Schools can now sync rosters in their student information systems (SIS) with Learning.com through a new partnership with Clever. The integration ensures that educators and administrators will always have accurate, updated information in the Learning.com platform. Clever securely connects to a school’s SIS, pulls student enrollment rosters and demographic data, and automatically syncs that data with Learning.com.

According to the 2013 NMC Horizon Project Short List for Higher Education, “sense-making and the ability to assess the credibility of information are paramount” in a world where “information is everywhere.” Jones eGlobal Library cites the need for students to develop “information literacy” skills, given the vast amount of reliable and unreliable resources available online. “The need for easily accessible and curated content is key,” said Glenn Jones, CEO of eGlobal Library. “We help educators and students curate content and develop the information literacy skills necessary to succeed in school and professional environments.”

The National Forensic League announces its 2013 National Speech & Debate Tournament, June 16–21 in Birmingham, Ala. Nearly 4,000 middle and high school students from across the country and around the world will compete in speech and debate activities for a chance to win $200,000 worth of college scholarships. The Tournament marks the capstone of high school speech and debate activities for nearly 120,000 student members nationwide.

School Specialty, Inc. will be the provider of innovative furniture, equipment and materials for the Las Vegas Downtown Project's new early childhood center, 9th Bridge School. In an initiative to revitalize downtown Las Vegas, the organizers have decided to put groundbreaking education at the forefront, making School Specialty products a natural complement to the school's vision.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces new partnerships with two major education technology groups. Through the agreements, SIIA will have a presence at the UBTech and ISTE 2013 events held this month. The partnerships enable SIIA to extend the many benefits of its prominent Innovation Incubator Program, a peer-review competition created to help identify and support entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies.

Geary County Schools USD 475 in Kansas selected the Student Management Suite from Skyward, an industry leading K-12 school administrative software provider, to improve the management and analysis of student data throughout the district. Geary County Schools, which serve approximately 8,000 students, will now be able to integrate the student suite with its Skyward School Business Suite, allowing for a single, streamlined database solution. With Skyward, the district will benefit from a comprehensive web-based system that integrates attendance, grading, scheduling, food service, discipline and demographic information in one centralized system to minimize data entry and ensure accuracy.

School Specialty, Inc. announces Raising Respect, a planner program that provides actionable tips to identify, intervene and address bullying in and out of school. The program is being developed through the company’s Premier brand. It enables students, educators and families to create a secure climate of achievement, and a place where students can learn in safety, empathy and belonging. It also empowers students to make safe choices, develop positive peer relations and prevent bullying using self-management, problem-solving and communication strategies.

FundingFactory, the nation’s largest fundraising by recycling program for schools and nonprofits, announces the winners of the second annual Recycling Rumble. 537 winning schools and nonprofits overcame their opponents in each rumble match-up where they competed for two months to recycle the largest quantity of electronic waste (e-waste). The winning schools and nonprofits earned a 25 percent fundraising bonus, and the top recycler overall won an Apple^® iPad^®. This year’s top recycler was Manteca High School of Manteca, Calif., recycling 6,535 items and earning more than $3,200. In total, Recycling Rumble participants raised $148,305 and recycled a total of 217,524 items.

The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access will host two online education conferences on astrophotography that highlight how scientific data helps tell the story of the universe through images. Joseph DePasquale and Mary Dussault from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory will present Understanding Astrophotography: Where Science and Art Meet Wednesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. EDT. Dussault, with Lindsay Bartholomew of the Miami Science Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, will present the second session, Do-It-Yourself Astrophotography: Applications for the Classroom and Beyond, Wednesday, July 10, at 4 p.m. EDT.

This year's Flipped Conference, held in Stillwater, Minn. June 18-19, will be streamed live to virtual attendees worldwide. Nearly 30 hours of content from four strands will be broadcast in their entirety. Archived sessions will also be available for six months after the conference. Keynote speakers include Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, the pioneers of Flipped Learning and co-authors of Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, and Ramsey Musallam, a chemistry teacher in San Francisco, TED speaker and author of the Cycles of Learning blog.

SIIA last week held its 10th Annual Ed Tech Industry Summit, themed “Navigating Next,” in San Francisco. Attended by more than 350 educational technology leaders, the Summit featured strategies, cases studies, and success stories about best business practices on topics including game-based learning, going global and mobile, market data and trends, OER and commercial publishers, leveraging social media, and more.

In conjunction with Teacher Appreciation Month, School Specialty, Inc. honors the 2013 National Physical Education Teachers of the Year (TOY). Sponsored exclusively by School Specialty brand Sportime and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) since the award’s inception in 1989, the Teachers of the Year program recognizes outstanding teaching performance and the ability to motivate today's youth to participate in a lifetime of physical activity. Click through to see this year's winners.

Skyward announces the release of its Course Learning Center, a new module that is fully integrated with its Student Management Suite. The Course Learning Center provides teachers and students with a simplified way to manage daily classroom activities and improve collaboration. The new module streamlines teacher access to the tools they need, enabling them to manage course resources, classroom discussions, digital lockers, assessments and grades in one location. Students can access the center to upload assignments, get teacher feedback on their work, and participate in conversations through discussion boards.

Brain Parade's See.Touch.Learn. app, was voted Most Likely to Succeed during the Innovation Incubator Program held by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). Brain Parade^®, a developer of learning solutions for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, presented the iPad app at the Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS) held in San Francisco.

School Specialty, Inc. announces its participation in the “Principal for a Day” program. The program, which is presented by Knox County Schools, brought together 88 business, government and community leaders who spread across the county’s schools to shadow principals and learn first-hand the challenges and opportunities facing public education today. Tim Hemans, School Specialty education solutions manager for Georgia and Tennessee, recently stepped into the role of Principal for a Day at Cedar Bluff Elementary in Knoxville, Tenn. Hemans went back to class to better understand the day-to-day activities of School Specialty customers – insights that will help inform product developments that make educators’ lives easier and improve student outcomes.

SIIA this week recognized four education technology solutions with five key awards for their originality, innovation and industry promise. During SIIA's bi-annual Innovation Incubator Program, held in connection with this week's SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit, simCEO and See.Touch.Learn. were voted by 350 attendees as being the Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed, respectively. Citelighter was voted runner-up for Most Innovative, and scrible was voted runner-up for Most Likely to Succeed. Citelighter also earned the Educator’s Choice Award based on votes from educators across the country.

Atomic Learning earned more honors than any other finalist at the 2013 CODiE Awards presented by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) on Monday, May 6, during SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Industry Summit. Atomic Learning’s Tech Skills Training Plus won two of the night’s biggest awards, Best Postsecondary Solution and Best Education Solution, as well as Best Postsecondary Learning Solution in its entry category. Atomic Learning offers training on more than 250 education-specific software applications and devices to simplify campus technology integration, training and support.

Late last night, SIIA announced the winners of the 2013 CODiE Awards in education technology. Overall, 28 winners were recognized for their products and services deployed specifically for the education technology market. All of the education technology nominated products and services were first reviewed by a group of tech-savvy educators from across the nation, whose evaluations determined 82 finalists. Click through for the list of winners.

