Matchware Releases MindView 5

Without a lot of fanfare Matchware has recently released MindView 5, one of the leading mind mapping tools in the marketplace. Matchware, taking the lead from its customers, spent a great deal of time improving on the feature set of MindView in this current release. MindView 4 users will feel right at home using the latest version, knowing that the core of the product didn't change all that much. While some of the changes are rather subtle, make no mistake about it, they add a great deal of value to the existing application. While I intend to do a more in-depth review of the recent release, I want to highlight a couple of features which make the latest release of MindView 5 a great tool for students and those with disabilities.

Matchware over the years has made inroads with their mind mapping products to schools and has always had a keen interest in meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities. It is not everyday that a company considers incorporating the principles of Universal Design and Matchware should be applauded for including text to speech support, audio notes and a high contrast design for viewing the mind map on the screen. MindView 5 gives students access to wide array of views that can quickly be changed. Students can easily go from a mind map to an outline or to a timeline with a click of the mouse making it easy to visualize the information in many different ways.

Matchware has included a new feature in MindView 5 that lets users search the WorldCat catalog and insert a citation right within the mind map. The WorldCat catalog has million of entries and is a great tool for searching for articles that can be used for doing a research paper. Once you have used the WorldCat catalog and entered a citation you can then export your mind map and have MindView 5 automatically format your bibliography into one of the many standard outputs; notably APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard, and ISO690. Having access to the WorldCat catalog right within MindView 5 really plays to the strength of MindView and its exceptional ability when exporting formatted Microsoft Word documents. I for one have come to rely on MindView to create RFP's and structured documents when I am delivering my proposals. When exporting MindView 5 mind maps to Word, the structure of the output is really exceptional and giving the end user the ability to navigate the document with the clickable table of contents works really well. When I prepare my proposals with MindView I often get great comments and my readers are impressed by how succinct and to the point my proposals are.

So if you like, give MindView 5 a try by clicking here for a free 30 day Trial

Bookstream™: New Cloud-Based Library Delivers eBooks to Students' iPads, Smartphones, and Laptops

For Immediate Release
Contact: Valerie C. Chernek	410-871-2670	vchernek@donjohnston.com

 Bookstream™: New Cloud-Based Library Delivers eBooks to
Students' iPads, Smartphones, and Laptops

September 6, 2011- Volo, IL – This school year, educators will have a new option to deliver their books. In addition to handing out textbooks in class, they will deliver eBooks through the cloud to students' iPads, smartphones, and laptops with a new online service called Bookstream.

Bookstream, developed by Don Johnston Incorporated, makes it easy for educators to hop on the Internet, upload eBooks and share them with students for anytime reading. It was designed to help educators comply with IDEA 2004 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) that require schools to deliver core curriculum in accessible formats to support students with disabilities.

"We work with assistive technology specialists who drive hundreds of miles each week to deliver eBooks on flash drives," said Ben Johnston, Director of Marketing. "It's ironic that eBooks are delivered by car, but as one special educator explained, there aren't many alternatives—book files are often too big and unwieldy to email or download. She was also concerned about violating copyright laws and wanted an easier way to manage digital content. She inspired us to do something about it, and now we are withBookstream."

For districts that are just beginning to build an accessible curriculum, Bookstream includes access to thousands of eBooks and fully supports Bookshare's more than 110,000 digital files. It will read any book in ePub format without DRM restrictions. Teachers can also upload and share their own quizzes and worksheets with students.

Consumers are quickly embracing eBooks, but there are additional challenges for school districts to do the same," said Kevin Johnston, Director of Product Design. "For schools, eBooks come with different rights for different students, the books need to be accessible on school computers and on personal devices, and some electronic textbooks can be over two gigabytes each! With Bookstream, we solve these challenges for educators, making the whole process easier. We also built in tracking tools so educators can see how much time their students spend reading and which books they read."

Your Accessible Library  Could Look Like This

eBooks read through Bookstream are 508 compliant as outlined in the Federal Rehabilitation Act. They are accessible to any assistive technology with a web browser, such as Don Johnston's Read:OutLoud text reader, or the JAWS screen reader for individuals with visual impairments. Bookstream embeds text-to-speech that can be streamed on any Mac or Windows computer.

