For the last three years, I have used Dymo®/Mimio® products in our classrooms in place of other commercial interactive whiteboards. The response from teachers has been fantastic, as we are continuing to purchase them for each of our schools. One of the schools went so far to install the Mimio products in each of their classrooms.

Mimio has always provided a less expensive alternative to existing solutions, and the combination of software and hardware have made it easy for teachers to adapt to and integrate lessons.

Now Dymo/Mimio has introduced a new line of products they are calling the Mimio Classroom suite. According to the Dymo/Mimio website:

The MimioClassroom suite of easy-to-use tools includes:

• MimioTeach™ system, which transforms any dry erase whiteboard into a fully-interactive whiteboard to enable interactive learning, eliminating the need for more complicated or expensive equipment. It mounts magnetically to existing whiteboards, so it is easy to move to different classrooms or remove for safekeeping.
• MimioVote™ Student Assessment System, which provides instant assessment with a tool that is more intuitive and easier to use.  Teachers can create teacher- or student-led tests with custom or standardized state assessment content and get results immediately.  The rechargeable handheld devices use an illuminated response feature which lights only the appropriate buttons for each question, reducing test errors and increasing assessment accuracy. Results are automatically downloaded to the MimioStudio Gradebook for review, modification and downloading to spreadsheets.
• MimioView™ Document Camera, one of the most integrated and easy to use document cameras on the market, allowing users to instantly capture pictures and live video.  Fully integrated with MimioStudio software, the camera works seamlessly with all MimioClassroom products.
• MimioCapture™ Ink Recording System, a best-in-class system that enables real-time capture of dry erase whiteboard notes and drawings
• MimioPad™ Wireless Tablet, a slim and light wireless tablet that allows teachers and students to collaborate and interact with a MimioTeach-enabled whiteboard from up to 30 feet away.
• MimioStudio™ 7 Software, integrates the MimioTeach, MimioVote, MimioView, and MimioCapture systems and MimioPad tablet and enables educators to capture, create and present engaging classroom content with images, multimedia files and more that can be integrated into lesson plans as well as student assessments.  It includes an easy-to-use Mimio Gallery that provides teachers fast access to ready-to-use lesson plans, images, objects and content.

Prior to the new release, Mimio had offered the interactive white board component, wireless tablet, and the Mimio Studio 6 software. Each of the new components look to combine many of the tools that educators are using in the classroom into one solution.For the new suite, each piece of hardware has been redesigned and the software has also been upgraded.

The Mimio Studio software is truly the glue that holds all of the products together. Our teachers have found that the Mimio software has been extremely easy to use, and many of them have abandoned PowerPoints and other applications in favor of using Mimio Studio as a repository for all the materials of an entire lesson.

It will be interesting to see how many new features will be in Mimio Studio 7, and if there is a steep learning curve to the new products. Dymo/Mimio has taken a step forward to competing with other major interactive white board brands, and with the growing popularity of their online resource www.mimioconnect.com and social networking presence, it will be fun to see if Dymo/Mimio can really take off.

UPDATE:

Having gotten to see a demo of the Mimio suite of products, I can say that we are very excited about the potential of using them in our district. Mimio Studio 7 serves as the glue for all of the products, and goes out of its way to provide quality experience all with one common interface. The new Mimio Vote student response system makes use of Mimio 7, and seems to be very easy to use and design questions. The self-paced assessment feature of the student response systems has the potential to make Mimio Vote a game changer in the market of student response systems.

With the self-paced assessments, teachers can design an assessment using the Mimio software, print it, and have the students use the Mimio Vote responders to record there answers. Students are able to navigate through the assessment using arrow buttons and a small LED display that lets the student know which question they are on. Students can also go back and view or change their previous answers. When they are done, they click a finish button, and their score is immediately displayed on the LED screen.

These products have a lot of potential, but there are some limitations that the company says are still in beta, and with feedback there may be improvements. The products are due out in the fall of 2010.

Photos courtesy of www.mimio.dymo.com

The States is a simple and to the point application, great for any student trying to learn their states and capitals. I like to think of this App as “Flash Card Killer” for traditional flash cards. With everything all in one, it takes away the painstaking hours of filling out individual flash cards. Kids will no longer think of this as an assignment, but just as another game to play on their iPod Touches.

