My takeaways from the #ISTE11 exhibit hall

Saying there’s a lot going on in the Exhibit Hall of ISTE11 is gross understatement. Unlike my Aunt Debbie, I made it out of there without four tote bags overflowing with schwag. For me, the Exhibit Hall is about saying “Hi” to vendors I know and trust, avoiding the awkward hard sell, being wow’d by the next “must have” integrative technology, and summoning the joy of trick-or-treating with all the free candy offered on every table.

Below is an incomplete list of booths and presenters (whether old or new to me) I found compelling enough to write down in order to share with my faculty:

Pixologic
http://Pixologic.com for 3D modeling software (export files to our 3D printer!)
Sculptris – free, lite version
ZBrush – full feature

Wacom Technology
http://wacom.com
Awesome updates from Wacom

EasyBib
http://easybib.com
Free bibliography composer
Now let’s you make online notecards!

Parat
http://paratsolutions.com
Finally came out with an iPad tray to charge and sync 10 iPads.
You have to charge it in their case, and they are demo’ing a prototype of the case (which I guess they’ll be packaging with the tray?)

Bretford
http://bretford.com/apple
PowerSync Tray for iPad – charges and syncs 10 devices, can be daisychained (but why buy 3 trays and not one cart unless you like the size of the tray)
PowerSync Cart for iPad – charges and syncs 30 devices

UPrint by Dimension
http://dimensionprinting.com
UPrint 3D printing by Stratasys
$15K prints up to 8x6x6″
$20K prints up to 8x8x6
$30K prints up to 8x8x12
$33K prints up to 10x10x12
$110K prints up to 14x16x14

iPevo
http://ipevo.com
iPevo2 document camera
Chopstakes multitouch styli
Cushi pillow stand for iPad

Epson’s Brightlink 455wi
http://Epson.com/brightlink
$1600 without software
$1800 with RM Easiteach
Unlike the eBeam, no additional equipment needed besides projector, surface, computer
Infrared signal links from projector to pen tracks everything, 16:10 ratio throw
Not multi-touch
Projector has built-in wifi and speaker, ports for additional speaker

Gamestar Mechanic
http://gamestarmechanic.com
Awesome platform for teaching principles of game design

Livescribe
http://livescribe.com
Besides the Echo Smartpen, I was psyched to learn about Sound Stickers and Sticky Notes.
Sound stickers – circles you can program with specific audio! Put them on pages of books and kids can tap it with pen to make audio play
Sticky notes – sticky notes with dot patterns just like the notebooks
They are partnering with http://Harvardsquareacademy.org – not public yet – and getting a community of minds from Harvard and MIT sharing content and lessons to give expertise to students in the classroom

PBS TeacherLine
http://PBSTeacherLine.org
Online PD, free resources and lessons

Library of Congress
http://loc.gov/teachers
How and why to use primary resources, suggested tools for gathering primary resources

Lego Education
http://LEGOeducation.us
Jason Yount at Tech Support shared a ton of information
http://tiltedtwister.com – can get the building plans and compiled code (Java) for Rubiks Cube solving robot
http://tetrixrobotics.com for pics and plans of robots using tetrix pieces (claw design)
Labview – industry standard software, $500-600 site license. Has help feature to assist you as you translate from RoboLab or Mindstorms into LabView
WeDo – LabView for little kids – pretty basic looking programming language
Renewable Energy Add-on and Activity Pack – need to purchase the new Simple Machines kit 

Polyvision
http://polyvision.com
Eno Play turns Eno board (the whole board!) into a speaker!
Fuse – document camera, web camera, and scanner in one

Vernier
http://vernier.com
Vernier is the developer of Logger and tons of sensors
$1.99 Video Physics app – capture or import video with iPad (basketball, swing set, cars, conveyor belt) graph, share to Logger Pro and measure away

Doceri
http://doceri.com
Use iPad to control interactive whiteboard screen, write over and edit and play back

Ladibug
http://mylumens.com
Ladibug wireless document camera

One More Story
http://onemorestory.com
Online library
Child chooses a book and can experience it in one of three ways: either fully animated and controlled by computer, read by narrator, or read independently
$1.20 per child per year – 100 student minimum
$44 for a home license
Will be available in the fall as an app

Sparkfun
http://sparkfun.com
Top reseller of Arduino projects
Program with Modkit – upgraded version of Scratch (modulation code)
They bundle an Inventor’s Guide
As an educator – email education@sparkfun.com and get digital or paper educator guides with worksheets for teaching with Arduino!!!!

FableVision
http://fablevisionlearning.com/fabatschool
Fablevision is developing the software for the 3D printer made by Cornell University
Prints models with hard plastic, silicon, latex, cheese whiz, frosting
Printer will be about $1000 or less
Comes in a kit to built
Hopefully available to purchase by september.

