Newsletter No.51
What was new at BETT 2010?
This year's BETT exhibition at Olympia was very crowded despite the best attempts of the weather to keep people away. In particular there was a slow start on the Wednesday morning as trains were delayed by the overnight snowfall. It didn't seem to prevent the Scandinavians though - everywhere you looked there were visitors from Sweden, Norway, Denmark AND Iceland.
There were also visitors from Dubai, China, South Africa, Brazil and Nigeria as well as a few from this area who came to see me on the j2e stand.
Lumens Visualiser
The new Lumens DC120
ultra-Portable High-Definition
Ladibug is USB powered, has LED
lighting, video and audio Recording
via USB and a built-in microphone.
It auto focuses so is extremely easy
to use and costs about £250. As with
all Lumens products it is well built
and easy to use.
Contact Jan (office@lexiconlifeline.co.uk) to order.
Anithings
Anithings from new software company Stripey Design is a wonderful animation creating program.
Objects can be combined to create Anithings characters. Shapes can be dropped on top of each other to build up faces with eyes and mouths. They can be snapped together to make animated 'hinged' limbs. The bank contains a selection of ready-to-use characters which can be added by simply dragging and dropping.
The storyboard can be used to
plan an animated story. By
pressing the record button
and moving objects, the
movement is captured and
added to the animation.
Speech bubbles can be added to help tell the story and the finished product can be shared online.
There is an online demo at www.anithings.com/
Anithings costs £50 for a single copy or £250 for a site licence. Lifeline schools can get a 1% discount.
This year's BETT exhibition at Olympia was very crowded despite the best attempts of the weather to keep people away. In particular there was a slow start on the Wednesday morning as trains were delayed by the overnight snowfall. It didn't seem to prevent the Scandinavians though - everywhere you looked there were visitors from Sweden, Norway, Denmark AND Iceland.
There were also visitors from Dubai, China, South Africa, Brazil and Nigeria as well as a few from this area who came to see me on the j2e stand.
Lumens Visualiser
The new Lumens DC120
ultra-Portable High-Definition
Ladibug is USB powered, has LED
lighting, video and audio Recording
via USB and a built-in microphone.
It auto focuses so is extremely easy
to use and costs about £250. As with
all Lumens products it is well built
and easy to use.
Contact Jan (office@lexiconlifeline.co.uk) to order.
Anithings
Anithings from new software company Stripey Design is a wonderful animation creating program.
Objects can be combined to create Anithings characters. Shapes can be dropped on top of each other to build up faces with eyes and mouths. They can be snapped together to make animated 'hinged' limbs. The bank contains a selection of ready-to-use characters which can be added by simply dragging and dropping.
The storyboard can be used to
plan an animated story. By
pressing the record button
and moving objects, the
movement is captured and
added to the animation.
Speech bubbles can be added to help tell the story and the finished product can be shared online.
There is an online demo at www.anithings.com/
Anithings costs £50 for a single copy or £250 for a site licence. Lifeline schools can get a 1% discount.
JIT
JIT (j2e Infant Tools) is a suite of online tools for Key Stage 1 and Reception/Foundation pupils. It is still in beta (i.e. not finished) but can be used by going to www.j2e.com/jit
JIT consists of 7 tools, Write, Paint, Turtle, Chart, Pictogram, Animate, and Mix .Mix enables text to be combined with any of the other tools as well as supporting multiple pages. This enables stories to be told or a project report to be presented using a variety of methods.
It is planned to enable the resultant work to be played back as a slide show or saved as a flash movie which can be placed on a web page. Because JIT is online, pupils can use at home as well as at school. One of the most innovative aspects of JIT is that work can be saved with a single click without the pupil having to put in a file name.
If your school already has j2e accounts setup then you can use these in JIT while it is still in beta. If you have any suggestions or ideas for the finished program the j2e would welcome any suggestions.
Once JIT is 'released' ,probably in March, it will become chargeable. It costs 50p per pupil per year (Lifeline schools will get a 20% discount).
You can now create your school website with j2e and still use your school's web address. See here and these examples:
www.stokes.leics.sch.uk
http://www.j2e.com/victoria junior school/
Ginger Software
Ginger is an intelligent, contextual spelling and grammar checker that enables users to write texts that are error-free. At a click it reviews entire sentences, and makes the most appropriate corrections for spelling mistakes, typing errors and grammar errors based on the context. It can even tell when a correctly spelled word is misused and replaces it with the right word.
It is available for home and school use and can produce progress reports over time.
Currently it only works with Microsoft Word, Outlook and Internet Explorer. Given that it works with Internet Explorer it would be reasonable to expect it to work with j2e in IE - it doesn't.
Prices are quite high - for schools it is £90 for 3 workstations - for home use prices start at £47.20. A demonstration version can be downloaded from here.
Tate Gallery for kids.
http://kids.tate.org.uk/ is fun and educational. Why not take a look.
JIT (j2e Infant Tools) is a suite of online tools for Key Stage 1 and Reception/Foundation pupils. It is still in beta (i.e. not finished) but can be used by going to www.j2e.com/jit
JIT consists of 7 tools, Write, Paint, Turtle, Chart, Pictogram, Animate, and Mix .Mix enables text to be combined with any of the other tools as well as supporting multiple pages. This enables stories to be told or a project report to be presented using a variety of methods.
It is planned to enable the resultant work to be played back as a slide show or saved as a flash movie which can be placed on a web page. Because JIT is online, pupils can use at home as well as at school. One of the most innovative aspects of JIT is that work can be saved with a single click without the pupil having to put in a file name.
If your school already has j2e accounts setup then you can use these in JIT while it is still in beta. If you have any suggestions or ideas for the finished program the j2e would welcome any suggestions.
Once JIT is 'released' ,probably in March, it will become chargeable. It costs 50p per pupil per year (Lifeline schools will get a 20% discount).
You can now create your school website with j2e and still use your school's web address. See here and these examples:
www.stokes.leics.sch.uk
http://www.j2e.com/victoria junior school/
Ginger Software
Ginger is an intelligent, contextual spelling and grammar checker that enables users to write texts that are error-free. At a click it reviews entire sentences, and makes the most appropriate corrections for spelling mistakes, typing errors and grammar errors based on the context. It can even tell when a correctly spelled word is misused and replaces it with the right word.
It is available for home and school use and can produce progress reports over time.
Currently it only works with Microsoft Word, Outlook and Internet Explorer. Given that it works with Internet Explorer it would be reasonable to expect it to work with j2e in IE - it doesn't.
Prices are quite high - for schools it is £90 for 3 workstations - for home use prices start at £47.20. A demonstration version can be downloaded from here.
Tate Gallery for kids.
http://kids.tate.org.uk/ is fun and educational. Why not take a look.
January 2010
January 2010
New Year Edition
j2e is free for Lifeline schools (at least for another year).
Click here to find out how to sign up (password 'j2eregister')
Click here to find out how to sign up (password 'j2eregister')