School Specialty now owns full rights to the brands and the exclusive distribution rights to the Royal Seating line of K-12 furniture. Royal Seating will now be exclusively marketed and sold by School Specialty, expanding the company’s proprietary Furniture & Equipment stable of products. Royal Seating serves thousands of K-12 schools throughout the country and has furnished classrooms for more than 45 years with chairs and desks available in a variety of styles, sizes and colors to fit a wide range of classroom needs.

SIIA announces its inaugural Ed Market 101, held Tuesday, May 7, adjacent to the Ed Tech Industry Summit at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The Pearson Foundation and Whitestone Communications are lead sponsors for the daylong event, which features sessions that will help startups learn more about their customers: who they really are, how to reach them and what it takes to “sell” to them. “Through Ed Market 101, startups that are new to the industry can explore opportunities the market presents while connecting and collaborating with some of the education market’s leading thinkers,” said Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA Education Division.

Skyward announces an enhancement to their Gradebook, a module of its Student Management Suite, which gives educators the ability to measure student achievement on national and state curriculum standards. The Skyward Gradebook now enables educators to connect academic standards to individual questions within online assessments, allowing them to easily evaluate the students’ understanding of specific standards and benchmarks. The enhancement gives parents, students and school districts a clear picture of student progress. Through the Gradebook, teachers can keep students and parents apprised of how the homework aligns to the standards and areas of academic shortfalls that may need more attention.

For many schools, the affordability and capabilities of Android tablets make them an attractive alternative to Apple’s iPad. A recent Pew Research study noted that device ownership in the U.S. is currently at approximately 48 percent for Android devices and 51 percent for iPads. To better support Android-using schools, TabPilot Tablet Manager has added new content distribution features that allow teachers to push eBooks and PDF files to students for off-line reading. In addition, teachers can lock down groups of tablets by designating specific apps as accessible to students during class, enabling or disabling them as needed.

Califone International, Inc., a long-time supporter of Better Hearing & Speech Month in May, announces the launch of the Spirit & Sound Alert Learning Center (1776PLCG-06), the first learning center to help prevent student hearing loss by alerting students and teachers when the volume exceeds unsafe levels. The learning center combines the company’s Spirit (1776) multimedia player/recorder, six (2924AVG) headphones and a Sound Alert (1285G) jackbox into a ready-to-order system. When audio is played through the 10-position jackbox, one of its two LEDs on top of the jackbox will be illuminated. The green light indicates a “safe” volume that’s lower than 85 decibels. The red light denotes an “unsafe” volume that exceeds 85 decibels, warning students and teachers the potential for hearing loss exists.

During the upcoming Ed Tech Industry Summit held in San Francisco May 5-7, SIIA will honor Dr. Dustin (Dusty) Hull Heuston, chairman of the Waterford Institute, and Lillian Kellogg, vice president of client services for Education Networks of America (ENA). Heuston will receive the Education Lifetime Achievement Award, and Kellogg will receive the Ed Tech Impact Award.

C. Blohm & Associates, Inc., (CB&A), acquired its first special needs client following the launch of its Special Needs Division earlier this month. Brain Parade, LLC, a developer of learning solutions for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, chose the PR firm to gain visibility for its See.Touch.Learn. iPad application and community.

Shmoop introduces a self-serve system for easy account creation and instant access to its engaging and humorous study materials. The new system provides quick credit card or PayPal setup, as well as topic reviews, practice drills and full-length practice exams. Shmoop prepares students by giving them helpful tips for the day before and day of the actual test and advice for what areas to focus on. For teachers and administrators, Shmoop offers tools that can be used to track student progress, review problem areas, and keep tabs on usage.

Brain Parade, a developer of learning solutions for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, announces the newest update to the See.Touch.Learn. free iPad application that provides access to the growing Brain Parade Community. The Community, available by subscription, allows users to download and share visual learning libraries created by thousands of other users around the world.

FundingFactory, the nation’s largest fundraising by recycling program for schools and nonprofits, together with Scholastic, announce the winner of the “Go Green” Sweepstakes. Susan Jones of Yucaipa Christian School in Yucaipa, Calif. is the recipient of the $5,000 prize, and plans to use the money to expand the school’s green initiatives, such as restoring and protecting the historic land where the school resides. More than 1,400 educators throughout the country entered for a chance to win the sweepstakes by explaining ways they would use the money to support eco-friendly programs and practices at their school. FundingFactory launched sweepstakes in October 2012 to raise awareness about the significance of implementing eco-friendly school initiatives and the impact of recycling electronic waste.

Shmoop has been named a finalist in the SIIA Innovation Incubator Program. The company has been recognized for its extensive product offering including Shmoopsterpiece Theater, learning guides and test prep materials. The association’s program is designed to shine the spotlight on companies that are excelling in educating students through the use of new technologies, and to recognize and reward companies for valuable accomplishments.

Funds For Learning announces its proposal to modernize the E-rate program. The release of the Funds For Learning E-rate 2.0 Proposal comes on the heels of the USAC demand estimate for Funding Year 2013. Total demand is estimated at $4.98 billion, the third highest in the history of the E-rate program. The Funds For Learning E-rate 2.0 Proposal restructures the current program, calling for an increase in available funds while basing amount of monies received on a per-student basis. The plan also enables schools to choose their own priorities for E-rate funds.

Brain Parade has been chosen as one of ten Innovation Incubator participants by the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). The product of note is its iPad app, See.Touch.Learn.®, a visual learning and assessment system that improves social interaction and communication skills of students with special needs. The ten participants will present at the upcoming Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS), May 5-7 in San Francisco.

With the AP exam season right around the corner, Shmoop is offering students everything they need to be prepared. Shmoop’s AP Guides provide diagnostic exams to help students identify subject areas where they need more practice and updated answer explanations. The company features guides for every AP exam, and all of the online resources are updated to meet the 2013 AP exam requirements.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces participants, and an alternate, for its Innovation Incubator Program. The program will be held during the annual flagship Ed Tech Industry Summit, May 5-7, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Ten products and services will be featured during the event, and awards will be presented to the Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed based on votes of conference attendees. The Educator’s Choice Award will also be presented based on votes from educators and administrators from around the U.S. The SIIA Innovation Incubator Program identifies and supports entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies. Click through to read about the finalists.

StraightAce Learning, a powerful digital learning system for middle school students, is offering one-month pilot programs of StraightAce Math to educators. StraightAce Math is an interactive, multi-platform math tool that creates excitement, prepares students for high school and builds a strong mathematical foundation. Educators can incorporate the StraightAce Learning math system into classroom activities or use as an effective homework management tool for their entire class. Benesse America staff will be on hand at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2013 Annual Meeting in Denver, April 17-20, to provide live product demonstrations and discuss effective methods for educators to incorporate the system into classroom lessons or homework assignments.

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, announces the opening of its online store. The Shmoop Shtuff Store offers a variety of products, including sweatshirts, mugs and iPhone cases. Shmoop will also provide incentives for users with Shmoints, which are points that are awarded for achieving or completing various tasks on Shmoop.com. In the Shtuff Store, users will eventually receive discounted prices on merchandise by cashing in their Shmoints.

