Lapworks Adds Two Great Tablet Accessories for the Teacher

Over the years I have reviewed several products from LapWorks, who has been manufacturing and selling fine accessories for laptops and tablets, but had not heard from them in years. But just last week, I received and email from them announcing some new products for iPads and tablets that I just had to take a look at. Lapworks has just recently released two products that really make a huge difference when you want to use an iPad or Tablet for instruction in the classroom. If you have ever tried to balance or

hold an iPad or tablet in your hand as you move about the classroom-then you know just how challenging it can be. In today's classroom being able to hold and move about the classroom using your iPad or tablet is important, but the risk of dropping it can be a real concern. This is where the Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle for 7" to 10.5" tablets comes into play. 

In class this week I used the Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle with my Surface 3 and it worked like a charm. The extensible bracket is spring loaded and held the Surface 3 securely. What I really liked about the accessory was just how quick I could position it into the bracket and be up and running. The soft neoprene strap felt good against my hand and allowed me to securely hold the Surface 3, as I walked across the room. The Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle allows for up to 360 degree rotation of your tablet which makes it easy to hold, in portrait or landscape mode. The Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle is lightweight and easy to carry in your knapsack or brief case. If you are a teacher then you need to take a look at the Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle-it will give you the freedom and confidence to walk around your classroom and use your tablet in the best possible way to teach your students. If you have a larger tablet, then you should take a look at the Lapworks Gripzilla Max for 9.5" to 10.5" tablets Soft Neoprene Handle with the same great design as its smaller brother. You can't go wrong with either one, and I for one will keep the Lapworks Gripzilla Omni Soft Neoprene Handle in my bag so that I can use it in my classroom.

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A Week with the Surface 3 – First Impressions

A couple of weeks ago out of the blue I received an email invitation from Microsoft to attend a party in New York City on March 31st. For the life of me, I could not figure out what this event would highlight-you see, it seemed like the timing was all off for a big announcement. But then on March 31, Microsoft announced the Surface 3 tablets which caught us all off guard. Microsoft announced the new Surface 3 with the latest Atom “Cherry Trail” processor, which would run Windows 8.1 and

be upgradeable to Windows 10 when it is released later this summer. The specifications noted that the Surface 3 weighted in at 1.37 pounds with a 10.8 diagonal screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio with a resolution of 1920 x 1280. The Surface 3 has a built-in kickstand that can be locked into 3 different positions and has a micro –SD slot. By all accounts the Surface 3 is a lightweight tablet with enough horsepower to run Office, legacy Windows software, surf the web and promise great all day battery life. My expectations were running high for a tablet with this form factor and one that could utilize the Surface touch type keyboard and digital inking pen. Having a mobile and a light weight tablet to run Office and some of the specialized assistive technology software that I often use is important for me. To say the least there was a lot of excitement leading up to the Launch Event of Surface 3 in NYC! 

Having arrived to the event a little early, I walked into the Microsoft loft and was really excited to see all of the new Surface 3’s on display to touch and play with. Picking up the tablet I was amazed just how light it was and typing on the touch type keyboard was a great experience. The Surface 3 looked great with a wonderful build quality and feels great in your hands. Having had my hands on one the screen is really gorgeous and very bright with excellent contrast. During the event, I had a chance to speak with many of the Microsoft engineers that were on the Surface Team which was really great. As the evening came to an end one of the Microsoft engineers announced that we would all go home with a Surface 3 to test and kick the tires-which created quite a stir. So for the past week I have been using the Surface 3 with different applications to get a sense of how it handles itself.

Having used the Surface Pro 3, I was excited to learn that the Surface 3 starts at just $499 for a 2GB RAM and a 64 GB SSD. For another hundred dollars you can double the RAM to 4GB and the SSD to 128 GB and will pay $599. Bear in mind that educators can get a 10% discount when purchasing the Surface 3. When purchasing the Surface 3 you will probably want to invest in the Touch Type keyboard which will cost you $129 dollars and the pen will set you back $49 dollars. To be honest, you will definitely want to invest in these accessories which will give you the full Surface 3 experience. Having a touch keyboard that you can pop in and out with a click is great and adds very little weight to the package. 

