- LATEST NEWS
- - NEWSDAY 2008. AlphaSmart has been sponsoring Newsday for several years now. More...
- - THE RETAIL PRICE OF NEO HAS BEEN REDUCED TO £149 for a single unit and drops as low as £129 per Neo in a 30 unit Classroom Solution (30 Neos in an AlphaSmart trolley). Click here for details of an educational reseller near you. Click here to buy online
- - ALPHASMART PRODUCT GUIDE 2008. The new Product Guide is available as pdf document. More...
Newsday 2008 - sponsored by AlphaSmart
Newsday 2008 celebrated the culmination of this year's competition in the usual style: with a party! In fact, this year, we had 2 parties, each at a different venue!
As always, the standard of newspapers, web-sites and podcasts was amazingly high, from Key Stage 1 right through to the top, and we had entries from all over the world, putting Newsday into a class of its own as a truly international and prestigious competition!
Have a look at Summary, Gallery and the Winners of Newsday 2008!
IT'S THE BEST BIT OF KIT I'VE EVER HAD!
When we hear someone enthuse strongly about a particular product, a typical first reaction is to think they must be exaggerating. However, the team at Naace - the professional organisation for advancing education through ICT - see new ICT products all the time, so when their general secretary describes something as "the best bit of kit I ever had", it's worth finding out what she's talking about.
"It's a wonderful piece of equipment - simple, effective and practical. I use it at all my meetings to take notes instead of writing them by hand. Now I don't need to transcribe anything, I just download it to my laptop when I get home for formatting and sending on to colleagues. My notes are now much more accurate and detailed.
Mary also loaned the Neo to her partner, who runs his own business, and he and all his colleagues "went bananas" over the product. "He had a hard time getting it back!" she laughs.
The Neo may have been designed for the education sector, but it's just as useful in business. It's the best bit of kit I've ever had."
Mary Barker, general secretary of Naace
SUMMARY OF SCHOOLZONE EVALUATION OF CRS BY ALPHASMART
All evaluators of the CRS voting system were enthusiastic about the system, as were the students in the classes that were included in the trial. No significant difficulties were encountered with installation or use. The teachers commented that the display screen on the handheld unit makes it unique in the marketplace.
The teachers commented on the fact that quizzes or tests designed to be used with the CRS could be differentiated to suit all abilities, and that all were encouraged to participate in lessons by the degree of confidentiality afforded by the system. This affected both extremes of the ability scale: the very able as well as the less able. The CRS enabled teachers rapidly to assess learning in the classroom and hence adapt planning, even in the course of a lesson. They were better able to target resources to those students who needed them as a result. The possibility of enlarging text was invaluable to enable a child with significant sight impairment to use the CRS.
"In terms of integrating the product into schemes of work there is hardly any work to be done. The product can be used (in my opinion!) at anytime in a lesson with any class - and believe me I've deliberately trialled the product with some of my school's most challenging pupils."
"To say that pupils were enthused by the product is an understatement! There was a real buzz of excitement using this product, and I personally have not had the situation of pupils asking for more homework because they enjoyed doing it so much."
Full details found at www.schoolzone.co.uk.
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