April 24, 2024

SLJ Reviews TouchCast Video Creation App for iPad

Wouldn’t it be great for kids contemplating a visit to your library to take a video tour before walking in? You can produce this pretty easily with TouchCast, an app for creating video for the iPad, enhanced with linked content: photos, maps, polls, websites, and more. Our screencasts show you how it’s done.

Nexus 7 Versus the iPad: The new tablets strengthen Google’s play for K–12 schools

Coupled with the much-anticipated Google Play for Education store, the Nexus 7 bolsters Google’s growing claim to the K–12 tablet landscape.

Life Hacking with IFTTT | screencast tutorial

IFTTT—“If This Then That”—helps you automate tasks in order to better maintain professional learning networks, resources, and schedules. Learn how to find and create recipes on the Web (ifttt.com) or via the new IFTTT iPhone app in this video guide.

Organize the Web with EduClipper | Test Drive

Sure, the Web is a key resource for educators, but what’s the best way to share the good stuff you’ve collected with students and teachers and keep it all organized? EduClipper may be an answer.

Is This It for the Nook?: While its future is unclear, the Nook is an ideal ereader for schools

Nook HD

While the future of Barnes & Noble’s hardware division is still playing out, the Nook line of ereaders boasts a quality user experience and library-loan friendly features. Jeff Hastings provides a rundown of the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight and the Nook HD tablet in his video review.

SLJ Reviews Information Literacy Courseware ResearchReady

What is ResearchReady? The new information literacy courseware is “just about everything we try and teach condensed into a single convenient, Web-based and tablet-friendly can,” according to SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings.

SLJ Reviews Gobstopper and Subtext: Apps that Enable Interactive Classroom Reading

The ability for teachers and students to embed their own content into digital texts, write notes, and get feedback on student reading—classroom reading just got a lot more dynamic. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings test driives Gobstopper and Subtext.

SLJ Reviews the WiFi Smartpen Sky by Livescribe | Test Drive

Beyond the bells and whistles, “where the Sky smartpen really shines—like the Echo and Pulse models before it—is its capacity to record and post audio-enhanced notes called “pencasts,” writes School Library Journal gadget columnist Jeff Hastings.

CES 2013 Top Trends for Schools: From adaptive ebooks to crowd-funded technology, products to look out for

Grumbling about the relevance of CES notwithstanding, several standout products are set to impact K–12 education. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings taps the highlights, including one overarching trend that’s bound to affect a wide range of devices for all users.

Ebook Toolkit: SLJ Reviews StarWalk Kids

School Library Journal columnist Jeff Hastings test drives the new Web- and subscription-based ebook collection StarWalk Kids.