The Wireless TabCam Streams, Records, Presents, and Shares

TabCam, a wireless streaming camera, works with iPads, Android tablets, and computers and can present live video with annotations, highlighting, and more without “being tethered to the camera.” The device captures lessons, which can be used for future reference and for use with substitute teachers and students who were not present for the lesson. The advantage of having a wireless device that has a battery life of eight hours can’t be underestimated in a mobile classroom. Take a look at the videos, which describe using TabCam for flipped and blended instruction. The price on the Touchboard site is listed at $527.99. Kathy Hagar, a Director of Technology on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, tells us that she purchased several at a price of about $515 each and that her teachers love them. If interested, do a query on the AVer site.

Art & Technology

We Are Teachers offers excellent ideas for integration of art into the curriculum. You might try taking art “out of the box” by displaying a cubist painting on an interactive whiteboard and having students check out and draw over geometric shapes in the painting. After the lesson, students might create their own Cubist paintings using digital art programs or by creating shapes on paper. Make use of document cameras when studying how light and darkness interact. You can “manipulate light and color in your classroom by covering the bulb on your document camera with a piece of colored cloth.”  As you do this, “place various objects under the camera” in order to investigate changes in appearance that are dependent on different colors of light. Check out the article, “4 Ways to Take Art ‘Out of the Box’ Using Technology” to find more suggestions for the use of art in technology and in other subjects such as science, math, and social studies.

Big Bird’s Words: eSchool News App of the Week

It comes from Sesame Street, works on Apple and Android devices, and features Big Bird, games, and fun. Big Bird’s Words, an eSchool News and Metro Bistro App of the Week, encourages children ages four and up to learn vocabulary and read written text.  The App ($.99) uses Big Bird’s wonderful Word-O-Scope to get children hunting for words in their real-life environment. Finding words is fun, especially when they get to use their devices’ camera to click on images of the words—like cereal on their breakfast table. Wired Magazine recommends it as a great app for children who are just starting school. Take a look at the demo reel from Qualcomm to better understand what this app does.

Smithsonian’s Wiggle and Stomp

Send your youngest students on a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park with the free app, Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp. Using the app, your students, with the help of Ada, the Zookeeper, learn about flamingos, lions, mole rats, pandas, and so many more animals. They use the virtual Shutterbug camera to snap pictures of animals they find on their journey throughout the game. The app is designed to be used by individual players; it will adapt itself to the level of the user.

If you like Shutterbugs, you’ll want to keep a lookout on the Smithsonian Science Education site for the upcoming games, Habitats and Memory Watch.

Free Art & Photo Apps—Fun!

Corel® has released three free apps for the iPhone®, iPad®, Mac®, and Windows®. The apps include Corel Beep Beep, which turns an iPad into a coloring book; Corel Postcard, which lets you make your own postcards with photos and messages ; and Corel QuickSort, the way to sort and share your photos. At the App Store you can find these and other apps such as Corel Slingshot, Corel Draw Fans; Corel Paint it! On the Corel site, you can watch videos of how some of the apps work.

Vaddio: Videoconferencing Peripheral Company of the Year

Telepresence and Videoconferencing Insight Newsletter awarded Vaddio its top honor for its videoconferencing peripheral equipment. Some of Vaddio’s products include a stand-alone video whiteboard, furniture systems for classrooms and videoconferencing applications, OneLINK digital bus technology, in-wall cameras, presenters, and other items that offer users complete solutions for video conferencing.

Free Downloads of Page, Draw, Photo, Web, and Panorama Programs

To demonstrate to you how easy Serif products are to use, the company is offering free downloads of starter programs of their products. These include: PagePlus for desktop publishing, WebPlus for Web design, PhotoPlus for photo editing, DrawPlus for graphic design and art work, and PanoramaPlus for creating panoramas. There are also free content packs, which include templates you can use.  While you are on the Serif site, be sure to check out PagePlus X5, updated PagePlus software that lets you design just about anything, for according to Serif, “It’s more than a desktop publishing program.“
The Serif products work with Windows computer systems.

State-of-the-Art Document Camera

Samsung’s new Samcam 860 document camera, priced below $800, gives you state-of-the art technology at an affordable price. With it you can involve your students in Webcam usage and macro and micro projection of high quality images. It’s a durable piece of equipment with 6x optical and 8x digital zoom for a combined 48x focal length. The 680 records movies and is compatible with applications such as SKYPE, GradeCam, and Windows Movie Maker. If you are interested in this document camera, ask for a demonstration and watch the video on how to select a document camera. Other training videos on the site feature best practices, set up, and use of document cameras in the classroom.