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Fifty from ISTE: 50 new ed-tech services
(7) LearnZillion is known for its free video library of Common Core tutorials, but at ISTE the company introduced a premium version featuring customizable, high-quality lesson plans developed by exemplary teachers and targeting math and ELA for grades 2-12. The premium content will be available in August for a per-building fee.
(8) Mimio introduced an interactive LED display with six touch points, the MimioDisplay, available in four sizes ranging from 55 inches to 84 inches diagonally.
In addition, Mimio is coming out with a new version of its MimioStudio teaching software this fall that will include an integrated web browser, so teachers and students can find and annotate web content directly within a lesson, without having to switch applications.
(9) myON is expanding its personalized digital literacy platform to include tools that support close reading. The myON platform encompasses more than 7,000 digital books with embedded assessments, and now it features capabilities such as highlighting and note-taking as well.
This content includes the Pearson System of Courses, all-digital math and ELA courseware with built-in games, simulations, activities, and assessments for real-time learning feedback; iLit, a tablet-based reading intervention program for students in grades 4-10; and Pearson’s Online Learning Exchange, a searchable K-12 digital library of teaching resources.
(11) Promethean is adding assessment and data analytics tools to its ClassFlow software, a cloud-based platform that facilitates teaching and learning with technology.
The current platform is free for teachers, and Promethean will charge schools for the enterprise version it plans to release this fall—but the company is looking for school districts to pilot this enterprise version at no cost.
(12) SMART Technologies introduced the SMART Board 6065, a 65-inch, ultra HD interactive flat panel display with a low-friction surface that supports four touch points, so two students can collaborate at once with their fingers or a pen.
As with all SMART interactive displays, the SMART Board 6065 comes with SMART Notebook software and access to the SMART Exchange website, where educators can connect, share, and download more than 60,000 digital resources; the board sells for around $4,500.
(13) Tales2Go cited research suggesting that linguistically rich first graders know four times as many words as their peers from lower socio-economic groups—and this gap persists throughout their education if it’s not closed early on.
Listening to audio books can help close this gap, Tales2Go says, and the company offers audio streaming of more than 4,000 titles to any device—including unlimited, simultaneous access to the full catalog of titles from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade—for just $1,900 per building, per year.
(14) TCI is launching a K-5 science product, called “Bring Science Alive,” built from the ground up on the Next Generation Science Standards and available beginning this fall.
The curriculum is HTML5-based, so it will work on any student device—and TCI has embedded “just in time” professional development within the materials, including step-by-step tutorials for conducting in-class investigations, to help teachers use them in their classrooms.
(15) Waterford Early Learning discussed how its reading, math, and science software for early elementary students is now available in the cloud and accessible from any internet-connected device, including iPads and Chromebooks.
All of Waterford’s content has been converted into HTML5, so it can be used on iPads—and a new feature called Classroom Advantage lets teachers search by grade level, standard, or skill to find activities that meet those needs.
(16) WriteToLearn, a Pearson company, showed the next generation of its online writing software, which will be available this fall.
The new version will have a “card”-based interface that should seem familiar to students from popular commercial applications, and WriteToLearn has added more than 80 new college and career-ready writing prompts and activities.
(17) zSpace is coming out with new content for its immersive virtual 3D desktop environment this fall, including a Newtonian “sandbox” for learning about physics.
Using an Activity Builder, teachers will be able to set up a scene with various ramps and obstacles, then assign a goal to students—such as “move the ball from X to Y”—and as students complete the activity, the system will record their progress.