If you ever thought about moving all your note-taking to the digital realm, then you have to experience OneNote and the Surface 3 pen. The digital inking experience on the Surface 3 is exactly what you would experience on the Surface Pro 3. With palm rejection and the silky feel of the pen on the screen you will feel right at home taking notes using OneNote. The Surface experience is probably one of the best writing experiences you will find on any tablet. One of the nice tricks when using the pen is that you can tap on the eraser and this will automatically open a blank page in OneNote ready for you to start writing. Even when your Surface 3 is asleep tapping on the eraser of the pen will automatically wake up your Surface 3 and open OneNote. 

The Surface 3 supports Miracast and I was able to quickly connect it to my HDMI TV with the Actiontec ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition. This combination of Surface 3 and OneNote with the

Actiontec ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition is an ideal solution for the classroom-giving teachers the freedom to move about the classroom without being tethered to the projector. The Surface 3 just needs a case which would allow teachers to securely support the tablet-but since it is so light this will make for a great solution.

Having learned that the Surface 3 was using an Intel Atom Cherry Trail processor I was initially concerned about the speed and responsiveness of the tablet. However, after using it for a week I would have to say that it feels zippy and responsive using a wide range of applications. From opening web pages to word processing to utilizing mind mapping applications the Surface 3 handled it well without a hiccup. For educators who are not doing processor intensive tasks like video or photo editing the Surface 3 should meet all of your basic computing needs. Given that the Surface 3 is a full Windows 8.1 device, there are no limitations with regard to installing Modern apps or full Windows legacy applications. 

Some other nice touches you find on the Surface 3 is a full USB 3.0 port a mini-display port and a micro-USB port. Being able to charge the Surface 3 with a micro-USB cable is ideal since you can always find one in your bag. The Surface 3 Pro had used a proprietary cable which, if you left it behind when you traveled you were sunk. So Microsoft listened to their customers and resolved this issue by providing micro-USB for charging. By the way I did learn that you can use the micro-USB port for transferring data, as well. 

The Surface 3 specifications should hit that sweet spot for educators and consumers that are looking for a portable Windows tablet that can quickly transform into an ultra-light laptop by clicking in the keyboard.  I found the Surface 3 to be a responsive tablet that exceeded my specifications. Like all new devices I did find some quirkiness with the Surface 3 recognizing the keyboard in certain instances. I’m sure there will be firmware updates shortly to address some of these issues. Having the Surface 3 in my bag will allow me the freedom to have a full featured Windows device that can run specialized software when I need it. The Surface 3 has a good price point which should make the Surface 3 a big success in the marketplace. The Surface 3 will go on sale later this week and will ship on May 5.

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OfficeMix-Off to a Great Start in 2015

I trust you had some time to rest and recreate during the holidays and that you are now refreshed and rearing to go. As I start to plan for the semester ahead I am generally excited with all the possibilities and how I can engage my students in their learning. For the past couple of years I have taught many of my courses as a hybrid-meeting on campus for half the semester and teaching the rest online, which has worked out really well. Last semester, I experimented using OfficeMix an new plug-in for PowerPoint that makes the creation of digital assets extremely easy. For teachers who have wanted to flip the classroom, but are still looking for a

tool to help in the creation of material I would recommend that you install the OfficeMix plug-in which is available on the Windows platform for PowerPoint 2013 or Office 365. 

OfficeMix adds the ability to add digital ink (great if you are using a Surface Pro 2 or 3) , videos (Khan Academy, You Tube), simulations (PhET Simulations), quizzes, screencasts, screen captures-complete with user analytics. OfficeMix works great on a Surface Pro 3 because you can take advantage of the webcam and record audio as well as video and include it in your Mix. Likewise, having access to the digital ink on the Surface Pro 3 lends itself to marking up slides or for white boarding directly on a slide.  

One of the more challenging aspects of flipping the classroom for teachers is figuring out how to publish the material and where to publish it to. OfficeMix remedies this problem by hosting your Mixes in the Cloud-at no cost. With a click on the Upload button your Mix heads to the Cloud, making your last mile to publishing effortless. Once you have published your Mix you can get the link or embed code and set the permissions making it easy to restrict who has access to your material. If your Mix includes a quiz you can view your students responses in your Mix Dashboard on the web or download the results to an Excel formatted file.

Working with Mix is easy and students who are using a Windows or Macintosh computer can access the Mix with all of the interactivity. So for example if you insert a science simulation students will be able to interact with it when they open the Mix. If you will be viewing your Mix's on a tablet you can always export or publish them as a video-but your students will lose out on the interactivity. Teachers will find using OfficeMix to be straight forward and easy to use with lots of possibilities. 