Powerful Learning Practice
Http://plpnetwork.com
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (@snbeach) and Will Richardson(@willrich45)
Year long, job-embedded PD versus workshops and keynote

2Bot physical modeling technologies
http://2bot.com
3D classroom modeling, Uses a drill bit to cut through blocks of approved materials (foam, wax, wood) 12x12x2 blocks but separate “printouts” can be pieced together. Under $10K

Key Curriculum Press
http://keypress.com
http://www.kcptech.com/dynamicnumber/curriculum.html
“Dynamic Number Project” and The Geometer’s Sketchpad app which will be out in a few weeks
Daniel Scher is the man!

 

Rigging a Bretford Mobility Cart to act like a Bretford PowerSync Cart

To store and charge our Library’s set of 20 iPads, we have a Bretford Mobility Cart purchased in the fall of 2010. Had we but waited a few months, we would have bought the Bretford Powersync Cart which stores, charges, and syncs the iPads to a designated computer.

To rig our Mobility Cart for syncing as well as charging the iPads, David Waterbury (one of our extraordinary techies) followed steps listed in this site (thankfully shared to our NYCIST listserv by Tammi Williams, Technology Operations Manager at The Berkeley Carroll School of Brooklyn).

After three hours of tedium (a.k.a. David’s time), we now have two color-coordinated cables available for each iPad in the cart – red is for charging and white is for syncing.

Note: Instead of using multiple daisychained D-Link hubs, David purchased one 24-port hub. Also, David said that the Apple iPad cables run a bit short when stringing them from the 24-port hub on the top of the cart to the bottom shelf of the cart.

Now I’m just wondering when Parat will come out with something awesome for storing and syncing iPads too…

Parat PARASYNC vs Bretfod PowerSync to dock/sync our iPod Touch collection

The School at Columbia University (http://theschool.columbia.edu) recently purchased two docking/syncing stations for our iPod Touch collection. One is the PARASYNC tray by Parat Solutions (http://www.paratsolutions.com/parasync.html) and the other is the Bretford ParaSync Case for iPod (http://apple.bretford.com/products/powersynccase).

The Parat PARASYNC is a $995 lightweight tray that docks and syncs 20 iPod Touches (each tray is designed for a specific model and the slots are customized accordingly). The new iPod Touch is .3″ inches thinner than the last generation of iPod Touches, so Parat is selling decals to affix to the back of your new iPod Touch so they’ll fit into the former iPod Touch slot without without breaking the pins inside. They have yet to design a tray for iPads, but we would totally be interested in it if/when they do.

The Bretford PowerSync Case for iPod is $1200 and allows us to sync, dock, and carry multiple generations of iPods. While this device was made to travel, it is heavy, clunky, and looks like a terrorist’s checked baggage. However, the beauty of this case is that it houses a variety of different iPods and devices rather than only one model.

So far, it’s a win-win.

UPDATE: Peter Jauss of Parat Solutions just wrote me about the $198 Parat PARASYNC Transport Roller that was made to store, protect, and transport a laptop, 20 iPod devices, and power supplies: www.paratsolutions.com/parasync-transport

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“I gotta go back, back, back to school again.”

This first week back was nuts. After days of meetings and heavy lifting, I finally had a chance to talk curriculum with the 8^th grade team. It was such a thrill to listen to them discuss ways to integrate pieces of their curriculum, starting with the first project of the year and looking towards January: Apartheid and governance in Social Studies, To Kill a Mockingbird in English, the Empty Bowls Project in Art… It’s one of my favorite parts of my job.

Besides having way too little time to discuss upcoming projects, I had a crash course in TeacherEase, an online grading/communication tool we’re piloting across the middle school. It looks pretty powerful, as you can track grades, attendance, comments, send email alerts to students and parents, and log in as a teacher, student, or parent to access performance assessments.

I spent a long time researching iPod and iPad storage/syncing devices from Parat, Tribeam, Cambrionix, and Bretford. We ended up buying the 20-slot Bretford iPad cart, but I’m torn about what to get for our iPod Touches. I almost purchased a couple of docks from Parasync, but it won’t house the new iPod Touches without some retrofitting to accommodate the slightly different shape of the updated device. And while the Bretford case houses multiple generations of iPods, I prefer the look and design of the wireless Parasync tray. Suffice it to say, we didn’t make a decision.

In addition to physically and mentally preparing for Tuesday’s arrival of students, I’ve been emailing, meeting, and teleconferencing with other organizers of EdCampNYC (on 12/4/10)  and TEDxNYED (in March of 2011) and finding hosts for my monthly NYCIST meetings. I find it remarkable I have a social life sometimes.

While I didn’t have much time to check out my Twitter feed much, I did forward a bunch of gems to my faculty. I’ll try not to have anxiety over all the resources I missed:

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