Alphasmart NEO2 SmartApplet User manual

Fall 2008 Catalog
Keep Until February 2009
New with NEO 2:
lTurn written text
into spoken words
lShare and store
writing with
Google Docs™
lPractice math facts
lTake AR Quizzes
lUse short-answer
questions with
classroom response
Create Writing Excitement
With the Only Laptop Designed for Classrooms

2Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
“THE NEO 2s HELP THE STUDENTS LEARN
AT HIGHER LEVELS WHILE ASSISTING THE
TEACHER TO CREATE A NON-THREATENING,
TRUSTING, AND SUPPORTIVE CLASSROOM
ENVIRONMENT, WHERE STUDENTS CAN
TAKE RISKS WHEN COMPLETING A WRITING
ASSIGNMENT, FINISHING THEIR HOMEWORK,
OR ANSWERING A QUESTION.”
Brian J. Betze
Berlin Township School District
West Berlin, New Jersey
“THE NEO 2s HELP THE STUDENTS
LEARN AT HIGHER LEVELS WHILE
ASSISTING THE TEACHER TO CREATE
A NON-THREATENING, TRUSTING,
AND SUPPORTIVE CLASSROOM
ENVIRONMENT, WHERE STUDENTS
CAN TAKE RISKS WHEN COMPLETING
A WRITING ASSIGNMENT, FINISHING
THEIR HOMEWORK, OR ANSWERING
A QUESTION.”
Brian J. Betze
Berlin Township School District
West Berlin, New Jersey

3For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004
THE PERFECT TOOL FOR
WRITING PRACTICE NOW DOES
SO MUCH MORE!
Turn the page to learn more.
Bring More Excitement to Writing Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 6
When students get excited about writing, they write more and become better writers.
Transfer NEO 2 Files Wirelessly to Google Docs™. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.13
Now students can save their work and access it later from another NEO 2 or any
Web-connected computer.
Practice Math Facts on NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.13
NEO 2 and MathFacts in a Flash join together for daily math practice.
Take AR Quizzes on NEO 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.14
NEO 2 now runs Accelerated Reader Quizzes, helping you boost reading excitement in
your classroom.
Use NEO 2 as a Classroom Response System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.16
Quiz your class, get immediate feedback wirelessly, and adjust your lessons to focus on what
students need to learn.
Create and Conduct Assessments with NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.18
Easily create formal, personalized assessments students take on their NEOs and have the software
score them automatically.
Choose Your SmartOption Mobile Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 20
Find the NEO solution that will best meet the needs of you and your students.
Help Students With Special Needs Succeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 22
Discover how NEOs assist students with special learning or physical challenges.
Maximize Your NEO Implementation with Professional Development. . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24
Bring a custom seminar to your school, learn best practices over the Web, and choose from other
great training options.
Stock up on NEO Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 26
Carrying cases, printers, cables, batteries, and more—all the accessories you need for your NEOs.

4Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
HELP EVERY STUDENT BECOME AN
ENTHUSIASTIC, SUCCESSFUL WRITER!
If you’re familiar with AlphaSmart/Renaissance
Learning laptops, you know that students
absolutely love writing on them. These laptops
help generate the kind of writing excitement that
educators dream about. No wonder more than half
a million students use them!
Now, a NEO 2 SmartOption Mobile Lab filled with 30
NEO 2 laptops can help you build even greater
excitement for writing while expanding that excitement
into other subjects. You’ll be amazed at how many
ways you can use NEO 2s to bring greater success
throughout your entire curriculum.
FREE WEBINAR!
Are you considering NEO 2s
for your students? This is your
opportunity to see firsthand what
the all-new NEO 2s can really do.
These free Webinars are presented every
Tuesday (10:00 a.m. CT), Wednesday
(3:00 p.m. CT), and Thursday (9:00 a.m. CT).
Register for your free Webinar today at
www.renlearn.com/lp/NEO2webinar

