Vista and Office Released

Amid great fanfare and millions of ad dollars the new power players of Microsoft are released. Being in education it will likely be some time before these products trickle into our work flow. I have not experienced Vista yet, but judging by the reviews I can wait. Our district has informed me that they will likely wait for service pack 1 before upgrading district wide, which is likely a good rule to go by. Although there has been a great deal of testing prior to it's release it is still good to wait for a few of the kinks to be worked out before upgrading. Perhaps after I use it I may change my mind but this seems to be a wait and see product.

Office 2007 on the other hand is worthy immediate upgrade. It's new user interface provides powerful features that will instantly improve your productivity. Please see my earlier review for more information. To purchase either product avoid going to you retailer and spending way to much. As educators you are eligible for educational discounts. if you are on my site you can scroll down and on the left there are some links to some educational discount software vendors that can save you hundreds of dollars. For example Office Professional is $180 vurses the $500 retail price. The savings are huge, and if you click through this site it helps me keep this site up.

Tutor Vista is a Powerful online tutoring tool

As a teacher I often get asked for recommendations of good tutors. Although we have a few moderately qualified tutors in our little town, the prices are expensive and out of reach for most parents. In small towns like mine effective online tutoring is the best option available. Up until recently I would recommend Sylvan Online, but the cost was high and although it was a good system, I do not feel it was the most effective. I recently discovered what I feel is the best deal in, not only online tutoring, but in tutoring in general. It is called Tutor Vista at http://www.tutorvista.com.

Tutor Vista is a very powerful online tutoring environment that allows students to schedule and work with tutors at any time 24 hours a day. The technology allows the student and tutor to communicate verbally, through typing, and through a whiteboard. The tutors are highly trained , with Masters degrees in the subjects they tutor. You can find tutors for almost any subject or test. The biggest strength lies in the price. It is about $20 an hour, or unlimited use for $100 per month. This is by far the most cost efficient one on one tutoring system available.

I am now excited to recommend this system to all of my parents. Even in locations where many tutoring options are available this is one of the best solutions, because of the high quality of instruction. The affordability of the system makes it a clear choice.

Note on Comment Moderation

Just as a reference and so you know where I stand with comments, I do moderate all comments. I do this for a few reasons. First I like control over my site, second I do not want vulgarity or spam on my site, and third I am fed up with annoying comments that exist on other sites. An example of what I consider and annoying comment is "this product sucks" or using M$ for Microsoft, or any other personal attack that provides little helpful information. I will allow posts both positive and negative, so long as they are clean and provide useful information.

Touch screen Ipod on the way in 07

The Apple iPod has now overtaken our society in a way that no one could have imagined. With the introduction of the iPhone It will likely continue to grow well into the future. Sources from inside say that Apple is about to introduce a full screen iPod, that uses a touch screen similar to the functionality of the the newly introduces iPhone. It could be announced as early as late February. As we look at the advancing technology we need to consider the implications it will have on our classrooms, and determine what place if any they have in education.

With previous versions of iPod there has been limited value because a portable tape or cd player could preform the same functions for a fraction of the cost. With the advent of the iPod Video the possibilities of a useful classroom tool significantly increased. Teachers can now target individual students with videos that will remediate, review, or reward. As a special education teacher I use the iPod Video to teach math concepts that need review. I can put a video on for a student to target a specific need and work with other students at the same time. If a student were absent it would be very easy to give him an iPod to view the video he missed the day before without interupting the rest of the class.

The challenge at this point is that there is a very limited amount of content available. This problem can be addressed in a few ways. With knowledge and the right hardware it is possible to encode your existing videos the problem with this is the consumer level hardware delivers poor results. The next option is to use a service that does the conversion. Expedition Productions is one company that provides a service that will convert video from VHS and DVD to various computer formats including iPod. These services deliver great results for a reasonable cost.

I have a source that has let me know that there will be a new educational video company that will release all of it's videos with the DVD, and a computer based disk with the video formated for the computer screen, iPod, PSP, and other devises. When they launch I will provide details about this amazing new company.

MS Office 2007 First Impressions

Microsoft is releasing it's Office 2007 product to the general public within the next week. With an academic version priced at about $150 it seems a steep price point to upgrade on a product that basically types letters, and make Power Point slides. It is especially difficult to consider when there are free programs such as Open Office 2.0 that can accomplish the same thing. In my humble opinion if you are an active computer user or if your considering an office application for your classroom computers, Office 2007 is worth the cost and is a significant upgrade for most users.

The biggest strength in the new version of office is what Microsoft now calls the ribbon. This new feature and user interface makes it easy to find advanced features that were somewhat buried in menus in previous versions. It makes it easy for basic users to become power users. I have seen many articles that contend that the change in the interface is going to require a significant investment in retraining employees and teachers to use the new system. I don't agree! There will be some training necessary, however the intuitive nature of the new interface will make it easier to train and over time the need for training on Office products will be significantly reduced. Office 2007 will also make it easier for students to get amazing results on student projects.

There are many internal enhancements that allow for greater collaboration capabilities, and integration with other products. One example is it's new blogging features. You can create a blog post from within Microsoft Office and directly submit the post from within word. The collaboration capabilities will make it easier for students to work together on projects. Many months ago I looked at Open Office 2.0, and stated that it was a close toss up when compared with MS Office, well now now there is a clear winner. MS office 2007 is clearly the best Office application available.

Head Sprout where kids learn to read

Heads Sprout is a great new website that makes learning to read fun. It is a solid program with good lessons and a logical progression. It is not a replacement for solid reading program, yet is a great supplement to any reading program. It does meet requirements of No Child Left Behind, and for a school based program it is reasonably priced. You can get more information and a free trial at http://www.headsprout.com

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

If you've ever struggled to keep track of different versions of spreadsheet or word processor files sent over email, Google Docs & Spreadsheets may be right for you. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers. This Both applications work great for schools and students because it allows the student to work on assignments both at home, at the computer lab, or the library. It also allows for online collaboration and easy document transfer. Imagine each member of a group can work on the same document all from there own accounts. True this application does not have the capability of high end office application, but it is very solid and has more than enough features for most school applications.

A New Year In Educational Technology

As I look forward to 2007 I see many things in the works that are very exciting on the education technology front. The largest area of promise to me seems to web 2.0 applications. From office applications that are increasingly becoming more useful, to online educational games to content that is more interactive, the web 2.0 arena is very exciting. Hardware advances are expected to have a major impact in the way we use technology. For example a new keyboard is coming out that is fully customizable, each key is a small screen that can be changed depending on the application it uses. This could be a big benefit for assistive technology and more, However I don’t foresee applications coming any time soon. I also thing we will find new and innovative ways to using existing hardware in new and exciting ways. The Ipod video and PSP provide exciting opportunities, because it is easy to create your own content for these systems. New software provides some promise of big improvements. Microsoft will release there new office application at the end of the month that offers amazing capabilities in collaboration. Open source projects are becoming more developed and more popular which will bring better and more cost effective solutions to our classroom. 2007 provides with great opportunities, and projects, and we hope to provide a guide for you through this digital landscape.