Volume 11.2 Product Reviews

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These are the products that we felt were worthy of your attention and school's consideration in Volume 11.2 of SEEN Magazine. Please take a look and let us know your thoughts!

Fall 2009 (SEEN Vol 11.2) Product Reviews

ProgressBook by Software Answers ProgressBook is a comprehensive, district-wide classroom management system that combines grade book, attendance, lesson plans, report cards, special services, and parent/student/teacher communication in a single software solution. It eliminates duplicate data entry by tightly integrating with your school's student information system for scheduling, attendance, and report cards. ProgressBook supports both traditional and standards-based progress reporting.

Vizzle Vizzle by Monarch Teaching Technologies is a web-based special education software for creating and sharing customized interactive visual activities. Developed in collaboration with the Monarch School for Children with Autism, Vizzle supplies images and also creates a community of learning that allows educators to build and share their own lessons. Activities can be used interactively on a computer or Smartboard or printed for table top use. Vizzle provides updates every two months. Look for hand held devices in the near future.

Speaking Spelling Bee The Speaking Spelling Bee by Franklin Electronics is a virtual spelling bee in a handheld game. This unit is designed to improve spelling for both serious spelling bee participants and grade school students with the TV Out feature, users can play the game on a larger screen. With up to 10 players. Includes a 7,000 word spelling bee list, example sentences, word definitions and origins, and a USB port to download even more games.Speaking Spelling Bee has three play modes and multi-level difficulty setting.

Read&Write GOLD Read&Write GOLD by Texthelp Systems is a literacy software solution that allows struggling students to access any curriculum and complete reading, writing, and research assignments as well as take tests independently. It is a customizable, easy to use toolbar that works with familiar applications, including Microsoft Word,Explorer, and Adobe Reader. It allows students to access the support tools they need from within mainstream software programs. Read&Write Gold highlights and reads text aloud using natural sounding voices and also includes a comprehensive set of support tools for reading, writing, studying, research, and test taking.

Cognitopia Picture Planner Cognitopia’s Picture Planner is like Outlook for people who don’t read or don’t read well. It lets students plan their own schedules for school, home, and community activities. It’s accessible to students with a wide range of cognitive abilities, and is designed to prompt them easily through competent schedule creation. Picture Planner provides many of the func-tions of a typical calendaring program, such as recurring activities and pop-up reminders, but with a cognitively accessible interface.

Elluminate VCS Elluminate VCS enables academic institutions, corporations, and other organizations to leverage large investments in legacy videoconferencing infrastructure by including desktop PCs. Primarily a software solution, it requires a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) server that operates exceptionally well on network speeds less than typical DSL connections and works with existing legacy H.323 infrastructure. Elluminate VCS extends video endpoints to reach more participants in a convenient and cost-effective way, adding an interactive collaborative environment that includes intuitive presence awareness and session scheduling and management tools.

Variquest Cutout Maker The Cutout Maker connects to a personal computer or to the VariQuest Design Center where proprietary VariQuest Software coordinates the use of the system by storing more than 4,400 curriculum-rich shapes and fonts as well as pre-designed bulletin board collections all in the form of scalable eDies that range from 1 inch to 18 inches in size. It cuts the shapes from construction paper, cardstock and bond paper in just a matter of seconds. The Cutout Maker is the only electronic cutting system with a cutting tip sensor that automatically adjusts blade depth based on the material being cut and on the wear of the blade – a patent pending technology that eliminates the need for manual adjustment.

AutoSkill Academy of Math The Academy of Math is a math intervention software solution designed for k-12 at-risk students. It uses a methodology that incorporates positive motivational principles and builds foundation math skills for the beginner through algebra-ready students. The Academy of Math’s pedagogical model incorporates task analysis to break down skills into simpler components, and a sequential approach to build computational fluency.

Polar Team² Pro Polar Team2 Pro is designed to work with your coaching program. The Team² system allows you to gain a unique in-sight into the fitness capabilities of your team. Easy to implement, Team² helps you can get the most out of your school’s players and training sessions. Integrate Polar heart monitoring technology into the program and achieve the optimum level of fitness for your players, help eliminate major injuries and prevent overtraining. Polar Team² Pro set includes base station, transmitter charger, 10 transmitters and Team² WearLink+ straps, USB dongle and the software for PCs and PDAs

Interwrite Mobi eInstruction’s Interwrite Mobi and Interwrite Mobi System are the industry’s first multi-user system designed specifically to support student-centered, collaborative learning. Both teachers and students can concurrently interact with and contribute to the same digital content - ideal for team activities, learning simulations, student exploration, etc. Interwrite Mobi has a built-in 2.4” color LCD display (KWIK Screen), which reports student responses instantly when used in conjunction with eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System.

Wynn Literacy Software Solution Wynn Literacy Software Solution by Freedom Scientific uses a bi-modal approach; it simultaneously highlights text as it is spoken. By using this approach, Wynn is able to transform printed text into understandable information for struggling readers, children with ADD and ADHD. Premium product Wynn Wizard includes optical character recognition (OCR) and the ability to scan text and convert it to the spoken word.

AutismPro AutismPro ia a customizable package of tools, content and programming that helps educational institutions train educators and manage learning programs for students with autism through the effective use of technology.It allows administrators to build capacity and helps educators improve outcomes for each student with autism. AutismPro comes in two parts: AutismPro Workshops is a flexible, Web-based professional development program that allows educators to apply a range of evidence-based strategies to typical school situations. AutismPro Resources is a comprehensive set of online classroom tools.

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