Technology & Learning - October 2008 - (Page 24)

PRODUCTREVIEWS Put to the Test T&L reviewers rate new gear By Carol S. Holzberg and Joe Huber PRODUCT: SAS CURRICULUM PATHWAYS www.sascurriculumpathways.com Price: Based on student population, but about $5-$8 per student per year DESCRIPTION: An online instruction system that covers the four basic core areas of the curriculum. HOW TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM: An instructor can create a lesson for a class or an individual student to complete and submit online. She can also create a blog for the class as well as add individual notes to lessons to customize them for the class or the student. PROS: The interface is easy to use and the blog feature is a bonus. I like the blog feature. The ability to make personal comments is also good. It uses SAS Strategic Performance Management and SAS Human Capital Management. These data collection tools are where SAS shines above many of the competitors. CONS: The program only links to national standards, not state standards as do some of the competing products. This is disappointing since remediation is a huge use for this product. It was also easy to navigate away from the main site when viewing some of the demos. The program does not allow an instructor to create podcasts or videocasts. OVERALL IMPRESSION: There are many products like this on the market, many with more features that are relatively low priced. However, if a school can work with national standards, the SAS Curriculum Pathways does have excellent data collection tools. PRODUCT: CLAYMATION STUDIO 2.0 (HONEST TECHNOLOGY) www.honestech.com Retail Price: Single User $49.99, Multi-user Academic $79.99 DESCRIPTION: Stop Motion Video Creation Software HOW TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM: Many elementary, special education, and ESL teachers can use Claymation movies as projects in their rooms to retell novels or history lessons. The features in this product make this easy to do. Users can add audio or text overlay to just one frame. A simple frame-editing tool allows the user to change the frame sequence by simply dragging and dropping them into the order the desired order. The user can also save the projects in WMF, AVI, MPEG-1, or MPEG-2 formats. PROS: The software is easy to learn, even as a first-time user. The chromakey feature for imported images is especially useful. The Rotoscope and Onionskin are both nice features. The Rotoscope uses a reference image to help users create a new image. The Onionskin allows the user to view a previous frame in transparent overlay to help create the next frame. CONS: Other than the amount of time stop-motion video takes to produce, there are no technical problems with this product. OVERALL IMPRESSION: This is a very good product with many good features. Perhaps one of the best features is the built-in storyboard. The storyboard teaches students the correct way to put a movie together and makes them think and plan out the project. 24 | TECH & LEARNING http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com http://www.honestech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Technology & Learning - October 2008

Technology & Learning - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Desk News & Trends We All Stream for Video Put to the Test Special Needs Guide to Tech Products The New Rules of Copyright Picture Perfect What’s New Leader of the Year Profile

Technology & Learning - October 2008

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