Talent Development
Businesswire | August 17, 2023
As part of its commitment to delivering an interactive, standards-aligned curriculum for K–12 students, Stride, Inc.is now offering more content options that feature music from award-winning producers, singers, and rappers.
Through a unique partnership with Doggyland—a 3D animated series created by world renowned superstar, songwriter, producer, and rapper Snoop Dogg—Stride has curated collections of video content, interactive lessons, and practice activities within its Stride Learning Hub: a digital teaching tool that allows educators to customize their respective courses with Stride assessments and other learning tools.
“At Stride, we understand the importance of meeting students where they are,” said Niyoka McCoy, Stride’s Chief Learning Officer. “As countless studies have shown, the art of music can improve students’ reading, comprehension, and memory skills. Through this partnership, we’re supporting students’ learning goals, keeping them engaged, and helping them have fun along the way.”
In each Doggyland lesson, the cast of vibrant characters is led by Bow Wizzle, voiced by Snoop Dogg, the main character who serves as the adult mentor to the rest of the cast. Students can engage in topics—related to letter and number recognition, sharing, colors, the importance of accepting others and practicing good habits, among other subjects—through the use of interactive tools such as drawing, drag and drop tools, voice recording, and offline activities.
“Snoop and I are so proud to partner with Stride on this exciting collection of innovative, family-friendly musically-based content,” said Claude Brooks, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Doggyland. “Through this partnership, even more students will learn the social, emotional, and cognitive skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.”
Stride educators can select resources from the Doggyland collection based on each learner’s specific needs and preferences. This includes video content, brain breaks, and full lessons.
About Stride, Inc.
At Stride, Inc. we are reimagining learning—where learning is lifelong, deeply personal, and prepares learners for tomorrow. The company has transformed millions of people’s teaching and learning experiences by providing innovative, high-quality, tech-enabled education solutions, curriculum, and programs directly to students, schools, the military, and enterprises in primary, secondary, and postsecondary settings. Stride is a premier provider of K-12 education for students, schools, and districts, including career learning services through middle and high school curriculum. For adult learners, Stride delivers professional skills training in healthcare and technology, as well as staffing and talent development for Fortune 500 companies. Stride has delivered millions of courses over the past decade and serves learners in all 50 states and more than 100 countries.
About Snoop Dogg
An Entertainment Industry Mogul and Entrepreneur, Snoop Dogg has reigned for nearly three decades as an unparalleled force who has raised the bar as a globally recognized innovator. Snoop Dogg is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, DJ, media personality, businessman and Icon. In addition to his extensive work in music, Snoop Dogg is a serial entrepreneur with endeavors in Web 3.0, tech, entertainment, lifestyle, global consumer brands and food/beverage industries.
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Online Education
PRnewswire | July 28, 2023
Instructure and Khan Academy announced a partnership that brings together Instructure's market-leading learning management system, Canvas, the anchor of the Instructure Learning Platform, and Khan Academy's AI-powered student tutor and teaching assistant, Khanmigo. This integrated solution will put the transformative power of generative AI into the hands of students and educators using the Canvas learning environment.
Generative AI represents an opportunity to enhance the role of technology in supporting educators and creating efficiencies in their day-to-day instruction. This new solution will harness this transformative moment by enabling educators with an integrated Khanmigo experience that supports human-driven, technology-enhanced essay feedback and grading, lesson planning and rubric creation. This solution is a large step forward in delivering personalization for each student while allowing busy educators to scale their excellence and impact in ways unimaginable a few short months ago.
For students, the use of generative AI presents significant opportunities and challenges. In a world filled with intelligent agents and easily-accessed answers, the need for tools that guide, enhance and support active learning is critical. Initially focusing on student writing, Instructure and Khan Academy aim to support students and their learning through Khanmigo's tutoring capabilities. By helping students use generative AI ethically, equitably, and with integrity, demonstrating an authentic work product becomes easy and clear.
"Generative AI, and tools like ChatGPT, have been a part of every conversation I have had this year with leaders, learners and instructors across our global education community," said Instructure CEO Steve Daly. "This partnership with Khan Academy and its deep expertise in generative AI will deliver a powerful solution for one of the world's largest education communities – delivering an intentional, secure and equitable experience that promotes impactful learning experiences for all."
Instructure's Learn Platform independent research team, along with Khan Academy's educational research team, will jointly design research for early adopters, to measure the impact of these tools on student outcomes - delivering insight into the efficacy of the tools and the utilization of AI to assist teachers and students in achieving their learning outcomes.
