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ARCHIVES : TECHNOLOGY : 2004

december 2004

Product Review
Reading Horizons
By Mitchell Levine
If you ever take the time to pore through adult literacy statistics, you'll find a number of highly disquieting items of interest: according to the Department of Labor, about 50 percent of unemployed individuals in the United States are functionally illiterate. READ ARTICLE

Product Review
R-Quest's TCR-4000 Duplicator
By Mitchell Levine
Mathematics teachers perennially complain that students lack statistics literacy. Here's some scary ones: an estimated 1 in 500 data centers will experience a critical hardware failure serious enough to cause a severe “data disaster.” READ ARTICLE

Product Review
The ProTouch XT Keyboard Protector
By Mitchell Levine
The primary selling-point of mobile computing is the ability to condense the processing power of a desktop computer into a compact, sleek frame which can be conveniently utilized whether on train, plane, boat, automobile, or in the park, classroom, or boardroom. READ ARTICLE

November 2004

Product Review:
Design Appliance’s Aerobics Mouse
by Mitchell Levine READ REVIEW

Product Review:
Gigabyte Technology’s N512 Notebook
by Mitchell Levine READ REVIEW

October 2004

Product Review:
Layton Technology’s Audit Wizard
by Mitchell Levine READ REVIEW

Product Review:
The MacCase MackPack Combo
by Mitchell Levine READ REVIEW

September 2004

Product Review:
The Keynamics Laptop Stand
By Mitchell Levine
MORE

Product Review:
Information Appliance Associates' PocketMac Pro Utility
By Mitchell Levine
MORE

Product Review:
Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X
By Mitchell Levine
MORE

August 2004

Product Review
Save Time with GroupLogic’s Mass Transit 4.5
by Mitchell Levine MORE

Product Review
Shuttle inc.’s SB81P
by Mitchell Levine MORE

Product Review
Tuff Cases Portable Workstation
by Mitchell Levine MORE

July 2004

PRODUCT REVIEW:
Adobe Creative Suite
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

PRODUCT REVIEW:
The PDA Multipivot
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

PRODUCT REVIEW:
Comgrafix’s Ragtime 5
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

2004 Teen Booklist from NYPL
READ MORE

June 2004

Product Review:
GroupLogic’s ExtremeIPz
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

Product Review:
Ragtime 5
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

Product Review:
The Quest for a Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom
by Patrick Ianniello, Ph.D.
READ MORE

May 2004

Product Review:
You Software's You Control Menu Utility
by Mitchell Levine READ MORE

Product Review:
Shuttle XPC SS56L
by Mitchell Levine READ MORE

Product Review:
Eset Software's NOD 321 Antivirus
by Mitchell Levine READ MORE

Product Review:
Last Software's SketchUp
by Mitchell Levine READ MORE

Test Drive High Tech Careers on New Website
READ MORE

New Game: Patriot Challenge
READ MORE

April 2004

Product Review:
Tekstyl's Tekskin

by Mitchell Levine
Laptops were created for primarily one reason: to be portable. Unfortunately, if that was indeed the goal, it doesn't seem like the design's really that successful. Of course, you cantransport them, but... READ MORE

March 2004

Product Review:
Digital Frog International’s Science Matrix
by Mitchell Levine
Although some theorists like Clifford Stoll may be skeptical about the ultimate benefits of our school system’s emphasis on multimedia delivery of curricula, almost everyone agrees that this currently reigning paradigm is going to remain the state of the art for the foreseeable future. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: in many ways, technology can really spark student interest in a way that more traditional methods haven’t. Few people from my generation have strongly nostalgic memories of our freshman biology lectures. No one liked plying Formaldehyde-saturated viscera with a trocar in my class, and mentioning cytoplasm, Golgi apparatus, or endoplasmic reticulum to them is rather unlikely to garner even a fleeting glimmer of recognition. . . READ MORE

December 2003

Product Review:
E&B Company's Slipper and Flipper PDA Cases
by Mitchell Levine
A PDA in the year 2003 is a remarkable piece of technology: once you have one, it's hard to believe you ever got along without it. And increasingly, schools in our area are agreeing. READ MORE

