Press Release: Canvastic Supports the Stimulus Package with Large Discounts

Lafayette, CO April 14, 2009 – Canvastic LLC announces support for the educational technology funding included in the nation’s current stimulus legislation. Canvastic will apply a 50% discount to any purchases made, in any part, with the stimulus package funding. According to eSchool News, April 2009, the stimulus funding is being delivered to school districts nationwide this month. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) will receive $12.5 billion. EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) will receive $270 million. There is other money included for education in the bill however Canvastic is educational software that uniquely supports the vision behind these two specific initiatives.

IDEA is all about supporting individuals with disabilities. Students with different needs require tools that are flexible and adaptive. Canvastic was designed from the ground up to support the idea of Universal Design as an assistive tool in the area of the school publishing process. That is, it can be configured to work with students at all levels of abilities from a pre-school level to advanced. Called “Grows with the user”, this is the signature feature Canvastic. Students and teachers from pre-K to grade 12 use it in an unlimited number of configurations.

EETT is all about integrating 21st century technical tools into educational activities and learning styles today. Technology of all types can enhance any learning process but it is especially well suited for writing, presenting, illustrating, and documenting that learning. Too often our children are forced to use 20th or even 19th century tools in the creation process in school. The stimulus funding could be the catapult for creating a new paradigm in creative activities at school. Canvastic is a publishing powerhouse for students. Learners use it to write, draw, present, and publish. They incorporate images, photographs, and audio into authentic modern documents that enhance and support the learning journey. Content created is printed, posted online, and experienced as multi-media presentations.

The 50% discount on any purchases made, in any part, with the stimulus package funding translates into a school being able to install it on every computer for less than $500. The cost to license it for the school and the students’ homes is less than $1000. States, districts, and other educational support organizations are welcome to apply.

Steve Gandy, a Canvastic LLC, principal said, “We are very pleased to announce this program. Many, many schools have no idea that there are other choices for publishing with their students. They gave up looking years ago because the powers that be never really adapted the toy-like applications for real school use. Schools that are going to use this funding to change how technology is used in the classroom will need tools like Canvastic to do it. Ubiquitous computing is coming to our students and I don’t believe that we want them publishing with office suites designed for business or toys created for entertainment.”

The application process for this funding is simple and quick. Contact Canvastic LLC for details.
Canvastic LLC
12635 Flagg Drive
Suite 101
Lafayette, CO 80026
info@canvastic.com
877-579-8207

Canvastic is the graphics and text publishing software for students and teachers in K-8. It features a clear on-screen display making it easy to use for everyone. It can be customized for users of different ages. It really grows with the user. Canvastic is a real tool for school, not a toy. There are no time wasting features or excessive options. You can download a demonstration copy at www.canvastic.com. Canvastic also hosts the new Canvastic DOT NET, a free, online version that requires no installation.

About Canvastic LLC
Canvastic LLC is the coming together of two companies to develop and market the software Canvastic. FlatTop Technology, Inc. (FlatTopTechnology.com ) builds custom software applications for businesses in a wide variety of industries and was the lead technical developer of the Canvastic software. TeachTech Inc. (TeachTechColorado.com ) is a consulting firm founded by Steve Gandy.Full product information is available at: Canvastic.com.


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Kaua'i Photos are posted

New photos from the Kaua'i trip are posted:

http://stevegandy.com/photography/archives/kauai2009/index.html

Obama uses the drives I recommend...

It was interesting to stumble upon this photo of President Obama with some of his technology. Note the Mac and the backup drives. The drives appear to be the Mercury On-The-Go drives from Other World Computing that I have recommended for years.

Drop In Digital Photo Class at Mojo Coffeehouse

Thanks to everyone that came by. I really had a great time and hope you did too. We may have enough for the class on Feb 21 or Mar 21. Be sure to let me know soon if interested.

Here are a few links the books we were referring to, just about everything by Peterson is good.

Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure
Bryan Peterson's Learning to See Creatively
Bryan Peterson's Understanding Shutter Speed

I'll add more later.

My links:
stevegandy.com/photography
teachtechcolorado.com
canvastic.com
canvastic.net

Picasa for Mac!

Hey, Google has posted a beta of the photo processing program for Mac. Try it out. I routinely use it with my beginner Windows clientst but it may challenge iPhoto for Mac users. We'll see. One nice feature is the ability to post to your Blogger.com blog directly from the program. I prepared this posting with that feature, note the little Picasa icon at the bottom.

http://picasa.google.com/mac