For the third time in three years, C. Blohm & Associates, Inc. earned a Leadership Award from online education publication EdTech Digest. The annual awards program honors outstanding solutions, tools, trendsetters and leaders in the education and technology sectors. The awards are judged by highly-regarded leaders who have influenced millions through their efforts to improve, advance and modernize education.

C. Blohm & Associates, Inc., (CB&A), announces the launch of its Special Needs Division, making it the first public relations firm to specialize in this growing market. As established experts in the education industry, CB&A has expanded its services to create visibility campaigns in both the education and special needs markets. Emily Embury manages the Education Division, while Carie Breunig manages the new Special Needs Division.

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, now offers a new SAT Math practice tool called Math Shack. The tool features more than 200 types of problems that will hone a user’s skills in all test areas—Numbers and Operations, Algebra and Functions, Geometry and Measurement, and Statistics and Probability. Math Shack is instantly accessible inside Shmoop’s regular SAT product. A user can simply jump back and forth between the two as they learn formulas and variables.

The 10th annual Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS), hosted by the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), will be held May 5-7 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This year, the Summit’s theme is “Navigating ‘Next’.” Sessions will focus on preparing conference attendees to build the infrastructure, products and services to support the changes that schools want or need in a post-PC world. ETIS is the nation's leading education technology industry conference, featuring content-rich sessions on the ed tech market and connecting industry executives through networking sessions. Click through for registration details.

Many educators say the only constant with education technology is change. The ed tech landscape is constantly evolving, and schools face the challenge of navigating an unfamiliar and fast-moving technology environment. For many schools, the result is technology sprawl, a complex tangle of cloud-based and locally hosted systems, school-issued and personal computing devices, classroom technologies, and more that requires significant time and costs for IT administration and can cause inconvenience and confusion for users. To help educators and administrators understand and thrive with ed tech, eChalk is releasing the first two white papers of a series that provides perspectives and insights on current topics challenging today’s education community. The two white papers available for free today are: The Changing Landscape of EdTech and Why a School’s Online Presence Matters. Click through for more information about the white papers.

Learning.com has named Dr. Clifford Green as vice president of education and customer experience. In this new role, Green will serve as a member of the executive team and oversee Implementation, Customer Service and Inside Sales. Green comes to Learning.com from Ignite Education Group, where he was acting vice president of education and school operations. In October of 2011, Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed Green as the executive director of the Idaho Education Network, a statewide, high-speed broadband and Video Tele Conference (VTC) system designed to deliver educational opportunities to Idaho’s students, schools and communities. “Dr. Green is a dedicated educator and a tremendous leader, and I am confident that his knowledge and expertise will help us to better serve the educators and students we support,” said Keith Oelrich, chief executive officer.

The National Forensic League announces the launch of National Forensic League Online, an online debate platform that allows students to practice and compete in real-time from anywhere in the world. Students can limit their opponents to just students at their school or open the debate to any League member. Debates between students from other schools can earn League points as long as the debate is judged and a decision is made. Coaches can also create debates for their students to participate in and offer feedback on live or archived debates.

Florida Virtual School has joined forces with Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, to get students ready for the Florida End-of-Course Assessments. Shmoop’s guides are aligned to Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, Civics and U.S. History, and include test-specific strategies for each assessment. Students can take diagnostic exams to assess their strengths, then brush up on problem areas with Shmoop’s extensive bank of practice problems. Each guide also comes with three full-length practice exams, as well as detailed answer explanations.

Califone International, Inc., has partnered with FundingFactory to help schools recycle end-of-life audio equipment and enhance sustainability initiatives. Through the partnership, FundingFactory participants earn points redeemable for cash or new technology by collecting used headsets and headphones for recycling. Audio equipment has been added to FundingFactory’s Qualifying Items list, which also includes used inkjet and toner cartridges, cell phones, laptops, and other small electronics. In addition to recycling used headphones and headsets, participants can redeem their points for Califone products, including the award-winning, washable Titanium™ headsets and the iPhone/iPod Wireless Portable PA System.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (SCEMS) will host "From Where I Stand," two online education conferences documenting the history and culture of U.S. immigration and migration experiences. Curators L. Stephen Velasquez and Nancy Davis of the National Museum of American History will present, "A Closer Look at Understanding Immigration/Migration Experiences in the United States," Wed., April 10, at 1 p.m. EDT. Latino program director Magdalena Mieri of the National Museum of American History and Ashley Naranjo of SCEMS will present, "Immigration/Migration Stories in the Classroom," Wed., May 8, at 4 p.m. EDT.

SIIA today released the Guide on the Use of Open Educational Resources in K-12 and Postsecondary Education. The Guide provides a framework for understanding open educational resources (OER), and examines development and implementation costs, current business models, government and philanthropy’s role, and other considerations around the use of OER. “SIIA and this Guide are focused on helping public officials, instructors and content providers better understand the various OER models, as well as the total costs to consider in determining the appropriate strategy for developing and implementing a particular educational resource," said Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA Education Division.

SIIA today announced the 148 finalists in Education categories for the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards. These finalists represent applications, products and services from developers of educational software, digital content, online learning services, and related technologies across the K-20 sector. This year’s program features 23 Education categories, several of which are new or updated to reflect the latest industry trends and business models. New this year, Best Personalized Learning Solution was the program’s most popular category. For a full list of finalists, visit http://siia.net/codies/2013/finalists.asp.

Teachers can bring service-learning into their classrooms through the “green” lessons and activities in EcoBuddies™, a free preK-5 recycling curriculum and fundraising program from FundingFactory. The cross-curricular environmental education program helps students understand the importance of e-waste recycling, while gaining subject-area knowledge and applying it to real-world projects. EcoBuddies curriculum includes lesson plans, classroom activities, worksheets and quizzes, and a soon-to-be-released online interactive habitat. Colorful wildlife characters enliven the program and engage students throughout the standards-aligned curriculum.

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, recognizes that video can be a powerful tool in learning. The company aims to help teachers connect with their students in every way possible. Shmoop has recently added new Video Activities to its Teacher Guides that educators can use to supplement their teaching methods. In all, 26 new Common Core-aligned video activities are available and more will be added soon.

Top school administrators from around the world traveled to Orlando, Fla., for the annual Skyward international conference (iCon) February 27 – March 1, which showcased the latest developments of the Skyward School Management System. This year’s theme of “Connect. Motivate. Achieve.” focused on promoting enhanced communication, motivating students and employees to reach higher goals, and ways to increase student achievement and budget management efficiency district-wide. During the three-day conference, attendees previewed future industry-leading product developments, participated in sessions that highlighted advanced features and new enhancements, and received one-on-one access to Skyward executives.

School Specialty has partnered with Curriculum Concepts International (CCI) to introduce Everyday Learning Fun, an early reading and prevention program. Everyday Learning Fun is a systematic, comprehensive program that teaches preK-2 students core reading skills shown to be critical for students’ success across subject areas, throughout grade levels and beyond academics. The individualized instruction means students learn at their own pace, and teachers can track progress through placement assessments, progress monitoring and pre-post level assessments.

StraightAce Learning, a powerful system of study aids for middle school students, announces the launch of StraightAce English: Grammar and Vocabulary, a language arts tool developed to make learning manageable and improve grades through engaging study. The system is aligned with Common Core State Standards, and is available on personal computers and mobile devices. The first installment in the English series enhances students’ skills in three core areas: grammar, language skills, and vocabulary. StraightAce Learning can be integrated into classroom instruction, and supplemented at home through student review, bringing clear, easy-to-follow lessons to students wherever they are.

