Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/531519
E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y M o n d a y, J u n e 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 3 0 new school collections, curriculum mate- rials and more for schools and libraries around the world. Our free digital content management system, MackinVIA™ provides districts, schools, students and libraries with ten free reader apps for iPad, iPod, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Kindle, Nook, and both PC and Mac computers with free content to start. We also have a free funding source for schools and libraries called "Funds4Books & eBooks." Hundreds of schools utilize this free program because it is a hassle-free, online dona- tion program that allows schools to col- lect donations and spend 100 percent of the proceeds on any resource Mackin sells. ESD: What trends are you seeing in the library and classroom market? RH: Today's school library market is presently enduring the largest paradigm shift it has experienced since the intro- duction of the stand-alone online auto- mated catalog. K–12 school libraries are being challenged to remain relevant in a world that is quickly transforming into a digital platform and I believe that this is the very biggest opportunity ever for school libraries and professional school librarians to showcase their importance and relevancy within the educational process. Teacher Librarians must seize the moment and take the lead as purvey- ors of knowledge and vital information sources and resources that will serve to accelerate and increase the ability of every classroom teacher and administra- Mackin (Cont'd. from p. 1) tor to improve and enhance learning. ESD: How do you view your role as an educational resource vendor in today's market? RH: Our role is more crucial than ever as we provide schools and libraries with the most economical and versatile resources they need. Mackin has taken that involve- ment a step further to remain on the lead- ing edge by making digital materials available for purchase while offering the most robust, free digital resource manage- ment system on the market. MackinVIA is built to provide ease of access to pur- chased digital materials with a plethora of assistive features that make the user's experience simple and rewarding. ESD: In addition to visiting the Mackin booth, how can people learn more about your company? RH: Anyone can visit our website at www.mackin.com for full information about Mackin. They can also start a live chat, email us at mackin@mackin.com, or call us at 800.245.9540. Our Twitter accounts are @Mackin_Talk and @MackinVIA. We are also on Facebook (Mackin Educational Resources). At Mackin, every phone call is always answered in person – 24 hours a day, every day – and we pride ourselves on the fact that here, true customer service still exists. Visit Mackin at booth #2454. For more information, go to www.mackin.com, call 800.245.9540 or email mackin@mackin.com. and administrators to save time while engaging parents or students. You know when you have to go print out pages of handouts for your parents? Imagine never having to do that again. When you have to answer the same ques- tion 10 times to 10 different parents? We solve that. Or having to connect with dif- ferent parents in different ways: some paper, some email, some text. BuzzMob solves that too. We make it faster and easier for teachers and administrators to communicate, so their time is freed up to teach and advance their students. ESD: A lot of the excitement is coming because some prominent teachers are currently using your product. How does that feel to hear such praise from some of the top influencers in education? JJ: It's an incredible feeling. We've been very fortunate with early adop- tion, and the quality of educators we were able to get insights from early on. We've been in the classroom learning and working with our teachers to see how they're using our tools, and others, in the actual context of their work. This has helped us discover ways we can simplify some of their processes and put them more in control. To hear vali- dation from some of the most promi- nent leaders in education keeps us ener- gized and wanting to improve the plat- form even more. BuzzMob (Cont'd. from p. 1) ESD: What are some of the key features that make BuzzMob successful? JJ: Users can log in via the web or mobile app, with access to various fea- tures including a smart feed of upcoming items, an interactive calendar and private messaging. Parents and students can choose to receive messages via email, text or push notifications on the app. This allows teachers to share announcements anytime with the push of a button and know that all parents will receive them, regardless of their chosen access method. ESD: Does BuzzMob have any big fea- tures in the pipeline? JJ: Tons! We're currently preparing to release some new features that make it even easier to see your engagement lev- els. We're also working on digitizing per- mission slips and fundraising, and a few top secret additions I can't mention yet! ESD: What's happening at the BuzzMob booth at this year's conference? JJ: We're giving away free BuzzMob subscriptions at ISTE this year. Stop by our booth at 1559 for a free walk-through of the platform and