Join me for a full day workshop as we explore how the iPad can be used with students with learning and organization disabilities.The multi-sensory design of the iPad has made a big impact in the field of education because it appeals to all learners. There are thousands of applications (apps) in the area of education, with many designed specifically for students with learning disabilities and organizational difficulties. Come learn about the built-in IOS features that make the iPad an ideal device to support students with learning and organizational difficulties. Learn about some new workflows and how students can use the iPad to organize their school life. Come learn about apps that can be used as students move through the writing process, from brainstorming to publishing. During this session you will learn about mind mapping apps, word prediction, text to speech, speech recognition and other supports to assist students in the writing process. Similarly learn about some new and innovative apps for reading. Find out how you can use the iPad as an instructional tool to engage students in the learning process. Leave the workshop with new ways and strategies to use the iPad when you return to your classroom.Bring your iPad so that we can do hands on activities with the various apps. Participants will be emailed the names of apps we will be working with prior to the workshop. This is a Bring Your Own Device Workshop- so please feel free to bring your iPad to the workshop- WiFi connectivity will be available in and air conditioned setting.Seating is limited so register early!Registration Fee: $99.99 & Includes 1 iPad Laminated Reference GuideFor more information email: brian@assistivetek.com or call 908-852-3460School Purchase Orders are Accepted made payable to AssistiveTek, LLC, 174 Stephensburg Road, Port Murray, NJ 07865To Register click on this link http://adobe.ly/11qndbsLocation of Workshop : Delaware Township School District -501 Rosemont-Ringoes RoadSergeantsville, NJ 08557Time: 8:30 am - 2:30 pmHope to see you there! Brian

Well it is hard to believe that another year has come and gone and I will be off to ISTE 2103 Conference in San Antonio in a couple of days! It figures to be an exciting venue with over 18,000 educators attending. I am sensing a lot of energy this year which should make for a great show. I put this Haiku Deck together to give you a glimpse of what I will be packing. Enjoy-and stay tuned for some new product announcements on my blog! www.haikudeck.com

As the iPad takes hold of the classroom, educators are looking for new ways to extend the functionality of the device and take advantage of it's powerful feature set. While many of us have utilized the camera on the iPad for still photographs or for taking classroom videos- companies like Belkin want to extend the reach of these capabilities and help teachers get the most out of their iPad investment. With this in mind Belkin has just released the Belkin Tablet Stage which turns your iPad into a document camera and presentation system. Having had a chance to work with the Belkin Tablet Stage first hand, I am impressed with the quality and attention to detail of the design.Putting together the Belkin Tablet Stage took about 10 minutes and was rather straight forward using the step by step directions in the booklet that accompanied the device. The Belkin Tablet Stage cradle can accompany a wide range of tablets, everything from the iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy, to the iPad Mini. The cradle can easily be pivoted from landscape to portrait mode making it easy to use when using apps or as a presentation tool. The Belkin Tablet Stage has an easy to use release button that allows you to easily and quickly remove your iPad or tablet from the stand. The Belkin Tablet Stage base is securely weighted to ensure that your tablet stage does not fall over. Teacher who prefer, can secure the Belkin Tablet Stage to the desk with screws, with the cut outs provided  in the base. Zooming in and out with the Belkin Tablet Stage is easily accomplished by pressing down on the latch on the post and moving the arm up or down.. The designers of the Belkin Tablet Stage took into account that teachers would be connecting their tablets via a cable and have provided a cabling management system that works well and keeps it out of the way when using the stand. As a nice touch, Belkin has also included a light that affixes to the post which can be turned on when you need to illuminate an object or page under the iPad. Teachers will really enjoy the freedom of this device when the iPad is paired up to an Apple TV which allows you to use Apple Airplay technology to wirelessly send the video and audio to the data projector.While teachers can utilize any number of apps that takes advantage of the iPad camera, Belkin has also released a free app called the Belkin Stage app which compliments the stand. Stage is an easy to use app that can be utilized to mark up and annotate whatever is under the camera. Its innovative user interface pops out from the sides when you are using the various tools and then slides back to the sides so that it doesn't get in the way. While you have the traditional pen tools with various line widths and a laser pointer the really nice touch is being able to create label flags ahead of time that you can then pull out from the drawer to highlight important features of your pictures or objects that are under the camera. Once you have annotated the image you can capture the image and save it to your camera roll for later viewing. One of the unique features of the Stage is the ability to record a video complete with annotation and audio. This does require an in app purchase but is definitely worth the cost of $1.99 for the video and recording feature. Teachers that are moving to providing students with videos for a flipped classroom model will enjoy using the Stage app and the annotation feature for crafting their videos. The Stage app also allows you to use the app as you would a blackboard and you can even bring in pictures from your Camera Roll and annotate them as well. Here is a video demonstration of the Belkin Stage that I prepared utilizing the Belkin Tablet Stage.All in all, there is a lot to like about the Belkin Tablet Stage and is it a great iPad accessory for the classroom that you will enjoy using. While working with the Belkin Tablet Stage, I did have a tendency to want the be able to swing the iPad around the post which is in a fixed position. In order to rotate the iPad from a portrait or landscape mode you need to rotate the frame which takes a little more time. I also wish as a presenter, that there was a lighter travel version of this Belkin Tablet Stage which would make it easier to transport from classroom to classroom. I also did note that when working in the Belkin Stage app that the Flags did not always rotate to the right orientation when going from Portrait to Landscape mode. Except for a couple of minor issues, the Belkin Tablet Stand and Stage app are a strong contender to move to the top of the class when it comes to iPad accessories for classroom use. If you are attending the ISTE 2013 Conference stop by the Belkin Booth #5247 so that you can see first hand what a great product they have designed.

