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E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y Tu e s d a y, J u l y 1 , 2 0 1 4 3 0 meaningful "a-ha!" moments. Project Based Learning PBL is designed to enhance the class- room experience through collaborative, student-driven projects. During the lifes- pan of each project, your students will create, design, publish and present – offering you a fun and interactive way to help them flex their innovation muscles. STEAM Education The STEAM initiative infuses the arts into STEM education (science, tech, engineering, math). Weaving the arts into these logic-driven subjects sparks diver- gent thinking and helps your students engage with content in new, unexpected and unconventional ways. One-to-One A dynamic One-to-One program – in which each student has access to a laptop or tablet – can be an effective way to amp up students' tech skills and personalize their learning experience. This approach supports students as creators and publish- ers of content – focusing on the tools they need to design, build and share their best ideas. PBS Learning ( Cont'd. from p. 1) Play and Gaming Introducing elements of play and gaming into your lessons is a great way to create immersive scenarios that stretch your students' problem-solving skills. Both approaches also allow students to build confidence in their abilities by position- ing them as central "players" in the learn- ing experience. Learn more at www.insti- tuteofplay.org. For more classroom tips, webinars, PD resources, games, videos, lesson plans and much more, create your free account on www.pbslearningmedia.org. PBS LearningMedia is an award-winning, digital media service that gives PreK-12 teachers and students easy-access to thousands of curriculum-targeted resources. The content library covers a wide range of subject areas including sci- ence, engineering, technology and math (STEM), as well as English language arts, social studies and fine arts/culture. Best of all, resources can be searched by grade level, subject area and National and Common Core State Standards. Create your account today! For more information, go to www.pbslearningmedia.org or email LearningMediaContact@pbs.org. ClassSend app (for the students' tablet/notebook/Chromebook). Sphere2 provides the tools for the teacher to cre- ate lesson content and transmit it to the student. Using the ClassSend app's extensive toolkit, students can view, annotate and store this lesson content on their device and then send their contribu- tions back to the teacher – all in real time! AVer's award-winning Sphere2 Document Camera software has also been updated to integrate up to three live video streams (e.g., AVer document cam- eras, TabCam Wireless devices or web cams) and multiple still-images. Perfect for flipped, 1:1 or BYOD classroom environments, Sphere2 also allows the sharing of recorded video lessons to classroom management sites, Google Drive, DropBox and more. How does it work? The Sphere2 software's new Class feature allows a teacher to set up virtual subjects or class- es and populate them with student pro- files. Sphere2's toolkit can enable the creation of presentation materials by pro- viding an assortment of features for con- trolling the doc cam's functions (zoom, brightness, contrast, camera modes, spot- light, split- or multi-screens, record, etc.), as well as adding content, images and annotations. During a lesson, the teacher can display up to six screens simultane- ously, and send his/her screen image to each of the students' devices that are con- nected to the virtual class. AVer ( Cont'd. from p. 1) Using the ClassSend app, the stu- dents can log into the teacher's class and receive the lesson material. They can then review it and add annotations, text or additional images – and send their individual contributions back to the teacher. The teacher receives visual cues of everything that is sent from the stu- dents and can display their contributions along with the original lesson material. An additional fun element: the teacher can send a 'Thumbs Up' message to indi- viduals for a job well done! The Sphere2 Class feature records each of these acco- lades and can tabulate them for class- room award/reward programs. Why is this so effective? AVer Sphere2/ClassSend Teacher-Student Engagement Software utilizes the latest classroom technology to enhance the 1 to 1, 1 to many, and BYOD environments. By participating in two-way interactive learning, students are directly engaged in the lesson, and by adding their own con- tributions, they can actively enrich the learning experience. AVer's updated Sphere2 is free with AVer document cameras. ClassSend is a free app that works with Chomebooks, Windows/Android/iPad tablets and note- books using the Chrome browser. It will be available on Apple and Chrome Stores starting in June 2014. ClassSend for Android and Sphere2 for iPads/Android platforms will be available in July 2014. For more information, visit booth 1948 or www.averusa.com. implementations. Educators often ask if the choice of hardware really matters, and Leonard has a quick answer to that. "My first reaction to this question is to say 'no,'" he says. "A tablet is a tablet regardless of manufacturer or brand name. Of course, schools must consid- er both the cost of