“Many students are visual learners,” said Heather Chirtea, executive director and founder of Digital Wish, “Vizit allows classrooms to connect with their world visually in real time.  This 2-for-1 program allows two classrooms to collaborate on picture-pal programs, data collection, and photographic homework assignments. We’re excited to see what teachers come up with.”

###

While everyone may have differing opinions surrounding the debate to reform public schools, we can all agree that teachers -- some more than others -- play an incredibly important role in our lives. To help identify these exceptional teachers and to award one with the crown of "America's Favorite Teacher," WhitePages (www.whitepages.com) today announced the Run & Hug Contest. The crowned teacher, as well as the person who nominated them, will each win two all expenses paid trips to New York City where they will be reunited so the student can thank their favorite teacher in person. The winning teacher will also be awarded an additional $1,000. The Run & Hug winners will be announced on May 3, which is National Teacher Day and will be reunited sometime between May and July.

For every entry submitted, WhitePages will donate $5 to Digital Wish, a non-profit with a unique mission to modernize K-12 classrooms and prepare students for tomorrow's workforce by creating equity in school systems so that each child has equal access to technology.

"The nation's best teachers often times go unappreciated," said Alex Algard, CEO and founder of WhitePages. "Whether it's Waiting For Superman, President Obama's Race to the Top initiative or recent debates about teacher's benefits, at least one theme remains common... good teachers matter. The Run & Hug contest is a perfect opportunity to showcase just how much exceptional teachers touched the lives of their students."

From April 6th to April 22nd, people can go to www.runandhug.com to nominate teachers who have made a lasting impression on their life. All nominations will be posted and open for the U.S. public to vote on. People submitting the teachers, as well as the teacher themselves are encouraged to share their nomination with friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter since the nomination that receives the most votes will win the reunion. People are encouraged to submit their entries as early as possible to allow more time to accumulate the most votes.

Manchester Center, VT- April 7, 2011- Digital Wish will contribute $100 towards each ELMO product purchased for the classroom at www.digitalwish.org. Schools and classroom supporters alike can now stretch their funding dollars further to make their favorite educator’s technology wishes come true.  The TT-02RX document camera is available as a stand alone item, or included in a choice of two bundles.

“The ELMO document camera has been one of the most requested classroom tools on Digital Wish,” said Heather Chirtea, Executive Director and Founder of Digital Wish, “We’re ecstatic that we can provide a $100 matching grant program on top of an already low price in these tough economic times.”

Two bundles and the stand alone document camera will each qualify for the $100 matching grant program.  One bundle brings together the powerful, but portable CRP-221 projector along with the document camera.  The other bundle includes the document camera and the award winning CRA-1 tablet, which allows the teacher to wirelessly control the document camera from up to 50 feet away.  This tablet was a winner in the 28th Annual  “Awards of Excellence” by Tech & Learning magazine.

The ELMO TT-02RX is the most popular document camera in America.  It boasts over 40X total zoom with auto or manual focus, which is perfect for zooming-in on small text or complex math problems.  The large display area can capture documents and objects as big as 11” x 17”.  An internal 1.3 megapixel chip allows smooth capture of moving objects at a steady 30 frames-per-second motion clip.  In addition, the document camera can be controlled from up to 23 feet away with the remote control which is included in the box.  With both SD and USB ports, snapshots of student work or lessons can be easily captured and exported to another device. The Image Mate software comes with each purchase and allows the user to annotate and mark up the projected materials from their computer.

“We help teachers at Digital Wish,” said Chirtea, “By making the ELMO Teacher’s Tool document camera available with an additional matching grant, we hope educators around the country will see their ultimate wish come true either from district technology funding or engaged community supporters.”

Make your classroom lessons an event with the ELMO Teacher’s Tool document camera.  Teachers can add ELMO products to their wishlist and supporters can grant their wishes at www.digitalwish.org

About Digital Wish
Digital Wish is a non-profit on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in K-12 classrooms. The www.digitalwish.org website is designed to help teachers locate much-needed funding for classroom technology. In addition to making over 23,000 wishes come true for American educators, Digital Wish provides a host of fundraising ideas and allows teachers to craft a technology wish list so that parents and community members can make a classroom contribution and invest in America’s future.

About ELMO
ELMO USA has been a global leader in education technology for more than 30 years. The company’s cutting-edge innovations are shaping the future of visual communications. Foremost among these innovations are teaching tools for dynamic classroom presentations. ELMO’s groundbreaking document cameras and visual presenters benefit students by enabling instructors to incorporate stimulating high-resolution visuals into their lesson plans. These value-priced, full-featured teaching tools offer a level of interactivity and spontaneity that static transparencies or “one-dimensional, pre-planned” laptop and desktop computer lessons simply do not. For more information about ELMO’s classroom solution products, visit www.elmousa.com or call 1.800.947.ELMO.

