Just this past week I updated my version of iThoughtsHD to Version 2 on my iPad and had a chance to create some great maps for some projects I am working on. One of the really great features of iThoughtsHD is the fact that it can open and export to a wide range of mind mapping formats. So regardless of which mind mapping application you are using on your desktop you can be sure that you will be able to open it with the leading mind mapping desktop applications. After I created a mind map with iThoughtsHD I realized that I wanted to be able to print it out on my new Hp D110 ePrint Printer. Since iThoughtsHD does not support printing at this time, I simply emailed the map to my HP D110 printer and within seconds my map was printed. Every Hp printer with ePrint technology has a unique email address which makes it  easy to mail all kinds of documents to. When you are ready to print from your computer or mobile device simply enter the the Hp email address for the printer and your are good to go. Talk about an easy way to print your iThoughtsHD mind maps.

One of the handiest tools that I use when I teach is Comapping- it has been a fantastic tool for developing the agenda for each and every class that I teach on campus. Comapping allows me to map out what I am going to cover with links and attachments that makes it very easy for my students to access and use. Once I have completed my agenda map for the classroom session, I simply Publish to Web from within Comapping and grab the embedding code that is generated. Once I have the embedding code I simply paste it into Moodle to generate the mind map. Here is an example below of a agenda map that I recently used in a class this week.

It has been an exciting spring searching for new and innovative products for the classroom. In this blog post I will highlight the HoverCam T3 Document Camera one of the new products that is now available from AssistiveTek, LLC. Using your unspent ARRA dollars for the HoverCam T3 is a great way to ensure that teachers will have the tools they need to improve their teaching strategies. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email. The HoverCam T3 is compatible with both Macs and Windows computers. The HoverCam T3 is the ideal document camera for classrooms. It has a 3-megapixel camera and displays clear images of papers, worksheets, newspaper clippings and 3-D objects. Connect it to your computer and projector or drag-and-drop onto your interactive white board to enhance your lessons. Record your voice and HD video with one touch. HoverCam T3 replaces bulky, lower resolution document cameras. It's ultra-portable with a tiny footprint. It is a simple but powerful device which requires only one USB cable. The HoverCam produces smooth, HD video images that are always in focus with onscreen annotation, making your visual presentation a "wow" experience. In addition to being a presentation camera, use the T3's scanning ability to digitize your filing system, archive and manage classwork, assignments, artwork, exams and even bills and receipts. It even comes with built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software which can turn notes on paper into text that can be edited on your computer. The included HoverCam Flex Software makes managing scanned files and full screen presentations easy.    The HoverCam T3 is priced at only $219 dollars which makes it ideal for every classroom. If you look at competitor products you will be paying at least twice the amount for the features that are built into this product.  The HoverCam T3 is compatible with both Macs and Windows computers Highlights ·         Real time video projection, perfect for interactive teaching, visual presentations, distance learning and online demonstrations. ·         Patent pending LiveZoom™ allows smooth 8X digital zoom. ·         3 megapixel, 200 dpi scanner, with large depth of field for documents and 3D objects, ideal for everyday scanning, copying, faxing, emailing/sharing needs. ·         Small footprint, with a 4" x 5" oval base, 21" height. Weighs just 1.8 lbs. ·         Built-in microphone with one-touch recording, USB-powered, energy efficient. ·         Integration with Cloud Services, such as Dropbox, Evernote and Picasa. Record your meetings, presentations and/or lessons to share with colleagues or students later. Purchasing the HoverCam T3 High Resolution Document Camera is a great way to spend down your ARRA Funds. Imagine what teachers will be able to do having these tools in the classroom! When you purchase the HoverCam T3 from AssistiveTek, LLC know that you have the support of a company dedicated to enhancing education and learning in the classroom. Look for Free webinars on how to get the most out of your investment in the HoverCam T3 in the Summer 2011. To keep up with changes in the field of educational technology please follow my blog 

One Day iPad Summer Institute Held in the Warren Middle SchoolTwo (1 Day) Sessions of the Summer Institute will be offered on   Dates: July 12 or July 13th PresentersBrian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. & Christine Besko-Maughan, M.S., ATP Using the iPad to Enhance Learning & Facilitate Communication for Students with Special Needs The iPad is a revolutionary technology that is changing the way educators present information in the 21st century classroom.  The multi-sensory design of the iPad appeals to all learning styles and is an ideal tool for students with special needs.  In this workshop, educators will learn about a variety of applications (apps) that address academic skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, and science.  Communication apps designed for individuals with limited functional communication abilities will also be explored.  The presenters will highlight Proloquo2Go and iCommunicate, as well as other apps designed to enhance language development.  Strategies for implementation and best practices will be discussed.  Attendees are encouraged to bring an iPad for a hands-on learning experience that will transform their teaching strategies. Seating is limited so register early!                                                    Registration Fee: $99 For more information email: brian@assistivetek.com or call 908-852-3460 School Purchase Orders are Accepted made payable to AssistiveTek, LLC, 174 Stephensburg Road, Port Murray, NJ 07865Conference Location: Warren Middle School, 100 Old Stirling Road, Warren, NJ 07059 Online Registration  Form