5For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 5
ONLY NEO 2 IS DESIGNED
SPECIFICALLY FOR CLASSROOMS
While standard laptops are designed primarily
for business, NEO 2 is designed specifically for
use in the classroom. Check out the differences:
NEO 2’s
Advanced
Technology Other Laptops
Provide students with independent writing support
through 387 built-in writing lessons that jump-start students’
imaginations and fuel their writing. YES NO
Provide guided instruction by electronically linking
resources such as outlines, instructions, or Google Docs™*
to individual student assignments. YES NO
Teach students to self-assess their work by electronically
attaching customized rubrics to assignments, and helping
reinforce concepts, rules, and principles in their writing. YES NO
Encourage student collaboration and peer editing with
beaming and seamless connecting with Google Docs™.YES NO
Keep students focused and on task with no distractions from
Web surfing, gaming, instant messaging, and others. YES NO
Conduct on-the-fly assessments with a built-in classroom
response system. YES NO
Differentiate instruction using an integrated formative
assessment feature that is either student- or teacher-paced,
and platform independent. YES NO
Allow students to print wirelessly without the necessity of
a WiFi network connection. YES NO
Help students increase keyboarding speed and accuracy
with a built-in language-based keyboarding curriculum. YES NO
Take advantage of easy classroom management that
helps you send assignments wirelessly to all your students at
once, and receive them when completed. YES NO
Depend on NEO 2’s durable, rugged, yet lightweight design,
with no moving parts to break. YES NO
Make it through an entire school year—up to 700 hours of
use—on just one set of three AA batteries. YES NO
* Coming in 2009

6Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
NEO LAPTOPS BRING EXCITEMENT
TO WRITING PRACTICE
1Teacher Inputs Writing Assignment.
Using the SmartOption Mobile Lab, the
teacher downloads assignments to every
NEO instantly, providing personalized writing
practice to each student.
Teacher Meets with Students.
Teacher and students review assignments
in one-on-one discussions, further
individualizing writing instruction.
5
With NEO, students simply can’t wait
to tackle their writing projects and
assignments. Even those who once
avoided writing, now look forward
with eager anticipation to writing practice on their
NEOs. Teachers get excited too, because NEO
makes it easy for them to create, collect, edit,
and disseminate their students’ work.
Managing writing practice is now a
joy—with NEO.
“THE NEOs HAVE OPENED UP A WHOLE
NEW SET OF DYNAMICS WITH COOPERATIVE
LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM.”
Thomas Wilde
William Allen High School
Allentown, Pennsylvania

7For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 777777
Students Draft Their Assignments.
The students write their initial draft and can
beam documents back and forth between
NEOs for peer editing exercises or
collaborative writing assignments.
Students Edit Assignments.
Students work on revising their
assignments and reviewing those of
their peers. NEOs make editing a
breeze, with full cut/copy/paste
functions, thesaurus, spell check,
word search, and more.
3
2
Students Print Assignments.
Using their NEOs, students print
copies of their assignments for use
in teacher/student discussions.
4

8Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
Now you can incorporate NEO 2
laptops throughout your school—
and beyond—for across-the-
curriculum improvement by your
students. Here are just a few
of the many ways you can use
NEO 2s to accelerate learning.
Administrator’s Office
Close the digital gap with one affordable
solution—NEO 2.
Home Room
Teachers send daily announcements
to students’ NEO 2s. After reading the
announcements, students retrieve their
writing assignments from Google Docs™
to work on revisions.
Library
NEO 2 is ideal for use in
literature response and reader’s
workshop activities. In addition, NEO
2 runs Accelerated Reader Quizzes
which eliminates waiting lines at the
computer and lowers your overall
cost of implementing AR.
Keyboarding
Students log on to their KeyWords
accounts to practice improving
their keyboarding and
writing skills.
Science
Students use their NEO 2s
to record observations during a science
experiment. Afterward, they take an AccelTest
quiz on their NEO 2s and submit their
answers wirelessly to the teacher’s
computer for automatic grading.
Outside
NEO 2 is durable, weighs just
2 lbs., and runs up to 700 hours
on just three AA batteries. All of
these make it ideal for students
to use anytime, anywhere—
even outside.
Resource Center
Students visit the resource center for a
variety of writing assignments. NEO’s
new Text2Speech* SmartApplet and
optional Co:Writer®SmartApplet
help struggling writers improve the
quantity and quality of their writing.
*Available early 2009.
IT Personnel
NEO 2s are easy to use and
require no IT support, so
your IT staff can focus on
other key tasks.
ONLY NEO 2 IS DESIGNED FOR USE
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY—ACROSS THE
CURRICULUM

