Canvastic Version 3.5 is the fantastic student-focused graphics, text and media publishing tool for K-8. Students can write, create images, and present, all in one interface.
Canvastic is flexible & customizable and that makes it scalable to all grade levels. The flexibility to choose the appropriate set of features and choices is the signature feature of the program. Five year olds can create on a canvas with just a paint brush, but a student in sixth grade has a full set of bitmap and vector graphics, word processing tools and media import functions.
Why is Canvastic the best choice to be your Media Publishing Tool?
Publishing the student’s content for print or the screen is natural. Canvastic utilizes easy to understand tools and options with a clear, clean interface. Industry standard tools prepare students for professional applications. Canvastic was created to satisfy teacher and student needs that other programs do not address.
Competitor programs are really just entertaining toys that are marketed to schools as a publishing software tool. The students love the toys, but never get enough work done.
Professional applications are often used in schools for publishing, but these titles were designed for adults in the business world, so students can easily become confused.
Technology teachers are often tired of educational software that turns their labs into “playtime” by making every feature, option and tool a toy or a game. They want to address standards, not monitor recess.
Canvastic does not have the "toy" features that many elementary applications include. It is all business, but scaled down to the correct level for the student using it. Choices and functions are designed to be appropriate for school use.
Canvastic is easy to use and businesslike. It doesn’t waste the user’s time and it doesn’t waste the teacher’s time.
Use Canvastic to create:
Books, flyers, reports, slide shows, QuickTime movies, audio Podcasts, diagrams, graphs, art, animations, greeting cards, brochures, designs, drawings, maps, letters, poems, posters, stories, and more.
Scalable to any grade level:
Canvastic looks and works in a different manner depending upon who is using it. Kindergarten students are given a brush, colors and a canvas because that is all they need for publishing. Middle school students get a complete set of bitmap and vector graphics and text tools because they can use them. And every variation in between is customizable.
Who uses Canvastic?
Students and teachers are authors and publishers. In order to meet the district and state standards, they must often write, graphically show and present information to many different groups and in many different ways. They write stories, sentences, descriptions, and reports. They draw depictions, maps, diagrams and graphs. They present their knowledge with pictures, text and video. Canvastic is a great tool for doing all of these, for any curriculum desired.
Students that use Canvastic learn:
• Word Processing Skills
• Digital Graphics Skills
• Principles of Design and Page Layout
• Presentation Skills
• To Express their Creativity in Published Documents
• To Integrate any Curriculum into the Publishing Process
• To Export their Work to Common File Formats for Sharing
OS – fully supports the current Operating Systems
• Macintosh OS X Native (10.3+, including Intel, 10.4 & 10.5)
• Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 Release Candidate
Networkable Administration of the Scalable Interfaces
While Canvastic is installed locally as most graphics rich programs are, the administration of the scalable interfaces can easily be administered over the network, with the preferences stored on the network server. With the adjustment of just one file, the Canvastic environment for students all over the school can be changed. Or, any workstation can be individually customized. Students can save their work to network servers or locally.
Files are compatible with your other applications
While editable Canvastic documents are saved in a proprietary format, they can be exported in common image formats (jpg, png, bmp). This allows other applications to open and edit Canvastic documents. Canvastic can also easily import files from other applications. And slide show presentations can be exported as QuickTime movie files!
Reviews and Endorsements
MacLife
Rated: “GREAT”
“Canvastic offers kids a leg up in future careers as marketers or digital designers.”
“Devoid of novelty "kid features," Canvastic offers serious functionality.”
“Clean interface can be customized for varying skill/age levels. Advanced graphics functionality without a huge learning curve. Universal binary.”
Multimedia and Internet @ Schools
Rated: “4 Stars” (out of 5)
“Highly Recommended”
“Canvastic is a good solution to some of the problems found in working with K-8 children and computers. Many of the available programs are very complicated and, by the time students learn how to use them, there is often little time left to do anything. In addition, many similar programs contain features that kids love, such as amusing tools and funny sound effects, but these actually distract young learners from staying on task, especially in a lab situation.”
“The tools found in Canvastic are the same as those found in adult programs, and since the tools do basically the same thing, this program is far better at preparing students for the tools they will be using as adults.”
“Overall, Canvastic presents a simpler graphic/text publishing program that students can learn to use faster, with fewer distractions, and that will lead to projects that are produced more rapidly.”
“The basic no-frills tools and options, along with the ability to easily modify choices for various age levels, result in a program that makes creating and completing projects easier than with many similar programs. “
About.com: Desktop Publishing
Rated: “4.5 Stars” (out of 5)
“Even basic desktop publishing programs can be too complex for children. And software designed for kids younger than high school age are generally nothing more than drawing or paint programs designed for computerized finger-painting rather than doing any real publishing. Canvastic bills itself as "A Tool, Not a Toy." And it delivers.”
Macworld UK
“Billed as a ‘publishing tool’ Canvastic is primarily a drawing program. With both bitmap and vector features, it’s aimed at school-age children. As such it can’t compete with Photoshop or even similarly specified applications such as EazyDraw, but it does offer something they don’t; a customisable interface that targets different ages ranges.”
Features and Benefits
• Bitmap (painted) and Vector (object) Graphics Tools
• Text boxes and Word Processing Objects
• Slide Show Presentations
• Configurable Interfaces – Unlimited – Scales from Pre-K to Advanced
• Appropriate Tool and Function Choices for the Elementary User
• Audio Recording, Import, Auto Play, and iTunes Integration
• Hundreds of Templates for Quick Activities that Address Standards
• Easy Installation and Administration
• Exports to common Formats
• Imports common Image and Audio Files
|