ISTE 2013 is long gone and is now just a fleeting memory- but wow was it fun! The ISTE conferences by and large remains one of my most favorite conferences to attend. This year was a lot of fun as I had a chance to meet educators from around the globe who see the potential for creating environments in the classroom and beyond that engage and enlighten students. No doubt we are moving into a post PC world which was evidenced by the sheer number of companies showing off their tablet solutions for the classroom. One of the companies which certainly made a big Public Relations splash this year was Microsoft. As part of Windows in the Classroom Surface Experience Project, Microsoft gave away 10,000 Windows Surface RT's to educators who attended the ISTE conference. It was quite interesting to see educators at the conference carrying their iPad in one hand and their new Surface RT in their left . I even spotted a group of teachers in the hotel one night sitting around the table figuring out how to get started with the Surface RT and Windows 8.  I will disclose that I was fortunate enough to meet with Cameron Evans, National Technology Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Education, Cameron Evans, who is responsible for shaping and executing Microsoft Corp.’s technology and policy strategy in U.S. Education. Attending the ISTE Conference as Media, I had a great conversation with Cameron and he shared with me Microsoft's dedication and commitment to the education marketplace, understanding that his company had to become more focused and amplify the message as to the range of products and services that educators could rely on from Microsoft to achieve their goals in the classroom. At the end of our meeting Cameron was gracious enough to give me a Surface RT to take home and use. For those of you who know me-you know that I was an early adopter of the  iPad since it was released and own an iPad 1, iPad 2 and an iPad Mini. The iPad revolutionized how we work and  it has been a real boon for the work I do in the field of assistive technology. With that having said, I wanted to be open minded to the Surface RT and give it a test drive to see how it would perform. Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised and am really enjoying using the Surface RT around my home and when I travel. The Surface RT is very well constructed and made of a type of magnesium alloy that gives it a great look and feel. The Touch Cover is an innovative and functional cover/keyboard all rolled into one. At first glance you are not too sure you will be able to use the Touch Cover effectively but with a little practice you will find that it works quite well. The kickstand which is part of the Surface RT always is there when you are ready to read or type and having a full USB port makes it handy for the times when you want to transfer a file to your Surface RT from a thumbdrive. While I am familiar with Windows 7, Windows 8 is a whole new operating system that took me a little bit of time to figure out (well about 10 minutes give or take a few :-)). Its use of colorful tiles for apps and live feeds is innovative and very inviting.Using the familiar swiping action lets you navigate through the screens as you would expect and customizing the tiles is as easy a dragging them to the desired location. It did take a little getting used to the idea of the Charms on the right hand side of the screen but I have found it a welcome addition to Windows 8 to help me navigate through the Surface RT. While many have lamented about the look at feel of Windows 8 (Metro style) I found it to be attractive and enjoy, having real time feeds appear in the tiles from my various social networks which are linked to my Windows 8 account. Having access to the touch enhanced versions of Microsoft Office Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote is another helpful perk especially when I am concerned about not losing the formatting going between different systems. I have found that the Surface RT has wonderful battery life and connecting it to various WiFi networks was fast and fluid. Bering able to switch from one app to another by swiping is a great short cut and one that I use often. While Apple has decried the use of Flash on their iPad, having access to Flash on the Surface RT has been great especially the way it is integrated into Internet Explorer. If I had any gripes I would like the Surface RT to have a faster processor so that screens are rendered faster. There are times when you wait for the information to show up on the screen.One of the areas which needs to be addressed is that there are far fewer apps for educators that are available for the Surface RT in the Microsoft Store. One of the short comings of the Surface RT is that since it sports an ARM processor it is not possible to install legacy Windows 7 or 8 applications that you might want to. Therefore the only applications that you can install are those that have been written specifically for the Surface RT. While most of the major apps that you would expect to find are currently there, (ie. Kindle, Amazon, Netflix, Evernote etc.) there are still too few apps for the classroom especially in the area of assistive technology. Yes, Microsoft did embed a lot of accessibility features into Windows 8 (Text to Speech, Narrator, Zoom, and Speech Recognition)  there needs to be more work done to persuade developers to provide educators with a range of apps so that we can use on the Surface RT with students with special needs. As much as Microsoft has taken a hit in the press with regards to writing off $900 million dollars due to poor sales of the Surface RT- it was necessary for Microsoft to show the industry that it could design and develop top of the line hardware so that they can control its destiny in a post PC world. The Surface RT is an interesting tablet with a lot of functionality but one which was not really well defined or understood from the outset. This in my opinion cost Microsoft ground in its race to achieve market share in the tablet space. Now that Microsoft has lowered the price of the Surface RT to $349 dollars it has an opportunity to refocus its marketing and communicate to educators and consumers the value proposition of owning a Surface RT, compared to the other tablets in the marketplace. While this may be a formidable task- one gets the real sense that Microsoft is in this for the long haul and is just getting ready to rock and roll! 

What other profession do you know of, that would sacrifice a whole day for professional development without pay? Welcome to the world of teaching and the un-conference model which is turning the world of professional development on its heels. Today more than 200 teachers arrived at Richard Stockton College for a full day of professional development with a focus on educational technology . The day started off with a Kidspiration Maps and iReadWrite. Both programs were very well received and offer students a great deal of support in the area of written language.series of quick 20 minute presentations by teachers on all kinds of interesting technology topics. I presented in one of the 20 minutes modules with a focus on reading and writing apps for struggling students. In the 20 minute time period I was able to demo the recently released apps: If you have't taken a look at the Kidspiration Maps which was recently released, I urge you to do so. It incorporates a great deal of features which adhere to the concept of Universal Design for Learning. Kidspiration Maps allows students to use text, pictures, and audio recordings to express their ideas. Teachers will love the way they can give students audio instructions and students will just love the colorful library of high quality vector based graphics. For those of you who like to kick the tires, their is a lite version of Kidspiration Maps that you can download and test out.iReadWrite offers students a great set of tool for writing which includes word prediction, text to speech, dictionary, and homonym checking. This is a powerful app with exceptional word prediction. Please take a look at my complete review of iReadWrite which I did when it was released.In the afternoon I was fortunate to be able to present with Mike Marotta a long time friend and assistive technology specialist where we delved into the accessibility features on the iPad and had a chance to take a look at some of the other apps for students with reading and writing disabilities. During the course of the day we demoed: CoWriter app, Clicker Docs, Clicker Sentences, Inspiration Maps, Book Creator, Voice Dream, Learning Ally app, and AudioNote. This was a great day of presenting and our participants went home with a new appreciation of how the iPad could be adapted and used in the classroom to better support students.I have been using a new tool called Edcanvas which is a great way to share information and links which I showed today.

The summer really kicked off for me when I attended the ISTE 2013 Conference in San Antonio the end of June. It has been a busy summer doing workshops, consulting and working with new hardware and apps. I was fortunate to receive a Windows Surface RT from the Microsoft Education Team at ISTE 2013 and have been exploring its feature set and how it could be used in the classroom. Using the Windows Surface RT, I have become accustomed to using Windows 8 on a tablet and have enjoyed learning the new operating system which has some nice features. Unlike the Windows Surface RT's big brother the Windows Surface Pro- you can not install Windows 8 legacy software on the Windows Surface RT and are relegated to downloading apps form the Microsoft Store. While the number of educational apps is growing there is still a need for more high quality apps for use by educators. Having said that, there is still a good base of apps for students and teachers to utilize on the Windows Surface RT especially since the Surface RT, comes standard with Microsoft Office. I would imagine that many students will be coming back to schools which have invested in the Windows 8 tablet platform and will find themselves needing to get up to speed. From an instructors perspective you will find it easy to use the Windows Surface RT as an instructional tool and I would highly recommend that you go out and purchase a HDMI to VGA cable that will enable you to plug your Windows Surface RT into your data projector. There are many companies on Amazon that sell this cable for a couple of dollars that will really make your life easy using the Windows Surface RT in the classroom. For that matter you can also plug the Windows Surface RT into a larger external monitor and use it as an alternative to a laptop. The Windows Surface RT also has an audio out jack making it easy to plug it into an external speaker. If you are so inclined you can also pair your Windows Surface RT to a Bluetooth speaker giving you complete flexibility. I was quickly able to pair the Surface RT with my Hidden Radio Bluetooth speaker and enjoyed watching videos on my Surface RT. For those of you who would rather use a mouse with your Windows Surface RT you may find the Microsoft Touch Wedge mouse a good alternative. The Microsoft Touch Wedge mouse is small Bluetooth enabled device that lets you scroll both vertically and horizontally utilizing the Windows 8 operating system. Pairing the Microsoft Touch Wedge mouse was fast and easy and it worked well on all of the surfaces I tried it out on. As much as I enjoyed having access to the Surface Touch Cover, I found that it just didn't work for me and I went out and replaced it with the Surface Type Cover which adds minimal weight to the device. Having access to the Type Cover gives me a great working experience when I am typing or using Microsoft Word on the Surface RT. Using the various peripherals with my Surface RT enabled me to customize my working environment when using the tablet and made for a much more enjoyable experience. If you were one of the lucky teachers to receive a Surface RT at the ISTE 2013 Conference stay tuned for some other ideas and tips and tricks of using the Surface RT in the classroom. 