I had a chance just this week to reconnect with Richard Parslow, the developer of Goalscape, a unique and innovative goal setting and planning tool for the Mac and Windows computers-who shared with me some of the new development that are taking place. Richard talked about Goalscape Connect their new online tool to create goalscapes when collaborating and working with teams. To access Goalscape Connect all you need is a browser and a connection to the internet and a Goalscape account. With an account you can begin to create a new goalscape to help you visualize your goals and subgoals. Goalscape lets you set up a central goal in the center of circle with your subgoals fanning out around the central point. With Goalscape, it is very easy to see your progress and add notes and resources to each goal and subgoal. One of the key points of using Goalscape is that you can rate the level of importance of each goal and subgoal and begin to realize that if you spend more time on one goal you have less time to address another. Once your goalscape is set up you can quickly get an overview of your progress and see what needs to be done. As humans we are all goal driven and being able to concisely articulate our goals helps us to know how and where we are going. I just started back teaching an advanced graduate course in assistive technology and asked my students to use Goalscape Connect to chart their own goals for the course. Last week I introduced them to Goalscape Connect and we did some hands on work with it. For their assignment, I asked them to use Goalscape to develop their goals for the course to help guide their learning. Understanding the principles of Universal Design for Learning (multiple means of engagement) it is important even for adult learners to have them to identity their own learning goals and objectives to help drive their learning. This week I will get a chance to see what they have accomplished with Goalscape Connect and give them the opportunity to drive their own learning. What can be more motivating that that? As an extra treat, I have invited Richard Parslow to speak to my class via Skype to share his insights for developing Goalscape- I for one am looking forward to that. If you would like to click here for a trial of Goalscape

Over the last couple of months Adobe has released a number of new online products that have made my life a lot easier. I now use Adobe SendNow service when sending large PDF's and in fact just yesterday I used it to send a colleague a large PDF Portfolio. With the the integration of SendNow with Adobe Acrobat X, with a click of the mouse you can now deliver large PDF files for delivery using this easy to use service. Recently Adobe released a new service called Adobe FormsCentral which lets you easily create, distribute and analyze online forms and surveys. Adobe FormsCentral has an easy to use but powerful online Form Builder that should have you getting your online forms up within minutes of logging into the service. I had a chance to test drive Adobe FormsCentral this weekend to see how easy it was to create an online registration form for my upcoming  iPad Summer Institute. Adobe FormsCentral comes with built in Templates to get you quickly started . I first selected the Event Registration Form from the Template Gallery and within seconds I was able to fine tune the online form to meet my needs. I was able to insert new fields from the Insert menu and customize the form to meet my unique needs for my event. As the designer, you have controls to make each field required and if you like you can also add a Help icon to give users more explicit directions when completing the form. Adobe FormsCentral gives you a good range of field types to choose from and the online tools are fluid and logical when using. Not being a graphic artist, I am happy to say that Adobe provides the necessary tools so that when you are done the form looks very professionally done. Once you are done designing your form you are now ready to Distribute the form to your audience.By clicking on the Distribute tab you can now select from several different ways to distribute your form: email link, copy link, and embed link. Choose which ever way you would like to distribute your online form and now you are ready to sit back and start collecting the data. Adobe FormsCentral let you do a Test Submission which is a nice feature to check to see that your form works the way you want it to. Once the forms are completed Adobe FormsCentral gives you a host of online tools to review the responses. In a future blog post I will talk more about the Response Tools and how it worked with my online Event Registration Form. If you have a chance give Adobe FormsCentral a free trial run which is available from this link. Adobe FormsCentral is available via a Basic Plan for $14.99 a month which enables you to create, customize, send, and analyze up to 5 forms and surveys in total with 500 responses per form or survey. With the Pluse Subscription Plan you can create unlimited forms and surveys and get up to 5,000 responses per form or survey. Overall, you will find Adobe FormsCentral an easy and powerful online forms design and analysis tool.