Product Review:
Innovative's  LCD Arms
by Mitchell Levine
The benefits of flat panel screens are subtle, but they're there. One of the biggest obstacles to technology deployment, especially in the schools that need it most, is space. READ MORE

Product Review:
PhonicsTutor Frequent Words
by Mitchell Levine
One thing no one in education seems to agree on is reading methodology. A confusing profligation of approaches have been suggested with no end in sight. A point of general agreement, it... READ MORE

Product Review:
Radtech's ScreensavRz
by Mitchell Levine
Today's mobile computers pack a lot of power and multimedia performance into their compact chassis. But there's a price to pay for those streamlined form factors.
READ MORE

Product Review:
Sharp Actius RD20
by Mitchell Levine
We've reviewed an awful lot of laptops in this section over the last few years; unsurprising, as it's common knowledge that our school systems are gearing up to make a full deployment... READ MORE

November 2003

Product Review:
GoKnow’s Handheld Learning Environment
by Mitchell Levine
Although, thanks to the enormous technology initiative now underway in the New York City schools, mobile technology in education has been traditionally aassociated with laptop... READ MORE

Product Review:
Deer Park Turns Internet into Valuable Learning Resource with netTrekker
by Mitchell Levine
Like many school districts nationwide, Deer Park Public Schools in Deer Park, New York faced the challenge of integrating technology and online resources into their K-12 curricula... READ MORE

Product Review:
NTI’s Dragon Burn CD/DVD Utility
by Mitchell Levine
Simply having hardware doesn’t necessarily benefit the user. Although this might seem like an obvious truth, it unfortunately doesn’t always hit home until it’s too late. The investment in...
READ MORE

October 2003

Growing Up With The Internet, Teens Need To Sort The Good From The Bad
by Mitchell Levine
Computers have revolutionized communications, and today’s teens have access to vast educational and entertainment resources while online. The Technology Student Association (TSA), a national student organization devoted exclusively to the needs of young people interested in technology, knows it is prudent to protect the privacy and safety of today’s youth.
READ MORE

Research’s Mathematica 5
by Mitchell Levine
As a science and technology editor for a New York City-based education trade, I get to examine and evaluate a lot of software. Something on the order of several first-rate products, and even operating systems, every month.
READ MORE

Rockefeller U’s Precollege Science Education Program for K-12 Teachers
Science teachers in public, private, or parochial schools in the tri-state area are encouraged to apply to be a Rockefeller University Outreach Teacher Fellow.
READ MORE

The Statistics of Standards Erosion: An Interview with Dr. Valen Johnson
by Mitchell Levine
In the mid-Nineties, as a professor of Biostatistics at Duke University, Valen Johnson noticed a strange phenomenon occurring in the grading system of that highly regarded institution: Almost half the GPAs awarded by the college were in fact A to A pluses. READ MORE

September 2003

Product Review: Booq Powersleeve
by Mitchell Levine
Industry experts, sophisticated journalists, and intelligent laypeople agree: the largest deployment of education technology resources in the history of our school system will occur when the New York City Department of Education completes its stated goal of finally reaching the “one-to-one computing standard” in the hopefully near future.
READ MORE

Product Review: Flashmaster Electronic Math Tutorial
by Mitchell Levine
Almost everyone hates learning their Times Tables. How do we know this? The fact that even most adults, whom presumably use them every day, don’t know them. If you don’t believe me, try asking your friends what 8 X 6 is.
READ MORE

August 2003

Product Review: Codetek’s Virtual Desktop
by Mitchell Levine
Education technological environments aren’t like corporate ones. In the corporate IT world, there’s no need for “legacy” hardware; in fact, the description is a euphemism for “disposable.”
READ MORE

Product Review: Advanced Force’s DeviceLock
by Mitchell Levine
Longtime readers of Education Update’s Technology and Education section undoubtedly are aware of the almost 1.1 Billion dollars the New York City school system has spent on technology and technology education.
READ MORE