Let me start off by saying I have always been a big fan of the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard and have watched it over the years evolve to a very robust and powerful solution for the classroom. The MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard from its inception is pure genius- simply affix the Mimio Bar to a whiteboard and within seconds you have an entire interactive whiteboard system at your disposal. Not to date myself but when I was first introduced to the Mimio many years ago the big attraction was capturing ink from whiteboards when using dry erase markers- so you can see how quickly things have changed. Having the opportunity to try out the latest solution from Mimio- the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard was really exciting from the un-boxing to the point of actually using it in the classroom. The MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard is now packaged in a beautifully designed high tech looking box which when opened reveals the newly designed white bow shaped MimioTeach bar. The MimioTeach is elegantly designed and has that high tech look we have come to expect from these type of products. On the MimioTeach itself there are two buttons and one Power/Status LED light, and on the left side of the bar is the docking station for the stylus which is firmly held in place with magnets that are inside the MimioTeach bar. The two buttons on the MimioTeach are designated for Calibration and Launching the tools and the Power/Status LED light on the front gives the user feedback that the bar is on and communicating  properly with the Mimio Hub, which plugs into the USB port on your computer which supports both Mac and Windows.It is nice to see that a lot of thought has gone into the un-boxing experience and getting up and running. Once you open the box there is a ten step visual prompt on the inside of the box cover that moves you through the getting started process. From installing the MimioStudio software to doing a firmware upgrade on the MimioTeach bar the process was smooth and flawless. Following the visual steps was easy and straight forward and within minutes I was up and running. While I was familiar with MimioStudio and using the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard solution I wondered what it would be like for my students to use the system who were not familiar with the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard system. So during one of my summer classes that I teach, I decided to bring it in and have my students set it up and get it up and running.Using the visual set-up guide and the MimioStudio Guide, which I gave to my students, they were up and running without a hitch. Many of my students commented that they could not believe how easy it was to use the MimioStudio software and utilize right out of the box. My students found the software and using the stylus to be very straight forward and many of them were surprised at the cost effectiveness and the functionality as compared to standalone interactive whiteboards that are often installed in classrooms and cost thousands of dollars. My students enjoyed using the MimioStudio software and the vast array of pictures and interactive media in the Library to craft some quick pages in the notebook.  Teachers can also add MimioVote, MimioCapture and MimioView to round out this classroom offering. Having access to the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard gives teachers the flexibility to create interactive and engaging lessons that students of today expect from their teachers. Having access to the  MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard gives teachers a great starting point that can grow with them as they need more functionality. Considering the austere budgets that schools have to work with the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard is a powerful and full featured classroom solution that is easy to install and use right out of the box. As I like to say, if you have a whiteboard in your classroom you are half way there to providing your students with an exciting and engaging interactive learning experience-now all you need to add is the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard.Please look for another post about the MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard and the MimioMobile app for the iPad coming soon!

Adobe Presenter 9 just might be one of Adobe's best kept secrets. As a long time Adobe Presenter user it is really exciting to see the evolution of this product and watch as the feature set grows. Adobe Presenter 9 has to be one of the best releases and one that will enable subject matter experts, teachers, and instructional designers to develop full blown courses with audio, video and multimedia. For those of you who may not be familiar with Adobe Presenter, it is a plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows, that adds a full set of new features to PowerPoint making it easy to create eLearning modules. For those of you who have been using PowerPoint for years, having access to Adobe Presenter 9 will afford you opportunity to quickly turn your presentations into full fledged eLearning assets that can be published to Adobe Connect, a Web server, or your Learning Management System.Adobe Presenter 9 ToolbarAs a subject matter expert, Adobe Presenter 9 lets me package my eLearning material in a very professional manner that is ready to be hosted on our college Learning Management System (Moodle). I will talk more about that a little later in this post. One of the new features to be added to Adobe Presenter 9 is Adobe Presenter Video Creator which opens up all kind of possibilities for creating high quality instructional videos from your desktop without the need to know a lot of about editing or videography. Being in the field of assistive technology, I want to applaud Adobe for making Adobe Presenter 9 a truly accessible tool for students with a range of visual, motor, hearing and learning disabilities. In fact, Adobe Presenter Video Creator lets you create Closed Captioning videos on the fly utilizing their proprietary speech to text engine when creating the video. Adobe Presenter 9 adds Section 508 compliance which is a welcome addition.Once you install Adobe Presenter 9 it is easy to get started on crafting your eLearning material. The workflow could not be any easier, open up you presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint and click on the Adobe Presenter tab which now open up a whole new world for features for creating your materials. Depending on my goals there are times when I will add an audio narration to the slides which can be done simply using my built-in microphone on my laptop. There is always the option to import audio and utilize an external microphone for better recording quality. When it is time to sync the audio to your text Adobe Presenter 9 provides you with an easy to use feature to accomplish this. To spice up my eLearning material, I will often include one or two of the built in interactions that can be found in Adobe Presenter 9. Sometimes I will add a Word Search or a Jigsaw Puzzle to engage and have my Interaction Typesstudents interact with the material in a fun way. Adobe Presenter 9 includes over 12 different types of interactions which you can add to your presentation. Having access now to both Characters and Scenes opens up the possibilities when using Adobe Presenter 9 to create scenario based eLearning materials. In fact of the newest features that is found in Adobe Presenter 9, is the Insert Scenario Interaction which lets you drop in a pre-set scenario whereby all of the characters and scenes with the associated paths have been programmed for you. This is ideal for doing what-if scenarios and gives your participants the option to test out what they have learned. At this Insert Scenariopoint in time the characters and scenes are slanted towards business and I have provided Adobe with my feedback that they need to include more characters and scenes that are relevant for K-12 and Higher Education. Despite the need for more relevant characters and scenes this is still a powerful tool to utilize as you put together your eLearning material.OK, so I added my slides, audio narration, some interactions and maybe even some video-now I would like to assess what my students have learned from the module. From my perspective as a Quiz Question Typesprofessor it is important for me know that my students are grasping the information and key concepts and what better way to do that than by adding a quiz to the material. Adobe Presenter 9 makes it easy to add a quiz and now includes 9 different types of questions that I can add to a quiz. One of the most asked for features, Drag & Drop was added to Adobe Presenter 9 which opens up all kinds of possibilities for assessing my students. While adding a quiz has always been a standard feature, I am particularly excited by the addition of the Collaboration feature and the Student Analytic Dashboard that was recently added to Adobe Presenter 9. With the Collaboration feature tuned on students can engage in an ongoing conversation about the material and learn from one another as they are interacting with the material. Adobe makes this feature easy to use and it doesn't require that you have a Learning Management System in place. Once this feature is turned on all users will see a question mark on the bottom of the learning module that they can click to view and ask questions. This is a great feature to get students more engaged and gives them the opportunity to learn from one another. One of the other benefits of Adobe Presenter 9 is that it supports Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) which makes it ideal of uploading to Moodle. Setting up the SCORM package is a cinch in Adobe Presenter 9 and when I am done I can upload it as a ZIP file to Moodle and my students can view the material and answer the quiz. Moodle handles the Adobe Presenter 9 SCORM files exceptionally well and will automatically report the students quiz scores to me.The feature that I am most excited about in this release of Adobe Presenter 9 is the Student Dashboard which takes Adobe Presenter 9 to a new realm for me as I deliver more content online to my students. Adobe has done a masterful job of providing me with a way to monitor my students progress as they work on a learning module. I just started back teaching and have put up my first Dashboardmodule to see how this feature would work and all I can say is wow- this truly gives me a snapshot of where my students are in the module and if any of them need some assistance. The Dashboard is extremely visual and I have found easy to use. The heat map of where my students are in the process of completing the module gives me a quick overview of their progress. At any time I can email or share their progress directly form the Dashboard. Adobe Presenter 9 also gives me the capability to set an Intervention date that alert me of students who are not progressing through the eLearning Module- this giving me the opportunity to intervene. Having access to the Dashboard is a tremendous feature and one that I know I will take advantage throughout the semester. Kudos to Adobe for building this feature in!When it comes time to publishing my course there are lots of options for output-you may want to consider uploading it to your Adobe Connect account, a web server, a LMS, or as a PDF that you can distribute. I have always been impressed with the options and the look and feel of the course when it is packaged within Adobe Presenter 9. Adobe Presenter 9 gives you complete control over how your published course will look and how users will navigate through the module. I for one like how Adobe Published Adobe Presenter 9 ModulePresenter 9 creates an index and the sidebar, but if you choose you can completely remove that and utilize your own system for navigating the module. Adobe Presenter 9 also makes it easier to attach accompanying documents to your learning module which are then easily accessible to the learner. Adobe Presenter 9 opens up all kind of new possibilities for teachers, instructors, and eLearning professionals that are looking for ways to utilize their legacy PowerPoint presentations. With a little seat time you will be up and running using the powerful features in Adobe Presenter 9 to publish your courses to the web or mobile devices (IOS and Android apps are available). Adobe has added a number of new features to the recent release of Adobe Presenter 9 which makes this application even more powerful without the steep learning curve. As I said in the beginning Adobe Presenter 9 may just be the best kept secret in Adobe's suite of software applications -but I have a sneaking suspicion that they know they have a real winner on their hands with this release, and I'm sure they will do all they can to get the word out going forward.If you would like to try Adobe Presenter 9- Adobe has a 30 day trial version that you can download from the web.Please look for another post soon on the Adobe Presenter Video Creator which opens up all kind of new possibilities.

