ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

        CONTACT:
                               
                                Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D.
                                (908) 852-3460
                                brian (@) assistivetek.com
                   
       


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
                               
PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition™ Ideal Tool for Special Education Co-Teaching Classrooms
 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference
The interactive writing solution is the Key to Effective Learning

PHILADELPHIA–June 26, 2011–AssistiveTek, LLC,  top reseller of PaperShow For Teachers  is excited to showcase the PAPERSHOW  Teacher’s Edition™ , the key to effective learning, for the second time at the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, June 26-29  in booth 128.

The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition is the ideal tool for use in special education and inclusion classrooms, helping teachers to create more visually appealing interactive presentations. With PAPERSHOW  Teacher’s Edition™  teachers have access to a range of tools including, including an interactive calculator, magnifying glass, two measurement tools, lined paper for students learning to write and 72 different colors.
An essential tool for both the classroom and virtual teaching, PAPERSHOW consists of three elements: a wireless Bluetooth pen, a USB Key and interactive paper that work together to allow one to create a digital flip chart or annotate a Keynote or PowerPoint Presentation live. After a PAPERSHOW session, one can save it and then immediately print and/or email it to participants.

The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition, combined with a projector and a computer, gives teachers the ability to transform their lessons and presentations into engaging interactions at a fraction of the cost of interactive whiteboards, as PAPERSHOW for Teachers costs just $249. The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition starter kit, compatible with both Macs and PCs, includes one 128-page double-wired notebook, 30 sheets of interactive paper, one Bluetooth® digital pen, one 512MB Bluetooth ® USB Key with software embedded, one interactive extra toolbar, a ring binder, pen case and other accessories. 

“The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition is a great piece of technology. It will help to support co-teaching models in the classroom, when there is a special education and regular education teacher in the same classroom, and allow all students’ needs to be met inside the classroom,” said Diana Scharer, Special Education Teacher, Township of Union, Union, NJ.  “With PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition, the special education teacher can record the notes and graphics and have them available for all students at the end of the period.”

The PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition works with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and the Mac operating systems Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. PAPERSHOW features six different colors, three different brushstrokes, perfect shapes, lines and arrows all of which bring presentations, meetings and classes to life. 
“Being able to export the notes in a PowerPoint and PDF format makes it great for students who need visual supports and accommodations. PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition speaks to the heart of Universal Design for Learning and offers all student s the classroom the benefits of a highly interactive and visual appealing notes,” Scharer continued. “Teachers who are using PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition enjoy the fact that they can move about the classroom and put their ideas up on the board as well as having students record their ideas on the digital notepad from their desks.”

For more information, and ideas on how to use PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition in the classroom, visit, assistivetek.blogspot.com 
###
About AssistiveTek, LLC
Since 2000, AssistiveTek, LLC has been providing products and professional services in the area of educational and assistive technology to educators. AssistiveTek, LLC delivers innovative products that help students to visualize ideas and concepts and helps teachers to integrate these tools in the curriculum. 

AssistiveTek, LLC is one of the leading resellers of PAPERSHOW Teacher’s Edition in the United States and provides support and in-service programs to demonstrate how this innovative technology can be used in the classroom to support all learners.

Today I had the opportunity to work with a teacher and show her how she could use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom. As luck would have it, all of her students were going to be taking the NJ Drivers Written Exam and she needed to review the material with them. Rather than do a traditional question and answer session the teacher began to draw different scenarios on the PaperShow for Teachers notebook that the students could visualize and then annotate on the paper. The session was extremely engaging and interactive but more importantly the students really enjoyed writing on the PaperShow for Teachers notebook and reviewing the material. You can see above one of the images that was captured during the session. For an entire period we were able to engage the students in a highly interactive fashion and help them review key points that they could expect to know for the NJ Drivers Written Exam. How are you using PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom? Interested in learning how you can use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom? If so, then sign up here for a free webinar.

This past week I have had a chance to work with several teachers showing them how they can use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom to support their special education students in the classroom. While the first couple of minutes of the sessions were demonstrating the mechanical aspect of how to use PaperShow for Teachers we did get a chance to come up with some great ways to use it in the classroom. Many of the teachers enjoyed being able to to walk around the room when talking to their students while using PaperShow for Teachers as they put up ideas on the board. The students were totally amazed by the technology and all of them enjoyed writing on the PaperShow Notebook and watching their ideas come to life. The two special education teachers that I worked with used PaperShow for Teachers to brainstorm ideas as a pre-writing activity which really provided the students with the support they needed. Another teacher drew a a graphic organizer using the circle and line tools with PaperShow for Teachers and had the students fill in some of the idea bubbles. After the session was over both teachers talked to me about all the possible way they could use PaperShow for Teachers in the inclusion classroom to support students with learning differences. Both special education teachers were really excited with all of the possibilities and how it could be used with students to scaffold their learning.

If you would like a free demo of PaperShow for Teachers please feel free to contact me

I came across this handy tool from Lino which lets you create an interactive bulletin board for others to post. In this activity I am asking you to think about creative ways you could use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom. If you have some ideas please feel free to create a sticky note with your ideas.

