Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Kineo, Like an iPad but made for students
Schools these days are focusing more and more of their time and money into using iPads and other tablet computers as learning tools. Dennis Pierce states, “The Florida-based Company Brainchild has developed and iPad-like device that is designed specifically for elementary and middle school students” (p. 26 eSchoolNews, Vol. 12, No. 3). The Kineo is built on Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices. The Kineo acts as an eBook reader. It comes with internet access and Flash capability. The battery of Kineo is reported to last upwards of 12 hours on a single charge and is far less costly as the Apple’s iPad. A person can buy a Kineo for $299. Pierce states, “the Kineo enables teachers or school leaders to speciy the applications that students can use on the device by ‘locking down’ apps they don’t want students to use” (p. 26. eSchoolNews.) Educators can customize each user’s experience based on many factors one being age-appropriateness. Also, “the Kineo can only access websites that are pre-programmed by an administrator or teacher” (p.26). The messaging capabilities have been disabled to ensure students are using it appropriately. The Kineo gives educators peace of mind. Educators know that their students are on task and won’t get into “trouble”. With the Kineo teachers can track their student’s progress towards mastery of state standards through the server based Achiever. Brainchild calls this software GlobalSYNCH. Other aspects of Kineo include eReader software, web browser, and an MP4 bideo player. Teacers can add software, but students are restricted from adding any software. The Kineo offers a 7” touch-screen and 800MHz dual-core processor, and an SD card slot for up to 32 gigabytes of memory.
Pierce, D. Kineo: Like an iPad, but made for students. (March 2011). eSchoolNews Vol. 14, No. 3
Sharing YouTube videos in the class safely
YouTube offers great educational content; however, there is also a lot of inappropriate material. Material that includes racy images and offensive comments. Due to the inappropriate material often found on YouTube many schools block access to the site. A new internet service from the internet security company M86 aims to solve the problem encountered by these schools.
“Called VuSafe (www.m86vusafe.com), it’s a free website that lets educators search for relevant video content from YouTube and other sources…” (p. 25. eSchool News, Vol. 12 No. 3). The site also allows educators to add clips and then share them with their students. Ralph Olmolinski states, “It is the perfect solution for schools to safely integrate videos into the classroom for teaching purposes” (p. 25 eSchool News). Once teachers register on VuSafe, they can search and the preview video clips. They can then add clips they think are relevant for use in the classroom to their school’s VuSafe video library. As teachers add videos they can tag the clips by subject and age-appropriateness. Students can view the video clips from home or from school. Teachers can share videos and suggest videos that are safe. “Any time a video from YouTube or another source is played from the VuSafe library, it is stripped of all advertisements, comments and outside links, so educators don’t have to worry about students seeing something they shouldn’t” (p. 25. eSchoolNews).
VuSafe can be used without M86’s filtering software; however, schools that arent’ using M86’s web filter would have to unblock YouTube in order for the videos in the library to display at school. VuSafe is still in beta-testing mode, but schools can sign up for access any time.
Pierce. D. How to share YouTube videos at school, safely. (March 2011). eSchoolNews, Vol. 14, No. 3.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
IGNITE STICK
The ignite stick is a grade-level tool that provides custom lesson building, assessments, and interactive materials for fourth through eight grades. The tool mainly pertains to math, science, and social studies. The tool works directly with SMART to help integrate technology into the classroom. The ignite stick has approximately 3,500 media pieces. The stick combines music, interactive media, critical thinking activities, and more core concepts. The tool is very simple to use. There is no installation involved. This is very nice for teachers who are technologically incompetent. The lessons can be searched by state standards. The tool allows for the use of quizzes by embedding them into SMART lessons. The ignite stick is said to boost the teaching power of any lesson. The tool is suited mainly for classes that use SMART Board lessons. This tool allows educators to quickly and easily find lessons. The teacher can easily keep students interested and motivated towards the lessons.
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