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Enlighten
February 2011 Issue
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Stop By and See
Us at These
Upcoming Events
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Are You In the Dark About DLP and LCD Projector s? | |
Purchasing projectors is no easy task. Because so many other computer technologies are displayed using a projector, it seems to have a ripple effect through all of them.
In addition, the projector landscape can be quite overwhelming - distance, lumens, display types... Which projector should you choose?
One common conversation that will come up when purchasing a projector is the difference between LCD and DLP projectors.
Engaging Technologies carries a line of each type - Vivitek LCD projectors and Hitachi DLP projectors - because we know that much of the display type preference is dependent on your application, as well as based on personal preference.
If you're buying projectors any time soon, study up on this article by Evan Powell of ProjectorCentral.com that sheds some light on the subject of LCD and DLP projectors and which one might be the right choice for you.
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Have You Tried StarrMatica Lately? | |
Our Engaging Technologies team had a StarrMatica refresher course last week, and it just confirmed for us again what great interactive content StarrMatica provides!
Former 4th grade teacher Emily Starr founded StarrMatica after seeing the need as a teacher for
easy-to-implement, ready-made, interactive digital content that would engage and help elementary students in reading and math. Thus, StarrMatica was born.
StarrMatica's library of more than 3,800 cutting-edge reading and math animations, manipulatives, activities, and games for K-6th grade is searchable by state standards, the national core curriculum, and popular textbook curriculums.
Now for the good news
(after all, we are feeling the LOVE this month)...
With every purchase of a CPS system, Mobi or Mimio Teach, you'll receive a coupon for a FREE 3-month trial of StarrMatica FREE!
In addition to the great learning activities, one of my favorite things about StarrMatica is the many thousands of extra links to
free resources right on the Internet - saving you all the many hours you would spend searching for quality flash simulations and engaging activities.
So, make sure to take advantage of your free 3-month trial of StarrMatica with the purchase of a CPS system, Mobi, or Mimio Teach. We're confident you'll be glad you did!
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Your eInstruction Representatives
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Engaging Technologies, is dedicated to providing only the very best educational technologies to educators in Kansas and Nebraska. We promise to provide only those products that we would use in our classrooms!
Please contact us with any questions regarding sales, training, or implementation, of our product lines in your classroom or organization.
Call 800.705.4049
Send us an email
Visit our website
  The ET Team Dustin Frank Cathy Frank Rick Goscha David LaDay Dan Reid Linda Peters 
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Greetings!
Winter is definitely in full swing and the snow keeps reappearing every week to ten days here in the metro area. However, before too much longer the fever of assessment in the third quarter of the school year will be balancing out the cold and snow! Don't forget how quick and easy it is to use our student response systems to run quick check or item analysis and plan for remediation or individualized instruction in just minutes.
Educators all across the country are using our "clickers" to gain feedback, but don't forget that valuable reporting window behind the scenes, which can really help pinpoint key areas this time of year in prep for CRT's or high stakes testing soon to come.
With five reps now able to serve our schools, please don't hesitate to contact us so we can be out and about in the classrooms helping teachers implement classroom technology to the fullest. We're eager to "share the love" with our Free Mobi Promotion this month and next, and be sure to keep an eye out for free goodies at the heart banners and red fonts you see throughout this newsletter!
Stay warm this month, and we look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely, Dustin K. Frank
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 | Feel the Love... Buy 4 Mobis, Get One Free!
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We're feeling the Mobi love this month, and our customers in Nebraska and our Kansas area can take advantage of this special offer through 3/31/11!
Buy 4 Mobis at regular price (which just went down after the new year) and get one Mobi FREE!
eInstruction's Mobi mobile interactive whiteboard does more than a traditional interactive whiteboard at a fraction of the cost.
In fact, you can see just how easy it is to incorporate video into the Workspace software and manipulate and annotate with the eInstruction Mobi in this video by Media4Math. The Mobi allows all this to take place from anywhere in the room!
Download a printable flyer for this limited time promotion HERE.
**Offer expires 3/31/11. Limit of 5 FREE Mobis. Shipping & handling not included. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Offer valid only in KS and NE areas where Engaging Technologies is an authorized reseller of eInstruction products. |
| ExamView Learning Series New For KS and NE
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Our long wait to have ExamView Learning Series aligned with Nebraska standards is finally over! Although questions in the ExamView Learning Series were previously topic aligned, they are now fully aligned to state standards.Kansas Learning Series questions, which were already previously aligned to Kansas state standards, have also been realigned to updated standards. 
