Talent Development
Businesswire | August 21, 2023
Age of Learning, leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learning Academy, today announced the launch of Homeschool+™, a new program that provides home educators with resources and tools to guide their child’s education and inspire a lifelong love of learning. Developed for children ages 4-8, Homeschool+ offers a comprehensive curriculum, adaptive math and reading learning programs, and robust home educator tools for planning lessons and tracking progress, customizable to meet each family’s unique homeschooling needs.
The Homeschool+ curriculum features Age of Learning’s research-validated digital learning solutions My Math Academy®, and My Reading Academy™. Based on well-established principles of learning science research, these programs enable young children to master essential math concepts and build foundational literacy skills. They help accelerate learning by identifying each child’s strengths and growth opportunities, then dynamically adapting the selection and sequence of learning experiences to meet each child’s needs.
In addition to math and reading, Homeschool+ offers art, science, social studies, language arts, music, and Spanish. These additional courses, all designed by education experts, feature content from ABCmouse’s award-winning, research-validated curriculum, augmented by lesson plans that take full advantage of the learning opportunities of the home environment. Home educators can select from a broad variety of lessons to address their children’s interests, each one offering online and offline learning activities.
“Age of Learning spent more than a decade developing research-based programs that engage children and accelerate learning,” said Cailin Sandvig, Vice President of Marketing, Homeschool Division, Age of Learning. “Designing a platform that meets the specific needs of home educators is an important next step in addressing the educational needs of all children. Homeschool+ brings together Age of Learning’s proven programs to deliver effective and engaging homeschool experiences for every family.”
In addition to its curriculum, Homeschool+ supports home educators with tools that enable them to effectively manage their child's learning journey while providing insights into their child's progress. This includes a Lesson Planner that gives educators complete control of their child’s program, with options to create custom lessons to complement their child's interests and needs, to reassign incomplete lessons, and to repeat lessons for extra review.
Homeschool+ also features a Progress Tracker with individualized dashboards that include detailed information about each student’s progress. The math and reading dashboards provide insights on each child's progress, including time spent, skill mastery, and areas of struggle. The Arts, Sciences & General Knowledge Dashboard tracks lesson progress and completed activities.
Prior to release, Homeschool+ was extensively tested with veteran homeschooling families, earning very positive reviews. As one parent put it, “It was just so simple. It didn't just fit in our day, it made our day easier. And there is so much there that he's learning that I want to teach him.”
About Age of Learning
Age of Learningis the leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning. The company’s research-based digital education programs have been developed by an experienced team of education experts and have proven efficacy in increasing children’s learning gains. Age of Learning’s flagship product, ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, is an award-winning comprehensive curriculum for children. The company’s school solutions programs include My Math Academy®, an adaptive, personalized program proven to significantly accelerate math learning outcomes, and My Reading Academy™, an adaptive program designed to help young learners build a foundation for reading comprehension and literacy and become fluent readers. With over 11 billion learning activities completed by more than 50 million children worldwide, Age of Learning is a global leader in efforts to advance equity, access, and opportunity for all children.
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Corporate Education and Training
Send2Press News wire | July 11, 2023
Edupoint® Educational Systems announced today that Bethlehem Area School District (BASD) has selected the company’s industry-leading Synergy® Student Education Platform for its K 12 student data management needs. The district’s solution will include Synergy Student Information System, Synergy Online Registration, Synergy MTSS, and Synergy Special Education, and will be hosted in the Synergy AWS Cloud environment. BASD serves over 13,300 students across 22 schools in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
Bethlehem district leadership assembled a team to explore current industry offerings and evaluate their ability to offer improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Over a period of six months, 67 participants representing a wide variety of roles at all levels of the organization – including secretaries, teachers, principals, assistant principals, and applications specialists, in addition to the district technology team – contributed feedback on the solutions under consideration.
After extensive evaluation, including hosting week-long software demonstrations with three finalists, the team selected Synergy based on a number of key factors, including the following:
• Integrated student information, special education, and MTSS management
• Streamlining of special education and MTSS processes
• Robust query, reporting, and decision support tools
• Timely, reliable data • Federal and state reporting capabilities
• An established and growing presence in Pennsylvania
The district also sought a vendor with a long-term commitment to building and supporting its solutions in-house – a criterion that only Edupoint was able to meet.
“We didn’t want multiple separate systems,” said Marie Bachman, Chief Technology Officer at BASD. “We wanted to give our teachers an improved user experience, greater access to students’ special education information, and a better system for MTSS – all of which will enhance their ability to support students. Teachers are excited about these modules, which work together and are built right into the interface that they will already be using for everyday tasks.”
With Synergy, Bethlehem Area School District is getting a student data management system that will aid in eliminating unnecessary data-entry and integration busywork so stakeholders can focus their time on higher priorities, including supporting students and improving learning outcomes,” said Rob Wilson, Edupoint’s President and Chief Innovation Officer. “The seamless integration built into Synergy Education Platform will make a significant contribution, as well, to the district’s efforts to improve data governance. We are pleased to welcome BASD aboard as an Edupoint partner.
About Edupoint Educational Systems
For over 35 years, the leadership of Edupoint Educational Systems has provided well-designed, technologically advanced student data management systems that empower K-12 stakeholders to improve student achievement. Synergy Education Platform by Edupoint is an industry-leading student data management ecosystem built to fit the way educators already work. Synergy is unique among K-12 student data management solutions in providing an array of role-based mobile apps designed to give all stakeholders access to the tools they need when and where they need them. More than 5.5 million students use Synergy in 22 states.
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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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