Last June, at the ISTE 2010 Conference I had the opportunity to meet with Jim Marggraff where he showed me what was in store for the Livescribe line of smartpens. Well today, Livescribe released Livescribe Connect which provides users with a host of new features and connectivity. One of the most exciting features from my perspective is being able to create an Adobe Acrobat Pencast PDF which is able to be played with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. In fact today, I found out that the Acrobat Pencast PDF  works just fine with Adobe Acrobat Professional Version 9.4 which is on my Dell computer. In order to use the Livescroibe Connect features you will have to update the Livescribe Desktop software and your pen's firmware. The update went without a hitch and now the moment of truth was about to take place. I turned on my pen and did a short recording on a sticky note which I wanted to send to my Facebook page. After the recording was completed I used the convention of drawing a short line from left to right and back again and then was prompted to write the command- which I did by writing "Facebook" above the line. I was then prompted to select the page by tapping it and I finished the session by double tapping on the page. Now the LED screen on the pen prompted me to dock my pen which I did and within seconds my sticky note appeared in my Facebook page. Now anyone coming to my Facebook page can play and listen to the pencast right with the browser. Livescribe Desktop software supports a number of connectors which I'm sure you will find very handy. These include: Google Docs, Evernote, Email, Facebook, Mobile, Computer, and MyLivescribe. So if you have a Echo Smartpen then rush right over to the Livescribe website and update your software and pen so you too can take advantage of  Livescribe Connect- I'm sure you will enjoy the functionality just as much as I have!

PRESS RELEASE SAN JOSE, Calif., May 24, 2011  ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 can export and import Microsoft Project files from either Macintosh or PC computers. ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 is a powerful mind mapping product that starts projects right. Effective brainstorming and requirements gathering from the project team is critical to getting things off of the ground. ConceptDraw MINDMAP on Macintosh or Windows can export to Microsoft Project data from a mind map; it can also import a project file from Microsoft Project giving team members a working visual map of a planned project. The mind map format makes it easy to restructure project files and quickly discover status of phases, tasks and milestones using the report plug-ins available for ConceptDraw MINDMAP. ConceptDraw MINDMAP has many report plug-ins available to keep everyone up to date. A mind map of project requirements visually represents the projects structure and can be quickly modified with a couple clicks in ConceptDraw PROJECT or exported to Microsoft Project. Using a mind map to start up projects is a quick and efficient way to get projects off of the ground. Mind maps when incorporated as part of the project planning methodology improve project outcomes, by simplifying planning and adding important contingency strategies. ConceptDraw MINDMAP is a powerful planning tool that is closely integrated with ConceptDraw PROJECT; using ConceptDraw INGYRE2 technology, to rapidly move teams from planning to implementation. With the added ability of both ConceptDraw MINDMAP and ConceptDraw PROJECT of working with Microsoft Project .xml file format, the flexibility in usage scenarios has increased by an order of magnitude. ConceptDraw MINDMAP and ConceptDraw PROJECT are powerful professional project management tools that increase productivity by improving team communication and providing timely project status. Olin Reams, General Manager at CS Odessa comments, a Project Managers and their teams can now mix PCs and Macintoshes with impunity, the amount of flexibility that this can bring to a project team is incredible. There are no barriers to how you can share project data. Couple the file flexibility of ConceptDraw MINDMAP with the many project solutions available in ConceptDraw Solution Park, and you can see the tremendous value that is in our products. Pricing and Completive Upgrades Available Availability of ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 is immediate. ConceptDraw MINDMAP retails for $219 USD, competitive upgrades from other paid mind mapping products are available for $109 USD, contact CS Odessa sales for details on completive up grades of any quantity. ConceptDraw Solution Park ConceptDraw Solution Park is an online collection of visual solutions for knowledge workers designed to provide productivity increasing solutions for all ConceptDraw products. ConceptDraw Solution Park contains many subject areas for professional applications. It delivers solutions for Project Management, Business Productivity, Universal Diagramming and Collaboration. To address personal goal setting CS Odessa has added the popular Crystal Mapping SaaS and desktop applications bringing you a powerful personal development tool to augment you and your team's work.

MindGenius has been on the fast track with its development cycle and has released MindGenius 4 which is packed with some very useful features. MindGenius 4 adds a new Brainstorming mode which makes it very easy to record your ideas. MindGenius users will also like how the brainstorm session can be associated to a particular question n a Question set which can help to focus the session. Once you are done with the brainstorming session you can create a Question - Centric map based on what you brainstormed that is well organized using the questions as the primary node and the ideas the sibling nodes. This is an extremely useful feature and one that I know many mind mappers will find invaluable. MindGenius 4 has now added a presentation mode to the product which makes it an ideal tool for developing and presenting your ideas. The Presentation view is easy to use and for those of us that have been PowerPoint to death- using mind maps for our presentations is a refreshing alternative. MindGenius had added lots of other features to the Project Management side of the software package which I will address in another blog post. But for now, download the free Trial of MindGenius and explore all of the new and exciting productivity features that have added to this new version.

