Choose one of 10 templates in the first window. Edit the text and images in the second window. Print your brochure in the final step. (Tip: Print your brochure to a PDF with Cute PDF Writer so you have the file indefinitely.) This is a great way for students to create polished brochures to showcase their learning.
Wikis are a great instructional tool, but all too often students need a legitimate email account to create one. Jottit wikis are a great solution to that dilemma. This wiki generator doesnt have all the bells and whistles of other wikis, but if your instructional focus is content, the site is perfect for student-created wikis. When you go to Jottit, enter your information in the opening box and click the Create a Site button. A wiki will be created with its own unique URL.
You'll then want to name your wiki and password-protect it. To do that, enter a password and click Claim. The next screen will ask for an email address; instruct students to enter a bogus address (Remind them to not lose the password!) and click Claim again. Click Settings to give the site a name that will be reflected in the URL. Enter a heading and subheading for the site and click Give your site an address. As long as the name is unique (and without spaces), you now have a wiki! Check out the design link to change color schemes and font. To add additional pages, click Create New Page. The navigation is automatic. Glogster is a nifty web 2.0 tool that allows you to add a little ‘glam’ to electronic posters that then can be embedded into your web page, blog, or wiki. Pick a background, drop on some shapes, add links, text, and pictures, and grab the embedding code. You don’t need to create an account to use the tool. You will want to monitor this with students as the site contains others' unfiltered glogs, but don’t shy away from adding your own glitz to your pages with Glogster.
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