Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/446930
E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y T h u r s d a y, J a n u a r y 2 2 , 2 0 1 5 2 0 ESD: Teachers are already under a lot of pressure today and don't always have time to incorporate into their classrooms a new methodology with a long learning curve. How easy is Nureva Troove digi- tal portfolio to use? NK: Although overwhelmed with responsibilities, teachers are very open to things that will help them do their job better. We've put a lot of thought into making the adoption of Nureva Troove digital portfolio easier. User- friendliness is at the core of the appli- cation. How easy is it for the teacher to use? How easy is it for the student to navigate to artifacts of learning? Ease of use is key. ESD: Tell us a little more about why stu- Nureva (Cont'd. from p. 1) dents will like Troove. NK: The application is a multimedia solution. A teacher may give an assign- ment and suggest what it should look like or simply ask students to demonstrate their knowledge. Students may use a media file or a research paper – any type of file that students and teachers feel is appropriate. Nureva Troove is a very flexible tool that allows students to use what they think is the best mode of expression. Students are in charge of what they create, which helps with mean- ingful learning. Nureva Troove digital portfolio fosters engagement and connec- tion among students, teachers and peers, keeping students at the center of lifelong learning. Visit Nureva in booth #1401 during FETC. After the show, visit www.nureva.com. Prior to joining ABBYY in 2011, Brown spent more than two decades leading key marketing efforts for influen- tial Silicon Valley companies. In senior campaign and marketing management roles at Adobe Systems, she was instru- mental in growing revenues for both the Consumer Photo and Video business – which includes No. 1 selling Photoshop Elements digital imaging software – and the Creative Suite business, which includes bundles of industry-leading cre- ative software titles such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Flash Professional. Brown also directed retail marketing for Wordlock, a consumer company that invented the No. 1 selling word-based combination lock, and she held senior roles in channel and retail marketing for ABBYY (Cont'd. from p. 1) Handspring, Dragon Systems (now Nuance) and Symantec. She holds degrees in Marketing and Business Administration from San José State University and the University of Phoenix. Brown is excited about the opportu- nity to attend the FETC conference, and to hear about education professionals' day-to-day challenges and needs with regard to managing paper documents and dealing with PDFs and other digital files. "I'm looking forward to showing admin- istrators, staff and teachers how ABBYY's products can help reduce the amount of time they spend on mundane tasks – and put more of their energy back into the work of educating their students and advancing the missions of their schools." For more information, stop by booth #370. CURBI PARENTAL CONTROL SYSTEM Parents now have the ability to remotely control their children's internet and mobile app usage on Apple mobile devices regard- less of connection mode: home networks, public Wi-Fi or 3G/4G mobile internet. The advanced features of the curbi parental control system help parents to curb, block and watch their children's activity on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch mobile devices. Parents can use curbi to teach their children healthy habits by setting and enforcing rules, as well as timeouts. The curbi parental control system is an advanced yet flexible service that is easy to use and quick to install on a child's iOS 6 or newer device. Once installed, the mobile device can be con- trolled by parents or guardians from any Web browser or via the curbi app on iOS devices. Developed by a team of parents in response to their own frustrations with enforcing mobile device rules with their children, curbi is designed to be a posi- tive parenting tool to help set healthy screen time and Internet content and app limits. curbi is free for a 14-day trial from www.curbi.com or the App Store with a monthly subscription of $6.99. For more information, visit www.curbi.com. INTRODUCING CHADDER: A FUN, EASY, SECURE MESSAGING PLATFORM Etransfr is a new private communications platform focused on building a modern messaging platform called Chadder, which recently launched on iOS, Windows and Android, with tablet sup- port coming soon. It's free to download at www.chadder.im or by typing Chadder into any app store. "At Etransfr we believe that it is our job to provide easy access to privacy. Without that there is no reason to build another private chat application. Today's platforms are either hard to use or don't have enough users on them to make them fun to use. The platforms that are actual- ly secure were built for people who are very concerned about their privacy, and they're willing to give up features to maintain their privacy," said Etransfr CEO Lexi Sprague. "We've built Chadder so it's easy enough to use for dad chatting with mom, for teenagers, but its security will protect you in business- to-business conversations." Even though Chadder is easy to use, it protects users' privacy by limiting the amount of information that's collected by the app. Etransfr plans to make money through in-app purchase sales, APIs and a B2B subscription service. Chadder gives users the power to send messages that disappear from the recipients' phones after a user-designated time period. "When the message disappears, it really disappears – it doesn't just change its file name and save somewhere else," Sprague said. "The second feature, which is unique to us, is that if you send some- thing and you want to take it back, you can delete the message off your phone, and it deletes from the recipient's phone as well, so if you regret a message later, you can take it back," she continued. In addition, Etransfr has designed the platform to work across platforms, so that you can log in with your personal phone, and then when you're at the office, you can log in with your work phone – and all your conversations will be there. Tablet sup- port is coming soon, which will extend the cross-platform functionality even more. "You'll be able to go seamlessly between devices and continue your con- versation," Sprague said. Etransfr is looking to meet other col- lege students who want to join in the cod- ing for an exciting venture with the capacity to change how people commu- nicate with each other. At the same time, Etransfr is also launching a major fund- ing round and is looking for support for that as well. "The projects that we have in mind for the near future involve things that the industry has never seen before, so we have some exciting times ahead," Sprague said. For more information, visit www.chadder.im. FUNDS4BOOKS & EBOOKS GIVES SCHOOLS 100 PERCENT OF EVERY DOLLAR DONATED Every day, librarians across the country face slashed budgets and aging collec- tions, striving to keep their libraries and their jobs relevant in a changing techno- logical and educational environment. Although there is a lot to learn and even more to teach, consider the exciting opportunity this new electronic world is providing for today's librarians. With MackinVIA, Mackin's free online platform for electronic resources, librarians now have access to hundreds of thousands of eBooks, audiobooks and databases. By acquiring, managing and instructing students and staff on how to use these new electronic materials, librar- ians can once again return the academic focus of schools to the library, and align with classrooms to improve and expand learning possibilities for students. Mackin's Funds4Books & eBooks, an innovative online donation program, is an easy and fun way for librarians to raise money to purchase eBooks and databases. With Funds4Books & eBooks, librarians receive 100 percent of all funds raised to spend on anything from Mackin. Whether building a new eBook collection or expanding the library's cur- rent digital offerings, this unique fundraising program gives librarians the ability to strengthen their libraries and provide students with the materials they need to succeed in today's world of digi- tal learning. Within the Funds4Books & eBooks department at Mackin, the com- pany works with librarians to prepare for and manage these campaigns. Together, they create and tailor promotional materials to advertise the fundraiser, design a custom webpage where individual and corporate donors can contribute to the campaign, and plan how the funds will be used to benefit the library. Mackin then cus- tomizes the campaign with any goal you have in mind, such as acquiring popular fiction eBooks for students, purchasing multi-user nonfiction eBooks for class- rooms, adding audiobooks to the mix or getting more databases to facilitate stu- dent research. Funds4Books & eBooks is also a great way to raise money to update or add new print books to your collection – all delivered, shelf-ready, for free. Whatever your objective, a qualified representative at Mackin is always available to help with ideas, sugges- tions or contributions whenever needed. To date, nearly 600 schools have already participated in Mackin's Funds4Books & eBooks, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised and returned to libraries to spend on the mate- rials they need. If you are interested in running a Funds4Books & eBooks cam- paign, or would like more information, call 800-245-9540 or email info@funds4books.com. For more information, visit www.mackin.com, call 800.245.9540, email mackin@mackin.com or stop by booth #518.