PBS KIDS PLAY! now features a streaming music service, free to all subscribers, to help reinforce curriculum lessons for students in preschool, kindergarten and first grade. Tribal Nova, co-publisher of PBS KIDS PLAY! with PBS KIDS, added music to the program for its positive, long-lasting impact on student motivation and learning. The initial 25 music tracks come from the popular PBS KIDS program DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD and Web-original series FIZZY’S LUNCH LAB, with songs from more PBS KIDS series slated to join the line-up later this year. The songs featured on PBS KIDS PLAY! are designed to aid memory recall, reinforce key developmental and language themes, and encourage body movement for healthy development.

For students who are gearing up to take the AP exams, Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, offers a guide for every AP exam students have ever wanted to take. Students can prep for marathon sessions in the testing room with full-length practice exams, and then review the results with in-depth answer explanations. Additional features of Shmoop Test Prep include a customizable dashboard, practice drills and diagnostic exams that identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Califone International, Inc. announces that Carnegie Speech, the premier developer of software for assessing and teaching spoken language skills, will now provide Califone headsets to support its speech recognition software. The partnership enables education institutions and providers to effectively support their learners with language learning labs fully equipped with the high-quality products they need, as well as offer blending learning opportunities that personalize instruction for every student. Califone headsets will be used to supplement Carnegie Speech training programs like NativeAccent^®, which helps non-native speakers significantly improve spoken English skills in 10 or more hours of instruction.

Skyward, Inc., is launching a Student Reward System that uses effective, motivational methods to connect positive, real-life behaviors with rewards provided through its online software. The Student Reward System is a free, integrated feature of the Skyward Student Management Suite, the first student information system on the market with this functionality. Within the system, students can assume a virtual identity, or avatar, and earn points for academic-related activities and game play. When students accumulate points, they are able to customize their avatar, advance to new levels within the system, and enjoy other incentives, including the ability to redeem “virtual” points to purchase items from their school store. The reward system harnesses effective gaming elements for educational purposes to foster motivation and positive academic outcomes.

School Specialty, Inc. announces a partnership between its Premier brand and Curriculum Concepts International, LLC (CCI). Premier will work with CCI to bring early reading intervention and prevention programs to market. The first product launched last month is a reading intervention and prevention solution designed specifically for grades preK-2. The exclusive distribution partnership could develop into a more comprehensive relationship that would include content collaboration for new products.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies has announced the launch of Smithsonian Quests, a digital badge program that fosters project-based learning. The cross-curricular, standards-aligned program aims to prepare students for college and future careers by incorporating knowledge and skill-building into the quests. The Smithsonian Quests badges are integrated with content from the Smithsonian Online Education Conferences. The first badges aligned with the 2013 Smithsonian Online Education Conference Series are “Community Historian” and “Portrait Reader.”

With more school activities available than ever before, finding the right program that engages students in studying has become critical. To respond to this need, Tustin High School in Tustin, Calif., turned to Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and online test prep. After implementing Shmoop, Tustin High School saw the pass rate for its AP History exam increase from 45 to 80 percent. Eric Mooney, assistant principal of Tustin High School, was particularly impressed by the AP practice tests, which he believed helped focus instruction and personalize a student’s AP experience.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies’ 2013 Online Conference Series, presents “Civil Rights -- Historical Legacies and Today’s Achievements,” two conferences focused on the history of civil rights in America. The first conference, “Civil Rights: From Lincoln to Today,” will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. EST, and will be presented by Christopher W. Wilson and Naomi Coquillon from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The second conference, “A Will of Their Own: Judith Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic,” will be held on Wednesday, March 13, at 4 p.m. EST. The conferences are open to students, teachers and the public, and participation is free.

CB&A clients were in the news at this year's Texas Computer Education Association conference in Austin, Texas. Read all about it in this highlight summary of multimedia news releases and media kits from TCEA 2013. Featured companies and organizations include: Atomic Learning, Califone International, Learning.com, SIIA, Skyward Inc., and Tribal Nova.

The Skyward Student Management System has been implemented at The Ranch Academy and the Weatherford and Crowley independent school districts (ISD) because of its wide range of tools and student progress monitoring capabilities. The Skyward Student Management System allows real-time monitoring of critical student data such as grades, scheduling and attendance, and facilitates school-to-home communication. The Crowley and Weatherford ISDs also utilize the Skyward School Business Suite, which provides integrated finance and human resource services.

Tribal Nova, the publishers of PBS KIDS PLAY, today announces that Bastrop Independent School District (ISD), San Marcos ISD, Joshua ISD, and Calvary Episcopal School & College Preparatory selected the adaptive online learning program to help students develop school readiness skills, such as literacy and critical thinking. In addition, Aldine ISD, a Houston area district of 83 schools, is incorporating PBS KIDS PLAY! Classroom Edition into a pilot program to supplement early education classroom activities. The public school districts and private school selected the interactive, online learning program, since it aligns to TEKS curriculum standards, is highly motivating for students, and supports personalized and blended learning.

In conjunction with Digital Learning Day, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces the opening of its sixth annual Vision K-20 Survey and newly revamped Vision K-20 website. Sponsored by the Education Division of SIIA, the Vision K-20 Survey gives educators, administrators, and faculty members from K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions the opportunity to evaluate their current technology and compare it to prior results in a short online survey. SIIA member organizations worked together to develop the Vision K-20 initiative as a guide for educational institutions to implement technology district-wide and campus-wide.The release of the new Vision K-20 website provides new resources and materials for educators and industry professionals. Educators can use the resources section to help their institutions achieve Vision K-20 goals.

The newest feature of the award-winning Learning.com platform, Custom Curriculum Publishing allows districts and schools to build and publish custom digital units that align with their curriculum maps and instructional goals. The tool enables administrators to create and share unique content collections with their teachers and re-sequence existing content to more effectively meet specific objectives and standards. By delivering ready-to-go units directly to teachers, administrators can maintain consistency, coverage, and best practices across every classroom while saving teachers time.

Since more districts are incorporating hybrid or blended learning, headphones are becoming an important supplemental resource in classrooms and labs. With the Lightweight Stereo Headphone (8200-HP) from Califone International, Inc., districts receive comfortable headphones at an affordable price. The 8200-HP headphone is purpose-built to accommodate regular student use in classrooms, libraries and computer labs, featuring adjustable polypropylene headband and swiveling on-ear earcups to enhance student comfort. With the addition of the Lightweight Stereo Headphone to its product suite, Califone offers a wide range of high-quality audio options to fit any size budget and need.

Skyward today launches SkyCoder, a free tool that enables districts to customize its solutions for greater control and advanced data management capabilities. Customers can now tailor screens and field rules without using in-house development staff or expensive customizations. SkyCoder provides districts with the option to extend custom-defined parameters, fields and validations to ensure district-specific needs are met. Customers can also flag required fields within a user profile, providing districts with necessary administrative alerts and information.