9For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 9
Math
NEO 2’s built-in
AccelTest, 2Know! Toolbar, and
compatibility with MathFacts in
a Flash support direct instruction
and determine if students are
understanding objectives
being taught.
Social Studies
Copy and paste content from
a Web site and send it to
NEO 2s. Students use the content and
the built-in Timeline Rubric to create a
timeline of a historical event. Later, the
teacher can project a map and use the
2Know! Toolbar to ensure
students understood the
geography lesson.
English/
Language Arts
Teachers send a Write On!
lesson to students’
NEO 2s. Students work on
the assignment and save their
drafts to Google Docs™for
remote access.
NEO LAPTOPS
AND RESPONSE
TO INTERVENTION
Now you can also use NEOs
for your Response to
Intervention approach
Response to Intervention (RTI) is designed to
ensure all students receive high-quality instruction
and those who are struggling receive the help
needed to succeed. Through progress monitoring
and data-driven decision making, an RTI
framework establishes a system of interventions
matched to student needs that are closely
monitored to determine which students are being
helped and which need more intensive support.
NEO laptops fit well into a Response-to-
Intervention framework because they provide the
personalized practice and progress monitoring
students and educators need to benefit from the
key ideals of RTI:
lEvidence-based programs to support
high-quality instruction
lTargeted interventions to help struggling
students catch up to their peers
lProgress-monitoring information to drive
data-driven decision making
lSupport—including family involvement—to
make sure every student experiences
success
Due to reauthorization of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), states are
permitted to use 15% of special education funds,
in addition to Title I funds, to support schoolwide
RTI plans.
NEO laptops, customer support, and ongoing
professional development opportunities mesh
with—and enhance—the goals of RTI and help
you excel in your RTI initiatives.

10 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
MathFacts in a Flash
capability lets students
practice mental math skills
at their own pace.
Google Docs™*
seamless connecting
allows students and
teachers to access, edit,
and share documents—
wirelessly!
Extraordinary battery
life allows students to
write for up to 700 hours
on a single set of
AA batteries.
Full-size keyboard
enables proper keyboard
training for students
of all ages.
NEO 1 and NEO 2
NEO 2 only
Text2Speech*
SmartApplet helps
students of all abilities
succeed in classes across
the curriculum.
* Available early 2009.
Note: A Renaissance Receiver is required to use NEO 2’s wireless functions.
THE PERFECT CLASSROOM TOOL
While NEO 1s are the perfect solution for writing
and keyboarding, NEO 2s bring the benefits of
one-to-one computing into virtually any subject.

11For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 1111
AR
quizzing capability
allows students to take
Accelerated Reader
Quizzes on their NEO 2s.
Classroom
response functionality
lets teachers ask true/false,
yes/no, numeric, multiple
choice, and even short
answer questions to
inform instruction.
Wireless printing
enables students to
print documents from
anywhere within range
of the receiver.
Large LCD screen
displays from 2 to 6 lines
of text per screen to meet
the display needs
of all writers.
Instant on/off
with built-in autosave
and automatic shutdown
eliminates lost work and
saves battery life.
NEO 2 laptop pictured
is actual size!