 ###

Manchester Center, VT- March 28th, 2011- Enhance your high school classroom's "nomenclature" this SAT season with a FREE Vocab Videos subscription. For the next two weeks, every high school teacher who registers on Digital Wish and tells at least one friend about Digital Wish will receive a classroom subscription to Vocab Videos, valued at $135. Simply visit www.digitalwish.org, register, and the grant instructions will be automatically sent to the registrant. The subscription covers an entire classroom of up to 40 students. High school teachers already registered on Digital Wish will also receive this grant.

Vocab Videos is a revolutionary new vocabulary system from A-List Education that brings essential high school and SAT vocabulary words to life. The online platform was developed by a group of educators frustrated by the lack of high quality and affordable vocabulary resources. Their solution came in the form of hilarious short videos illustrating the meanings of crucial, frequently-tested SAT vocabulary words. Episodes feature entertaining characters and parodies of popular TV shows, making learning vocabulary words fun for students. The Vocab Videos package includes an extensive video library that reinforces learning for over 500 vocabulary words, plus quizzes, worksheets, a multimedia flashcard maker, and a teacher dashboard for monitoring individual student and class progress.

Vocab Videos takes away the stress of vocabulary preparation and engages students in the learning process with fun spins on dictionary definitions, showing students what the words mean instead of just telling them. The video content and words are appropriate for grades 9 through 12, which is why Digital Wish is only making this available to high school classrooms.

High school faculty must act quickly to take advantage of this special grant opportunity, as it is only available to educators who register with Digital Wish in the next two weeks or who have already registered. After the grant period passes, teachers will still be able to purchase or have Vocab Videos subscriptions donated to them through Digital Wish, but it will be for the full cost of the year-long subscription service ($135).

"We are very excited to facilitate this grant opportunity for every high school teacher in the country," said Heather Chirtea, executive director and founder of Digital Wish, "These Vocab Videos subscription grants will help thousands of students across the country prepare for the SAT this spring."

After teachers register with Digital Wish, they will be provided with a link to the Vocab Videos registration page. From there, they will be able to create their free teacher and 40 student accounts after referring at least one friend to Digital Wish. The trial subscription will run through June 15, 2011 and then automatically expire, unless the teacher elects to renew the service.

About Digital Wish
Digital Wish is a non-profit on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in K-12 classrooms. DigitalWish.org is designed to help teachers locate much-needed funding for classroom technology. In addition to making over 23,000 wishes come true for American educators, Digital Wish provides a host of fundraising ideas and allows teachers to craft a technology wish list so that parents and community members can make a classroom contribution and invest in America's future.

About A-List Education
A-List Education (www.alisteducation.com) is an innovative provider of educational services for families, schools, and non-profit organizations. The company is dedicated to helping students achieve their academic goals and prepare for undergraduate and graduate studies. A-List's services include standardized test preparation, academic tutoring, college admissions advising, and professional development for educators. A-List is committed to helping underserved youth and provides customized college readiness solutions to non-profit organizations, including Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Harlem Children's Zone and Year Up.

###

Manchester Center, VT- March 22nd, 2011- It pays to help Mother Earth.  Digital Wish and Cartridges for Kids are giving communities and schools another reason beyond “going green” to start a Recycle Forward fundraiser.  They’re paying double for all cell phones, inkjet cartridges, and laser cartridges collected through Recycle Forward campaigns right up until Earth Day.

Schools and community members can register for free at www.recycleforwardnow.org. It only takes a few minutes to organize a campaign. Recycle Forward provides all the resources necessary to promote and run a successful recycling drive in any community. Just set up a collection box, then print posters and circulate flyers to publicize the drop location. Pre-paid shipping labels are provided to participants to ship items directly to Cartridges for Kids for processing.

Recycle Forward streamlines the fundraising process so that 100% of the schools’ funding can be used to purchase new technology directly on Digital Wish, like an online bank account.  It doesn’t cost anything to participate and the shipping labels are free to stretch fundraising dollars even further. All of the money earned from the recycling drive will automatically appear in the school’s Digital Wish account within 30 days.

“We ran a community recycling day at my twins’ school and raised $850 on a Saturday! It’s incredibly important to encourage recycling with school children from a young age,” said Heather Chirtea, executive director and founder of Digital Wish, “Recycle Forward rewards schools for helping the environment and everyone benefits.  With Double Pay for Earth Day, we can make an even greater impact by turning old technology into cash and providing new technology for needy classrooms.”

PTAs, community members, schools, and classrooms are invited to register and run a Recycle Forward campaign.  To learn more please visit: www.recycleforwardnow.org. To qualify, collected items should be picked up by FedEx any time on April 25- 27. It’s easy to request free shipping labels online. Just write “Double Pay” on the free pre-paid shipping label and earn more cash for classroom technology! If you have any questions about the Double Pay for Earth Day promotion, please contact Cartridges for Kids at 800-420-0235 or [email protected].

