Oser Communications Group

EdTech Show Daily ISTE June 30 2014

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E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y 2 7 M o n d a y, J u n e 3 0 2 0 1 4 students are doing on a daily basis. To facilitate this, the school initially looked at systems such as NetCommunity from Blackbaud, Desire2Learn, WebCT (later absorbed by Blackboard) and Angel, but none were appropriate. "None of them focused on reporting back what students do by day, what homework they have," said Rush. Then staff learned about Edsby, which was able to provide much of what the school wanted almost immediately. Journal, Report Cards and More St. Andrew's relies on the system for daily attendance, school news, course planning, student/teacher class collabo- ration, coordinating extracurricular groups and teams, class assessments, analytics, report cards and more. But the heart of what the school loves it for is the daily journal: the calendar of what students need to worry about minute-to-minute. "Edsby is a single place for students, parents and teachers to see daily work. This is the core of educational communi- cation: students need to know what their current task is, when it is due, and have instant access to related resources. Edsby provides this brilliantly," said former St. Andrew's IT Integration Committee Edsby ( Cont'd. from p. 1) Chair Jon Butcher. The school also uses Edsby to gener- ate report cards. "Edsby's report card system is vastly superior to our previous system," explained Butcher. "People still thank me in the halls for that one. It saves literally thousands of clicks, frustrations and complaints every report card cycle." Connected to School SIS Edsby pulls data from and synchronizes with St. Andrew's Blackbaud SIS. Attendance, grades, notes, daybooks and class postings, reports and other data reside in Edsby, mapped to St. Andrew's SIS data. Much like at other Edsby sites, inte- gration with the SIS enables automatic setup of Edsby users and classes, and gives teachers and administrators new ways to access legacy data. The ability to work directly with the software develop- er and help shape the product was attrac- tive to St. Andrew's. "It was a big ah-ha moment when Edsby said they were willing to work with us to meet our needs. So much of the big box corporate-ware available does not really suit the grassroots teacher," said Butcher. "Edsby has met or exceed- ed our needs in almost every area." For more information, visit Edsby at booth 2661. controller, license fees, managed serv- ices or other costs. At installation, the clocks arrive pre- configured and automatically adjust to the correct time. They will continue dis- playing the accurate time without manu- al adjustments of any kind. In fact, there isn't a manual adjustment button or knob on the back of the clock, which prevents tampering with the clock's accuracy. In addition, the technology's staggered wake times mean that you will not notice any extra load or slow-down of your existing Wi-Fi system. Are Wi-Fi Clocks Right for Your School? Whether Wi-Fi clocks are right for your school depends on your needs and budg- et. The lower cost of entry for a synchro- nized timekeeping system is a huge ben- efit for organizations that may not require, or have the resources for, a more robust wired or wireless system. Without the need for additional infrastructure or equipment, you can easily expand your Wi-Fi clock presence simply by purchas- ing additional clocks. Consider the benefits: all clocks within a school are precisely synchro- nized; clocks rely on the existing Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Network Clocks ( Cont'd. from p. 1) network and come pre-configured from the manufacturer; there is no need for a system controller, license fees, managed services or other costs; clocks are battery- operated and portable, and clocks have a five-year battery life; staggered wake times for unnoticeable network load; Wi- Fi, FCC and ICC certified, and RoHS compliant with SNTP time reference. Wi-Fi Clocks in Action Teachers in the Cook County School District in Minnesota were tired of inac- curate clocks that displayed differing times throughout the school and led to punctuality problems for everyone. Two days after learning the benefits of American Time's Wi-Fi network clocks, including the five-year battery life, the district placed an order for its building that housed grades K-12. The district engineer was particularly impressed with the plug-and-play installation process, which allowed the clocks to get up and running quickly. The same precise time is now displayed on each clock, improving punctuality and time management for everyone. For more information, visit booth 2760, go to www.atsclock.com, call 800-328-8996 or email theclockexperts@atsclock.com. happenstance. I was attending a training event about how to use a new piece of equipment that had been placed in class- rooms on campus. At the end of the training, the presenter knew that my area of teaching was in literacy education. She demonstrated for me and a couple other participants the Letters alive pro- gram that was still being beta tested. This