Product Review:
Intercue Professional PDA form generation suite
by Mitchell Levine
This product satisfies what I think suffices as the truest definition of “revolutionary”- an idea which solves a problem which people don’t yet realize they have. READ MORE

Now Software’s Now Up-to-Date and Contact
by Mitchell Levine
A lot of attention’s been paid to the flashiest and most sexy elements of education technology in the last several years: servers, platforms, laptops, and other boutique hardware. READ MORE

Smart Draw Diagramming Utility
by Mitchell Levine
The SmartDraw graphics package for charts and diagrams is actually the most fun software utility that I’ve used in some time. Almost any teacher of statistics or social studies has had the difficulty of trying to communicate a vital topic to their class that has unfortunate stigma of being, at least from the vantage point of a typical student, “dry.”
READ MORE

July 2003

Product Review:
Arco Duplidisk 3
by Mitchell Levine
Mathematics teachers perennially complain that students lack statistics literacy. Here’s some scary ones: an estimated 1 in 500 data centers will experience a critical hardware failure serious enough to cause a severe “data disaster.” READ MORE

Product Review:
Zero Toys’ Zero Launcher
by Mitchell Levine
Common sense tells us that students find physics boring, dry, and difficult. Labs are tedious. Equations are excruciating. Newton’s laws might as well be in the Principia Mathematica’s original Latin for all that today’s high school Regents students care.
READ MORE

June 2003

Product Review:
Avaion Software’s FatFinger 2.4
by Mitchell Levine
As great as laptop computers are for mobile education, they still have some disadvantages for practical deployment in a contemporary educational setting. Since the concept of the “one to one computing standard”—or one mobile device for every student, teacher, and administrator—is to ensure equal opportunity for techno-literacy, it’s an unfortunate fact that the very classrooms that most need access to the technology, have the least space to make use of it.
READ MORE

Product Review:
Otterbox Armor 3600
by Mitchell Levine
Almost anyone who’s become a serious handheld user has noted a number of wonderful things about those fascinating little digi-boxes: their convenience, versatility, and profound impact on their personal productivity. Unfortunately, one big liability is usually quickly evident—their delicacy. Making them fast, capacious, and flexible apparently doesn’t leave a lot of technical capital left over for making them rugged. READ MORE

Texas Public Schools Improve Scoring in the “Difficult to Teach” Sciences of Anatomy and Physiology
As a wide- open healthcare field prods a growing number of students to seek careers in the industry, educators are finding more effective tools and techniques to teach a traditionally difficult subject.
READ MORE

May 2003

Product Review:
Tuff Cases Portable Workstation
by Mitchell Levine
Long-time readers of Education Update’s Technology and Education section already know that mobile computing has been a major concern for New York City schools for some time. READ MORE

Pittsburgh Steeler Brings Technology to
Brooklyn School

by Sybil Maimin
Brady Keys, Jr., former All-Pro Defensive Halfback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is determined to replace the ubiquitous student backpack as main means of communication between parent and teacher.

READ MORE

Product Review:
VideoEye!
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
The VideoEye! was designed especially to help people with low vision retain their independence.
READ MORE

April 2003

Product Review:
Lapvantage Laptop Dome
by Mitchell Levine
It’s not hard to understand why mobile computers have become such a prominent phenomenon in education technology today. . . .

READ MORE

Software Review:
Eye Candy 4000
By Rick Sulz
Imagine waking in the middle of the night to the noise of a spaceship landing outside of your window. . . .
READ MORE

February 2003

Arttango: A Valuable Art Program by
Dr. Pola Rosen
A unique name for a unique program, Arttango is instructive, colorful, fun, interactive and perhaps make you feel like you’re “dancing with art.” Because of budget cuts, many schools don’t... READ MORE

Lewis Frumkes, Director, Marymount Manhattan College Author Series Hosts Susan Orlean
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Though she looks nothing like Meryl Streep who played her in Adaptation, a quasi-fictional account of the difficulties faced by a diffident and blocked screenwriter in trying to adapt her nonfiction prose...
READ MORE

Lind Electronics’ PowerMax 90
by Mitchell Levine
As useful as current portable computers are, one feature that has not matched the frenetic norms of Moore’s-law-paced technical evolution is battery life. A complete charge of the lithium-ion battery on...

