NEO 2: THE BASICS GETTING STARTED

HARDWARE NEO 2 – You will have a classroom set (30) of these. full-size keyboard, runs on batteries, durable yet lightweight. can print, send, and receive information wirelessly has ports for connecting to a computer or printer. screen displays between two and six lines of text, depending on font size.

SOFTWARE NEO Share allows you to wirelessly send assignments from your computer to your students’ NEO 2s and to retrieve their work use to support writing, editing, and revision students engage in individualized and collaborative writing tasks you can create assignments and in-class activities access built-in writing lessons and sample rubrics

SOFTWARE (CONT.) 2Know! Toolbar a software program that facilitates formative assessment and classroom engagement by allowing for immediate, anonymous classroom response helps increase instructional interactivity by allowing you to gather data from your students and view or display their responses while you are in the middle of a lesson

SMARTAPPLETS Accelerated Reader - students can use this applet to take Accelerated Reader quizzes with NEO 2 AlphaWord Plus - used for word processing - students can use it to do everything from taking notes to writing compositions. Calculator - used for basic calculator functionality Control Panel - use this applet to configure settings on a single NEO 2 KeyWords - used to develop keyboarding proficiency MathFacts in a Flash (offline) - used for practice of math fact fluency when an Internet connection is not available MathFacts in a Flash RP – with our subscription to MathFacts in a Flash Renaissance Place, this applet is used to practice and test for automaticity with math facts Responder - This applet is used with the 2Know! Toolbar, AccelTest, and other third-party technology and software - also used to score Accelerated Math assignments with our subscription to Accelerated Math Renaissance Place Beamer. The beaming function allows students to wirelessly send text from one NEO 2 to another using infrared technology.

BUILT-IN INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT Write On! Lessons - a collection of writing lessons, literacy skills activities, and vocabulary strategies for use in grades (access, edit, and send Write On! lessons using NEO Share comes with an accompanying teacher guide) Sample Linked Files - written documents giving project guidelines, instructions, or rubrics to follow accessible to your students as read-only documents that are attached, or hyperlinked, to the active files in which they are working (22 sample linked files built into NEO Share and/or can create your own linked files) Keyboarding Resources - a host of keyboarding resources including visual posters showing finger zones, posture and wrist placement, and additional practice activities

ACTIVITY Using your NEO 2, search and experiment with the built-in software and SmartApplets. Share with your neighbor something that you have found that would be useful in your class.