When inside the App, it gives you the name of the state or capital near the top, then 3 outline of states to choose from. The app is limited in terms of being able to customize order or experience (specifically if a student needed work on particular states). It does make up for it in simplicity of use. The interface is bright and colorful, and is a nice tool for students needing to learn state capitals.

Since the first computer was made, the relationship between human interaction and machine has been hand in hand. However, now programs like Dragon Dictation allow you to interact with the machine in the palm of your hand. Dragon Dictation allows you to dictate words which will then be translated into text.

This utility is great for any age that is trying to comprehend Apple’s on-screen keyboard but still might need some assistance. They greatest feature of this APP is the option to “Copy To Clipboard”. This means that after you have dictated, you can copy the text into any application of your choice. Apple’s new iOS4 allows you to multi-task with newer versions of the iPod Touch and iPhone. This allows you to easily menauver from Dragon Dictation to other applications while still retaining the dictation previously entered.

This program has been a great success for our special needs student’s at our school who have a harder time with the on-screen keyboard. Without any type of instruction, they easily pick up the iPod Touch and are able to work around obsticals that once seemed difficult. Dragon Dictation in my opinion has about and 94% success rate with understanding dictations. Any dictation it cannot be understood can easily be fixed with the on-screen screen keyboard. This is a free app and can be used on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. To visit the iTunes Store click here.

Evernote Anyone who has ever used will tell you that it is much more than just a note-taking application. While it has the capabilities to take notes, what sets Evernote apart is ability to give users ubiquitous access to any kind of note they can create.

Evernote comes in many different shapes and sizes. There is a web-based version, desktop application, and a variety of mobile apps that allow a single user to access their notes from each of these applications. Users simply create a user account for free, and they can begin uploading their notes to Evernote.Evernote then syncs each of the applications the users has, and suddenly any note created can be viewed and shared on each device.

The notes themselves can be pictures, videos, voice recordings, web-clippings, and PDF files. What makes these notes even more useful is Evernote’s ability to tag, categorize and search each note.

The application or mobile apps are essential to any student looking to take and organize notes, especially in secondary or higher education. But there is potential for this application to be successful at the elementary, and for the price, it certainly seems worth it. There is also the ability to upgrade to a premium subscription for $5 per month or $45 per year for an additional 500mb a month of storage (the free version only allows 40mb per month).

In addition, Evernote offers a variety of downloadable browser extension to make it easier to take notes from the web. To learn more about downloading Evernote you can visit their website at: http://www.evernote.com

For those users familiar with BrainPop, this app is an extension of some of the videos made for kids in a variety of different subjects. BrainPop is a subscription site for kids and educators that offers free content as well. The site is very interactive for kids, and includes videos and quizzes for many different subjects. BrainPop is geared towards younger kids, and the content is typically age appropriate.

For those users familiar with BrainPop, this app is an extension of some of the videos made for kids in a variety of different subjects. The app offers over 20 different videos in subjects like science, social studies, and health. Once again, the videos are mostly age appropriate and lets the user take a quiz and compare their scores when they have completed the quiz.

The videos load quickly and the interface is easy to navigate. There is no indication as to how often the content changes however. The app is FREE however, and each video is more than several minutes long making it well worth the download. To learn more about BrainPop Featured Movie, click here.

Edmodo for iPhone allows teachers and students to connect to each other using the Edmodo website. For those not familiar with Edmodo, it is essentially social network for students and teachers. The site looks very much like Facebook, but it incorporates many features of other CMS services such as Blackboard or Moodle. Edmodo allows teachers to post assignments, files, and other resources for students, lets them interact with teachers in a secure social network. There are also options to do grades and assignment calendars.

The Edmodo app for the iPhone/iPod allows the students mobile access to the site. The interface is slick, and lets students streamline their news feed and assignments. Teachers can post alerts for students, and students can check messages from their iPhones or iPod touches. The app allows students to see their grades on assignments and keep track of assignments they need to turn in.

For anyone using Edmodo, this app is a great way to allow students access without relying on computer access. Learn more about the Edmodo App here.

For the fortunate few, the iPod Touch is already being used in the classroom, but in the not too distant future, this minority may soon become the majority. Let’s find out why as we explore the use of the iPod Touch in education.