"Every educator we talk to is seeking ways to address students using ChatGPT to write school essays and do homework," said Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy. "How can classrooms use AI tools, while ensuring students develop critical thinking skills? We're teaming up with Instructure to solve this. We're using AI to show teachers not just the final essay, but how the student got there. So students will be supported in developing critical writing and thinking skills, while getting the benefit of AI designed for education. Khanmigo can also help with rubric creation and grading, saving teachers time. Students won't get answers, but they will get appropriate levels of support."
Instructure and Khan Academy will bring Canvas and Khanmigo together for a cohort of K-12 and Higher Ed design partners and early adopters during the 2024-2025 school year. Institutions interested in piloting this solution can sign up in the Emerging AI Marketplace.
ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform, comprised of its flagship product Canvas LMS and several products serving K-12 and higher education, supports tens of millions of educators and learners in over 100 countries worldwide. Learn more at www.instructure.com.
ABOUT KHAN ACADEMY
Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Our platforms include more than 70,000 practice problems, videos and articles that cover a range of preK-14 subjects. Khan Academy's mastery-based learning system allows students to learn key concepts at a pace that's right for them before moving on to more challenging content. Our award-winning free app for young children ages two to eight is Khan Academy Kids. We partner with more than 500 schools and districts across the country that serve students who are historically under-resourced. Districts use Khan Academy Districts and MAP Accelerator to help teachers differentiate instruction. Worldwide, more than 140 million registered learners have used Khan Academy in 190 countries and 51 languages.
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Talent Development
PR Newswire | August 29, 2023
Teaching Strategies, the country's leading developer of early childhood education solutions, has unveiled a first-of-its-kind curriculum tailored specifically to California's expanding universal transitional kindergarten program (TK). The program aims to build a bridge from preschool to kindergarten for close to 3 million children under the age of 5.
The new curriculum, which was built in close partnership with California educators, builds on the company's widely-recognized Creative Curriculum® but is aligned to California's early learning guidelines. The Creative Curriculum® for Transitional Kindergarten: California is paired with observational assessments that measure how well children are mastering academic and social skills, professional development for educators, and tools to keep families engaged in their child's learning–all in one, easy-to-use digital platform.
"With 90% of brain development occurring before kindergarten, TK is a critical stepping stone for many children. California is leading the way to ensure all learners have an age and developmentally appropriate learning environment, and we're proud to be helping more schools deliver on that vision," said Breeyn Mack, a former preschool teacher and Senior Vice President of Education at Teaching Strategies. "Building on our 45 year legacy of translating play-based learning research into practice, we've designed a comprehensive ecosystem of solutions— including curriculum, assessment, family engagement, and professional development—to help California educators meet each child's unique needs and prepare them with the skills needed for kindergarten."
California began expanding its free, optional, universal TK program last year by extending its cutoff date for eligibility. The state will continue to extend the date range until all 4-year-old children are eligible statewide.
The Creative Curriculum® for Transitional Kindergarten: California prepares children for kindergarten by balancing direct instruction with project-based learning that is critical to whole-child development. It provides progressions of learning and development that span the entirety of early childhood in order to individualize learning for each child, and it focuses time each day on building foundational reading, mathematics, and STEM skills.
In addition, the curriculum includes guidance and support tools for teachers to access in real time, including a suite of videos that model for teachers how to teach activities in their classrooms. It also connects families to their child's learning seamlessly through automated playlists of activities directly tied to daily classroom instruction.
Oakland Unified School District is among the growing number of school districts that have invested in the new curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year. Educators in Oakland also provided valuable feedback on the curriculum as it was being created.
"Transitional kindergarten is this magical time for children, so selecting a curriculum was important for our team," said Dr. Bernadette Pilar Zermeño, a PreK/TK English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement specialist for the Oakland Unified School District. "We created a very detailed rubric for evaluating a TK curriculum, and we decided it should be whole-child focused, honor the needs of teachers, engage their families, and provide equitable and inclusive experiences for both children and families. After evaluating four different early childhood curriculums, we selected The Creative Curriculum®."
About Teaching Strategies
Driven by research that shows a child's first eight years form a critical foundation for success in school and in life, Teaching Strategies has been an advocate for the early education community for over 40 years. Today, Teaching Strategies connects teachers, children and families to inspired teaching and learning experiences, informative data, stronger family partnerships, and professional learning through the leading early learning platform and resources. Its products, including the most widely-used curriculum and assessment solutions The Creative Curriculum® and GOLD®, are found in over 250,000 classrooms and more than 80 countries around the world and reach over 4 million children each year.
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