12 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
ONLY NEO IS PRACTICAL ENOUGH
FOR TODAY’S WRITING CLASSROOMS
With NEO, it’s possible for your students to
practice their writing skills anywhere, anytime.
There are no complicated programs to learn,
so your students just press the instant on/off
button and go. Why is NEO perfect for writing?
It supports daily writing practice by putting the
right technology into the hands of every student. It
helps students write more—and write better. And it
allows students to submit their work electronically.
This makes it easier for teachers to evaluate
their students’ work and to provide personalized
feedback on a one-to-one basis.
AlphaWord Plus
Your students will easily learn their way around NEO’s
built-in AlphaWord Plus word processor. The intuitive
program will have your students expertly editing and
revising their drafts with cut, copy, and paste functions,
correcting spelling errors with the built-in spell check
function, and expanding their vocabulary with the
built-in thesaurus.
Linked Files
Teachers can electronically attach rubrics, checklists,
Web page content, and more to writing assignments and
send them to students’ NEOs. With just a touch of the
keys, students can display the linked file while working
on their assignment. What an easy and efficient way to
support your students during the writing process!
Write On! Lessons
From “blank page syndrome” to “I don’t know how to
end this,” student complaints about assignments can be
counteracted when you direct them to Write On!—NEO’s
built-in writing lessons. It helps students break through
their mental blocks and expand their thought patterns by
providing 387 writing lessons—each designed to assist
elementary, middle, and high school students through
specific aspects of their writing.
KeyWords
You’ll build excitement for learning when you augment
your keyboarding instruction by encouraging your
students to develop their keyboarding skills using NEO’s
KeyWords—the built-in keyboarding curriculum that turns
“hunt and peck” typists into “think and write” writers—fast!
By integrating KeyWords with a Renaissance Place
subscription, you can access KeyWords progress
reports online, combine this information with data from
other Renaissance Place programs, and make informed
decisions that maximize your students’ success.

13For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 13
New Seamless Connection Between NEO 2 and Google Docs™
Increases Writing Excitement
NEO 2 works easily with the Google Docs™, Google’s
document, presentation, and spreadsheet program,
allowing students and teachers to access, store,
edit, and share documents—wirelessly! Students
and teachers can take advantage of NEO 2’s new
wireless file transfer feature by accessing documents
in Google Docs™, which facilitates teacher feedback
to students and makes teacher review and comment
easy. Students can also save their NEO 2 work
and continue working on it from a different NEO 2,
the computer lab, a home computer, or any Web-
enabled computer. This encourages collaboration
and increases writing practice.
This FREE update will be available in early 2009!
Subscribe to NEO News for
the latest product information:
www.renlearn.com/neo/
Conduct MathFacts in a Flash
Practice on NEO 2!
Students’ practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division—and other mental math skills—can be
personalized even more when you conduct such practice
on your classroom NEO 2s. Using NEO 2s with MathFacts
in a Flash means every student can
practice at their own pace of learning from
their own desk—or anywhere else you
choose—without interruption.
Available
March
2009!
Teachers use the Google Docs™Web site to provide feedback on
student writing, collaborate with students, and distribute writing
assignments to students.
* Requires MathFacts in a Flash Renaissance Place.

14 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
Research has shown that
Accelerated Reader software,
the most popular and successful
reading software of all time,
dramatically accelerates reading growth
in K–12 classrooms. Now, Accelerated
Reader Quizzes run on NEO 2s, which gives
educators a new, cost-effective way to assess
students’ daily reading practice as soon as
they finish a book.
THE PERFECT COMBINATION FOR
DAILY READING PRACTICE
“THE MAIN REASON WE PURCHASED
NEO 2s WAS TO ALLOW OUR
STUDENTS TO TAKE ACCELERATED
READER QUIZZES . . . THIS FREES
UP OUR COMPUTER LABS AND
CLASSROOM COMPUTERS FOR
OTHER THINGS.”
Brian Betze, Superintendent
Berlin Township School District
West Berlin, New Jersey