Introduction

The iPod Touch was not designed to be used in an educational setting. It was meant as a multimedia device for the masses. However, it didn’t take long for tech savvy teachers to find ways to use the iPod Touch in the classroom.

It is portable, interactive, and might not cost as much as you think. What follows are the best reasons for using the iPod Touch in education.

Priceless Portability

Class sizes at my school are not getting any smaller. We are getting more students, which is great, but our classrooms are still the same size. In short, space is a premium. The storage space required for 25 iPod Touches is significantly less that that needed for 25 netbooks, or 25 laptops. They also take up less desk space. Students can have textbooks and notebooks out while using their iPod Touch, store them temporarily in a desk, or use them in any room of your building with ease.

Cost Cutting

iPod TouchWhat school does not want to save money right now? An 8GB iPod Touch costs around $180 right now. When you compare this to the price of laptops, or even netbooks, you are going to be able to purchase a lot more for your money. This means that instead of 2 or 3 children sharing a laptop, they could all have an iPod Touch to use for the same or less money. You will save at least $100 per device. Netbooks or laptops admittedly have more functionality than an iPod Touch, but the growing number of free web 2.0 tools, coupled with a seemingly endless supply of apps from the iTunes Store, means that the Touch is not far behind. Besides, your school likely already has a computer suite that is furnished with macs or pc desktops. The iPod Touch would complement that, not replace it. So forget the laptop vs. netbook debate, and see what the Touch can offer instead.

Ease of Use

The touch screen interface of the iPod Touch is very user friendly, and can quickly be learned by even the youngest students. It is intuitive, responsive, and highly motivating. The tactile experience that the device offers means that it will work well with visual and kinesthetic learners. Photos, videos and music can all be stored and played back with just a few taps on the screen, and the ability to return to the home screen at any time helps students instantly feel at ease with the user interface of the iPod Touch.

Endless Apps

iTunes StoreAs of November 2009, there were around 100,000 applications that could be downloaded for the iPhone or iPod Touch at Apple’s iTunes Store. Today, there are still more. This is a staggering number of apps, but a number that is testament to the popularity of these devices. Many of these apps are geared directly at using the iPod Touch in education, and while others are not, many more can still be seen to have educational purposes. The remaining articles in this series include a collection of the best apps for education.

Conclusion

Using an iPod Touch in the classroom has many advantages. They are cost efficient, space saving, and easy to use. Student motivation is high when using these devices, and the number of apps for educational use is on the rise. The time to talk to your school administration about using the iPod Touch in education, is now!

via Using the iPod Touch in Education: Technology Tips for Teachers.

Goodbye computer mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Say hello to a new, simpler era of human-computer interaction — this time, with no clunky hardware standing between you and digital information.

In this new world, there are options aplenty.

Instead of sliding a mouse across your desk, you could just point at whatever you’d like to select. Instead of pecking away at a keyboard, you could just say what you’re thinking. And instead of glaring at a big screen all day, why not just project that information on the surface of your contact lenses?

None of this is science fiction. These ideas are here today, some of them in research labs and others already on store shelves.

And, thanks to a remote-control-free video gaming system called Kinect, these futuristic concepts for computer-human communication are about to get a lot more popular, technology researchers said in interviews this week.

Microsoft’s Kinect, which hits stores November 4, lets players control games by moving their bodies. To make a digital soccer player kick, you just swing your leg.

It’s an effort to make gaming more “natural.” And that concept — that we don’t need intermediaries to help us talk to technology — is likely to bleed into every aspect of electronics and computing in coming years.

“It’s all fantastic, because it’s a really useful educational opportunity for the world,” said John Underkoffler, creator of a real gesture-based computing system that was featured in the 2002 movie “Minority Report.”

“It’s only been a few years that people have started to realize, ‘Wait a minute! We’re not stuck with the mouse and Windows-driven interface for the rest of time.’ “

‘Natural user interfaces’

A whole field of technological research has developed around the idea of “natural user interfaces,” which try to let people communicate with machines in the same ways they would interact with other people and with the real world.

Kinect, which was demonstrated at a video gaming conference this week in Los Angeles, California, is a prime example of this, because people control the system with body gestures and by talking instead of clicking buttons or messing with joysticks.

Researchers are trying to expand this idea of “gesture-controlled” electronics into computing more generally.