What does this mean for you? It means thousands of high-quality questions aligned to state standards that you can use with ExamView Assessment Suite to create study guides, worksheets, and formative and summative assessments. Send created tests out to the web so students can access makeup or review work at home, or quickly import those questions into CPS so you'll have content at your fingertips! Learning Series also contains dynamic questions, which will automatically substitute items so one question generates hundreds of variations that test the same concept -- truly a math teacher's dream come true!
We're feeling the love, so grab a free sampler of Learning Series content questions here. Questions in the samplers represent a small cross-section of each subject and grade level of ExamViewTM Learning Series products.
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| Keeping Up With the Livescribe Smartpen
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- Listen to Scholastic's Ken Royal review the Livescribe Echo Smartpen!
- You're sure to find some fantastic educational ideas for using your smartpen at this assistive technology Wiki, Smartpen-Connection.
- This blog post by The Tempered Radical contains a fantastic embedded pencast of two students explaining waves. What a great formative assessment piece. You can most definitely tell that these students know their waves!
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| eInstruction Webinars Being Held This Month | eInstruction is hosting a series of webinars this month to provide you with continued support on eInstruction software and technology. Attendance is free. Just find a topic that interests you below and register for the webinar(s) of your choice.
Each webinar is scheduled for 1 hour on the following dates at 3pm CST.
Mon, Feb 14, 3-4 pm CST - Engaging students using vClicker
Mon, Feb 21, 3-4 pm CST - Collaborative classrooms using multi-user lessons
Mon, Feb 28, 3-4 pm CST - Creating online study guides with ExamView
Once registered, you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees require Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh-based attendees require Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) or newer
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| Formative Assessment: Redirecting the Plan | |
An older article in The Science Teacher came to my attention in the last month or so, Formative Assessment: Redirecting the Plan. The article mentions a scenario very common for us to hear as we go out into schools that have recently started using student response systems. It goes a little something like this...
"We had spent weeks on the conservation of mass. I was shocked when I asked a question about rusty nails and almost all of the students got it wrong. In the past, if this had been a test result I would have been saddened but probably would have moved on to the next unit because the test means it's time to press forward."
Science teachers at the school featured in the article had decided that they were no longer satisfied with the "teach, test, and hope for the best" learning cycle.
The article talks about using clickers as a formative assessment tool and really using that data to direct instruction. A good point is also made in that using data to direct instruction means that your best made plans might sometimes have to be thrown to the wind and a new direction forged.
This article is a good read that applies to all teachers and subjects, not just science teachers. Enjoy!
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| Historical Tweets with CPS Pulse | Although the language on the site www.historicaltweets.com might not all be appropriate to access during school time, the concept is quite hilarious and may prove to be a fun, creative application of knowledge for your students.
Just what if the Wright brothers had Twitter? What would they have said on their maiden flight in Kitty Hawk? What would a tweet from Rosa Parks as she refused to give up her seat on the bus look like? Angry? Scared?
These "tweets" would be very easy to pull off on the fly with CPS Pulse student response systems, which now have the ability to text up to 140 characters - just like a Twitter entry. Crank it up a bit and have students come up with Twitter usernames for famous inventors, scientists, artists or mathematicians.
After students submit answers with their Pulse response pad, use the pads to vote to see which is the best idea, and have students justify their answer or convince their neighbor why their choice is the best choice. This activity will be a fun way for older students to digest and apply their knowledge while having fun with a little creativity along the way. I'm sure their responses will generate some gut-wrenching laughs!
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| Some eInstruction Products See End of Life | Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to some products that saw End of Life come as of December 31, 2010. As of that date, tech support is no longer available for Quiz Show, PuzzleView, Quicktake, LessonView and BTCom.
If you are currently using any of these programs and require assistance, please contact the publisher directly.
If you are using any of the above products, please note that when using the current and future versions of eInstruction Device Manager, our student response systems will not work with these partner programs. When disconnected from previous versions of device manager, these programs will work with Gen1 IR/RF and Gen2 IR/RF only. eInstruction has also formally announced the End of Life for the eI Cornerstone Education Suite, Interwrite Pad, and CPS Chalkboard. Although these products will continue to be sold through January 31, 2011 (while supplies last only), technical support will be available through January 31, 2012. |
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