15For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 1515
Set time
aside for
daily reading
practice.
When finished,
the TOPS
report is sent
wirelessly to
the printer. Students log
in and answer
Accelerated
Reader Quiz
questions.
Lower the overall cost of Accelerated Reader with NEO 2
With NEO 2s, your students can take Accelerated
Reader Quizzes* wirelessly right from their desks.
That means you won’t have to maintain expensive
desktop computers for this purpose.
With such quizzing accessibility, your students
will have more time for reading more books and
taking more AR Quizzes, thereby improving their
reading skills in the process. That makes AR
quizzing fun for every student, eliminating
computer wait time and resulting in even more
opportunities for reading practice.
It also lowers the overall cost of implementing
Accelerated Reader because you can place a
SmartOption Mobile Lab loaded with 30 NEO 2s in
your classroom for the price of 10 standard laptops.
*Requires Accelerated Reader Renaissance Place v7.5.
It’s as Easy as
1-2-3...
3
2
1

16 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
ONLY NEO 2 HELPS YOU CREATE,
ADMINISTER, AND EVALUATE
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
Response systems are being used
more than ever. NEO 2 does all
the things you’d expect from a
conventional response system—then
goes way beyond—with AR quizzing, formative
assessments, and numerous other features that
make it perfect for so many classroom activities.
You ask questions, your
students respond
NEO 2 includes 2Know! classroom response system
functionality, giving teachers the added flexibility
to conduct spontaneous or pre-planned quizzing.
The assessment results help you determine which
students comprehend the lessons you’re teaching,
and which ones may need a bit of extra attention
from you to keep up with their peers.
Quiz variety keeps students attentive
Teachers can ask multiple choice, true/false, yes/no,
short answer, and numeric questions, which can be
generated and distributed using pre-printed tests,
end-of-chapter summaries, saved on-screen
test files, or on-the-fly teacher queries. Students
respond immediately using their NEO 2s just like
a handheld responder.
AccelTest questions
supplement quizzing
NEO 2 SmartOption Mobile Labs come with
AccelTest, offering teachers access to 8,000
sample questions to easily build student-paced or
teacher-paced formal assessments. AccelTest also
includes a reporting feature to help you quickly and
easily differentiate instruction for your students.
“I CAN VERY EASILY SAY TO MY
SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDY
TEACHERS, AND EVEN MY MATH
TEACHERS . . . ‘YOU CAN USE [NEO 2]
HERE, RIGHT IN THE CLASSROOM.’ ”
Leslie Koller, Principal
Eisenhower Middle School
West Berlin, New Jersey

17For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 1717
Only NEO 2 helps you easily differentiate
instruction using the 2Know! Toolbar
The 2Know! Toolbar allows teachers to interact
with students while controlling the software from
anywhere in the classroom. As students answer
questions on their NEO 2s, the toolbar quickly tallies
their responses and enables teachers to display
those responses using a projector, interactive
whiteboard, or any standard classroom computer.
With this information in hand, teachers can easily
gauge students’ understanding of key material and
provide additional instruction if necessary.
Only NEO 2 Features Short-Answer Capability
Data is available in several easy-to-read graphical
formats so teachers can get a visual representation of
how well students understand what they are teaching.
NEO 2 is the only classroom response system
that features a full-sized keyboard and the
ability for students to respond to short-answer
questions. Now you can question students in
multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, numeric-
response, and short-answer formats, and have
their responses automatically scored!
Using AccelTest software (see page 18), the teacher in
this example wrote a short-answer question about
“forgotten” wars. The student’s response,
“The War of 1812,” will be transmitted wirelessly
to the teacher’s computer from the NEO 2.