I'm back from spending a couple days in San Francisco at MacWorld 2011. MacWorld 2011 was very well attended and it was great having the opportunity to speak to so many educators at the Canson Booth, as we demoed PaperShow for Teachers. It was very energizing to watch so many people get really get excited about the product and the solution that we were offering. Many teachers liked the fact that they could walk around with the notebook and were not chained to the front of the classroom. We had other educators who really liked the idea that it could be used to annotate Keynote or PowerPoint presentations. Others were excited that they could use PaperShow for Teachers when they are doing webinars and online learning.

While I was MacWorld 2011 Conference I was interviewed by Mike Schramm from the The Unofficial Apple Weblog which was streamed via UStream. I had a chance to demo PaperShow for Teachers and share with the audience a thing are two about the program. You can watch the interview below.

Yes- some folks have affectionately coined me the "PaperShow Guy" and I will be in all my glory next week when I arrive in San Francisco for MacWorld 2011. If you get to MacWorld 2011 Conference please stop by the Canson Booth 1001 and say hello and try out PaperShow for Teachers. PaperShow for Teachers won Best of Show at MacWorld 2010, and we are excited to show you the latest developments with the product which educators are really excited about. So stop by Booth 1001 and say hello and try out PaperShow for Teachers. PaperShow for Teachers has a rich set of features that your students will find very engaging. We will be offering special MacWorld 2011 pricing for PaperShow for Teachers as well was for PaperShow Enterprise Edition - so come over and take advantage of the special promotions. Hope to see you there!

As more and more teachers have begun to use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom I wanted to share this tip for creating quick grammar and cloze technique activities. Using the interactive paper that comes with PaperShow for Teachers gives you the freedom to create activities for the classroom that your students can interact with. Once you create the activity and print it out on the interactive paper you can then pass the activity out to your students and have them complete it from their desks, so that everyone can see. Likewise you could use it to model how to complete the activity so that everyone can see how it is done. So lets get started!

I have found that the trick to creating these activities is using PowerPoint. So open PowerPoint and create one slide for each of your activities. In the screen shot below you will see that I created a slide that the students could use to correct the grammar.



It is probably a good idea to select a simple PowerPoint style that has a white background for two reasons: one, this will use less ink and two, it will be easier for your student to see the text when it is printed. Likewise, you will want to select a larger font so that it will be easier for your students to write on once it is printed on the interactive paper. For the second activity I created a cloze activity from the first stave of A Christmas Carol. I simply pasted the text into my PowerPoint slide and then removed the text and used an underscore to create the gap. For each of the words, I cut out I then pasted them on the bottom of the slide.

Now that my activity is completed I can save my PowerPoint file and import the slide deck into the PaperShow for Teachers application that is on the USB key and print it on the PaperShow for Teachers interactive paper. PaperShow for Teachers will prompt you print the slides on the interactive paper so make sure that you have the paper loaded in your color printer before clicking the OK button. Just a tip it is good idea to place the Printer Sticker on the printer that you will be using with PaperShow for Teachers that you received when you purchased the PaperShow for Teachers Starter Kit to help remind you how to orient the interactive  paper.

Here is a quick screencast of how to create import your activity into the PaperShow for Teachers application.
Click on this link to see a video on how to import your PowerPoint Slides into PaperShow for Teachers

As much as interactive whiteboards pervade the classroom landscape it is amazing what you can do with PaperShow for Teachers to get students involved and engaged in the classroom instruction. PaperShow for Teachers provides a great vehicle for students to actively record their ideas as apart of a classroom discussion. PaperShow for Teachers has a 30 foot range from the computer which is ideal for walking around the classroom and having students make contributions to the lesson. Students will feel right at home using the digital pen and paper notebook to capture their ideas that their classmates can then see. Teachers will find it easy to pass the notebook and pen around the classroom and give students the opportunity to contribute to the classroom discussion. Once students have made their contribution, the notebook file can be saved in a PDF format, emailed or placed on the schools website to share.

PaperShow for Teachers makes for a great tool when students are brainstorming or story-boarding ideas. Consider setting up a learning center with a laptop, a LCD projector and PaperShow for Teachers. Students can then use PaperShow for Teachers to mind map their ideas or brainstorm while working in a small group. There is no need to complete the entire session during one class- just save the the file you are working on the PaperShow for Teachers USB key and you can always revisit it, the next time the class meets.

While many PaperShow for Teachers users-use it to deliver more engaging presentations, PaperShow for Teachers is an ideal tool for actively engaging students when they need to analyze or annotate images, diagrams or pictures. Using the PaperShow for Teachers application that resides on the USB key you can quickly bring in a series of images- print them using a color printer on the 8 1/2 x11 interactive paper and be ready to use them with the digital pen to mark up. Simply place the images you would like to use in a folder and PaperShow for Teachers will dutifully import them and get them ready to print on the interactive paper.Once the images are printed on the paper you can use all of the PaperShow for Teachers tools to annotate and mark up the images. This feature gives teachers the flexibility to bring in whatever pictures they need for a particular lesson. Once you do one time you will see just how easy it is do accomplish and how much fun it is to use in the classroom. So make you lessons more interactive by printing images with PaperShow for Teachers and then pass the binder with the images around the classroom to engage the students. Using images, students can identify certain features on the picture, comment about the picture, add additional ideas and then save them if it so desired.

