CONTINUING EDUCATION
PRnewswire | May 08, 2023
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, today announced its fourth annual Fix Your Content Day to highlight the need for more inclusive digital learning content. Anthology is inviting higher education institutions that use Anthology Ally to participate.
The objective of Fix Your Content Day is to engage colleges and universities globally to make meaningful change in the lives of all students and create more inclusive learning environments. By participating in the competition, higher ed institutions and instructors are doing their part to improve the accessibility of course materials and demonstrate their commitment to inclusivity.
"We look forward to participating in the 24-hour global competition each year, which challenges us to continue our journey in creating more inclusive digital learning content," said Coastal Pines Technical College Executive Vice President, Amanda Morris, the 2022 First Place Fix Your Content Day Global Winner. "While Fix Your Content Day is only once a year, our college and the Technical College System of Georgia collectively strives to improve the accessibility of course materials and serve as a champion for accessibility every day. Additionally, we enjoy the friendly competition with other colleges and encourage our faculty and staff to get involved. The challenge is a fun way to review our course content for quality and accessibility."
More than 1,500 institutions around the world use Anthology Ally to enhance digital content on their learning management systems (LMS). The result is better learning outcomes for students by improving the usability, readability, and quality of the digital materials in their courses.
"An estimated one billion people across the globe experience some sort of physical, visual, hearing, or cognitive disability. Employing solutions to create more accessible learning environments is imperative," said Anthology Chairman and CEO Jim Milton. "However, making content more accessible and providing alternative formats isn't just for a select group of students. Alternative formats generated by solutions like Anthology Ally provide greater opportunities for everyone to access the information they need in the way they want it. We are thrilled to see the enthusiasm of institutions and faculty participating in this global effort."
Anthology Ally empowers learners with the flexibility of choosing the most effective way to interact with digital content. By dynamically enhancing learning materials for student preferences and needs, it automatically provides alternative formats for course content, like audio files, translations, PDFs better formatted for mobile devices and more, all without manual intervention from the institution or instructor.
"While we've been actively supporting faculty and staff in centering inclusivity in their online courses for years, this will be our first year participating in Fix Your Content Day," said Dr. Hannah Digges Elliott, Senior Instructional Designer at Western Kentucky University. "We're excited about the opportunity to encourage a little competition among our faculty and staff and ultimately continue to highlight the importance of more accessible content."
"We're thrilled to be a part of such a global initiative that unites the higher education community around a friendly competition and highlights the critical need for accessible, inclusive, and equitable online learning environments," said Dr. Chris Campbell, Sub Dean of Learning Technology at Charles Sturt University in Australia.
"Fix Your Content Day highlights the importance of building equitable learning experiences," said Dr. Margaret Korosec, Dean of Online and Digital Education at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. "It's also a reminder to reflect on how learning experiences are received by students and how choice of access supports their requirements. Equitable access starts with our own awareness of what's possible and working to push the boundaries of what can be done in an accessible way."
About Anthology
Anthology offers the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale for education, recently combining with Blackboard to support more than 150 million users in 80 countries. With a mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community, Anthology helps learners, leaders and educators achieve their goals through over 60 SaaS products and services designed to advance learning.
Read More
ONLINE EDUCATION
PRnewswire | April 20, 2023
Promethean, a leading global education technology company, announced today that its parent company, NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited, has approved a plan and entered into the related agreements to spin off the Promethean group of entities into a separate company that will subsequently merge with Gravitas Education Holdings, Inc., a public company.
Following the merger, expected to be completed in Q3, Promethean will benefit from operating as a standalone company separate from NetDragon, listed on the NYSE, with a distinct board and management team of world-class leaders focused on driving shareholder value. The new holding company will be renamed to MYND.AI at the transaction's closing to reflect the new brand and the company's direction to pursue the transformation of artificial intelligence (AI) in education.
Merging with Gravitas Education Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GEHI) will enable the company to grow its global education business sustainably and further the development of new innovative technologies like AI. Promethean has expanded its product offerings to include software and AI in the past year. This merger is the next stage in the evolution of the company's goal to strengthen its global position in the market and remain the market leader in the U.S. and EMEA.
