Over the last couple of weeks I have been exploring different ways I can use the HoverCam T3 in the work that I do. Just this past week, I had the opportunity to teach my graduate students all about the iPad and the various apps that are out there to support students learning and communication. What a great chance for me to try my HoverCam T3 with my iPad as I walked through step by step demonstrating to my students how to navigate on the iPad. For one thing the HoverCam T3 is very easy to set up and the HoverCam Flex software makes it a dream to capture your documents and images under the camera. Since I have a first generation iPad video out for me is not really an option when demoing the iPad. In retrospect having the iPad under the HoverCam T3 allowed my students to watch as I navigated the iPad and the various apps. Having the LED lights on the HoverCam T3 came in real handy when demoing certain apps and it was easy enough to turn them on or off  if I needed to depending on the background color of  the app. During the class, the HoverCam T3 worked flawlessly and provided my students with  the opportunity to see step by step how the various apps worked on the iPad. The HoverCam T3 is an indispensable tool that has lots of applications in the classroom. If you would like a demo click here to signup.

When I think about the PersonalBrain I always think of it as an ideal tool for helping me to see relationships among the data points that I have added to the brain. The PersonalBrain is an ideal tool for storing all kinds of related information that you want to have at your fingertips. In this respect I decided to see what would happen if I imported the contents of WikiSummerizer, a new web based contextual summarization engine from Context Discovery, Inc. If you have never tried out WikiSummarizer, it is a great tool to help you build background knowledge quickly on just about any topic that can be found in Wikipedia. Once the summaries have been extracted by WikiSummarizer you have two options to store the results. You can export the summaries as a RTF file and open it with any word processor or better yet you can save the summaries as a Mindjet MindManager file format (mmap) format and then import it into PersonalBrain. PersonalBrain gives you a rich environment that allows you to see the relationships between the keywords and summaries. To get a sense of what you can do with PersonalBrain and WikiSummarizer take a look at the WebBrian that I developed by clicking on the image below. Now you can see just how fast you can go from a blank PersonalBrain to one that complete with chock full of information. This is an ideal tool for students and researchers that need a strategy to save and explore new information. With WikiSummarizer and PersonalBrain take your personal information management to a new level. For more information about WikiSummairzer click here.

        CONTACT:                                                                 Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D.                                 (908) 852-3460                                 brian (@) assistivetek.com                             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition™ Ideal Tool for Special Education Co-Teaching Classrooms  International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference The interactive writing solution is the Key to Effective Learning PHILADELPHIA-June 26, 2011-AssistiveTek, LLC,  top reseller of PaperShow For Teachers  is excited to showcase the PAPERSHOW  Teacher’s Edition™ , the key to effective learning, for the second time at the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, June 26-29  in booth 128. The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition is the ideal tool for use in special education and inclusion classrooms, helping teachers to create more visually appealing interactive presentations. With PAPERSHOW  Teacher’s Edition™  teachers have access to a range of tools including, including an interactive calculator, magnifying glass, two measurement tools, lined paper for students learning to write and 72 different colors. An essential tool for both the classroom and virtual teaching, PAPERSHOW consists of three elements: a wireless Bluetooth pen, a USB Key and interactive paper that work together to allow one to create a digital flip chart or annotate a Keynote or PowerPoint Presentation live. After a PAPERSHOW session, one can save it and then immediately print and/or email it to participants. The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition, combined with a projector and a computer, gives teachers the ability to transform their lessons and presentations into engaging interactions at a fraction of the cost of interactive whiteboards, as PAPERSHOW for Teachers costs just $249. The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition starter kit, compatible with both Macs and PCs, includes one 128-page double-wired notebook, 30 sheets of interactive paper, one Bluetooth® digital pen, one 512MB Bluetooth ® USB Key with software embedded, one interactive extra toolbar, a ring binder, pen case and other accessories.  "The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition is a great piece of technology. It will help to support co-teaching models in the classroom, when there is a special education and regular education teacher in the same classroom, and allow all students’ needs to be met inside the classroom," said Diana Scharer, Special Education Teacher, Township of Union, Union, NJ.  "With PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition, the special education teacher can record the notes and graphics and have them available for all students at the end of the period." The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition works with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and the Mac operating systems Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. PAPERSHOW features six different colors, three different brushstrokes, perfect shapes, lines and arrows all of which bring presentations, meetings and classes to life.  "Being able to export the notes in a PowerPoint and PDF format makes it great for students who need visual supports and accommodations. PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition speaks to the heart of Universal Design for Learning and offers all student s the classroom the benefits of a highly interactive and visual appealing notes," Scharer continued. "Teachers who are using PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition enjoy the fact that they can move about the classroom and put their ideas up on the board as well as having students record their ideas on the digital notepad from their desks." For more information, and ideas on how to use PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition in the classroom, visit, assistivetek.blogspot.com  ### About AssistiveTek, LLC Since 2000, AssistiveTek, LLC has been providing products and professional services in the area of educational and assistive technology to educators. AssistiveTek, LLC delivers innovative products that help students to visualize ideas and concepts and helps teachers to integrate these tools in the curriculum.  AssistiveTek, LLC is one of the leading resellers of PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition in the United States and provides support and in-service programs to demonstrate how this innovative technology can be used in the classroom to support all learners.