The OfficeMix Team is constantly updating the plug-in and bringing more functionality with every update. Looking ahead I would really like to see that OfficeMix can publish in HTML 5 so that we don't lose out on any of the interactivity when view a Mix on a tablet. Likewise, I would like to see the OfficeMix Team add a way to insert Close Captioning when publishing a Mix. Despite these minor things, give OfficeMix a try- I know you will find it a very formidable authoring tool in your content creation! Happy Mixing!

Here is an example of an OfficeMix I used with my students:



If you will attending the NJECC Conference next week I will be doing a session on using the Surface Pro 3 & OfficeMix in the flipped classroom. Likewise, I will be doing a session at the ATIA Conference in Orlando later this month on using the Surface Pro 3 with OfficeMix- so join me if you can and please drop by and say hello!

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ActionTec's ScreenBeam Mini 2- Good Things Come in Small Packages

I have been a big fan of ActionTec's ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition and have used it successfully in my classroom with my Surface Pro 3 and Dell Venue 8 tablets. Having the ability to walk around my classroom and share my screen without physically being connected to the projector is a real pleasure. Setting up the ScreenBeam Pro is extremely simple and does not require one to connect the device to the existing WiFi network which is a real advantage of the Miracast technology. 

When I heard that Actiontec was going to release a new Miracast receiver, I knew I had to get my hands on it and give it a test run. So first, I would like to thank Actiontec

for sending me a ScreenBeam Mini 2 to evaluate. The ScreenBeam Mini 2 is small and looks to be about the size of a USB thumb drive which gets plugged into the HDMI port on your projector or HDTV. If your HDTV has a USB port you can power the ScreenBeam Mini 2 from the port otherwise you can power the receiver with the supplied USB cable and plug. Once plugged in you will see a little LED, light up to tell you the ScreenBeam Mini 2 is powered up. Now simply turn on your HDTV and make sure that you have set the input to HDMI and you should see the Actiontec Screen alert you that it is ready to connect. Now simply swipe in from the right side of your Windows 8.1 tablet and select Devices and connect to the ScreenBeam Mini 2. If you don't see the ScreenBeam Mini 2 receiver listed simply click on Add device and your tablet will discover the ScreenBeam Mini 2. Within seconds you will see the magic happen and your device will be displayed on your television screen. I found that the ScreenBeam Mini 2 connected very quickly to my tablets and the audio quality was superb. ScreenBeam Mini 2 supports 1080 p 30 fps and 2 channel stereo. 

For home or school use the ScreenBeam Mini 2 is an ideal receiver when I want to share the contents of my tablets. If you are interested in securing your wireless receiver then you will want to take a look at the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition. I have tested the ScreenBeam Mini 2 with the Surface Pro 3, Dell Venue 8, and the Nexus 7 ( running Android 4.4)  and all have worked well with the receiver. As they say, good things do come in small packages and this is certainly true with regard to ActionTec's ScreenBeam Mini 2. The ScreenBeam Mini 2 is also ideal for the business person who travels and is doing presentations or who wants to watch movies in their hotel room. Check out the ScreenBeam Mini 2 if you are looking for a small Miracast receiver that carries a big punch!

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Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3- the Perfect Add-on

Cleanstylus for Surface Pro 3

As much as I enjoy using my Surface Pro 3, especially for the digital inking-it is just a matter of time, before I know I will eventually lose my stylus. So when I came across the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 from Cleanint I knew I had to take it out for a test run. I had a chance to speak with Tuan from Cleanint and he was kind enough to send me out one to review. If you are looking for an elegant and effective way to store your stylus then take a look at the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3. The Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3  comes in matching keyboard cover colors and uses a a reusable adhesive technology that lets you re-position the stylus/pen holder as you see fit. I decided to adhere the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 to the top right corner of my Surface Pro 3 and installing it was a cinch. The holder really grasps the stylus and you can either snap it in or slide it into the holder -which ever way you prefer. The Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 retails for $19.95 and is a great solution for securing your stylus and giving you the peace of mind knowing where it is when you need to use it. If you are interested in purchasing the Cleanstylus for the Surface Pro 3 please contact me via email. 

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