I guess patience is a real virtue especially when it comes to developing apps for Apple's IOS devices. In the case of the Co:Writer App for IOS from Don Johnston, Inc, the wait was certainly worth it.  Co:Writer for Mac and PC has become to large degree the standard in the assistive technology field for word prediction. I can remember when I first saw Co:Writer for the first time I was floored just how good the prediction algorithms were. It had the uncanny ability to feel like it was reading my Co:Writer for IOS comes complete with a large library of built-in Topic Dictionaries, what happens when the student is writing for example a current events paper on the Civil War in Syria? Not a problem, Co:Writer for IOS can go out to the web and create a Scraped Topic Dictionary on the fly. Wow that is some powerful feature!Co:Writer for iPadmind as I demonstrated it on the computer. But what could we come to expect from Co:Writer on an IOS device? With a long history of being the standard by which all word prediction applications are measured could it really provide students with the level of support that they would need? I have to tell you that since its release a couple of weeks ago, Co:Writer lives up to its reputation and then some. I am really floored to watch Co:Writer run on the iPad as elegantly as it does never missing a beat. The word prediction is top rate even when students spell phonetically or leave out vowels. The killer feature as far as I am concerned are Topic Dictionaries and Scraped Topic Dictionaries. Those of us who have used Co:Writer are well aware of Topic Dictionaries that are included with Co:Writer on the Mac or PC and how well they can support students when they are writing a specific topic. Sometimes we forget what a difference it can make when a student is writing when we can provide theme with all those technical and topical words they will need to access. While  As you would expect you can customize Co:Writer for IOS by determining the base number of words that Co:Writer should access which would depend on the students vocabulary and grade level. You can also set the Text to Speech feature to read letters, words, or sentences and set the rate of the speech. You currently can utilize five different fonts and change the size of the text and utilize a high contrast feature, black background white text. While Co:Writer makes it easy to get your ideas down on the iPad-it also gives you lots of options when it comes time for sharing your ideas. You can send the text to iMessage, Facebook, Twitter or Email. Better yet you can save it to your Dropbox or Google Drive account for easy access at home or in school. You can also copy. paste and print the text directly from the app. Don Johnston, Inc recently added iCloud support which will now sync your files across multiple devices which is a great feature. Co:Writer for IOS also supports external Bluetooth keyboards and will work on the iPhone. For students who need spelling support, having access to Co:Writer on IOS will be a dream come true for them.To get a feel for Co:Writer for IOS please watch the screencast.

I have been involved in Elearning for some time now and am really excited to be speaking at the Adobe Learning Summit 2013 in Las Vegas, NV on October 21, 2013. I will be sharing the work that I have been doing with Adobe Presenter 9 in the graduate courses that I teach and how it has changed my perspective on how to deliver course content on the web. My topic for the session is: Understanding Learner Intervention & Collaboration in Post-secondary Education  Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. & John Dorbolo, Ph.D.With a shift to learning anytime and anywhere, it is important for instructors to be able to provide timely feedback to students and intervene to keep students on course and heading in the right direction. In this session, learn about the Adobe Presenter 9 workflow and how college instructors can provide timely feedback to students who are taking courses online, as well as strategies to engage students to collaborate in the eLearning process. Find out how students can engage with the content as they interact with one another right within the Adobe Presenter 9 eLearning module. Case studies and examples will be demonstrated as to how this can be accomplished.Brian FriedlanderProfessor of EducationCollege of St. ElizabethBrian S. Friedlander is an assistant professor of education at the College of St. Elizabeth and a school psychologist with expertise in the area of educational and assistive technology. Brian has a passion for using all kinds of technology in his professional work; he is very interested in the use of mind mapping, eLearning, and Web 2.0 technologies as it applies to his teaching responsibilities. Brian recently co-authored iPad: Enhancing Learning & Communication for Students with Special Needs, a reference guide available from National Professional Resources.Jon DorboloAssociate Director, Technology Across the CurriculumOregon State UniversityJon Dorbolo is the associate director of Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) and a philosophy instructor at Oregon State University. He received his doctorate in philosophy at University of Oregon in 1987. He has received many honors, including the 2013 Catalyst Exemplary Course award, the 1996 Multi-Media Educator of the Year award, and the 1998 Oregon State University Extended Education Faculty Achievement Award, and was named one of the 2013 Top 50 Innovators in Education by the Center for Digital Education. Jon is currently co-developing immersive environments.I hope you can join us! To register for the Adobe Learning Summit click here.

Let's face it, as wonderful as interactive whiteboards are in the classroom, with shrinking school budgets it is getting harder and harder to install these tools in each and every classroom. But with the range of students in classrooms with various learning styles having access to an interactive whiteboard to craft lessons can be advantageous to teachers trying to meet the needs of all students. With this in mind, I was really excited to try out the recently released solution from IPEVO, the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System. The IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System is a cost effective way to turn any whiteboard or flat surface into and interactive whiteboard. The IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System works with both Windows and Macintosh computers and the system is comprised of a small camera, stylus and supplied Annotator software. Teacher will need to  IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard Systemalso have access to a LCD projector for the classroom to use this solution. Setting up my computer to use the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System was straight forward and easy to accomplish. First, I installed the Annotator software and drivers from the CD, then plugged in the camera to my computer and calibrated the system with the stylus and in less then 5 minutes I was up and running. While I had a chance to use it on a whiteboard which was fantastic, I recently used it in another classroom at the college which only had a traditional blackboard which worked just as well. In any case you are going to want to use this solution on a surface that is flat and smooth for best results. The Annotator software gives teachers the ability to use the stylus as a mouse to control any computer application on the computer with complete control to mark up the computer screen using a number of different annotation tools. Teachers can select from lines, squares, and circles to mark up the screen. I found the software to be intuitive to use and changing color of the ink and the width of the stroke was straight forward. Annotator AppThe IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System was very responsive to the stylus and worked as a mouse even when the targets were small. The Annotator software also integrates with any of the IPEVO document cameras, adding more functionality to the system and giving teachers a way to bring in images to your computer that can be marked up. The folks at IPEVO do understand classrooms and realize that in some instances small children will have a hard time using the smaller stylus and includes an extension that attaches to the stylus giving students the opportunity to use the interactive system. Teachers can also access the Web and use the in-screen keyboard for inputting text as well as using the Screen clipping tool to add screen captures to the IPEVO notebook. As if this wasn't enough, the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System lets teachers bring up a virtual notebook that they can write on and bring in graphics from captured screen clippings or from your hard drive. Teachers can create multiple pages in the notebook and go back and forth within the notebook to review the material. I can only imagine where IPEVO will take this product as it continues to add enhancements to the Annotator software. The IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System works as advertised and gives teachers an inexpensive solution to utilize their computers and projectors as an interactive whiteboard in the classroom. If you are looking to create more interactive lessons and you are on a tight budget then you have to take a look at the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System. If you are using the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System I welcome your comments.