READ MORE

Laptop Privacy Hood
by Neil Schuldiner
The primary selling-point of mobile computing is the ability to condense the processing power of a desktop computer into a compact, sleek frame which can be conveniently utilized... READ MORE

July 2002

Innovative Use of Cable in the Classroom Award to Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable of New York City was presented with a 2001 Gilbert Award for Community Service for Innovative Use of Cable in the Classroom by a New York Educator in a statewide competition that recognizes outstanding community service programs conducted by cable television companies in New York.
READ MORE

Elizabeth Rohatyn Brings Technology to Schools
By Tom Kertes
Eight years ago, in response to a growing concern that students in affluent schools had greater access to technology than those in less affluent neighborhoods, Elizabeth Rohatyn, along with a group of former teachers, founded Teaching Matters, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting excellence in teaching and learning through the use of technology in the classroom.
READ MORE

June 2002

Field Visits Part of Summit
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
One expects brilliant keynoters, erudite professors, the business sector and educators to exchange ideas at various panels when Teachers College, Columbia University organizes a special 3-day technology conference such as this one.
READ MORE

The Enabling Keyboard
by Neil Schuldiner
READ MORE

TrueTip fingertip PDA Stylus
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

Managing School Records With New Software
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D. READ MORE

Teachers College Holds Education Technology Summit
by Bruce Myint
Nobel laureate Niels Bohr once said: -Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.
READ MORE

May 2002

Product Review:
PC Shade
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

Plagiarism Meets the Age of the Internet
by Bruce Myint
READ MORE

Sonic Impact Technologiesí SI-5 Blue Multimedia Speakers
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

The VisAble Video Telescope
by Andrew Schiff
READ MORE

April 2002

Product Review:
inStand CR-1 Laptop Tripod
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

BOE Builds Online Educational Community
by Marylena Mantas
As a result of a recommendation made in September of 2001 by the Teaching and Learning in Cyberspace Taskforce, established by the New York City Board of Education (BOE), the public school systemís students, parents, and teachers will soon belong and have access to an Online Educational Community.
READ MORE

March 2002

Mobile Computing Review:
Handspring Visor Edge, Pro & Prism
by Neil Schuldiner
READ MORE

Product Review:
Klear Screen
by Mitchell Levine
READ MORE

Typing Pal Junior
by Laura Pretto
READ MORE

February 2002

Product Profile:
PC TableTote
by Mitchell Levine
Blame it on the new millennium, future shock, or just successful marketing, the reigning concept in education procurement today is “technology.” While some might argue about the ultimate utility of this current sprit of technical acquisitiveness, the only thing no one seems to be able to do is ignore it. With massive initiatives like the New York Board of Education’s experiment in distributing laptops to the 4th grade students of districts 6 and 10 already in play, our administrators intent to bridge the “digital divide” has never been clearer.
READ MORE

January 2002

Lapworks Laptop Desk
by Mitchell Levine
Some products are revolutionary because they solve old problems in an entirely new and effective way. In the 1980s, fax machines were a quantum leap in communications technology because they made the telegram obsolete.
READ MORE

December 2001

Kaplan K12 Learning Services
by Mitchell Levine
When I was a high school student in the 1980s, the name “Kaplan” was virtually synonymous with SAT preparation. With over three million students served in thousands of classrooms around the world, it’s not hard to understand why this image continues to dominate the organization’s public perception.
READ MORE

November 2001

Dr. Alan Kay: Father Of The PC
by Tom Kertes
“Children are the messages we send to the future,” said Dr. Alan C. Kay in his intensely inspirational Lynford Lecture at Polytechnic University. “So whenever we’re talking about the real future, we must talk about kids. Because what they learn, and what they consider to be normal, becomes most of what humanity winds up doing.”
READ MORE