This past week I have had a chance to work with several teachers showing them how they can use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom to support their special education students in the classroom. While the first couple of minutes of the sessions were demonstrating the mechanical aspect of how to use PaperShow for Teachers we did get a chance to come up with some great ways to use it in the classroom. Many of the teachers enjoyed being able to to walk around the room when talking to their students while using PaperShow for Teachers as they put up ideas on the board. The students were totally amazed by the technology and all of them enjoyed writing on the PaperShow Notebook and watching their ideas come to life. The two special education teachers that I worked with used PaperShow for Teachers to brainstorm ideas as a pre-writing activity which really provided the students with the support they needed. Another teacher drew a a graphic organizer using the circle and line tools with PaperShow for Teachers and had the students fill in some of the idea bubbles. After the session was over both teachers talked to me about all the possible way they could use PaperShow for Teachers in the inclusion classroom to support students with learning differences. Both special education teachers were really excited with all of the possibilities and how it could be used with students to scaffold their learning. If you would like a free demo of PaperShow for Teachers please feel free to contact me

If you are in business you know just how important written communication is in helping you to stay connected to your clients. While a lot has been written about business people writing personal notes, I know that it is time consuming and can add some costs to the bottom line. But what would happen if you could write that personal note in your handwriting and send it off as an email? Now you get the best of both world- the ability to write a personal note in your handwriting and send it off as an email. Using the Livescribe Echo Pen and the new Livescribe Connect services I was able to write my personal note on the Flip Notepad paper and then send it via the Livescribe Connect service to a special educator who registered for the Summer iPad Institute which will be held July 12 and 13th at the Warren Middle School, Warren, NJ. (If you are interested in registering for the iPad Institute click here). Think of what a nice touch it is when he receives via an email a personal note for me confirming his registration. Using the Livescribe Connect Service was extremely easy and all of the mechanics of the email are handled from within the Livescribe Desktop Software. In order to accomplish this task, I simply wrote my note on the Flip Notepad paper and then synched it to the Livescribe Desktop Software. I then Right clicked on the handwritten note and choose the Email option. I had the option to send the handwritten note as a PDF or PNG file and selected the PDF format. Once I clicked OK a small dialog box popped up that let me enter the recipients email address with a subject. Clicking OK sent the email with the handwritten note. It is really that simple. So if you are looking for a high tech way to add that personal touch you may want to think about using the Livescribe Echo Pen to send up your next personal handwritten note.

If you follow the mind mapping arena you will probably have noticed the blogs and videos that SmartDraw has created about the benefits of visual communication. The videos are done very well and really speak to the heart of the issue- with the right visuals we can all be more efficient and productive at what we do.SmartDraw VP has a good balance of tools for many of the tasks that you may need to accomplish throughout the day. While the mind mapping features that are found in SmartDraw VP are not as extensive as a stand alone application there is a synergy among the tools that might make it an ideal tool for the work you do. The mind mapping tool in SmartDraw VP is ideal for brainstorming, project planing and for developing time lines. SmartDraw VP lets you quickly move from the mind mapping view to a time line or Gantt chart view with a click of the mouse. In the recent upgrade to SmartDraw VP you will now be able to format your mind map Center, All Right or All Left giving you new options for how your mind maps are displayed on the screen. I for one find that many people who are not familiar with mind mapping have an easier time when I present a mind map using the All Right formatting. Similarly, it is now really easy to create a mind map in SmartDraw VP by importing a text outline. I tried this feature by typing a simple outline into the Notepad and importing it into SmartDraw VP. After each main idea I pressed the Enter key and for each subtopic I used the Tab key to indent the text. Once I had my outline completed I used the new Import Text Outline feature and voila there I had a perfectly formatted mind map.If you are eligible I would highly recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of SmartDraw VP so that you can take advantage of these new mind mapping features. SmartDraw VP is a handy tool with lots of  ways to help you become more productive in your working environment. If you haven't taken a look at SmartDraw VP, it has a good balance of tools that can give you the edge as you head down the path to becoming a better visual communicator. You can download a 30 day trial of SmartDraw VP by clicking on this link.

It was really exciting to learn today that my book that I coauthored several years ago-Emotionally Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, Socially Skilled Child [Kindle Edition], Elias, Tobias & Friedlander  is available in a Kindle Edition and is ready to be downloaded. You will find the book easy to read with lots of timely advice, humor, and stories. If you have a Kindle you can click in the link below to download the book. Let me know how you like it.

Today I had the opportunity to work with a teacher and show her how she could use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom. As luck would have it, all of her students were going to be taking the NJ Drivers Written Exam and she needed to review the material with them. Rather than do a traditional question and answer session the teacher began to draw different scenarios on the PaperShow for Teachers notebook that the students could visualize and then annotate on the paper. The session was extremely engaging and interactive but more importantly the students really enjoyed writing on the PaperShow for Teachers notebook and reviewing the material. You can see above one of the images that was captured during the session. For an entire period we were able to engage the students in a highly interactive fashion and help them review key points that they could expect to know for the NJ Drivers Written Exam. How are you using PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom? Interested in learning how you can use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom? If so, then sign up here for a free webinar.

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.