With the release of Adobe Presenter 9 comes the Drag and Drop feature which gives developers a way to create interactive drag and drop questions to a quiz. The Drag and Drop feature is intuitive and allows you to create a number of different types of questions that can include both text and pictures. In the Halloween example, I created a simple Drag and Drop quiz called the Candy Challenge that allows the user to match a picture of the candy bar with the name of the candy. In the screencast below you will see just how easy it is to create a Drag and Drop question in Adobe Presenter 9. To actually try the Candy Challenge click on the link.

Last week was certainly an exciting week as all the new gadgets and gizmos were announced at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, NV. One of the gadgets I had my eyes on all last year was the Boogie Board Sync 9.7 from Improv Electronics which had given us a taste for the product at last Year's CES. Well it finally arrived at my home last week and I have been putting it though its paces. If you have used any of the other Boogie Boards they are simple and easy to use eWriters for doodling or drawing, but one of the features that many of us asked for was a way to save our drawings and notes which is now possible with the Boogie Board Sync. Weighing in less than a pound and powered by a rechargeable battery which should last all week this device complete with stylus is an easy tool to capture notes and ideas without the need for pen and paper. The Boogie Board Sync utilizes a 9.7 inch diagonal LCD display to write on. While some of the early reviews have complained about the light contrast when writing on the device, I have found the contrast to be good and the writing quite legible. The stylus tip is quite thin and makes it easy to make finer detailed drawings or written notes compared to some of the previous stylus that were used with other Boogie Board models.  One of the really nice features of the Boogie Board Sync is the natural feel of the stylus on the LCD display-it has a smooth and silky feel when writingand allows you to rest your palm on the screen without having to worry about making contact with it. The only strokes that are recorded by the Boogie Board Sync are the ones that are made with the stylus. The Boogie Board Sync has three buttons on the device, one to power up the device and two other buttons to save your notes and one to erase your notes. There are two LED indicators on the lower left hand side of the Boogie Board Sync to give you the status of the device's state and a blue indicator to indicate the status of the Bluetooth. While the Boogie Board Sync can be used with a micro USB cable plugged into a computer the real power is using this device with an IOS device (ie. iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). You see you can pair your Boogie Board Sync to your iPad via Bluetooth and with the dedicated Sync app send your drawings directly to your device. You will find the free iPad app in the Apple Store which is a synch to learn. I have found the Bluetooth pairing to by quite quick and straight forward and have been able to pair my computer, iPad, and iPhone without a hitch. Once the Boogie Board Sync was paired to my iPad Mini I could access my notes and drawings that were on the device and send them to Evernote, Twitter, or Facebook with an intuitive interface. The Sync app on my iPad Mini allowed me to organize my notes into Folders and automatically send them to Evernote for storage. If you have used your Boogie Board Sync to write some notes and have not paired it to your IOS device the next time you open the Sync app the Boogie Board Sync will automatically download all the files to your iPad. The Boogie Board Sync has tremendous potential for students that want to move to a paperless system. This could be an ideal solution for students who want to digitize their notes and transfer them their JOS device or to Evernote. Having your notes stored in a digital format makes it easy to store and archive and search. Students will also enjoy the Boogie Board Sync portfolio case to house and protect their Boogie Board Sync. The possibilities are endless with the Boogie Board Sync and for an entry price of $99 dollars it is certainly worth entertaining as part of a note taking strategy and solution for students. All and all, waiting for the Boogie Board Sync to arrive was certainly worth waiting for and one that I will carry with me, to move away from writing notes on paper.The number of gadgets that will surface in 2014 will be too numerous to follow-but one of the trends we will see are relatively inexpensive devices that complement the tablets and smartphones we carry and use. From this perspective the Boogie Board Sync adds tremendous value to our IOS devices and makes taking digital notes a reality with the natural feel of pen and paper.

I have been following the digital writing market for some time now and was intrigued when I learned about a new product from Tegware, called the Tegware Bagel, which marries an iPhone case with a small Boogie Board eWriter display, which was released at CES 2014. Having reviewed the original Boogie Board when it was released, I saw first-hand how liberating it was to use for jotting down notes and for doodling and have enjoyed using one ever since. In fact, I now keep a Boogie Board Jot 4.5  on my desk at work to write down reminders and telephone numbers instead of wasting paper. There is a certain beauty in the simplicity of technology when it is done right and in this regard, Tegware has found a sweet spot for using Kent Display's eWriter technology to marry it to an iPhone case. At first glance one might say why would you need to have another display when you have a digital device like an iPhone? That was my first reaction, but soon I realized that there are times when you just want to jot something down quickly when you are on the phone and having access to the Tegware Bagel is ideal for that. The Tegware Bagel uses the pressure sensitive Boogie Board eWriter technology which gives you the smooth feel of writing on paper. The Tegware Bagel iPhone case is lightweight with a magnetic closure, has a good feel, and is made of high quality synthetic leather and is suited for the iPhone 5/5s and comes in a variety of colors to match your personal needs. The folio case comes with a stylus but in a pinch you could always use your finger. Once you jot something down you can quickly erase it by clicking on the erase button, which quickly refreshes the screen. The Tegware Bagel is powered by a non-replaceable built-in coin battery and has been rated for up to 50,000 erasures. If you have used the original Boogie Board then you will feel right at home using the Tegware Bagel. Writing or jotting down things feels really natural on the Tegware Bagel and is a really handy compliment to your iPhone. Short of being able to take the Tegaware Bagel out of the case to use in other venues, the product delivers a high quality writing experience for jotting things down when you are in a pinch. Now if Tegware can build the Boogie Board Sync into the Tegware Bagel it would take this product into a whole new realm!

It has been a very busy spring trying to catch up from the cold and snowy winter. March was a busy month chock full of presentations and workshops. It was really exciting to be one of the organizers of the EDCampAccessNJ which was held at the College of St. Elizabeth. The highlight for me was putting together the venue and having all my colleagues there to share their expertise. It was a great day an I am hoping that we can make this an annual event. We had great support of the college and from vendors who gave us great give away and really were there in spirit.As much as I try to keep up the pace of technology is moving at lightning speed and while I try to do my best it has been a real challenge to keep up with all the new products but I am trying my best. In the last couple of weeks I have been testing out the following products which I will write more about in the upcoming weeks. These products include: Swivl- Robotic Camermate, Venier - Go Wireless Temp sensor, Livescribe 3 Smartpen, iZiggi Wireless HD Document Camera, and the Boogie Board Sync 97 eWriter. I'm sure I may have forgotten a few - just kidding! All the products have tremendous potential in the classroom for making learning more engaging for students and giving teachers more tools to make learning come alive. In this vein, Microsoft also announced and released a preview of Office Mix for PowerPoint which gives teachers the opportunity to enhance their PowerPoint presentations with multimedia. Add video, audio, screencasts, and quizzes and you have your Office Mix. Once you are dong creating your Mix you can publish it to the web and emial te link to your students to view. If you have added a quiz you can view the analytics and see how your students did. Very nice application and of course for the  price ($ Free) of admission this could be a real game changer.Here is a taste of the Swivl for those of you who are interested in creating videos for the flipped classroom or for online learning environments. Re-Introducing Swivl from Swivl on Vimeo.If you need more information about the Swivl or are interested in purchasing one please get in touch with me.