To assist in the distribution and usage of more than 22,000 mobile devices, McAllen Intermediate School District (ISD) in Texas has utilized Atomic Learning resources to train its educators and students on using the technology. A challenge-based learning initiative, Transforming Learning in the Classroom, Campus and Community, empowers McAllen students to leverage the latest technologies and learn 21st-century skills. McAllen’s subscription to Atomic Learning provides educators with step-by-step tutorials that propel classroom instruction, including project-based training, tech integration projects, tech skills assessments, and workshops on trending tech topics.

As a testament to the globalization of speech and debate in schools, Executive Director of the National Forensic League, J. Scott Wunn judged the National Forensic League of Korea Winter Cup on Jan. 19-20 in Seoul, South Korea. Nearly 400 students competed in the tournament, which was hosted at the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. Students who earned either first- or second-place in their category automatically qualified for the National Speech & Debate Tournament this June in Birmingham, Ala., hosted by the National Forensic League.

Shmoop introduces an advanced analytics solution that gives teachers and administrators access to informative data. Shmoop Analytics allows schools with a Shmoop license to view user data, student progress and compare results with other schools, classrooms and students. The robust tracking tool will enable teachers to see how much time their students are spending on assignments and identify those who are struggling with current material.

Funds For Learning announces the release of a redesigned website that offers users easy navigation and a searchable repository of valuable E-rate-related information. The improved interface creates a seamless transition between the new website and E-rate Manager, enabling users to move from the E-rate help center on the website, to the forms and applications found on E-rate Manager with no disruption. In honor of the launch, Funds For Learning is offering free E-rate Filing Window Survival Kits for E-rate coordinators. Intended to help reduce the stress E-rate applicants often experience during the E-rate filing window, the kits feature stress-reducing items such as stress balls and chocolate candies. E-rate stakeholders can sign up to receive their kits at www.FundsForLearning.com.

Michigan school district leaders credit Skyward Student Management and School Business suites for increasing productivity and efficiency within their districts. Since 2010, the number of districts in Michigan implementing Skyward has increased by 44 percent, with a total of 171 districts using the integrated software to manage local student, finance and human resources data. Administrators in the Huron and Calhoun intermediate school districts explain that they are able to more closely monitor student academic progress using the Skyward School Management System.

If you want some news to nourish your day, check out the Jan/Feb Dairy Dispatch from C. Blohm & Associates! The ed tech industry is swirling with headlines, and we have stories to prove it:

• Learning.com Releases EasyTech for PARCC and Smarter Balanced
• National Forensic League Declares Presidential Debate Contest Winners
• Performance Learning Systems Opens Spring 2013 Course Enrollments
• Funds For Learning Announces Free E-Rate Filing Window Webinars

To lift the lid off other jarring PB facts, and read all the news that sticks, click the legumes....

Ballard & Tighe, Publishers, announced the release of its new online academic vocabulary game, Word Raider: Escape. Game-based learning engages students, and teaches word meaning through visual, sensory and interactive scaffolds that are key to the long-term retention of academic vocabulary. By the time players complete the game, they have been exposed to more than 1,100 assessment items. The game is designed for students in grades 2-5.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is now accepting applicants for its Innovation Incubator Program. All education technology companies are encouraged to apply – from start-ups to established innovators. A panel of industry professional judges will then select 10 participants and one alternate to present their products during the 10th SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco, May 5-7, 2013. The deadline to apply for the Innovation Incubator Program is March 8, 2013.

Informed by research on game-based learning, Ballard & Tighe, Publishers, has developed a new educational video game, Word Raider: Escape, aimed at helping elementary students learn academic vocabulary in an innovative way. Nine out of ten U.S. children are playing electronic games, more than 52 percent have played an educational video game, and three-fourths of administrators believe digital content increases student engagement.

SAS Curriculum Pathways is the newest provider to join the growing digital content library at Learning.com, the celebrated source for connecting educators and students to the right digital content. SAS Curriculum Pathways online curriculum resources have been proven to increase student learning and teacher effectiveness by targeting higher-order thinking skills. The learner-centered approach integrates varied instructional strategies and incorporates formative and summative assessments. “SAS Curriculum Pathways shares our commitment to education and quality content,” said Keith Oelrich, CEO of Learning.com. “Providing Learning.com users with innovative content from SAS Curriculum Pathways links educators and students with even more resources via a single sign-on.”

Shmoop has produced a number of original and updated Teaching Guides for literature. The Guides include detailed activity ideas, articles on how to understand the toughest aspects of each book, and potential essay and discussion questions. New activities, reading quizzes and vocabulary sections have also been added for such beloved works as The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men and Macbeth. These teacher materials have become a hit on Shmoop, and the company continues to produce more across a variety of topics, including African-American literature, drama and female authors.

Califone aannounces that headphones and headsets purchased on or after Jan. 1, 2013, will include a two-year warranty*, making it the first company in the education industry to offer a warranty of this duration for child-sized models. The warranty extension reflects the company’s commitment to the education community and confidence in the durability of its products. Recent technical innovations have expanded the lifespan of Califone gear as well as supporting new ways of learning. The company’s audio products are critical tools educators rely on to support literacy and language development, computer-based and mobile learning activities, and differentiated instruction.

*Two-Year Warranty covers all Califone, Inc. headphones and headsets purchased on or after Jan. 1, 2013 except the 3064AV, 3065, CA-2, ER1 and 8200-HP series.

We've traveled through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest to bring you the latest ed tech news in the special holiday issue of the Dairy Dispatch, the online newsletter from C. Blohm & Associates. Topics in the new edition include:

• FundingFactory Sponsors 'Care2Collect Just 1' Campaign
• National Forensic League Announces Appointments to the Board of Directors
• Funds for Learning Releases Results of a Nationwide E-Rate Applicant Survey
• Capstone Digital Launches the myON™ iPad app

Click on the CB&A Candy Cane Forest to read more...

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies announced the first topic of its 2013 online education conference series, Teaching the 57th U.S. Presidential Inauguration. The online conference will be held Thursday, Jan. 10, at 1 p.m., EST. A teacher preview session will be held Monday, Jan. 7, at 4 p.m., EST, to highlight museum resources and to discuss teaching strategies and preparing students for active participation in the main inauguration conference sessions.

FundingFactory participants collected nearly 300,000 recyclables through the Care2Collect Just 1 campaign in November. The nation’s largest fundraising by recycling program pledged to donate $1 for every 100 qualifying recyclables it received, raising $3,000 to support the Second Harvest Food Bank. During the campaign, participants were encouraged to simply recycle one e-waste item, such as a printer cartridge or cell phone, through FundingFactory, and donate one non-perishable food item to their local food bank. The campaign aimed to help schools, nonprofits and businesses protect the environment while supporting their local communities.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has released the 2011 U.S. Education Technology Industry Market: PreK-12 Report. The report values the overall PreK-12 non-hardware education technology market at $7.76 billion, compared to last year’s valuation of $7.5 billion. Data in the report was collected directly from service providers, publishers, and developers to show a supply-side view of the market not available through traditional customer data collection techniques. This report is important in showing a comprehensive view of the PreK-12 market with real data.