Underkoffler, for example, developed a system called g-speak, which lets users shuffle through data sets and other information by waving their hands.

He says several large companies, including Boeing, already are using custom-built versions of the system, which range in price from $100,000 to millions of dollars.

Underkoffler expects consumer-level products to be widely available within five years.

History of ‘natural’ computing

These developments may seem to have plopped into reality out of sci-fi. But they’ve been a long time coming.

Touch-sensitive screens were some of the first natural interfaces.

They’ve been in research for decades, but they didn’t become cheap and popular until 2007, when Apple released the touch-screen iPhone and Microsoft showed off a touch-screen coffee table called Microsoft Surface.

Now, as computer hardware becomes cheaper and people get more used to the idea that the mouse and keyboard aren’t the only way to compute, researchers are pushing into areas like brain-controlled computing, eye-tracking software and voice-recognition technology, which is common on smartphones.

Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, said that new ways for people to interact with computers have to be radically different to catch on.

People are used to touch screens and video cameras now, he said, so the transition into gesture computing makes more sense.

“The trend [of gesture computing] has been around for a while, but it’s sort of hit a critical point where I think the game is changing,” he said.

“The most significant thing that’s changed about computing is who’s doing what, where, with whom and for how much.”

When simple is complicated

Despite the recent advances, a number of hurdles remain in the “natural” progression of electronics.

New methods of input sometimes come with new problems. Using arm and hand motions to control computers, for instance, can become tiring, said Beth Mynatt, director of the GVU center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. And if such motions are taken to TV sets, as Toshiba has demonstrated, then there may be some unintended and hilarious consequences, she said.

Imagine changing a channel by waving your arms.

“Are they trying to change the channel or are they making rude gestures to the umpire?” a computer might think, she said. “[The computer is] going to get it wrong and nobody’s going to want to do it. They’re going to be much happier fumbling around with that remote.”

Robert Wang, a PhD student at MIT who has developed a gesture-controlled computing system, said it’s also difficult to use hand movements to manipulate digital objects because you can’t feel them.

“It’s going to be a little bit difficult to make a compelling sense of touch,” he said. Good visual cues may have to suffice, he said.

Death of the mouse?

There’s disagreement in the tech community about whether these new methods of human-computer interaction will completely kill the mouse, keyboard and computer monitor — or if they’ll just offer alternatives.

Generally, researchers think the mouse might be the first to go.

The keyboard, however unnatural, likely will be around longer because it is such an efficient way to write, and because people don’t want to learn new systems, said Mynatt of Georgia Tech.

Buxton, from Microsoft Research, said these new options aren’t competing with each other because they’re all good at something and terrible for something else.

Using Kinect on an airplane would be “completely absurd,” for example, he said, because you’d have to stand up on your plane seat and flail your arms around. Likewise, typing in a car is unsafe, and talking about private matters in public — or even entering voice commands — can be problematic.

“What I see is not that the gesture stuff is in competition with the mouse or with multitouch,” he said. “What all of these things do is they’re enhancing the palate of colors or the resources we can draw on, so that when we have something to do that involves technology, we can use the most appropriate means.”

Screens may be the last hangovers of the desktop world.

Some researchers now are projecting the internet and information on walls and even onto peoples’ hands, in effect turning fingers into buttons of their own.

Pranav Mistry, a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab, said his goal is to get rid of computer hardware entirely — so that people just interact directly with information.

“The hardware is becoming invisible,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, the digital world will fold completely into the real one.

via New tech moves beyond the mouse, keyboard and screen – CNN.com.

Traditional professional development has often been centered around teaching software and or tech integration methods. One of the problems we have found with this, is that once the training is complete, it is very hard for teachers to find practical uses for what they learned, or they have a hard time recalling all of the information. So we feel that one way to help this problem is not train on specific applications, but rather show a variety of different applications and focus more on larger concepts. For example, in a digital storytelling class, I might focus more on the process and then demo several applications that could accomplish this concept, rather than just teaching iMovie as a means of digital storytelling. We then follow with support in the buildings with various technology personnel.

Yesterday, we wanted to try a different approach. 26 teachers from grades K-8, including specialist teachers, volunteered to participate in a day long training in which at the end, they would be given a laptop to use as long as they were in the district. However, we wanted the training to be as much about modeling a process of learning as it was technology training.