was my first introduction to using augmented reality for literacy instruc- tion. I was fascinated by the program and the possibilities that this program might have in the area of literacy instruction. I saw this as a possibility for use especial- ly with English Language Learners and at risk learners. ESD: What were the major impacts on student achievement that you were able to measure? TO: Well, as a researcher, I usually don't get too excited about the findings from the numbers, but in this case, I literally jumped up and down at the results. The achievement scores by stu- dents who had full implementation to the program increased by 48 percent over their pre-test scores on the letter naming fluency and an increase of 112 percent on the letter sound fluency. ESD: How would you compare student engagement using Letters alive to the kind of engagement we would expect from other technologies, such as student response sys- tems or interactive whiteboards? TO: Our observational data showed that Alive Studios ( Cont'd. from p. 1) students were more actively engaged in the lessons when using Letters alive than during lessons using interactive white- boards. Classroom management problems decreased as a result of the students being actively engaged, as well. Response time to questions increased, too. ESD: Were there any specific skills that improved using Letters alive more than others? TO: Oh, yes! Letter sound fluency was increased exponentially. ESD: We talked about the impact that Letters alive has on students. Did you observe how it might have helped teach- ers? TO: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, a finding from the research involved stu- dent engagement. The teachers who were part of this study were surprised at how students who typically had attention difficulties were consistently engrossed in the program. The students responded to the animals because of the sound and visual stimulation. Another added benefit was that the computer generated the sound of the letter instead of the teacher. Using the computer assisted voice gives the teacher an alternative pronunciation that negates the effects of regional pro- nunciations. This had the most benefits for the ELL students. Visit booth 3078 to learn more, or go to www.alivestudiosco.com, email cynthia@alivestudiosco.com or call 678-404-7473. APPLE DEVICE ENROLLMENT PROGRAM WITH CASPER SUITE JAMF Software has added new capabili- ties to the Casper Suite to help its cus- tomers take full advantage of these new Apple IT services. What It Is The Device Enrollment Program (DEP) from Apple is designed to enable schools to seamlessly set up and provi- sion new iPad or Mac computers in 1:1 student environments. DEP and the Casper Suite together offer the fastest, simplest way to set up school-owned iPad or Mac computers. DEP and Casper Suite move beyond simple MDM capabilities to add zero-touch device configuration, automatic app deployment and a sim- plified setup experience for teachers and students. DEP makes iPad Supervision possible over-the-air, with- out the need for physical intervention by IT or Apple Configurator, to enable advanced digital classroom manage- ment with Casper Focus. With DEP and Casper Focus, it's easy for teachers to manage what students focus on with their Apple devices and enable learning – right out of the box. Apple's new DEP represents a sig- nificant innovation in the practice of IT device management. Apple is well known for product innovation and con- sumer services. With DEP, it has taken a big step forward in the world of IT man- agement. This is significant, and rein- forces that Apple is focused on the enter- prise IT market and pushing the industry forward. How It Works DEP is a service pro- vided by Apple. Schools can enroll in the program with Apple and register their school-owned devices. When DEP is used with the Casper Suite, IT administrators define the enrollment settings, configuration profiles and setup experience for their students prior to deploying devices. Subsequent to these steps being complet- ed, when any new device is activated, it automatically enrolls with the Casper Suite without IT intervention, and applies the configurations and Supervision settings. Full OS X management requires both MDM enrollment (available through DEP) and installing the Casper Suite client files (not currently avail- able through DEP). Users can down- load and install a Casper Suite QuickAdd package to complete the Casper Suite installation. What Is Required At this time, DEP is available for schools in the United States that purchase iPad, iPhone or Mac devices directly from Apple. Enrollment in DEP is available through Apple's Deployment Programs Portal. The Casper Suite is built to integrate with DEP and provide the best Apple experience for IT administrators and the teachers and students they support. From the first moment when a new iPad, iPhone or Mac is unboxed and powered on, DEP streamlines the activa- tion process and offers automatic device enrollment and configuration. Visit JAMF Software at booth 3042. To learn more, visit www.jamfsoftware.com/ solutions/education.

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