Over the past year, I have been enamored with the number of unique products the IPEVO company has released and in the last two weeks they released the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera for IOS, Mac & PC which adds considerable value to their product line. The iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera is the perfect marriage of the iZiggi HD Camera and the IPEVO Wireless Station which I had reviewed in the past couple of months. Plugging the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera into the IPEVO Wireless Station created an ad-hoc WiFi network that would allow your iPad to connect through, which in turn would enable you to output the image under the document camera to your iPad without the need for a physical connection. Having  access to iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera and the IPEVO Wireless Station opened up all kinds of possibilities in the classroom for having a truly portable device that could be moved about in the classroom. Teachers who have access to a projector and an Apple TV can walk around the classroom displaying student work and have it come up on the screen. Likewise, it is possible to push out what is on the iPad and share it with other devices that are connected to the ad-hoc network utilizing the IPEVO Whiteboard app on the iPad. This will enable students to interact and annotate the contents that is under the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera, which is ideal for small group work.With the introduction of the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera, IPEVO has made it even easier to take advantage of the power of this document camera by designing the product so that the base of the document camera replaces the need for the IPEVO Wireless Station. The base of the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera contains the WiFi radio and Rechargeable battery and thus eliminates one more piece of hardware that teachers need to be concerned about. To use the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera simply plug the USB tail into the base of the camera, power it on and then connect your iPad to the iZiggi WiFi network. Launch the IPEVO Whiteboard app on your iPad and start viewing what is under the lens. The IPEVO Whiteboard app gives you a vast array of tools for annotating what you have captured and has a great interface for focusing and setting the exposure of the camera from the iPad screen. While ease of use should certainly be a big consideration when making a purchase, I for one am really impressed with the quality of the image that the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera produces. The iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera can produce resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 when in wireless mode. The iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera can also be used in conjunction with the IPEVO Whiteboard app to capture audio and video on the iPad which is ideal for creating online video content. The iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera comes with a USB cable extension so that it can be plugged into a Mac or PC and used with their Presenter software. The iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera is a versatile and cost effective tool for the classroom which I know teachers will enjoy using. Having access to the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera will allow teachers to be more interactive in their instruction and provide teachers with better visuals that can support instruction and learning. At a cost of $159 dollars this is great value for a 5 megapixel camera. For more information about the iZiggi HD Wireless Document Camera click here. 

As a professor of education, I am always looking at new technologies that can enliven my classroom and give me and my students tools to share ideas. When I purchased my Surface Pro 2 and Dell Venue 8, I learned about an Intel standard called Wi-Di (Wireless Display) which allows you to stream the contents of your tablet or computer to a HDMI  device without cables or wires. Many educator often refer to Wi-Di by using the term Miracast to describe a peer-to-peer wireless screencasting standard formed via Wi-Fi Direct connections in a manner similar to Bluetooth. Having access to Wi-Di would be great for the classroom because it would enable me to move about the classroom without the need to be tethered to the projector. Since I had half the solution in the Surface Pro 2 and Dell Venue 8 running Windows 8.1, all I needed was a Miracast receiver to enable me to use this technology. Researching which Miracast receiver would be best, I came across the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition from Actiontec which got great reviews from many educators on the web. ScreenBeam Pro for Education sells for $99 dollars and comes complete with everything you need to get started and also includes a HDMI to VGA converter which is ideal since many classrooms still have older projectors without a HDMI port. The ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition from Actiontec is a small 2 inch square receiver that plugs into a HDMI device. In my case I plugged the VGA cable from my classroom computer into the HDMI to VGA converter and plugged it into the Screenbeam Pro. Since VGA does not support wireless audio out, I was able to plug it into the supplied RCA audio cable from my computer into the ScreenBeam Pro. Once I powered the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition the instructional landing screen was displayed and prompted me to enter the PIN. Once I entered the PIN, I was able to swipe in from the Charms menu click on Devices and select Project and select Add a Wireless Display.  Within a second or two the Actiontec ScreenBeam Pro device comes up and I simply clicked on that and within seconds my Dell Venue 8 Pro screen was projected on the screen in my classroom. I now opened OneNote and began writing write notes which were automatically displayed in my classroom. It was that simple. One of the benefits of Miracast is that it does not require you to use the school's wireless network to set it up. Since ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition creates an ad hoc network it will not require IT support to get started. I was really excited with the out of the box experience and everything worked exactly as it should. If you have a Windows 8.1 tablet or computer that supports W-Di you really should take a look at ScreenBeam Pro for Education as a solution for giving you more flexibility when teaching in the classroom. I didn't have a chance to test it out but using the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition in the classroom will enable students with Miracast supported devices to project the contents of their screen to the entire class. The ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition enables teachers to secure the device and give permission to students to project their screen to the class. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to cast your screen from your Windows 8.1 tablet or computer then you need to take a look at the ScreenBeam Pro for Education. ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition offers educators a great way to share the contents of the screen using Miracast technology. If you are trying to source the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition or are looking to implement ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition in your classroom email me for the details. Unboxing the ScreenBeam Pro for Education

It was great having a chance to visit with so many vendors while I attended ISTE 2014 Conference a couple of weeks ago. Walking through the Exhibitors Hall, I was struck by just how much "stuff" is out there that educators need to vet. As I walked the Exhibit Hall I came across some unique products that I know will finds its place into the classroom. One of favorite new products is from Belkin and it is the Portable Tablet Stage, a light weight and portable stand for your tablet that can turn it into a great presentation stage. When you pair up the Belkin Portable Tablet Stage with the free Belkin Stage app (Available in Apple App Store & Google Play) you have a wonderful tool for making the classroom come alive. I had reviewed the BelkinStage app earlier this year and it affords teachers a rich set of tools for turning an IOS or Android device into a great teaching tool. With your tablet set on the Belkin Portable Tablet Stage you can utilize your tablet's camera and turn it into a document camera which you can then annotate on top of. The Belkin Portable Tablet Stage  and accompanying Stage app takes your tablet to the interactive whiteboard arena at a fraction of the cost. You can add labels, audio, draw and interact with images right on your tablet using the Stage app. If you like you can record your sessions and email them to your students for later use. The Belkin Portable Tablet Stage is a portable solution for teachers who find that they are moving from classroom to classroom and need a platform to deliver their content. The Belkin Portable Tablet Stage folds up into a small package and should store easily in a backpack or briefcase. At around $99.99 dollars this is great value and one gadget that I'm know I will use in my classroom this fall. For more information about how to purchase this product contact me.