ownership and the return on their investment. I would never recommend cheap, but I would encourage schools to consider price and value in a broader mix of values they seek while designing their approaches to 1:1." Schools are likely to experience difficulties with their roll-out of the technology in an attempt at a smooth and successful 1:1 implementation. The first is that schools must ensure that the technology provides classroom control, Leonard says. "Introducing tablets into any classroom results in a dramatic change for a classroom teacher's way of interacting with stu- dents. I can't stress enough the impor- tance of an inclusive classroom man- agement system to support this power- ful teaching dynamic," he says. "The inability to monitor activity or check for understanding in real-time is a challenge for most device arrange- ments, and can leave teachers feeling at a loss for control." The next point to consider is how this technology will help to differentiate instruction. Managing content on multi- ple devices to achieve personalized LearnPad ( Cont'd. from p. 1) instruction is a complex task, especially in large classes, according to Leonard. "Schools using tablet technology should consider a system such as LearnPad Connect, which comes with our tablets. The ability to individually target materi- als and pace of instruction becomes pos- sible with this tool," he says. "We strive to create utilities that support instruction rather than offering technology for tech- nology's sake." Of course, schools want their tech- nology to work with learning content that's aligned with the school's curricu- lum, and this is where LearnPad stands out, according to Leonard. "The con- tent offered on some devices can often be described as 'edutainment' rather than curriculum-aligned resources," he notes. "The supplier of your chosen device should be working with familiar educational publishers to provide high- quality content. A proper 1:1 offers well thought out tools for device, instruction and content management." The final consideration for a suc- cessful tablet implementation in schools, and ultimately the most important, is the quality of training and support, Leonard says. "Our measure of success is how positively we impact learning outcomes. Students come and go each year, as do teachers. The ability to remain dedicated to ongoing services is essential in some- thing as complex as 1:1." Visit LearnPad at booth 2714. For more information, go to www.learn pad.com, call 800-624-2926 or email sales@learnpad.com. "We had Edsby connected to our SIS and up and in use across the whole board in two months," Hart said. "We didn't open up to parent registrations until halfway through the first quarter of school, but within the first three weeks, we had about 25,000 parents accounts. I'd say that was a pretty quick timeline for something so com- plicated." Students and Teachers Make Use of Edsby Every week, between 70,000 and 80,000 students, teachers and parents log into Hillsborough's Edsby system at least once. "If you look at our stats, our students are constantly on Edsby from their phones, iPods and tablets through the day," said Hart. Edsby manages a massive amount of academic results data entered by teachers Edsby ( Cont'd. from p. 4) at Hillsborough. "We have 25 million grades in the system, individual student assessments," said Hart. "We process something like a million changes per day in just the Edsby gradebook alone. That's not including student or parent account information changes, classes being added, comments in classes or anything else." In its first year of use, more than 480,000 student report cards were gener- ated using Edsby. Parental Engagement Out of 125,000 family units in the dis- trict, Hillsborough has 41,000 with up- to-date contact information registered with accounts in Edsby. The district has set a goal of 75,000 relationships by the end of the 2013/2014 school year. "I think other districts would be very envious of our parent numbers," said Hart. For more information, visit Edsby at booth 2661. technical support that other companies simply cannot provide. BOXLIGHT is serious about providing award win- ning, friendly and knowledgeable sup- port 24/7/365 – this is tremendous peace of mind for customers and users around the world. MSRP on the ProColor Series ranges from $6,999 to $11,999 and OPS ranges between $1,299 and $1,999 and begins shipping from BOXLIGHT Atlanta mid- May 2014. About BOXLIGHT BOXLIGHT has been developing and manufacturing award winning projectors since its inception in 1985. The company prides itself on offering industry leading BOXLIG HT ( Cont'd. from p. 4) technical support and ISF Certified ® service available 24 hours / 7 days per week / 365 days per year – for the life- time of the product. BOXLIGHT's ability to respond to customer needs allows for personalized service and an unbeatable relationship with dealers and partners. BOXLIGHT is able to build products to specification or customize product on an individual basis. BOXLIGHT operations encompass sales in the United States and worldwide. Headquarters are located in Belfair, Wash. with offices in Mexico City, Taiwan and China. Visit BOXLIGHT at booth 2004. For more information, go to www.boxlight.com, call 360-464-2119 or email sales@ boxlight.com.