It is hard to believe that ISTE 2011 is around the corner! I will be heading out tomorrow to ISTE 2011 for three days of nothing but educational technology. What a joy! ISTE 2011 is one of my favorite educational technology conferences and gives me a chance to spot trends and connect with other educators. I have set up a number of meetings with both educational publishers and hardware developers and hope to get some new information to you via tweets and the blog. If you will be attending ISTE 2011, stop by the Canson PaperShow Booth # 128 and take a test drive of PaperShow for Teachers ($249). Later stop by at the HoverCam Booth #3119 and see first hand why the HoverCam T3 ($219) is taking classrooms by storm for the high quality 3.1 megapixel web document camera. So stop by and say hello-and take a look at these innovative and affordable technologies for the classroom. Hope to see you there! Brian

While I was at ISTE 2011 I had a chance to visit with Livescribe and find out all of the latest developments that are happening with the Livescribe technology. For the past couple of years many of us who have been using the Livescribe pens have come with some interesting ways to adapt the technology so that text can be read on ordinary paper. I have highlighted that in some of my older blog posts- but today using the Livescribe Sound Sticker app and the supplied Sound Stickers you can quickly place a sticker on any paper and tap the sticker to record whatever you like. Once you download the latest version of the Livescribe Desktop software and the Livescribe Sound Stickers Application you can peel off a Sound Sticker and place it any where you like on a page. Now simply click in the Record button-tap a sticker and start recording - tap one more time to confirm and you are good to go. To play the associated sound simply tap the pen on the sticker to hear your play back. If you would like to re-record-you can click in the Delete button and quickly delete the sound that is associated with the sticker. Using the Sound Stickers I'm sure you can think of all kinds of ways to make accommodations for students with reading disabilities. Place stickers on books, tests, or set up schedules complete with helpful reminders- the possibilities are endless. Let me know how you intend to use Sound Stickers with your Livescribe Smartpen by leaving a comment.

Over the past couple of years I have done a number of workshops and presentations on using various tools to create eLearning assets in the ubiquitous Adobe PDF format. It is pretty incredible thinking about just how many ways you can use PDF's in your workshops and courses that you know can be successfully viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. In my workshop: Delivering e-Learning Assets in PDF Format- I showed my participants how I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended, Adobe Captivate 4, Camtasia Studio, and Adobe Presenter to create rich and engaging eLearning assets. Using a combination of these tools it is possible to create some interesting materials that can be shared with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. One of the real take away's from the presentation is that it is now possible to embed video in your PDF's which your users can view with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 10. One of the new tools on the horizon is the Livescribe Pulse and Echo Smartpens that makes the process of creating rich interactive PDF's a cinch. Just last week Livescribe added the the Livescribe Connect capability to output their penscasts in an interactive Adobe Acrobat format. Livescribe calls this format a Pencast PDF and it is really easy to create. So now it is easy for teachers to create  instructional videos complete with audio on just about any topic you desire. If you have taken a look at the Khan Academy you will be able to create very similar videos with the same look and feel.  The great thing is - it is so easy to accomplish with the Livescribe Smartpens. Open a page in a notebook - click the Record button and when you are finished recording plug the USB cable into your computer to upload your work to the Livescribe Desktop Software. Once your pencast has been uploaded on your computer simply drag the page under the Connector panel to the Computer option. This will automatically save the file in the Adobe Acrobat PDF format that can now be viewed by anyone who has the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Here is an example of what you can do with your Livescribe Pen to create an interactive instructional video. Click here to view or on the image below to view the Pencast PDF.

