Interesting Article
I ran across this article on www.theapple.com, and thought it provided some very interesting viewpoints.

Learning is:

• Computational
• Social
• Brain circuity driven

Here’s the direct article: How Does the Brain Work?.

“This monetary award recognizes an ed2go college or university partner who offers a uniquely strong commitment to community outreach, workforce development and student access through online learning opportunities. Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon, is the first recipient of the National IMPACT Award and will use the money to finance a scholarship fund for future Portland Community College/ed2go participants.”

“ed2go courses help us meet our goal of increasing access to educational opportunities for our community members by providing both professional development and personal enrichment training that is flexible, cost effective and easily accessed by students,” said Dr. Preston Pulliams, Portland Community College District President. “This partnership has a significant impact on our community, attracting many students who might not otherwise have come to campus for a classroom session.”

Cengage Learning and Education To Go
Around the world, Cengage Learning delivers online learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals. These solutions are delivered through specialized content, applications and services, professional development, and measurable learning outcomes. ed2go provides high-quality online learning that is affordable, and easy to understand. Over 300 courses, are provided through a network of 1,800 colleges and university partners, allowing adults to enrich their lives, or reach professional goals.

For more information visit www.cengage.com or www.ed2go.com.

Subject Matter:

Learning Mandarin With Bao Bei
Nî hâo Bao Bèi! (Hello Treasure!) Xiè Xiè! (Thank you!) Slip in the Early Start Mandarin Chinese DVD, and young children can begin learning Chinese with Bao Bei the panda puppet.

Ni Hao productions offers a variety of creative DVDs to teach pre-kindergarten to second grade students Mandarin Chinese.

Early Start Mandarin Chinese provides two volume DVDs  covering Colors and Animals (Vol. 1), and Numbers and Fruits (Vol. 2).  Check online for a variety of other Chinese Mandarin DVDs (A Wonderful Day, Cooking With Kids, My Healthy Body, Sports and Games, Happy Birthday).  Some DVDs can be purchased online and downloaded.

Each DVD offers 30 minutes of interactive Chinese language drills.   The video graphics are bright, and the Chinese words are repeated  with the help of puppets, video clips and animated children. Vocabulary is given at the end of the lesson.

With over one-quarter of the world’s population speaking Chinese, it’s not too early to start learning Chinese! Zài jian! (Bye-bye!)

Check out YouTube’s video clip learning Mandarin Chinese with Bao Bei the Panda.

System Requirements: Mac OS X, Windows XP
Contact: earlystartmandarin.com
Cost: $19.95 per DVD; $36.95 Volume 1 and 2 DVDs

Grades: Middle School to College

Multi-Technique Animation Software for Beginners & Hobbyists
Toon Boom has a wide selection of animation software for home users, school and professional users. I’ve reviewed other animation software programs, and it’s impressive the variety of animation software ToonBoom offers. No matter what level of expertise, Toon Boom provides beginners to experts infinite possibilities of animation.

There’s More Than Just Stop Motion Animation
Many people love cartoons and animation movies, and wouldn’t it be fun to create your own? The easiest choice is to use Flip Boom, and the next step up is Studio 5. Studio 5 requires some familiarity with digital illustration tools and functions. Users can download the Quick Start tutorial pdf and lesson files for practice.

Each lesson I practiced taught me different features, and how to build an animated clip. There were plenty of pictures in the tutorials that identified  different tools and functions. Under eLearning, Toon Boom offers a variety of tutorial pdfs, tips & tricks and character templates.

Studio 5 offers these main features:

• Discover various animation techniques: stop-motion, traditional digital animation, traditional paper animation, cut-out and rotoscoping
• Draw digitally, scan in hand-drawn animations, capture live images or import existing artwork, and enhance images using the various paint and camera tools
• Add audio tracks and lip-sync animation
• Publish animation projects for print, TV, HDTV, the Web, Facebook, YouTube and iPod.

In Class & At Home
Schooling is just not about the 3 R’s (reading, writing, ‘rithmatic).  It’s desirable that today’s students be exposed to the rich variety of media applications, including animation, graphic art, photojournalism, audio,  and video editing.  If later in life, students understand the production process, they can utilize these skills in marketing, communication, design, teaching, engineering, gaming, journalism, etc.

