Blue Ribbon Reviews February 2006
By Linda Lindroth

This month's reviews run the gamut of technology, from presentation software that helps alleviate the potential stress of working with students at 30 computers, to individualized writing instruction, to an early literacy program for your youngest readers.

DyKnow Vision
My greatest wish as a teacher has always been to have the ability to offer every student in my class a personal tutor with side-by-side help for every new skill I was teaching. My wish has now come true. DyKnow Vision™ gives the teacher a "chalkboard" to bring up on every student computer with a side-by-side working space for each student in the lab.

What DyKnow Vision does is let the teacher create lessons consisting of multiple screens which can be written "on the fly" or designed and saved while preparing curriculum lessons for the future. Along with this teacher screen is a student workspace where teachers can ask students to interact with the lesson and write their own examples, work a math problem or write an open response answer – all during the whole-class lesson. Created notebooks can be saved to use for study and review, use with absent students or revise for next year.

A math problem solved - with teacher support - on DyKnow Vision.

While the class is working on an individual screen assignment, the teacher can connect to individual computers and provide personal instruction, and pop up a different screen that provides more detailed instruction. Any work the student does, along with the additional information from the teacher, can be saved for the student to use as his or her own private notebook for later study.

The interactive DyKnow Vision panel includes numerous tools for infusing your lessons with multimedia to engage students in learning and keep them on task. You can add tables and text boxes anywhere on the screen and create answer boxes for students to input their own work – great for checking comprehension during a lesson. Probably my favorite tool is the Moderator and Participant Ink – one can even write in purple (private) for teacher notes that can't be seen by the students.

Changing the lesson order is easy. Just append a blank panel to add additional examples or instruction, or scroll through prepared slides to move forward or back in your scope and sequence of skills. Teachers can even lock screens so students cannot "jump ahead" in the lesson. DyKnow Monitor™ adds more monitoring features.

For more information and prices, visit www.dyknow.com or call 888-8DYKNOW.

Take It to the Computer: Writing Sentences and Paragraphs
These 1-5 grade level boxed kits from Evan-Moor include everything for a successful writing project. Each resource kit includes My Toolbox software with Drawing Pad and Writing Pad, 48 step-by-step computer activity cards, 30 handbooks and a binder with a teacher's guide and reproducibles, four for each of the 48 computer activities.

Each writing project includes prewriting, writing on the computer and follow-up reproducibles for practice, assessment and extensions. The main steps for each lesson are Organize (with a graphic organizer), then Write and Practice (skill), then Write and Draw (character or object), then Write. The template for each writing activity is embedded in the software. Students can use SlideShow Maker to showcase work with music, voice and transitions that's web-ready for a class website or to e-mail to parents. The built-in class management system lets you modify class lists and print or e-mail work to other teachers or parents.

Visit www.evan-moor.com or call 800-689-1262 for more information. Win/Mac, $399.99.

Reading Readiness
Knowledge Adventure's Reading Readiness is an early literacy program designed to build phonemic awareness and phonics skills for grades K-1. The program consists of a Teacher Control Panel, student lessons, teacher materials and decodable readers.

The Teacher Control Panel allows the teacher to set up groups and class lists, assign lessons for individuals or groups and track student progress. Each detailed report highlights individual skills to help assess student progress and provides a printable tips page for promoting parent involvement. The activities on the tips sheets can be printed in both English and Spanish.

Lesson packets are correlated to national standards and include pre- and post-lesson tests for each skill module. With more than 70 lessons for 30 different primary reading skills, this program can help meet the individual needs of the early readers in your class.

The CD includes teacher materials in PDF format, with detailed lesson plans, printable blackline activities and parent tips for home practice. The 10 readers help introduce new sight words – also in PDF format.

For more information, visit www.knowledgeadventureschool.com or call 800-871-2969. Win/Mac, $79.95.

Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching Pre K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.