Researchers at the University of Iowa are poised to release study results that challenge long-held beliefs about the effectiveness of traditional reading instruction. The study, which will be published in the January edition of the Developmental Psychology journal, shows greater variation is critical to students’ reading development. The findings are in sharp contrast to traditional reading instruction, which is based on the similarity of words and letters. Researchers used a version of Foundation in Learning's Access Code, the first program to apply the Varied Practice Model to how students learn reading skills, to conduct the experiment with more than 200 first-grade students.

The Funding Year 2013 Form 471 filing window is officially open and applicants can now begin submitting applications for the upcoming funding year. The Funding Year 2013 filing window will be open for 93 days, closing at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 14, 2013. In conjunction with the Funding Year 2013 filing window, Funds For Learning announces its schedule of complimentary E-rate filing window webinars that have been developed to address specific filing window topics and are designed to appeal to all skill levels. Click through for a complete schedule.

Califone International, Inc. announces the launch of its Listening First™ Headsets, an extension of the popular Listening First headphone line. The Califone Listening First Headsets are made with rugged ABS plastic (for added student safety), ambient noise-reducing earcups, and are available in three color choices or three animal themes. The Listening First Headsets support computer-based and mobile learning activities, and are ideal for use in kindergarten and primary grades, as well as with special needs students. In addition, the Listening First Headsets help students build speaking and listening skills, which are critical components under the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Learning.com announces EasyTech for the Partnership for the Assessment of College and Career Readiness (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia. For today’s students to be successful with PARCC and Smarter Balanced, they need 21st century and digital literacy skills. These critical skills enable students to utilize technology in project-based problem solving and answer technology-enhanced and technology-enabled questions. Recognized as an industry leader in digital literacy education for more than a decade, the award-winning EasyTech curriculum has been reorganized to align with the material found on the new assessments, which include fundamental computer skills, keyboarding, word processing, charts and graphs, communicating and presenting, and research and evaluation.

Ballard & Tighe, Publishers, new educational video game, Word Raider: Escape, has yielded data supporting the ability of game-based learning to engage students. The academic vocabulary taught in the game was selected to bridge the language gap. The game situates players in a virtual world where the objective is to learn and practice academic vocabulary. Almost 1,000 students in the United States and around the world participated in the beta-test conducted in October.]]> Charlene Blohm Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:00:00 -0500 ballard-tighe-word-raider http://www.cblohm.com/news/shmoop-gives-ap-biology-an-extreme-makeover/

As a firm believer in a good old-fashioned makeover now and again, Shmoop is giving its AP Biology Guide a new look. Shmoop’s Guide is now upgraded to include the new College Board AP format to be implemented in the 2012-2013 school year. In addition, the Guide places a strong focus on the “Four Big Ideas of Biology,” and includes two lab sections for each “big idea” to help students increase the depth of their understanding. Shmoop also provides a complete student guide that features practice exams, diagnostics and drills, which use the new four-answer choice format.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces that Dr. Karen Billings, VP for the Education Division at SIIA, was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Hall of Fame. The induction was held during a ceremony at the McGraw Hill Conference Center in New York on Nov. 29. The educational publishing industry's highest individual honor, the AEP Hall of Fame recognizes those who have dedicated their careers to the advancement of educational resources and the industry that develops and supports them. “Karen is not just an industry visionary – she’s an operational whiz. She engenders the greatest loyalty among the people she works with, and the members she serves,” said Ken Wasch, president at SIIA.

Capstone Digital announces its myON reader platform will be augmented with the addition of 46 titles from Hachette Book Group’s Little, Brown Books for Young Reader, publisher of bestselling picture books, fiction, and nonfiction for middle grade and young adult readers. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers joins other publishers recently added to the myON reader Publishers Program including Dorling Kindersley, Saddleback, Reference Point Press, Teacher Created Materials, August House, Mikaya Press, and Rourke Publishing, among many others. Each title added to the myON platform goes through a rigorous process to be converted into an interactive digital book.

Three high school students have been named winners of the National Forensic League’s “I Approve This Message” Presidential Debate Contest. The winners are Nakul Makkad, senior at Fairmont Preparatory Academy in Anaheim, Calif.; Vidhaath Sripatha, senior at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J.; and Nishesh Chaubey, junior at Southside High School in Greenville, S.C. The students submitted five-minute YouTube videos tackling issues of health care, education and the economy.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) showcased some of the leading growth companies in the education technology market and recognized the best among them as part of the Innovation Incubator program at the 12th annual Ed Tech Business Forum, held in New York. Clever received top votes as Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed. Mathalicious received first runner-up in both those categories. Classroom, Inc. has the distinction of receiving the first-ever Educator’s Choice Award. “This year’s innovation incubator winners were incredibly creative and focused,” said Karen Billings, vice president for SIIA’s Education Division. “We are confident that all of the Innovation Incubator participants will make a positive, lasting impact on the ed tech industry.”

Of the 50 percent of Wisconsin public school districts that use the Skyward school administration software, 92 percent of the customers meet or exceed the standards set forth in the Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) School Report Card. Skyward software improves communication and empowers administrators, teachers, and parents to closely monitor students’ academic progress throughout the school year. The report card scored 2,118 public schools on a scale from zero to 100, with 1,611 schools meeting, exceeding or significantly exceeding expectations, according to the DPI. Additionally, less than one percent of Skyward supported schools failed to meet state expectations, while more than six percent of non-Skyward schools failed to meet those same expectations.

Three Learning.com products were recently selected for the 2012 Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence. Learning.com’s Marketplace and Middle School STEM both won awards in the New Product category, and Aha!Math earned recognition as a Best Upgraded Product in the prestigious 30-year-old recognition program. “These three recognitions from Tech & Learning are testament to Learning.com’s dedication to providing innovative, ground-breaking solutions that improve student learning,” said Learning.com Chief Technology Officer Suketu Pandya. “The Awards of Excellence are especially meaningful because they’re determined by a panel of educators.”

It has long been established that parental involvement is an important factor in student achievement. And in the Internet era, school websites have become the focal point of engagement for students, parents and educators. eChalk has launched Custom Web Design services to help schools personalize their sites in ways that foster greater community involvement and boost their online curb appeal. Administrators choose from a variety of customizable themes and work one-on-one with a professional designer to create a unique look and feel for the site. When the site is complete, eChalk transitions to a support role, enabling school administrators to manage content on their own schedules.

Educators in Turkey now have the ability to discover the learning styles of their students through the Kaleidoscope Profile^®, a propriety learning styles evaluation system introduced by LEAD|Turkey, the leading provider of professional development training for educators in Turkey, and developed by Performance Learning Systems (PLS). Based on more than 80 years of research and proven effective for nearly 20 years, the Kaleidoscope Profile is one of the oldest and most widely-used learning styles inventory systems in the United States, used by more than a half-million students and educators.

Earth911 and Unilever, with the support of Nextlife and FundingFactory, recently announced they are launching a project that will test the hypothesis that deodorant sticks can be recycled economically. FundingFactory will facilitate the collection of deodorant sticks from 50 high schools and universities across the United States, and send the products to Nextlife for processing into recycled polypropylene resin. The project team looks to demonstrate that the many millions of deodorant sticks currently found in the waste stream, represent a significant raw material resource to communities that recycle plastics. For more information on the deodorant recycling program, please read this PRNewswire story.