"The decision to spin off our overseas education business advances our ability to create value for customers and shareholders. Our business is at an exciting market inflection point as the world moves toward accelerating the application of AI in virtually all industries. We believe we are well ahead of the market in pushing forward the effective and practical use of AI in education, especially in the classroom," said Dr. Simon Leung, vice chairman of NetDragon and chairman of MYND.AI, upon closing of the transaction. "As we execute our plan to transform education with AI, this spinoff transaction will provide the right platform for the MYND.AI team to pursue our goal of becoming the dominant category leader in the AI-enabled classroom technology space. We are excited about our path ahead, and I want to thank our shareholders for their support as we embark on this journey together."
"As the classroom evolves, we continue to look to the future to provide innovative educational technology solutions that transform teaching and learning. We are excited to be at the forefront of integrating AI into our products that will add true education value, leveraging our investment in AI technology and our deep understanding of customer needs over the past 25 years," said Vin Riera, CEO at Promethean and MYND.AI, upon closing of the transaction. "This exciting new chapter will build on our mission to design learning and collaboration tools that deliver the most effective learning outcomes for teachers and students."
About Promethean
Promethean is a leading education technology company working to transform the way the world learns and collaborates. From our founding in Blackburn, England, more than 25 years ago to our global operations in 22 countries today, we've continued to explore, innovate, and inspire —designing learning and collaboration tools that are built for breakthroughs. Our award-winning interactive display, ActivPanel, and lesson delivery software, ActivInspire and ClassFlow, were designed to engage students, connect colleagues, and bring out the brilliance in everyone. With headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and offices worldwide, Promethean is a member of the NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) group of companies.
Read More
TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | April 10, 2023
Promethean, a leading global education technology company, has received the highest honors from The EdTech Awards 2023, which were established in 2010 to recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate the most exceptional innovators, leaders, and trendsetters in education technology. The company's newest interactive display, the ActivPanel 9, won a Cool Tool Award in the "New product or service" category. In addition, Merlyn Mind was given a Trendsetter Award in the "Product or service setting a trend" category for their artificial intelligence (AI) digital assistant that Promethean exclusively sells.
Powered by Promethean's patented ActivSync technology, the ActivPanel 9 responds to the evolving educational environment by breaking down barriers between devices, enabling increased connectivity and collaboration, and supporting hybrid and in-classroom learning. It provides busy, overworked teachers with the ability to create seamless workflows, design engaging and interactive lessons, customize their personal panel settings, and experience greater mobility. ActivPanel 9 was also named a Cool Tool Award finalist in the "Emerging technology solution" and "E-learning, blended, flipped solution or remote solution" categories.
Merlyn Mind is the creator of Merlyn, an AI digital assistant built specifically for the unique needs of the classroom. Merlyn enables teachers to use voice commands or a remote to control their devices, internet browsers, apps, and more. With lightning-fast responsiveness, Merlyn frees teachers to move around the classroom to interact with students, simplifies everyday classroom tasks, and improves overall efficiency and productivity. Promethean entered an exclusive distribution agreement with Merlyn Mind in early 2022.
"We're thrilled to receive this recognition from The EdTech Awards and to be placed among the best and brightest of this exciting field," said Jennifer Foreman, chief marketing officer. "Promethean is committed to providing educators around the world with groundbreaking technology tools that will transform their classrooms and help students achieve to their fullest potential. It's an honor to be celebrated for being one of edtech's most important innovators and trendsetters."
About Promethean
Promethean is a leading education technology company working to transform the way the world learns and collaborates. From our founding in Blackburn, England, more than 25 years ago to our global operations serving 126 countries today, we've continued to explore, innovate, and inspire—designing learning and collaboration tools that are built for breakthroughs. Our award-winning interactive display, ActivPanel, and lesson delivery software, ActivInspire and ClassFlow, were designed to engage students, connect colleagues, and bring out the brilliance in everyone. With headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and offices worldwide, Promethean is a subsidiary of the NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) group of companies.
Read More