The computer trends are pointing to lighter, more portable and highly mobile technology for today's work force. This is no less true for all of us in education as many schools are moving to tablets and devices that connect to the cloud. With this shift, it is exciting to think about how teachers are using their classrooms to cull out unique learning spaces. If you are thinking of how you can redesign your classroom space I would highly suggest that you consider reading The Third Teacher, and excellent book about re-thinking the learning space in our classrooms. This got me thinking about how we move away from the teacher in the front of the classroom and setting up learning spaces with technology that would enable students to share ideas quickly. Companies like Steelcase have envisioned the future of the classroom with their media:scape solution. Media:scape allows students to quickly share and collaborate on their content on a monitor by simply clicking on a "puck" that is in front of them. While this is an exciting solution it still requires devices to be hard wired to the monitor in order to collaborate. Over the past year, I have been experimenting with various wireless technologies that enable teachers and students to share their computer and tablet screens, using wireless technologies. Having attempted this several years ago with little success I was wondering what the evolution of this technology would have to offer in 2014? One of the wireless technologies I worked with is an Intel standard called Wi-Di (Wireless Display) which allows you to stream the contents of your tablet or computer to a HDMI device without cables or wires. Many educators often refer to Wi-Di by using the term Miracast to describe a peer-to-peer wireless screencasting standard formed via Wi-Fi Direct connections in a manner similar to Bluetooth. Miracast supports Windows 8.1 and Android (4.2 or great) devices right out of the box with zero configuration. Having access to Wi-Di would be great for the classroom because it would enable me to move about theScreenBeam Pro Education Editionclassroom without the need to be tethered to the projector. One of the benefits of Miracast is that it does not require you to use the school's wireless network to set it up. Using the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition, Miracast receiver connected to my projector I was able to quickly share my screen and audio with my students with my Windows 8.1 and Android devices. The real benefits of using the ScreenBeam Pro is that it does not require me to have access to the school's wireless network. Similarly, using other screensharing technologies which are dependent on the WiFi network off bogs down from bottlenecks which makes sharing a challenge. To read more about my experiences using Miracast and ScreenBeam Pro for Education you can read my previous blog post here. You can also watch this video done by my colleague Dr. Tom Grissom at Eastern Illinois University to learn more about using Miracast technology in the classroom.As Miracast becomes a standard in the Windows and Android technology sector it is exciting to see companies like Dell begin to embed the Miracast receiver right into their projectors. This is a trend you will begin to see this year as companies look for ways to move to providing consumers with ways to share information off of their computers, DELL Mobile Projector M900HDmobile phones and tablets in a quick and efficient manner. Dell was kind enough to send me a DELL Mobile Projector M900HD to test out that has Miracast embedded. The DELL Mobile Projector M900HD is an extremely small and portable projector (9.13" x 6.46" x 1.69") weighing in at 3.5 pounds. In this small package you will find a 900 ANSI Lumens LED projector which casts a very bright image. The DELL Mobile Projector M900HD is a sleek low profile projector that comes with a carrying case making it very easy to carry from classroom to classroom. As good as the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD looked, I wanted to test out to see just how easy was it to connect my Surface Pro 3 and Nexus tablet. What better way then to jump right in.The true test at least for me was to unbox the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD, plug it in and see what happens. I plugged the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD in and powered it on and it immediately started up in the Wi-Di mode which was great! I opened up my Surface Pro 3 and swiped in from the right, selected Devices, and Project and added the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD as my Wireless device. The Surface Pro 3 quickly found the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD but for some reason a dialog box came up on the projected screen asking me to enter a PIN which I could not enter. After several attempts I was able to connect to the projector to my Surface Pro 3 and I was off and running. Since the initial process the DELL Mobile Projector M900HD has connected flawlessly to my devices making it a great companion for workshops and presentations. Like other technologies there was a firmware update that I was made aware of on the projector which may have made the initial hand off procedure flawless. It is important to note that the Miracast standard not only allows for screensharing but will also playing audio over the WiDi connection.So what is the take away? It is really exciting to see the Miracast technology built-into the DELL Projector M900HD that will enable teachers in the classroom to more easily set up learning centers where students can easily share their ideas effortlessly using this wireless standard. Miracast does allow students to connect and disconnect their devices making it ideal for students to be able to share their work. With schools always up against bandwidth issues, Miracast technology circumvents this problem and enables teachers to utilize this zero configuration solution without the need to IT. So if you are looking to redesign your classroom's learning space and want an area for sharing, think about the DELL Projector M900HD and how the built-in WiDI can turn your classroom into a collaborative and sharing environment. The DELL Projector M900HD may be diminutive but packs a lot of power in a small package that is ideal for setting up new collaborative learning spaces in the classroom.

Getting students engaged in the learning process is paramount these days and what better way to do this than with computer technology. As our American education is going through a transformation there is an understanding that the students in our classrooms today need to become well versed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Looking at the Next Generation Science Standards it is clear that this document is a real paradigm shift in how we deliver instruction in the classroom in these areas. It is clear that the shift ProScope Micro Mobileis a move away from rote memory to a performance based model of students demonstrating their knowledge by doing and showing their conceptual understanding of the material. It is in this context that Vernier Software and Technology has been providing educators and students with sensors and probes to provide students with the opportunity to perform scientific inquiry. It is clear from the research, that giving students hands-on experience with the tools that scientists use is one way for students to develop a deeper understanding of scientific processes and concepts.With many schools adapting the iPad for instruction it is exciting to see how many companies have begun developing accessories that can transpose the device into a tool that students can use for scientific inquiry. It is in this light that Vernier Software and Technology just released the ProScope Micro Mobile which turns the IOS devices and Samsung Galaxy S4 into a digital microscope with 20x-80x magnification utilizing an Edmund high quality glass optic lens. The ProScope Micro Mobile has a built-in lithium battery which keeps its charge for up to 5 hours and has a fast 2 hour charging cycle via a USB cable.The out of box experience was very positive and the Quick Start Guide got me up and running quickly, once I had fully charged the ProScope Micro Mobile.  When you purchase the ProScope Micro Mobile you will need to decide which device you will be using it so that you get buy the proper housing for the lens. The lens can be used with many devices as long as you buy the appropriate housing for your device. Having said this, I fit the lens assembly into the housing and snapped it onto my iPad Air. The lens fits over the camera on the iPad and has a ring of LED's which can be adjusted for the best lighting effect and to reduce surface reflection. At this point you can open your Camera app on your iPad, turn on your ProScope Micro Mobile, adjust the LED's, and adjust the magnification to see what is under your microscope. I placed a strand of my hair under the ProScope Micro Mobile and was amazed at what I was able to see. To capture the strand Captured with IPEVO Whiteboard aa on iPad Airof hair under the ProScope Micro Mobile you simply click on the Camera button to capture the image. The ProScope Micro Mobile allows you to use whichever camera app you elect, which gives you a wide range of options. Teachers in the classroom may want to consider using the IPEVO WhiteBoard or the Belkin Stage app with the ProScope Micro Mobile to give students more options for capturing and annotating what they capture under the microscope. Using the included built-in hands free stand, teachers have the capability of capturing and saving video as well that is under the microscope that they can share with students. For Leaf Under Microsocope$149 dollars the ProScope Micro Mobile is a high quality iPad accessory that can bring science to life for students in the classroom. I for one know that students will get really excited about using this tool in the classroom or in the field to bring science to life. If you are looking for ways to bring excitement back into science and engaging your students in the process then look no further and consider requisitioning the ProScope Micro Mobile.

