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Feature of the software include: The ability to import PowerPoint slide shows; Interactive questions, which lets students answer inquiries by the teacher via laptop or mobile device; A variety of question types; Teacher previews of interactive activity results in real time; Bookmarking of slides to be reviewed later; Recording and archiving of student activity during class;

For many years the rhetoric and substance of national reports written by bands of technologists eager to see electronic devices work their wonder on children and adults in schools have puzzled me. I am especially puzzled now as I try to make sense of the mountain of data I have collected at Las Montanas, a 1:1 laptop school in northern California (see posts of August 7, 13, and 20).  In these national reports issued periodically by U.S. government sponsored agencies (e.g., Office of Technology Assessment, the National Education Technology Plan) or privately-funded groups (e.g., CEO Forum on Education and Technology), I noted two things.

Participants will collaboratively build a set of shared online resources as they gain knowledge and skills to help faculty integrate technology. In each activity, groups will develop materials as Google Docs that will be immediately available to all. Participants don't need to be wizards but should be familiar with digital learning tools. Each participant must bring a laptop and should be able to create and edit Google Docs. The intended audience includes instructional technologists and technology integration specialists.

There is something in the air, and it is nothing less than the digital artifacts of over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2,000 gigabytes of new information per second. While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation.

E-books are becoming an increasingly popular medium for displaying information. And if you find yourself frequenting these new electronic books, you may have noticed that it becomes quite dull after a while. I, for one, miss the tangible page flip of a novel or a good instructional guide. That's why Codebox's web app - that's called PDF to Flash Page Flipper (or Flip) - appealed to me. It's an app that can replicate the more interesting animations found on my iPad or a similar tablet and put them onto my laptop. In fact, it's almost better, allowing you to turn any old PDF file into a superior flash-based and flippable book. The conversion process is fairly easy, with a lot of customization options that really don't need to be messed around with. All in all, it is a pretty slick app, at the right price….$0.

A quick way for us to keep track of who is stopping by during the open office hours. The form works well on an iPad, or on a laptop.