October 2001

New Test-Prep Software Designed for the Classroom
by Marie Holmes
The Incredible Tutor System, by Sleek Systems, is a new software application designed to meet the increasing needs of students, teachers, and administrators to prepare for standardized achievement tests.
READ MORE

Product Review:
Webroot’s Childsafe Internet Monitoring and
Filtration Utility

by Mitchell Levine
It’s been said that the dangerous neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles are even more dangerous than their counterparts in New York, not because they are any more inherently dangerous, but simply because they don’t appear to be so. Hazardous neighborhoods in this city make themselves immediately obvious as such. The Palm trees and perpetual sunshine of the West Coast often seem to disguise what would be readily apparent in our urban environment.
READ MORE

September 2001

Ashton Digital Unveils Passport 2000
by Mitchell Levine
Ashton Digital, premier mobile technology manufacturer, recently unveiled its Passport 2000 Series - the newest addition to its family of Intel-based PC notebooks. The laptop features a Pentium® III processor with speeds of 866MHz and above, an extra sharp 15” 1400 x 1050 SXGA Active Matrix TFT display, up to 512MB of system memory and up to 30GB of hard drive storage. Also standard is its Dual View feature, which creates an extended desktop by allowing an external monitor to be used along with the notebook’s built-in screen. This provides the opportunity to multi-task projects with different applications opened on each of the screens.
READ MORE

Closing Gender Gap in the Sciences
Women’s gains have stalled and in some cases eroded in engineering and computer science, despite effective new programs to increase women’s participation in these fields, according to a major new report released recently by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW).
READ MORE

iSchoolZone Web-based High School Regents
Review Product

School administrators, curriculum directors, technology coordinators and teachers are now closer to a solution to curriculum/classroom demands by the state. If your high school is looking to meet AIS (Academic Intervention Services) needs or Improve Regents performance in the face of tougher SED standards for graduation, then you should take a look at a new web-based high school review product called iSchoolZone.
READ MORE

Oracle Internet Academy Brings Technology
to Schools

Oracle Internet Academy (OIA) is a partnership between Oracle and secondary schools to teach high school juniors and seniors Java and database programming skills. An estimated 6,000 students from 180 schools around the world will participate in the program this year, including Lower East Side Prep in Manhattan and Liverpool High School in Liverpool, NY.
READ MORE

August 2001

Distance Learning
The growth of distance learning technology has brought several benefits to employers, as it has enhanced the quality of productivity.

READ MORE

Math Made Easy Videos
Dr. Meryle Kohn and the Multimedia Tutorial Service have created a series of videos, Math Made Easy, that cover arithmetic, algebra, geometry and calculus.
READ MORE

July 2001

Product Review:
Zero-Halliburton Z5
by Mitchell Levine
A few months ago, I bought a computer. The next day, as I walked to work, every mobile-user’s worst nightmare came to pass: the backpack-style case that came with it burst open because of a defective zipper.
READ MORE

Website Connects Women in Science on Long Island
St. John’s University has launched a website designed to encourage women to explore careers in technology and science.
READ MORE

Technology Shorts READ MORE

May 2001

Staten Island High Launches Website
New Dorp High School on Staten Island has launched the first fully interactive web-based communications system for a New York City public high school.
READ MORE

Online in Florida: A New Approach to High School
Florida is leading the technology race by teaching students via a statewide Internet high school, according to the Miami Herald. Florida’s computer-based curriculum, called the Florida Online High School, is free-of-charge to residents.
READ MORE

Online Database for Undergraduate Science Programs
GrantsNet, a free web site that provides information on biomedical research grants and fellowships, introduced a new database on undergraduate-level programs.
READ MORE

April 2001

Online Book Clubs for Kids
Joining a literary discussion group online helps students pursue ideas giving them the time to frame their responses and thoughts carefully. The freedom to openly discuss a wide variety of topics often increases the student’s enthusiasm for the theories and ideas presented in literary works.
READ MORE

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