At just $249 dollars, PaperShow for Teachers gives you tremendous value and a way to engage students in the classroom by providing them more opportunities to participate and interact with ideas and images. Contact me if you would like a free demonstration of PaperShow for Teachers.

Join me on Monday November 29th at 10 am EST for a free demonstration of PaperShow for Teachers.Find out how this innovative presentation tool can be used in the classroom, boardroom, or for webinars. Click here to sign up.PaperShow for Teachers is a cost effective tool to spice up lessons, presentations and webinars. Learn how you can use PaperShow for Teachers for brainstorming sessions or for capturing ideas in the classroom. Once you have captured the information you can easily share it as a PDF file. PaperShow for Teachers also lets you annotate images or your PowerPoint slides to make for richer and more engaging presentations. So sign up for this free webinar and learn about the power of this cost effect presentation tool. Click here to sign up.  Once you sign up you will receive a link for the webinar. Hope to see you there! Brian

I was talking with my wife and daughter, who are both musicians about PaperShow for Teachers and how it could be used in the music classroom, when it dawned on me how great this could be for writing music on staffs that everyone could see. In order to accomplish this with PaperShow for Teachers I did a quick search on Google for musical staffs in a PDF format that were in the landscape orientation.

I found a rather good site to download some staffs in the landscape mode and then I launched PaperShow for Teachers, imported the musical staff into the application and then printed it on the PaperShow for Teachers interactive paper on my HP Color Inkjet printer. Once I had the page printed I was able to draw the G Clef and add a couple of notes. Now imagine for a moment that you are a music teacher in the classroom just how handy this could be. Everyone can clearly watch you as you write the notes on the staff and when you are through you can export it as a PDF and send it to all of your students.

As a presenter I know that there are going to be times when I need to share the URL's of web sites or other reference materials that my participants will need to go to. It certainly is a lot easier when this information is readily available and I don't have to spend the time writing it down for others to see. In this instance, what I usually do is open up PaperShow for Teachers and ahead of time- write down the information my participants will need to access on the flip chart notebook paper and then save the file to the USB key. This way when I am in my training session all I need to do is open the file and the information is there ready to be shared with everyone.Having this as a stating point is a great way to get right into the meat of the presentation and saves me time! Look for more tips on how to use PaperShow for Teachers in coming blog posts.

When PaperShow for Teachers was released I was excited to find out that there was a range of different note taking paper that could be utilized with this innovative solution. If you are working in the primary grades you should consider purchasing the Canson PaperShow for Teachers Primary Notebook paper. The notebook is set up like primary styled paper that students are accustomed to using when doing written work. Using PaperShow for Teachers Primary Notebook teachers can model how to correctly form the letters of the alphabet and have students watch them on the screen.

Similarly teachers could trace the letters on the PaperShow for Teachers Primary Notebook before hand and have students practice their penmanship, right on the notebook page. Using this technique teachers can also capture the students handwriting sample, and save it as a PDF in the student's portfolio. To get the students involved in the handwriting lesson simply pass the PaperShow for Teachers Primary Notebook around the class with the pen and have students write the letters. Remember that the Canson Digital Pen has about a 30 foot range from the USB dongle so it is possible to walk around the room using this solution. No need for you to be tied to the front of the classroom.


In my next post I will share with you how to use the PaperShow for Teachers Interactive Paper to design writing templates that would allow students to practice their handwriting on pre-printed pages.

In about a week's time I will be heading to Mile High City to participate in what I consider to be one of the most exciting educational technology conferences in the United States. I have been fortunate to be able to attend the ISTE conferences over the past couple years and am looking forward to attending ISTE 2010 which is being held in Denver this year. I will be helping out at the PaperShow Booth as they launch PaperShow for Teachers, a new and exciting presentation tool for the classroom. I have been using PaperShow for the last year or so in my classroom and it is exciting to see the product evolve. PaperShow has allowed me the flexibility to go into any classroom and make my lessons more interactive and allows me to capture and share classroom notes almost instantaneously as a PowerPoint or PDF file.

PaperShow for Teachers, will add a whole new array of tools and set of interactive papers that I know teachers will find a welcome addition to their educational technology classroom toolkit. PaperShow for Teachers will add a wide array of new color palettes that can be used as well as math tools for calculations and the measurement of lines and angles. Teachers will be able to use the Reveal tool, to hide part of the screen which can come in handy for displaying questions and their solutions. So whether you want to use PaperShow for Teachers as a digital flip chart or to annotate your PowerPoint or Keynote presentations you will find PaperShow to be an affordable and easy to use tool to jazz up classroom lessons. If you plan on attending ISTE 2010, stop by and say hello, I will be in the PaperShow Booth # 792. So plan on stopping by Booth #792 and get a chance to see for yourself what all the excitement is about as we launch PaperShow for Teachers.