About Cartridges for Kids
Cartridges for Kids is a recycling program that pays schools cash for cell phones, laser/inkjet cartridges, laptops, digital cameras, iPods, PDAs, video games & consoles, DVDs and GPS devices.

About Digital Wish
Digital Wish is a non-profit on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in K-12 classrooms. The www.digitalwish.org website is designed to help teachers locate much-needed funding for classroom technology. In addition to awarding over fifty grants this year, Digital Wish provides a host of fundraising ideas and allows teachers to e-mail and print their technology wish lists so that parents and community members can contribute. Digital Wish has made over 23,000 technology wishes come true for American teachers.

###

Written by guest blogger, Christine Berg

Editors Note: This article is a follow- up to a previous article, published in May 2010.  You can read the first article about Christine and Rondout Valley High School's correspondence with a school in Haiti here. For more information, including how you can help support the Haitian school, please contact John Sullivan at Digital Wish.

This past November, four teachers from the Haitian school visited Rondout Valley High School to give a video presentation of their school and what they have been doing with the funds we have been sending them since the January 2010 earthquake.  The presentation was filmed using the Flip camera, and they thanked us profusely for sending it because they feel that it has given them a way to communicate with the outside world and with potential supporters.  It really has been amazing to see the effect that such a small device can have on the lives of so many people!

The teachers at the school are focused on becoming self-supporting through sale of their art and the art that the children make at the school.  The Flip Camera is helping them to gain exposure for what they are doing in the United States.  They are so hardworking, and their goal is to rebuild Haiti by teaching the children to be productive.

This has been a life-changing experience for me and my students.  The Haitians we have met are such resilient, courageous and truly beautiful people.  I would like as many people as possible to know about what they have accomplished in the face of such tragedy.

Check out footage from the Haitian's Flip Cameras below!

Editors Note: These short clips were filmed with Flip Camera models from 2009 and are not representative of the HD picture that is captured with the Flip UltraHD™ cameras currently on Digital Wish.

By Heather Chirtea
Executive Director, Digital Wish

It’s not always easy to find funding for your favorite technology products, but here
are a few ideas you may not have thought of.

Recycle Old Technology to Buy New Technology
The Recycle Forward program from Digital Wish allows you to earn money for new technology products by recycling your old cell phones, ink cartridges, and other technology items. Simply print signs, set up a drop-box, and print free shipping labels. Our local school raised $850 during a community drop day.

Your Training Budget Might Cover Hardware
Many schools have a surplus of training funds and a deficit of hardware funding. Talk to your hardware vendor and see if they will provide professional development together with the equipment you are purchasing. If so, you could ask your vendor to give you a quote on "training with hardware included.” Your technology purchases might suddenly qualify for training budgets. Be sure to check what is allowable with each grant or funding source.

Target the Copy Budget
Consider distributing your school newsletter by email to save money on copies.
Then, use the savings to purchase new technology. Also, calculate the cost
savings that will be made with a paperless system. The copy budget would
be dramatically reduced, in fact slashed, if all your students suddenly turned
in their work electronically. There's also a fantastic move to "go green,” save
trees, and reduce your school’s footprint by reducing your paper consumption.

Target the Textbook Budget
It would certainly take a major re-work of the school's curriculum to eliminate even a single textbook, but consider calculating the cost of textbook purchases versus computer purchases. You may be able to fund a computer for every student at a similar cost over a 4-year period. Computers have recently dropped dramatically in price.

Title 1
If your school has "school-wide" designation for Title 1, then it may be possible to use Title 1 funding for school-wide computer purchases. These regulations may vary by state.

Have Students Bring Computers From Home
If you are planning a one-computer-per-child initiative, do a quick survey to find
out how many students have computers at home that might be used in school.
Your school’s IT Coordinator will need to equip these home systems with the
school’s virus protection and internet filtering, but the cost may be appreciably
less than purchasing a brand new computer for every student.

Consider Refurbished Computers
Again, for a school considering the purchase of one-computer-per-child, you can often get three times more refurbished equipment for the same price as new computers. If you go this route, be sure to purchase the maximum extended warranty.

Fundraise on Digital Wish
Have your teachers make technology wish lists at www.digitalwish.org, then invite parents and community members to donate! The site also offers special educator-only discounts and grants, like a 2-for-1 promotion on Flip video cameras. Contributors can purchase items directly from a teacher’s technology wish list, or make any contribution large or small.

You may republish this article and the images (together) in your newsletter, as long as you include the following credit:

By Heather Chirtea, Executive Director, Digital Wish, [email protected]

Digital Wish is on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in American classrooms. Invite your teachers to make their technology wish lists at www.digitalwish.org, then invite parents and community members to donate.  Flip video cameras are available to US schools through a 2-for-1 matching program. Digital Wish has brought technology grants to over 22,000 classrooms and maintains a vibrant community of over 50,000 educators.