The technophiles, especially Apple groupies, have been eagerly waiting for (and speculating about) the official announcement about Apple’s new tablet computer. Today, Steve Jobs, along with a slew of Apple executives and developers, unveiled the iPad. With a starting price of $499, this sleek tablet could make a big impact on the AV industry.

A few uses:

• In conference rooms instead of significantly-more-expensive touch panel displays (with the right software- perhaps with the newly released Crestron XPanel for Mac?)
• In classrooms replacing textbooks, scientific calculators, pocket translators, calendars and desktop computers with one device
• For presenters, iWork – Keynote allows users to present natively by connecting to a projector

What other uses can you think of?

For more information about the iPad, click here.

Unified Communications (UC) tools are moving out of the board room and into the realm of higher education. In a great post on the UC Strategies blog, Blair Pleasant discusses a variety of areas that universities could use UC to streamline communications between faculty, staff, students, and others.

All UC vendors today are trying to find ways to differentiate themselves from one another and to stand out from the crowd. I generally recommend that they focus on professional services and/or applications, especially vertical applications. One vendor that has been successfully building UC applications and solutions based on its vertical expertise is NEC, which is working with its partners to understand the business challenges and business processes in the areas of health care, hospitality, higher education, and government.

For the full text of the blog post, click here.

For more information about UC products and services from AVI-SPL, click here.

In only their second year in operation, Nantucket Elementary School has quickly grown a reputation for being one of the most technologically-savvy in the area. AVI-SPL’s Education Market Manager, Erin Minich, has nurtured the relationship, working with them to integrate SMART interactive whiteboards in every classroom and launch their status as a SMART showcase school.

So when she informed Nantucket of the exciting technology behind SMART bracelets, school administrators were eager to introduce this new resource to their students. Equipped with a 2GB hard drive within their bands, the bracelets have easily become one of the most popular items within the SMART Notebook Student Edition (SE) package. At 50 bracelets for only $50 each, Nantucket Principal Diana Strohecker sees it as an invaluable investment for her fifth graders.

As a true plug-n-play innovation, students using the bracelets have the ability to create assignments in school and take it home to work on, or even at the library. Once plugged into any USB port – regardless of platform – students can use the bracelets’ pre-packaged software to create presentations that featured embedded videos, links, images and more.

“As I tell our educators, the SMART bracelet is almost like a ‘digital binder’ that they can take with them anywhere they go, easily putting control in the hands of the students,” says Minich. “There’s so much technology available in the schools, but students can be at a disadvantage if they don’t have that same level of technology at home,” she adds. “These bracelets are a wonderful tool, greatly helping to bridge the home-school divide when it comes to educational technology.”

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AVI-SPL recently helped Hillsborough County students get their first look at the dynamic features of SMART Technologies latest innovation, the SMART Table. The fourth graders at Lee Elementary Magnet School in Tampa, Fla., are among the first students in the county – and state – to have access to this exciting technology. From math to social studies to art, the SMART Table allows the youngest of learners to take a fun, hands on approach to their activities. Best of all, it helps teachers create new and unique collaborative learning activities with minimal preparation time.

“AVI-SPL’s education market manager, Kristin Kraemer, has been great in helping us get the SMART Table at Lee Elementary and keeping me up-to-date on the latest information,” says Gregory Hart, magnet technology and curriculum specialist for Hillsborough County Public Schools. “The SMART Table is part of our 21st Century Learning Environment project, which involves increasing the amount of interactive technology in the classroom. I find that students learn better when they learn with each other, and that is what the SMART table does best.”

Software content can be customized with the SMART Table Toolkit, which is included with each SMART Table. Teachers can easily customize lesson activity content by accessing the Gallery in SMART Notebook, which contains more than 6,600 learning objects.

To learn more about the impact of the SMART Table at Lee Magnet Elementary School, click here»

Please contact us at (800) 282-6733 or email us at sales@avispl.com to learn how AVI-SPL can help bring the SMART Table, and other SMART Technologies products, to your school!

To subscribe to AVI-SPL’s “Bright Ideas Newsletter”, featuring the latest in education news, discounts and more, email us at brightideas@avispl.com.

To view the SMART Table specs, click here »

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