After a great deal of planning it is hard to believe that the iPad Summer Institute is happening this week-on Tuesday and Wednesday.During the conference Christine and I will share our insights on how we have been using the iPad as a both a learning and communication tool for students with speecial needs. We have a lot of ground to cover and trust that our attendees are as excited as us about all of the possibilities and the potential the iPad can offer. Once you start using the iPad you begin to realize that the options are endless and the ease of use and user interface is ideal for the students we work with. During the day we will talk about various apps, management issues,peripherals, and how to best use the iPad in the classroom. Both iPad Institute Sessions are closed out but we will be offering another session on Thursday which is being hosted at the Middlesex ETTC in East Brunswick, NJ and there are still some seats left.

It is hard to believe that the three Summer iPad Institutes are over- it was really a very exciting and invigorating week working with over 50 educators demonstrating how the iPad can be used with special needs students for learning and communication. One of the tools that I used during the past three days was a Hovercam T3 document camera which enabled me to show my attendees step by step how to navigate the iPad. Even though I was using an iPad 2 with mirroring-this alone is not enough when teaching others how to use the iPad. With the Ipad 2's mirroring all my attendees would see is the final result of my navigating, but they would never see the intermediate steps that I took to get to where I was going. With the Hovercam T3, I was able to show them quite efficiently how to create folders, move from screen to screen and how to access the accessibility features all the time as they were watching step by step. The Hovercams T3's,  3.1 megapixel camera gave me the resolution and the controls I needed to output a clear and clean image of the iPad. When using the Hovercam T3- I used a 800 x 600 image resolution and turned down the brightness on the iPad to get a spectacular image of the iPad on the screen. So if you are looking for a great document camera for the classroom for a Macor PC then take a look at the HoverCam T3- you will be glad you did. At a suggested retail price of $219 dollars there is no better document camera  on the market. If you are interested in a demo or would like pricing of the HoverCam please feel free to contact me.

I received a lot of emails and tweets about why I would use the HoverCam T3 with an iPad 2 when doing training and I decided to show you with a short video that I put together just how important it is to use a document camera when doing training with an iPad. As I had mentioned in a previous post I wanted my attendees to be able to watch me as I navigated my iPad and using a HoverCam T3 allowed me to do this. I set my HoverCam T3 to 880 x 600 resolution and was able to get a crisp picture with minimal flickering as you will see when I put my hand under the HoverCam T3. I would be interested in your thoughts and if you are interested in purchasing a HoverCam T3 let me know I would be glad to help you out. Click on the image below to play the video in the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please note that the entire video was recorded using the HoverCam Flex 2.0 software that accompanies the HoverCam T3. Great way to do instructional videos with your iPad. Play Video

I have waited for some time now for the release of Read2Go App for the Ipad to be released by Benetech, Inc- and today it finally arrived in the Apple App Store. I quickly downloaded the app which is $19.99  in Apple's App Store and gave it a quick test drive. Once I downloaded the Read2Go App, I logged into my Demo Account and downloaded a couple of books directly to my iPad- which were quickly saved. I was able to configure the Font size as well as a host of various Visual Settings which was very straight forward. Read2Go uses the popular Acapela Speech Engine and I had a choice of the text being read using Heather or Ryan.. It was easy using the slider to change the speed that the text was being read and highlighted. By default the sentence is highlighted in yellow and each word is then highlighted in green. Users can change the various colors of the highlighting by going into the Visual Settings menu. Read2Go makes it very easy to navigate to a Section, Page, or Bookmark. On first pass the Read2Go is very easy to use and the only problem that I had was I received a Low Memory dialog when reading a book that asked me to quit the other applications. Once I did that everything seemed to work fine. If you are not sure how to Quit apps - just Press your Home button twice and then hold down your finger on any app in the bottom of the window until the icons jiggle- now quit out of each app by Pressing on the Minus sign. Read2Go looks great and I for one am going to highly recommend it to the students that I work with who have a "Print Disability." Please remember that you must have a Bookshare Account to download books to your iPad. Let me your thoughts about this new app that breaks new ground for students with reading disabilities.