enter to win. Prepare to have your mind blown. Visit BuzzMob at booth #1559. For more information, go online to www.buzzmob.com, call 949.470.9100 or email info@buzzmob.com. instruction and learning and become "connected schools"? The Cloud (and Cloud Connectivity) Many schools have put mission-critical applications like phone services, business software and other systems into the cloud. They have moved them out of their own facilities and into the cloud to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Cloud service providers allow school dis- tricts to eliminate some of their physical servers and rent out virtual servers instead. These virtual servers can be accessed via the Internet or a private con- nection to the provider. But now they need a high-performance connection to the cloud to reach all those resources. At the end of the day, your cloud-based applications and services are only as good as your connection to them. Data Centers IT departments are now centralizing their servers, storage systems and software applications at a third-party data center and delivering the resources out to all of the schools in the district from the data center. A data center allows districts to rent space with adequate power, cooling and security for their servers. You need a robust, high-capacity, private network service to connect all the schools to the data center to maintain access to all the district's information and data. School-to-School Communications through Wide Area Networks (WAN) A high-capacity wide area network (WAN) is needed to connect all of the different schools and buildings in a dis- trict together to efficiently distribute cen- Comcast Business (Cont'd. from p. 1) tralized applications and resources across all schools. That information, data and video can be shared between and among schools, and data center- and cloud-based resources can be accessed by everyone. A WAN that is scalable, secure and highly available provides the foundation resource distribution within a school dis- trict. Access from the Home The need for connectivity doesn't end with the school day. Students and teach- ers need to get online and access school resources from home. One school administrator recently told me, "our jobs as educators don't end when the bell rings at the end of the day. Our resources have to keep working and be accessible 24/7." For example, if a stu- dent saves a draft of a research paper as a document at school, they can access that same draft at home later – but only if they have access to the Internet. A robust connection from home ensures that work and learning can continue after the school day is over. While the Internet is a powerful tool, having Internet access at school is only a portion of the technology tools that are needed to drive technology-based instruction and learning. A solid network foundation is needed to allow a disctrict to "put it all together" to efficiently dis- tribute digital learning tools across all schools, and give students the informa- tion and content that they need for better learning at school and at home. For more information, visit Comcast Business at ISTE booth #846, visit www.business.comcast.com or call 866.519.2313. foundation of progress, whether it's bringing a new product to market or addressing homeland security issues. In the field of education, teachers and administrators benefit significantly from creative strategic problem solving as they face 21st century challenges to provide equitable and effective educa- tion. Increasing technological advance- ments for seamless wireless connectivity, mobile computing and game-based learn- ing is changing the ways that we learn, communicate and teach. Tech-savvy stu- dents and emerging adults who grew up with digital media have different expec- tations for learning. They value interac- tivity, creative expression, collaboration, hands-on experiences, games and social networking. Recognizing this fundamental shift in thinking and learning, Drexel's School of Education has merged the previously separate program areas of 'Learning Technologies' and 'Creativity & Innovation' to create the 'Learning Technologies, Creativity & Design Program.' The merger facili- Drexel (Cont'd. from p. 1) tates closer collaboration of once sepa- rate faculty who now capitalize on synergistic teaching and research opportunities focused on developing learning technology leaders in busi- ness and education. The collaboration results are the improved preparation of corporate and education leaders who are creative thinkers and problem solvers able to exploit learning tech- nologies to better identify and innova- tively solve learning and performance problems through a transformational model of change and foster creative environments within their corporate, military or educational work setting. Students in the both Drexel's MS degree in Learning Technologies and its MS Degree in Creativity & Innovation participate in a core set of course work in their respective disciplines. Students are able and encouraged to include the foun- dational courses of the other program to serve as the Professional Elective com- ponent of their degrees. For more detailed information about the programs, visit booth #1964 or see Drexel University's School of Education's web- site, www.drexel.edu/soe.