Based on the Food Network show “Iron Chef”, we would assign each group of people (groups consisted of teachers from all different grade levels and disciplines) a project. The project in this case was to design an interdisciplinary project that integrated technology. However, like in the show, each group would have a “secret ingredient” that they would have to incorporate into their project. In this case, each group received a box full of 3-4 secret ingredients that they would have to not only use in their project, but find a way to make the pieces of technology work together within the project.

The directions were intentionally ambiguous, and teachers were noticeably frustrated at first. The lack of clear direction, coupled with being in groups of people from various schools whom they didn’t know caused some minor anxiety as they begun to delve into the project.

What ensued however was an amazing learning process. As teachers slowly began to discuss the projects, each group found themselves going in completely unique directions based on their technology and personal teaching styles.

Each group was assisted by an “Iron Tech” (a member of our district’s technology team) to help support and facilitate the project when needed. The boxes included items like, iPod Touches, Mimio Interactive Tablets, document cameras, and software like iLife and Google Docs. While most staff have been exposed to these technologies at some point, for many of them, it was the first experience to play with the tech.

As the day progressed, teachers began finding ways that students could use the technology in the lessons they were designing. In some groups, there appeared to be even a friendly competition amongst the members as to show what they had learned or had previously seen about technology.

By the end of the day, each group successfully created a lesson plan with amazing ways to integrate the technology into their projects. And while this was no doubt extremely positive, the true excitement of the day was being able to reveal to them that the point of the day wasn’t to just create lesson plans. Rather, we used the way we had structured the day to model a learning process to them. We looked at the fact that, while creating their lessons, they had been able to accomplish what we had set out to do in terms of learning about technology, and finding practical applications for them.

And while the traditional roles of teacher and student did not necessarily exist, we looked at the fact that learning had taken place, and that we could assess how much they understood by their presentations of their lesson plans. By working together in groups, collaborating, and exploring together, they were able to gain an understanding of the technology they were given, and ultimately learned about the other pieces from the other groups.

While this model may not be perfect, it is a good example of thinking outside of the box when it comes to professional development. When creating professional development, do we think about how people learn? Can you use that time to model various techniques and methods of teaching or differentiation? Lastly, can the modeling those techniques have as much or more of an impact than the actual content at times?

I went over to a friend’s house the other week for dinner. When I got there, I saw something that amazed me. At the kitchen table, there was his three year old son, on a MacBook, watching YouTube videos. It seems that his son figured out that clips from all of his favorite cartoons were online at his disposal. I asked the father where he had learned how often he does this, and he replied we can’t get him off of there, he’ll be at it for an hour.

As YouTube turns five this year, they have created a channel that celebrates some of the most popular and influential videos that have graced YouTube. It was interesting looking back at the videos, remembering when YouTube seemed like a well kept secret when it came out, much the way Napster seemed in 1999. While Napster revolutionized the distribution of digital music, YouTube learned from the Napster’s mistakes when it comes to copyrighted content.

YouTube has completely changed the way we not only view content, but share it as well. Many current video editing applications allow direct uploading to YouTube, a process that takes less than an hour. Within a short period of time, a user can create, upload, and share their videos with millions around the world. This sharing of media essentially turned anyone with a webcam into a potential television internet star.

Aside from changing the way creators share their work, it has also changed the way videos can be viewed in the classroom. (I am going to avoid discussing the copyright implications) Before VHS, when teachers wanted to show multimedia content in class, they would pull out the film strip projector. The content was usually limited, dated, and often laughable to modern audiences.

Enter VHS and later on DVD, but teachers were still limited the availability of the content on them. Today, there are many versions of digital content distribution systems, many of which are incredibly expensive. While the content in these systems is often professionally produced, teachers are still limited by cost and availability.

YouTube has some amazing resources for teachers, maybe of which include current events. Yet, many people us YouTube to post screen-casts, how-to’s, and demonstrations as well, which makes YouTube an incredibly versatile tool. Here are some examples of YouTube videos that have tremendous academic value.

While the examples may not be the most inspirational examples, I think they do show how versatile a tool YouTube can be when searching for content. Do you use YouTube in your school? Would you use YouTube with your own kids?