Tech & Learning magazine honored the Titanium™ Series Headset (with Guaranteed for Life Cords) from Califone International, Inc. as a Best Upgraded Product Winner in its 30th Annual Awards of Excellence Program. Califone upgraded the Titanium Series Headset with its innovative Guaranteed for Life Cord to provide schools with a long-lasting, durable option to extend the life of the equipment and maximize their investment. Additionally, the Titanium Series Headset is the industry’s first washable headset.

SIIA has announced the featured speakers for the 12th Annual SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum. Fifteen speakers will discuss the theme of “Doing Business During Seismic Change,” focusing on the economic landscape and the changes in the ways education customers are accessing content, curriculum, and administrative tools. The SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum is the leading business and finance conference for the K-12 and postsecondary education markets.

School Specialty has added new partnerships with AVRover, ELMO USA, and Cetacea Sound. The new partnerships join a host of current relationships, solidifying the education market’s strongest, most comprehensive offering of total classroom solutions. The new partners were selected to bring the most innovative education technology products to students and educators, said Group Vice-President Shantanu Bose.

After a thorough national search and recruitment process, Learning.com has named Keith Oelrich as chief executive officer. As CEO, Oelrich will lead all facets of the company’s mission to help K-12 educators and administrators improve student learning through state-of-the-art education technology solutions. Oelrich’s entrepreneurial background and established track record of growing education technology businesses make him a natural fit for the Learning.com CEO position, according to board member Sandeep Kumar, who represents the Educomp Group and led the CEO search on behalf of the board of directors and employees.

Today the FCC released the E-rate filing window dates for 2013. The Funding Year 2013 Form 471 filing window will open Dec. 12, 2012 and close March 14, 2013. Funding Year 2013 will follow one of the largest funding years in the history of the program. In FY2012, requests for discounts on certain communications services increased for the fourth straight year as schools and libraries nationwide requested more than $5 billion in E‑rate funds. The requested amount marked the second time in the 16-year history of the program that applicant demand exceeded the $5 billion threshold. Executives from Funds For Learning, the nation's largest E-rate compliance firm, are available for comment if needed.

The National Forensic League, the speech and debate honor society, announces the appointments of Don Crabtree and Pam Cady Wycoff as President and Vice President of the Board of Directors, respectively. Crabtree has coached speech and debate for the past 42 years, most recently at Park Hill High School in Kansas City, Mo., while Wycoff began coaching forensics in 1982 and serves as director of forensics at Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, Minn.

With schools and universities accelerating their adoption of e-Transcripts, Parchment continued its strong growth in the third quarter of 2012. More than 1,200 high schools and postsecondary institutions joined the Parchment e-Transcript exchange network between July and September, with 630 high schools and colleges selecting the company’s premium paid services, and 584 customers signing up for the company’s free basic sending or receiving services. Among the factors contributing to this increased adoption are the operational efficiencies derived from moving to electronic, the data analytics that e-Transcripts enable, and improved student services.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces new members of its Education Division Board of Directors. These newly elected and appointed executives from SIIA member companies represent a broad spectrum of corporate interests, and their visionary leadership will help guide the education technology industry during this time of seismic change. “This board represents some of the education technology industry’s leading thinkers, voices, and advocates,” said Karen Billings, SIIA Education Division vice president. “SIIA welcomes the new board members, and we value the opportunity to work collectively on advancing the industry’s interests.”

Capstone Digital introduces an expanded collection of early childhood reading content for myON reader. The personalized literacy environment now offers a booklist featuring hundreds of children’s titles from eight additional publishers that address the needs of early learners. And since myON is accessible on iPads and all other mainstream tablets, the growing list of early childhood titles is available to young learners anytime, anywhere – whether they're at school, home or on the go.

Learning.com has named Suketu Pandya as chief technology officer. In his CTO role, Pandya will lead multiple teams and work across departments to build and manage the digital learning platform, applications, network infrastructure and other technology solutions. Pandya will be instrumental in contributing to Learning.com’s growth, bringing to the company a wealth of experience and industry knowledge, said board member and interim CEO Anita Kopec.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces participants for its Innovation Incubator Program. The program will be held during the 12th annual Ed Tech Business Forum, Nov. 26-27, at its new location, the McGraw Hill Conference Center in New York. Twelve products and services will be featured during the event, and awards will be presented to the Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed based on votes of conference attendees. New this year, one innovator will be presented with the Educator’s Choice Award based on votes from educators in New York and around the country. SIIA’s Innovation Incubator Program identifies and supports entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies.

In recognition of America Recycles Day, November 15, FundingFactory is sponsoring the “Care2Collect Just 1” campaign to help schools, nonprofits and businesses in protecting the environment while supporting their local communities. Participants are encouraged to recycle one e-waste item through FundingFactory, and donate one non-perishable food item to their local food bank. For every 100 recyclable items collected, FundingFactory will donate $1 to Second Harvest Food Bank with the goal of raising more than $3,000. Additionally, the free recycling fundraiser aims to raise awareness for America Recycles Day by collecting and recycling more than 300,000 recyclables by the end of November.

Capstone Digital announces the launch of its myON™ iPad app, as more educators adopt iPads as an integral part of their teaching and learning practices. More than 1.2 million students – who have already read more than 4 million digital books on the myON platform – now have unlimited anytime, anywhere access to the personalized literacy environment through the new app. While myON was already optimized for all mainstream mobile platforms, the iPad app now offers the ability to download digital books for offline reading – all while keeping tracking and measurement tools intact.

In a continued effort to connect educators and students to the most high-quality digital content, Learning.com announces Wowzers as the 60th provider to join Marketplace, Learning.com’s growing digital content library. Wowzers is an online learning solution that brings K-5 math and science curriculum to life through engaging story-driven games and activities. The Learning.com Marketplace of expanding digital content now includes 60 providers, in addition to more than 300,000 free and fee-based digital learning objects.

FundingFactory celebrates 15 years of helping schools raise funds, while protecting the environment from electronic waste and building awareness of environmental stewardship. Since 1997, more than 50,000 schools and nonprofit organizations have participated in the program, raising more than $31 million total. To celebrate its 15-year anniversary, FundingFactory created a timeline of events, highlighting key program successes over the years.

Three school districts in Montgomery County have recently selected the School Business Suite from Skyward to improve business operations within their districts. With the addition of Upper Merion Area School District, Colonial School District and Central Montco Technical High School, 41 school districts in Pennsylvania now use the Skyward School Management System.

Funds For Learning announces the release of the survey results from its nationwide survey of E-rate applicants. In its new whitepaper, “2012 Survey of E-rate Applicants,” Funds For Learning underscores the respondents’ reliance on the E-rate program and E-rate applicants’ priorities as the program moves forward. The majority of respondents indicated that the E-rate program was crucial to their success, and also expressed their desire for the FCC to focus on increasing the amount of E‑rate funding. Ninety-four percent of respondents indicated that E-rate funding is critical for the success of their school.

Turnitin has made the writing rubrics developed to align with the Common Core State Standards available free to educators worldwide through an open access license with Creative Commons. The CCSS-aligned writing rubrics were developed in partnership with the English Professional Learning Council, comprised of educators from Saddleback College, the University of California (Irvine), California State University (Fullerton), and the Orange County Department of Education. The license stipulates the rubrics may be shared and edited for non-commercial purposes.