Many students give presentations, speeches, and let’s face it, PowerPoint can be static and overused.Why not animate a historic event (the signing of the Magna Carta, building Rome, Vikings crossing the Atlantic Ocean)? Shapes, equations and geometry could come alive in a short animated clip. Animate cellular division, or molecular bonding. While reading an essay describing Romeo and Juliet, students could develop an animated video that expresses their understanding of Shakespeare.

Studio Projects and Curriculum
It’s best to study and practice the online tutorials and lessons. In addition, Toon Boom offers schools and teachers a selection of various completed projects covering history, chemistry, astronomy, biology, literature and language arts.

Toon Boom also offers the Studio Animation Curriculum which includes various lessons, lecture notes and activities. Students and teachers develop their skills in basic animation, timing, squash and stretch, walk cycle animation, basic multi-planning and scene planning, drag and overlap, animating a jumping character, the take, visual breakdown and lip-sync, plus storyboard and staging. Check with Toon Boom for the curriculum cost (based on license agreement).

Support
Free tutorials are found at Online Tutorials. In addition, Toon Boom offers Workout Video Series ($24.99)and Video Training Tutorials ($59.99). For the purchase of 10 licenses, Toon Boom offers the Edukit at no charge. The Edukit includes The Toon Boom Studio Animation Curriculum with a book, a CD with animation elements, and the Toon Boom Studio Project Courseware with an electronic book and sample material (original combined cost at $ 1749.98 US).

MacNN has these comments about Studio5 in the article Toon Boom Studio 5 adds stop-motion animation.

Animation Magazine gives this advice in the article Toon Boom Announces Studio 5.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5.1 (Leopard) with Intel processor; ; Windows XP or Vista; 1 GB RAM; Wacom Tablet (optional); Free QuickTime player or Capture device supporting QuickTime or Image Capture interface; Bright colored flat fabric for Chroma Key Feature; Internet access
Contact: Toonboom.com
Cost: Preorder now at $329; check online for education licensing price

Subject Matter: Converting books, docs, websites, or blog text into speech
Grades: Special Education, ESL, Elementary to College, Administrative, Commercial uses

Reading While on the Road
Stuck in traffic, on a plane, or waiting for a meeting and you’re behind on  studying for a test, reviewing work, or keeping up on favorite blogs?  Are you a visually impaired student, or working with special education individuals? Want to take along that document, but not all 20 pages?  Consider using iSpeech to download text, and read with your ears.

How iSpeech Works
Since 2007, iSpeech went through some rigorous testing, and was recently launched in 2009. No software installation, or technical expertise  is required.  The initial service is free, and additional content conversion services are provided with monthly fees (see Cost at article end).  Simply sign up, then cut and paste text into the application’s text box, or upload any supported document, website, blog, etc. The program then converts the content into speech.

Audio files are stored in My Library. Files can be public, or locked for privacy.

iSpeech reports their program can support file types and websites that include: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, Rich Text File, Blogs, RSS news feeds, hypertext markup language (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, PDF, RTF, HTML).

iPods, Blogs and More
iSpeech indicates material can be podcasted, listened to on iPods, MP3s, or burned onto CDs.  Users can embed a file on any website, including MySpace, Blogger, or eBay.  iSpeech also supports Terapad and Typepad.

For bloggers using Wordpress.org, iSpeech provides a plugin.   The computer voice is understandable, plus has cadence and not a flat monotone. Users, however, can upload an advanced voice quality.

At present, Wordpress.com does not support iSpeech, however iSpeech reports to bloggers that the “current alternative is to place [audio MP3-URL] tags into your post with the MP3-URL pointing to your converted post.  For more details on how to accomplish this, please refer to wordpress.com audio support“.

Lots of Languages
In a couple months, iSpeech will provide text in 23 different languages. French material will, well sound “French”, and not with a mono-dialogue translating words incorrectly.

