Three days at NECC....

Three days at NECC. I spent the last three days at NECC, looking at new technologies, new software and new hardware. Educators have lots to be excited about. HP and Asus were showing off their mini laptops which were both small in stature and price. The exhibition hall was filled with companies tauting their interactive whiteboards and the impact it will have on learning in the classroom. Both Smart and Promethian had some of the largest booths on the floor and had many teachers doing live demonstrations. Mimio was also there showing off their latest release of MimioStudio 6 and the release of the Mimio Pad, a hand held portable tablet. Many of the vendors were demonstrating various response systems and there is definitely a move towards a totally digital classroom. The digital classroom would include an interactive whiteboard, data projector, response system, document camera, and a audio sound field system. Of course Web 2.0 and collaboration was another key trend. Software as a service is here to stay and there were many companies who were showing off their software applications that are hosted solutions right through the browser. Crick Software was demonstrating Write Online and FTC Publishing was demoing WriteIt Live. With Hyperstudio back there seemed to be excitement about multimedia and project based learning. Adobe was showing off their creative tools and showing off Adobe Acrobat 9, which has some very strong multimedia features. It is now possible to embed a Flash video and create a Portfolio of individual PDF's which can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe was also demonstrating Adobe Acrobat website which gives you data storage, Buzzword, and Sharing capabilities. Acrobat.com is a wonderful website and one each and every teacher should set up immediately. Acorbat.com holds much promise for collaboration and all of the tools are free.

Mimio Interactive Lessons

For those of you that are using the Mimio Interactive you should visit the Mimio website and check out the Mimio Interactive lesson plans. These are free lesson plans that you can download on-line an use with your Mimio Interactive. Here you will find a core of easy-to-use, instructionally sound activities to support your classroom curriculum. You can customize each of these to meet your individual students needs. There are science, math, and English lessons on-line.

Mimio Interactive

Mimio Interactive is truly a revolutionary piece of hardware that can really transform the the way teachers instruct in the classroom. The mimio Xi, is a small bar that is affixed to a standard whiteboard. In conjunction with a computer, projector and the mimioStudio software that comes with the mimio Interactive you can turn any standard whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard with all of the functionality that one would expect from a dedicated interactive whiteboard. Using state of the art technology you are able to bring in digital pictures, control your PowerPoint presentation, and design activites in front of the class using the very intuitive mimioStudio software. Using the stylus as a mouse teachers can digitally write their notes within the mimio Studio notebook and save them for future use. At the end of the class period it is easy to print out the notes and distribute them to the students that need them. Better yet you can bring in picture backgrounds and clip art from the gallery's within mimioStudio to build exciting and rich lessons. Imagine being able to project on the screen the Periodic Table and then have students come up and highlight all of the noble gases with the mimio Mouse stylus. With mimioStudio, teachers can annotate the web site by highlighting and using the digital pens which are automatically saved to the Markup file within mimioStudio. It is a great way to save the information and review it for another time. All of the individual pages within mimioStudio are saved and teachers can quickly jump around the pages by going into the Thumbnail view. Simply double clicking on the thumbnail will bring you to the page. mimio Mimio Interactive allows teacher to create highly interactive lessons to engage students in the learning process. Teachers can also link websites from within the Mimio Studio notebook and be out on the web in seconds. mimio Interactive is available for Windows and Mac OS X. If you are looking for a way to transform your teaching in the classroom then you owe it to yourself to take a look at mimio Interactive-you will be amazed by its features, price and functionality.