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PRP is pleased to announce that many of our clients were featured products in Tech & Learning's August 2014 issue. Read what they had to say about our clients below or check out the full story at techlearning.com.
Software & Online
Copia and the Utah OER Program
(www.copia.edu.com)
Copia Interactive, creators of the digital learning platform Copia, is partnering with Utah’s State Office of Education to pilot a digitally delivered platform for a statewide Open Educational Resources (OER) program focused on state-created science content. The OER program includes standard-aligned science content for grades 3-12, and will initially enable the delivery of Utah’s science content for middle school within an environment that offers a library of content sources from primary and supplementary providers along with interactive digital classroom resources.
Habits of Mind Instructional Animations
(www.habitsofmind.org)
The Institute for Habits of Mind and WonderGrove Learn have launched a series of instructional animations based on the 16 Habits of Mind, developed by Drs. Art Costa and Bena Kallick. The teaching and parenting tool emphasizes creative and critical thinking for success in school and life. The Habits of Mind Instructional Animations aim to help children build character and dispositions for learning. Each instructional animation includes 20 related extension lessons that teachers, educators, and parents can use to reinforce the Habits of Mind. All materials are available in both English and Spanish.
Hooda Math Manipulatives
(www.hoodamath.com)
Hooda Math has released five online math manipulatives that are compatible with any device. Base Ten Blocks, Number Line Integer Addition, Hundreds Chart, Algebra Tiles, and Algebra Balance Equations are all built using HTML5 code, so students can access the free manipulatives on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. The math manipulatives currently available on Hooda Math’s Web site cover every grade level in K-12 and can help students prepare for the transition to Common Core State Standards. The company plans to release a full set of math manipulatives by the start of the 2014-15 school year.
myON Literacy Tools
(www.myon.com)
myON is expanding its digital literacy platform to include a set of tools to further personalize the reading experience for students, while improving instructional capabilities for teachers. These literacy tools support myON’s existing digital collection of over 7,000 digital books with multimedia resources. The first set of literacy tools to be released includes tools to support close reading. Students can use embedded tools in all myON digital books to practice close reading skills like highlighting and note-taking.
Odysseyware
(www.odysseyware.com)
Odysseyware has launched its largest combination of new courses and learning resources to date. The content includes a full math and ELA Common Core curriculum for high school and middle school students, as well as six new high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses to help students prepare for post-graduation life. Odysseyware has also released test prep courses that help high school students prepare for the ACT, GED, HiSET, and TASC with prescriptive learning pathways to college readiness, including embedded assessments and practice tests. Additionally, students can access a blended learning video library, comprising over 250 Direct Instruction Videos that provide step-by-step guidance to help students learn at their own pace and accommodate diverse learning styles.
Apps
Nervanix Clarity
(www.nervanix.com)
Nervanix has released Clarity, an application that monitors student attention levels as they study and guides them to revisit concepts or content areas where they lost focus. Using a simple and safe EEG headset, Nervanix Clarity measures the attention levels of learners as they study and paces along with them as they navigate a page, watch a video, listen to a recording, or interact with a digital manipulative. The device uses Bluetooth technology to stream the attention data it records to the Nervanix Clarity application. Students can then use this information to adapt their study habits in order to effectively focus on material and improve their study sessions.
Hardware
Mac to School (www.mactoschool.com) now offers refurbished MacBooks that are Common Core-ready, helping school districts meet technology requirements to support the CCSS. The technology requirements for Common Core assessments, as laid out by PARCC and Smarter Balanced, require devices to have a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, as well as the ability to run iOS operating systems 10.4 (Smarter Balanced) or 10.6 (PARCC).