Publishing giant makes $400M commitment to ed tech

1. A one-year pilot program in four California school districts to test a full-curriculum algebra application on Apple’s iPad.

More than 400 California eighth-grade students will receive instruction strictly via an iPad loaded with Holt Algebra 1 course materials, including comprehension tracking tools that give students customized online remediation based on quiz and test scores and simultaneously provide teachers with student-specific performance feedback. Assessment data will be available immediately to the teacher for constant tracking and in-class remediation. A report of the research findings from the pilot project is expected in fall 2011.

2. A new all-digital Language Arts program in Texas for grades 2–12 called Texas Write Source, which helps students of every learning style master writing forms and processes and grammar usage through the use of whole-class interactive whiteboards, an online workspace that enables students to share personalized essays, and the ability to download video podcasts, audio-enabled interactive mini-lessons, games, and trackable quizzes.

“We have created an environment and a structure to foster and support incubation of new ideas, and we feel we can be the partner of choice for big ideas [owing] to our overall scale, market reach, positional advantage, and speed in bringing things to market,” said Fiona O’Carroll, executive vice president of new ventures. “This is a true incubation model.”

Link:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Note to readers:

Don’t forget to visit the Re-imagining Education resource center. Inspiring and engaging today’s 21st-century learners, who have grown up surrounded with digital media and are used to having instant access to information, requires flexible resources that change with students’ needs. When teachers can leverage multiple technologies in a resource-rich classroom—supported by top-notch professional development—students forget they’re in school and instead become excited about real-world applications of the lessons they are learning. Go to:

Re-imagining Education

Previous 1 2