In a couple of weeks I will be flying out to Las Vegas to present at the Adobe Learning Summit 2014- to present with my colleague Linda Mahnken, on the topic of Creating Accessible eLearning with Adobe eLearning Tools. Linda and I will focus on how you can use Adobe Presenter 10 and Adobe Captivate 8 to create elearning material that is accessible for individual with hearing, visual and learning disabilities. During the session you'll learn:Accessibility features in Captivate and Presenter Which content types are and are not accessible    Best practices for accessible online contentIf you have the opportunity this is a great conference that is co-located with DevLearn. I have been using Adobe Presenter for many years and with each version it gets better and better. For those of you who are not familiar with Adobe Presenter, Presenter is a PowerPoint plug-in that will give you a whole host of new features which are ideal for anyone who is creating material for the web. With more of my students accessing the web from mobile devices it is really exciting that I can now publish my courses in HTML 5, which I know will work on iPads and Android based tablets. One of the features which has always set Adobe Presenter apart from other PowerPoint plug-ins is the speed in which I can develop materials for the courses that I teach. In addition to being able to create interactive material- the ability to assess my students knowledge of the material is equally as important. Adobe Presenter 10 continues to excel in the ability to create quizzes which can be linked to an analytic dashboard so that as an instructor, I can quickly see who needs assistance and intervention. Adobe Presenter 10 also provides students with the opportunity to discuss ideas and leave comments when the material is presented which is truly a unique feature. For teachers who are considering flipping the classroom, Adobe Presenter 10 comes with Adobe Presenter Video Express which makes creating instructional videos from your computer a cinch. Adobe has really thought out this application and within minutes you will be creating your first highly polished videos that you can publish to YouTube, Vimeo, & Adobe Connect. Adobe Presenter Video Express includes the ability to add Closed Captioning-taking advantage of speech recognition to get the captioning done quickly. If you have been struggling to find an easy to use tool for creating instructional videos on you Mac or PC then take a look at  Adobe Presenter Video Express. There is a lot to like in the new Adobe Presenter 10-but for me it has always been that balance of features with rapid development. Hope to see you at the Adobe Learning Summit 2014 Conference.

Cleanstylus for Surface Pro 3As much as I enjoy using my Surface Pro 3, especially for the digital inking-it is just a matter of time, before I know I will eventually lose my stylus. So when I came across the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 from Cleanint I knew I had to take it out for a test run. I had a chance to speak with Tuan from Cleanint and he was kind enough to send me out one to review. If you are looking for an elegant and effective way to store your stylus then take a look at the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3. The Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3  comes in matching keyboard cover colors and uses a a reusable adhesive technology that lets you re-position the stylus/pen holder as you see fit. I decided to adhere the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 to the top right corner of my Surface Pro 3 and installing it was a cinch. The holder really grasps the stylus and you can either snap it in or slide it into the holder -which ever way you prefer. The Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 retails for $19.95 and is a great solution for securing your stylus and giving you the peace of mind knowing where it is when you need to use it. If you are interested in purchasing the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 please contact me via email. 

I have been a big fan of ActionTec's ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition and have used it successfully in my classroom with my Surface Pro 3 and Dell Venue 8 tablets. Having the ability to walk around my classroom and share my screen without physically being connected to the projector is a real pleasure. Setting up the ScreenBeam Pro is extremely simple and does not require one to connect the device to the existing WiFi network which is a real advantage of the Miracast technology. When I heard that Actiontec was going to release a new Miracast receiver, I knew I had to get my hands on it and give it a test run. So first, I would like to thank Actiontec for sending me a ScreenBeam Mini 2 to evaluate. The ScreenBeam Mini 2 is small and looks to be about the size of a USB thumb drive which gets plugged into the HDMI port on your projector or HDTV. If your HDTV has a USB port you can power the ScreenBeam Mini 2 from the port otherwise you can power the receiver with the supplied USB cable and plug. Once plugged in you will see a little LED, light up to tell you the ScreenBeam Mini 2 is powered up. Now simply turn on your HDTV and make sure that you have set the input to HDMI and you should see the Actiontec Screen alert you that it is ready to connect. Now simply swipe in from the right side of your Windows 8.1 tablet and select Devices and connect to the ScreenBeam Mini 2. If you don't see the ScreenBeam Mini 2 receiver listed simply click on Add device and your tablet will discover the ScreenBeam Mini 2. Within seconds you will see the magic happen and your device will be displayed on your television screen. I found that the ScreenBeam Mini 2 connected very quickly to my tablets and the audio quality was superb. ScreenBeam Mini 2 supports 1080 p 30 fps and 2 channel stereo. For home or school use the ScreenBeam Mini 2 is an ideal receiver when I want to share the contents of my tablets. If you are interested in securing your wireless receiver then you will want to take a look at the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition. I have tested the ScreenBeam Mini 2 with the Surface Pro 3, Dell Venue 8, and the Nexus 7 ( running Android 4.4)  and all have worked well with the receiver. As they say, good things do come in small packages and this is certainly true with regard to ActionTec's ScreenBeam Mini 2. The ScreenBeam Mini 2 is also ideal for the business person who travels and is doing presentations or who wants to watch movies in their hotel room. Check out the ScreenBeam Mini 2 if you are looking for a small Miracast receiver that carries a big punch!

I trust you had some time to rest and recreate during the holidays and that you are now refreshed and rearing to go. As I start to plan for the semester ahead I am generally excited with all the possibilities and how I can engage my students in their learning. For the past couple of years I have taught many of my courses as a hybrid-meeting on campus for half the semester and teaching the rest online, which has worked out really well. Last semester, I experimented using OfficeMix an new plug-in for PowerPoint that makes the creation of digital assets extremely easy. For teachers who have wanted to flip the classroom, but are still looking for a tool to help in the creation of material I would recommend that you install the OfficeMix plug-in which is available on the Windows platform for PowerPoint 2013 or Office 365. OfficeMix adds the ability to add digital ink (great if you are using a Surface Pro 2 or 3) , videos (Khan Academy, You Tube), simulations (PhET Simulations), quizzes, screencasts, screen captures-complete with user analytics. OfficeMix works great on a Surface Pro 3 because you can take advantage of the webcam and record audio as well as video and include it in your Mix. Likewise, having access to the digital ink on the Surface Pro 3 lends itself to marking up slides or for white boarding directly on a slide.  One of the more challenging aspects of flipping the classroom for teachers is figuring out how to publish the material and where to publish it to. OfficeMix remedies this problem by hosting your Mixes in the Cloud-at no cost. With a click on the Upload button your Mix heads to the Cloud, making your last mile to publishing effortless. Once you have published your Mix you can get the link or embed code and set the permissions making it easy to restrict who has access to your material. If your Mix includes a quiz you can view your students responses in your Mix Dashboard on the web or download the results to an Excel formatted file.Working with Mix is easy and students who are using a Windows or Macintosh computer can access the Mix with all of the interactivity. So for example if you insert a science simulation students will be able to interact with it when they open the Mix. If you will be viewing your Mix's on a tablet you can always export or publish them as a video-but your students will lose out on the interactivity. Teachers will find using OfficeMix to be straight forward and easy to use with lots of possibilities. The OfficeMix Team is constantly updating the plug-in and bringing more functionality with every update. Looking ahead I would really like to see that OfficeMix can publish in HTML 5 so that we don't lose out on any of the interactivity when view a Mix on a tablet. Likewise, I would like to see the OfficeMix Team add a way to insert Close Captioning when publishing a Mix. Despite these minor things, give OfficeMix a try- I know you will find it a very formidable authoring tool in your content creation! Happy Mixing!Here is an example of an OfficeMix I used with my students:If you will attending the NJECC Conference next week I will be doing a session on using the Surface Pro 3 & OfficeMix in the flipped classroom. Likewise, I will be doing a session at the ATIA Conference in Orlando later this month on using the Surface Pro 3 with OfficeMix- so join me if you can and please drop by and say hello!