Expand Into Different Markets
Educators, commercial enterprises, online publishers, government agencies can offer audio versions of text content. For online publishers, iSpeech clients only pay for content that sells.

iSpeech offers a free 30-day trial, however free trials will require a charge either by PayPal, or credit card. However, iSpeech wil refund all monies if the user decides to cancel their service.

Worked For Me
I cut and pasted text into the content box, and it worked just fine. Then I uploaded a file. Your uploads are saved as files in MyLibrary. Next I’ll play around with the URL. When this application provides text-to-speech service in different languages, it will be a very powerful tool.

Try it out and see for yourself. iSpeech is the next step to being free of paper and textbooks.

Additional article by PR Web: iSpeech.org Makes Box.net Talk Aloud .

System Requirements: Web based browser, Requires Flash Player (free download at Flash Player)
Contact: iSpeech.org
Cost: Free for 250 words/mo.; $7.85/mo. for 10,000 words; $14.85/mo. for 25,000 words; $22.85/mo. for 50,000 words. All plans have limited monthly conversions. Check online to purchase iSpeech credits.

Subject Material:

Free Office Suite
Who doesn’t like free applications, especially online programs for personal use? Check out www.zoho.com.

Zoho.com offers an expanding Office Suite, online chat and presentation tools.  Zoho offers free Mail, Writer, Sheet, Doc management, Notebook Wiki and more.   Other documents, like Word or Excel docs can be uploaded, and revised.

Zoho also provides Cloud SQL,  Plugins for Microsoft Office, Browser plugins, CRM  plugin for MS Outlook, Zoho on Facebook and Zoho on Mobile.  Zoho also reports they actively secure information at multiple levels. Zoho also supports 30 languages on different offerings.

Zoho is free for unlimited one-to-one meetings, and cost up to $12/month up to 5 meeting participants.

Click onto the Screenshot tour to view Zoho offerings.   Sign up and check it out!

Systems Requirements: Web based browser
Contact: Zoho.com
Cost: Free, 3 or more business users prices vary

Subject Material:

Moving Away From Textbooks
Sometimes it’s hard to understand why a current runs through batteries, or conceptualize how the heart circulates.  Sunflower Learning provides powerful interactive tools to help students, teachers, and home school parents  to understand this material.

Batteries Come Alive
I downloaded Sunflower’s online demo, and viewed a wide range of their interactive simulations.  Physics wasn’t my best subject in college, so I checked out Motors and Generators.  Way cool.  Students can build their own 3D generator, observe how current moves through a magnetic field, and experiment.

Then I moved onto Chemistry, and observed Atoms and Ions.  By changing the number of protons, neutrons and electrons, I created different elements and isotopes.   The interactive software models the inner workings of each elements, displays the electrons in their orbital shells, and allows students to visually observe atomic matter in 3D.  Pretty neat!

Sunflower offers a wide range of virtual labs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.  On a computer, the working screen area is open, uncluttered and easy to understand.  Activities are colorful and informative.  The tools provided are simple and self-explanatory.  Besides, students like to tinker and explore, and they’re learning while playing around with the software.  My 14-year-old son had a blast  solidifying and diffusing molecules, checking out different cells and playing Predator Prey.

In addition, Data Analyzer links with other software programs to create tables and graphs from generated data.

And Sunflower Learning labs are available in Spanish.

And There’s More
Educators not only receive the CD-ROM with specific programs, Sunflower Learning will also provide:

• Comprehensive teachers notes
• Worksheets, activities and quizzes
• Full site license to run programs on networks or school machines

This is not static science.  If homeschoolers, or a school district needs supplemental material that’s hands on, visual and interactive, check out Sunflower’s virtual labs and simulations.  Users will require a projector, student computers, or a white board.  And contact info@sunflowerlearning.com for a free  trial.

If educators wish to edit material, the optional Resource Builder offers this opportunity.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 9.0 and Power PC Processor; Windows  98 with PC Pentium III Processor & Internet Explorer 5.1; 64MB RAM; Linux – Sunflower for Science runs through Wine.
Contact: sunflowerlearning.com
Cost: Each program costs $150. Check online for special offers.