Cross-Post

Here's a cross post in another blog about doc-casting that might be worth your attention:

DOC-CASTING

Jetion Arrives

Another new product appearing at conferences this summer is the Jetion visualizer. This visualizer offers a number of advantageous features for the educator:

• It’s very high definition (ten megapixel)
• It’s compact
• It permits wireless image transmission to laptops, tablets, smartphones or other mobile devices.

You can learn more about Jetion here. 

Ultra Cool

While attending ISTE 2015 in Philadelphia, I was pleasantly surprised to see HoverCam had reached new heights with their document camera offerings. Of course, I am talking about their new Ultra 8 visualizer, which was on display at the conference for the first time. 

Basically, the new Ultra 8 raises the bar in three ways:

A bump in high-defintion to 8.0 megapixel. (Special note: high definition really matters in the classroom.)

Compatibility with USB 3.0. (Special note: a good move, catching up to the newest devices, which have left USB 2.0 for the high speed USB 3.0)

No noticeable latency. (Special note:  latency is a deathblow for many classroom visualizers. Down with lag! Up with instantaneous response time!)

There’s some real ground breaking news here, folks. Something akin to a secret sauce. Viewing lag is a big deal. I did my secret latency test on this HD visualizer and was shocked to discover unnoticeable lag. That’s good for teaching. And good for learning. And oh-so-good for children’s eye comfort!

SXSW

Please consider voting for our SXSW proposal. To vote, just click on the voting icon below.

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/49162

(You will need to create an account and log in to vote, unfortunately. It would be so appreciated! Voting must be completed by September 4^th.)

See to Achieve: Where Virtual Reality, Vision, and Learning Meet

Reading. What does it take to be successful? Part of the answer is physiological. For the early learner, how well vision works is vital. Children’s eyes must be able to track, focus, and team (work together). Successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together. Enter modern day virtual reality. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. Sound familiar? This presentation will show how virtual reality is fostering unanticipated benefits for vision health and learning; and how new mobile 3D technology is being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision. 

New Wireless Visualizer

At the huge InfoComm 2015 conference being held in Orlando in June, Ken-a-Vision featured a new classroom document camera: the EduCam WiFi Wireless Camera 7880c. 


I wish I could put my hands on one to test it in the classroom. Past wireless visualizers were either two finicky or too complex for use by mere mortals. I would like to see if this one breaks the boundaries. On the left is a picture I snapped on the showroom floor.

It boasts 8+ hours of operation (from a 7-hour charge) and built-in networking capabilities. Of course, it transmits images cross-platform to Macs, PCs, iOS devices, and Android devices, including iTouch and iPhone,

Hue of Learning

A number of new developments in the classroom document camera world erupted at the ISTE 2015 conference in late June, among them the release of the HUE HD Pro classroom visualizer. This document camera is full featured, high-definition—and frankly—just beautiful in its look and feel. Quite an aesthetic experience, really.

This USB visualizer can also be purchased with powerful control software and additional creativity tools, notably an animation tool that allows students to create stop motion animations.

And the price is right: the visualizer sells for only $69.95. Schools will like that, along with teachers who have to carve resources out of their own budget.

Readers should note that the HUE HD Pro won a Technology & Learning “best of show” award in their category.

Diluting the Dream

I have noticed an unseemly shadow slowly overtaking the document camera industry over the last half-dozen ed-tech conferences, a trend that deeply bothers me: some companies, most recently Aver Information and Lumens, seem to be disengaging from their core mission of selling visualizers and promoting visual teaching and learning. Instead, they are refocusing and retooling their business in favor of display sharing software, school video security systems, or even video conferencing.

Why are they doing this? Evidently, the document camera market has been shrinking, as it approaches 60% deployment in U.S. classrooms. They need to feed the revenue zombies with additional profit centers it seems. They need to survive.

Why does this trend deeply concern me?  Well, I would rather see these companies concentrate on

•  teaching strategies using document cameras;
• better professional development for visualizer use;
• visual teaching and learning approaches.

Doing these things well will create a welcome swell of new customers. Providing professional development services will usher in a fresh new revenue stream for a rapidly fossilizing hardware market. Concentrating on the instructional use, and not the hardware specs, of visualizers will create a freshness in the education market.

It’s always easy to follow the hardware breadcrumbs for revenue. But forsaking the heart of the matter—visual teaching and learning—is an immense mistake. That’s the core mission for these companies. Unfortunately, some of these firms are diluting their future potential by diversifying and moving away from their core.

Another iPad Solution

Another iPad version of a document camera was demonstrated at the large TCEA conference in Autin this year. The concept of Justand is simple. Take a look for yourself:

As I stated in a previous post, I am not sure this is the best use of an iPad in the classroom, but what the heck?

As things slow down...

After attending the first three large ed-tech conferences of the winter (TIES, FETC, TCEA), I realized that there wasn't a whole lot of new news or recent developments in the field of classroom visualizers or document cameras. 

But that's a good thing, if you remember my recent post about the industry changing features too fast for for education, making us dizzy. It's better to concentrate more on how to teach with the tool, than to worry about the next feature of the tool. That is why I want to remind you to take a look at the only book on the market focusing on effective teaching strategies using the classroom document camera, shown below.

Digital Shapeshifter

Visual teaching, differentiated learning, and formative assessment with the classroom Document Camera.

It's the only book on the market about great teaching with document cameras. You'll love it! I't's 165 pages dedicated to totally transforming how we use classroom document cameras. You can find Digital Shapeshifter directly from the publisher at this link. 

3D Doc Cam Refreshed

Wolf Vision
3D Document Camera

Wolfvision’s 3D document camera has been refreshed. Wolfvision is offering a new feature in their ceiling-mounted 3D document camera: the ability to record in 3D.

Displaying 3D with the WolfVision Ceiling-mounted
Document Camera

A Mobile Twist

Here's something completely new...

Casio just introduced a new, free mobile application called C-Assist, which offers educators a suite of tools that work wirelessly in conjunction with Casio’s projector.

The C-Assist Mobile Application is compatible with both Apple and Android platforms and enables educators to display and annotate content and presentations directly from a mobile device. The features for this new mobile app include:

• remote PC access (allows users to remotely access and display content on a PC connected to the projector)
• real-time projection of photos (by activating the device camera with the app)
• using a mobile device as a hand-held document camera
• an image capture function that permits using the mobile device’s camera to snap an image and send it directly to a Casio projector. 

Here is the Android App.
Here is the Apple App.
You can see www.CasioLampFree.com for details. 

VIZ Word Cloud

Here’s a graphic word cloud of all the key words or themes in our Future-Talk VIZ blog during the year 2014.  The more the word is found, the larger it appears in this word cloud. The word cloud is interactive, so explore a bit!

It’s quite interesting to visualize, in this way, the recurring themes and concepts that have emerged from Future-Talk VIZ this last year. It’s like putting your fingers on the pulse of what’s happening with visual educational strategies—and taking a read.