18 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
Wireless Communication
AccelTest allows you to create and send questions
and answer choices that you can personalize
for each one of your students. The questions
are viewed and responded to by students using
their NEO 2 keyboards, eliminating the need for
paper, projector, or television. NEO 2’s classroom
response functionality works in combination with a
Renaissance Receiver, supporting wireless teacher-
to-student-to-teacher communication.
Unlimited Quizzing
Using AccelTest, you can create
and store a nearly endless supply
of reusable quizzes, tests, and
other exercises to assess students’
performance in any subject, in
conjunction with any textbook. Real-time scoring of
multiple-choice, ranking, true/false, yes/no, short
answer, and numeric response questions enables
educators to know immediately how well students are
learning, provide personalized instruction, and make
teaching more effective.
Every NEO 2 laptop includes the
Responder SmartApplet that provides
smooth integration with AccelTest
software. Teachers load the AccelTest
software onto their classroom computer
(Windows®or Macintosh®) and then use
the program to set up classes, assign
work to individual students, and create more
formal assessments—such as polling
questions, quizzes, tests, assignments, and
instructional tools.
Test Creation, Scoring, and Gradebook Software
ACCELTEST SOFTWARE HELPS
YOU EASILY CREATE FORMAL,
PERSONALIZED ASSESSMENTS
NEO 2
now supports
short-answer
questions.

19For ordering or funding information, call toll free: [phone],ref. #13004 19
AccelTest makes it easy to set up quizzes, tests,
and other exercises in just minutes. Quiz questions
can be edited or saved and used again.
Save time, reduce paperwork, and accelerate learning!
Eliminate Hand Scoring
With AccelTest, you’ll save time by automating
assessment scoring and by having results go
immediately to the gradebook. As a result, you’ll
spend less time on paperwork and record-keeping
tasks and more time doing what you love—teaching!
As students enter answers, results are computed
and saved automatically. At a glance you can see
how your class performed.
You can assess a single student or an entire class,
and the results can be viewed instantly. You can
also see precisely which students have responded.

20 Visit us online: www.renlearn.com/neocatalog/neo Toll-Free Fax [phone]
BRING TECHNOLOGY TO STUDENTS
AT THE RIGHT TEACHABLE MOMENT
SmartOption Mobile Lab
The SmartOption Mobile Lab provides an
all-in-one solution for transforming any
classroom into a fully functional computer lab.
Once students retrieve their NEOs from the
Mobile Lab, they can begin working instantly.
This increases the time they are able to spend
on task and makes practice time more effective.
Each Mobile Lab includes the AlphaSmart
Manager software and AlphaHub, which give
you the ability to conveniently configure and
manage all 30 laptops at once. This saves
you time when you send assignments to your
students, retrieve their work, install software,
configure settings, and more—all with just a few
clicks of the mouse on your desktop computer.
Plus, moving the SmartOption Mobile Lab
between classrooms is easy—the lab is ready
to go anywhere, anytime.
SAVE $900
Order NEO 2 Training with a Mobile Lab bundle
and save $900. Call [phone] for details!
NEO 1 and NEO 2 Smart Option
Mobile Labs Include:
- 30 NEO 1 or NEO 2 units preinstalled with:
 •AlphaWordPlusSmartAppletsoftware
 •BeamerSmartAppletsoftware
 •AlphaQuizSmartAppletsoftware(NEO1only)
 •KeyWordsKeyboardingcurriculum
- 1 SmartOption Lab Cart
 (includesAlphaHubandcabling)
- AlphaSmart Manager software
- Keyboarding wall charts
- USBIRpods
- NEO Training CD
- User’s Guides
- USBcables
- 30 sets of AA batteries
NEO 2 Labs
also Include:
- AccelTest Software
- Renaissance Receiver
- 2Know! Toolbar
- And much more!
“CHILDREN BENEFIT TREMENDOUSLY
FROM THIS TOOL. IT TAKES THE
DRUDGERY OUT OF WRITING TASKS
AND ENABLES THEM TO WRITE
MORE EFFECTIVELY.”
Susan McCloskey
Palm Terrace Elementary
Daytona Beach, Florida