"Cloud computing has the potential to create the infrastructure our schools need to keep up with the digital world," said Debbie Fogg Ed.S., CCC/SLP, ATP at Naperville School District #203, IL, one of the first school districts to purchase Bookstream. "We're excited to have a platform to deliver electronic text to students' personal and district-owned laptops and mobile devices. We hope to see an increase in academic performance as a result of the anytime reading access."

From now until December 30, 2011, U.S. schools can take advantage of introductory pricing on Bookstream that gives school districts two years of access for the price of one. First year costs are regularly $1749 with an annual maintenance fee of $529 per site. Districts may also qualify for discounts depending on the number of sites they purchase.

"Educators can set up their accessible library and deliver e-Books in less than 30 minutes," adds Ben Johnston. "Our technology is similar to Amazon's Cloud Drive and Apple's iCloud, but we're choosing to focus on education: that's what we're passionate about. Five years ago, it was inconceivable that schools could deliver an accessible curriculum beyond a few students per school, but now through the new cloud technology and digital books, Bookstream makes it all possible and cost-effective."

Resource Links:

Learn about Bookstream, Accessible Instructional Materials and all of Don Johnston's reading products.

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About Don Johnston Incorporated
Don Johnston develops accessible and emerging reading and writing technologies to support K-12 and postsecondary students with cognitive, physical, and learning disabilities. Since 1980, the special education company has partnered with literacy experts, AT specialists, SLPs, OTs, special education teachers, university researchers and DSS coordinators to improve access to learning and to increase writing independence. Tens of thousands of students with dyslexia, autism, dysgraphia, down-syndrome and diverse learning challenges use our software and hardware devices to accommodate their learning needs in schools, the workforce and at home. Find us on Twitter and Facebook.

AnyBook Reader from Franklin - Teacher Tested

When I first learned about AnyBook Reader from Franklin I knew I had to get my hands on it and give it a test run. The idea behind AnyBook Reader is very straightforward. Pick a book any book, activate one of the provided stickers, record the page, and then let your child hear your voice reading the book. When my AnyBook Reader arrived from Franklin, I was excited to give it a whirl. I first installed the 2 AAA batteries and then followed the simple instructions that were provided and within seconds I was able to hear myself read the book. Following the sequence in the instructional  guide was made even easier as AnyBook Reader provides auditory cues to let you know when you are ready to record the page. Once you record the  page you simply touch the AnyBook Reader to the sticker and voila your page is read. AnyBook Reader comes with package of reusable stickers as well as stickers with pictures on them that make fun sounds and noises. It is easy to remove the plain stickers and re-record over them when you are ready to use them with another book. If you need to you can always reorder additional stickers. The AnyBook Reader is available in two different models- one that can store 60 hours of recording and another model which can store 15 hours of recordings. AnyBook Reader is priced at $59.99 for the higher capacity reader and $39.99 for the lover capacity reader. Children will find it easy to adjust the volume when using the AnyBook Reader and will enjoy the high quality audio when listening to the pages being read. AnyBook Reader makes it difficult for students to re-record a page by virtue of the sequence that is required to do so.

As much as I enjoyed using AnyBook Reader- the true test for AnyBook Reader had to take place in the classroom. I was so excited with the potential of AnyBook Reader that I decided to demonstrate it to one of my advanced assistive technology classes that I teach. All of my students immediately saw the value of AnyBook Reader  and could think of many ways to use it in the classroom. With this in mind, I decided to loan AnyBook Reader to one of my students who teaches preschool children so that she could field test it. I went over the directions on how to record the pages and set her off to give it a try. The preschool class had the opportunity to use AnyBook Reader for a two week period and when my student came to class to share how it went, she was so excited to share her observations. My student shared the she couldn't believe just how wonderful AnyBook Reader was in allowing her preschool children to sit and have the book read in her voice. She shared that the students were enthralled with AnyBook Reader as they sat there and listened attentively to the book being read. It was very exciting to hear this feedback and know that this is from an experienced teacher who actually field tested it in her classroom. I know that she will go out and purchase one for her classroom. The only comment that she made was that she wished there was a way to plug in a headset or ear buds. Which I would concur. For more information about AnyBook Reader click here.

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to make books accessible then you have to take a look at AnyBook Reader from Franklin. This is an affordable and fun way to engage students in the reading process. And along the way I'm sure you will come up with interesting ways to use this device to modify all kinds of materials :-).