Education credentials data pioneer Parchment Inc. announces it has raised $23.5 million in its Series D round of funding led by The Raine Group. Joining Raine were GSV Capital Corp.; Debrorah Quazzo, managing partner of GSV Advisors; and existing investors Novak Biddle, ICG Group, Inc., and Salmon River Capital. Core investments for the new financing will include a $6 million annual investment in research and development for the Docufide by Parchment™ and Avow by Parchment™ platforms, the learner credential account experience on Parchment.com, and sales and marketing. In total, Parchment has raised $34 million in venture capital since 2010.

As postsecondary institutions seek to implement new practices that ensure high-quality education despite significant economic pressures, research and consulting firm Eduventures has released a white paper identifying electronic transcript (e-Transcript) exchange as a viable solution. The independent study cites cost savings, operational efficiencies, improved learner outcomes, enhanced learner progression capabilities, improved data security and several more benefits associated with the electronic exchange of transcripts and other student records. The findings are based on conversations Eduventures staff held with leaders from university admissions offices and registrars from 12 diverse institutions. The paper was developed with support from Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) and Parchment Inc. Click through for complete, detailed results.

Last week, Turnitin reached a milestone of 20 million graded papers in its online grading tool GradeMark. To celebrate this landmark, Turnitin awarded Tania Lopez, instructor at Florida International University, with a $2,000 prize for grading the 20 millionth paper and donated an additional $2,000 to the Florida International University Foundation. This school year, Turnitin has seen triple-digit growth in grading volume with GradeMark as more and more instructors, like Lopez, are choosing to grade online.

Califone announces Marianne Griffith, an art teacher at Alta E. Butler Elementary School in Phoenix, Ariz., as the winner of its Classroom AV Wish List Pinterest contest. Griffith will receive a $4,000 Califone Portable PA Prize Package to engage students and foster learning. In celebration of back-to-school, Califone launched its first Pinterest contest for the growing community of educators using the new tool in support of educational advancement.

Turnitin announces the results of a new study analyzing instructor feedback on more than 2 million student papers submitted through GradeMark, the Turnitin online grading tool. The study found that while instructors have accepted online grading as mainstream, they are finding the same types of grammatical and compositional errors across secondary and postsecondary grade levels. Conducted in the spring of 2012, the study examined the frequency with which secondary and higher education instructors had dropped 30 million QuickMark comments on student written work within the Turnitin service. Click through to read key findings.

Parchment Inc. today announced major updates to Docufide by Parchment, the industry-leading e-Transcript exchange platform, and Parchment.com, where learners can create personal credentials accounts. With the product release, the Docufide platform features new tools that further streamline processes for thousands of high schools and colleges, impacting millions of transcripts delivered during the college application cycle. Complementing Parchment.com, the new Parchment Discover offering is a powerful data analytics tool that enables colleges to leverage the intelligence collected through the site to better identify prospective students. These updates come at a time when K-12 and postsecondary institutions are increasingly focused on making education work better for students and alumni.

Parchment Inc. announces the acquisition of Avow Systems, Inc., merging two of the leading electronic transcript (e-Transcript) platforms. Docufide by Parchment serves 30 percent of U.S. secondary schools, and Avow Systems serves nearly 100 top postsecondary institutions, including Stanford University, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Colorado systems. The merger pairs Parchment’s expertise in the secondary market with the experience of Avow Systems in postsecondary to create an end-to-end solution. On a combined basis, Parchment is now the largest focused e-Transcript provider, with more than 9,000 high schools and colleges its network, 6 million transactions completed, 115 employees and $6 million annual investment in research and development.

Throughout the 2012-2013 school year, FundingFactory, the largest recycling fundraiser, and Learning Resources^®, a leading global manufacturer of education products, are teaming up to offer four now!Board™ Portable Interactive Whiteboard Technology giveaways. Additionally, participants are now able to redeem points to purchase Learning Resources products, including now!Board, through FundingFactory’s Rewards Catalog. The two companies are collaborating to help schools earn the latest classroom technology.

The National Forensic League is hosting the "I Approve This Message" Contest, allowing high school students to debate pressing issues on the economy, health care, and education. Students can select one, or all three topics, and submit a five-minute persuasive speech video that addresses a problem and proposes a solution within the topic category. Students will be judged on the content of their speech, and winners will receive awards from the National Forensic League. The first topic up for debate is health care, with video submissions due by Oct. 12.

Teachers have long been challenged in affording underperforming students the opportunity to achieve academically. One explanation for this challenge centers on the Teacher Expectancy Model. Under the Teacher Expectancy model, educators communicate high expectations to those deemed to be potential high achievers, and low expectations to those they see as potential low achievers. Kaplan K12 Learning Services’ new white paper, Positively Impacting the Student-Teacher Relationship through Differentiated Instruction, written by Erick E. Witherspoon, Ed. D., outlines strategies to help school leaders, instructional coaches, and teachers overcome this challenge.

To help students realize the practical applications of calculus, Shmoop announces the launch of its Calculus Guide. The online resource relates real-life situations to advanced calculus concepts including derivatives, limits and differential equations. Additionally, Shmoop incorporated hundreds of examples, exercises and sample problems to help students better understand the material. Shmoop also offers graphs to assist students in visualizing calculus terms and functions.

Driven by an expanding network of secondary and postsecondary education providers, Docufide^® by Parchment™ has now exchanged more than 4 million electronic transcripts. The industry-leading e-transcript exchange network doubled the volume of e-transcripts delivered in each of the past four years, and year-over-year growth is expected to double again in 2012. Institutions tapped Docufide to exchange nearly 1 million transcripts through the first six months of this year alone. Faced with budget cuts and higher costs, academic institutions are seeking new ways to increase operational efficiency. Beyond operational efficiencies, Docufide enables colleges to unlock the critical data that transcripts embody to understand what individual students know and how well he or she knows it.

More than 15 countries will be represented this fall when education leaders attend the AAIE Institute for International School Leadership, an online educational initiative co-developed by the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE) and Performance Learning Systems (PLS). The education leaders will begin eight, seven-week online courses featuring the fundamental components that are unique to international school guidance. The initiative supports participants in obtaining real-world knowledge with research-based frameworks for leadership within international schools.

Green School Project participants are now part of FundingFactory and can take advantage of increased benefits like shipping bonuses, monthly contests, fundraising coaches, and higher payments for their recyclables. Environmental Reclamation Services has operated Green School Project since acquiring the program in 2007. Merging Green School Project with FundingFactory brings the programs’ two eco-conscious communities together, and provides greater fundraising opportunities to all participants.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and information industries, is accepting judges for the 2013 CODiE Awards in Education categories. For the past 27 years, the CODiE Awards have celebrated excellence in education, offering the only peer-reviewed awards program in the industry. The Education Division is looking for educators and administrators to review 3-5 products each between mid-November and late January.

Turnitin is rapidly approaching 20 million graded papers in its award-winning GradeMark tool. To celebrate this historic milestone, Turnitin will award the instructor that grades the 20 millionth paper with a $2,000 cash prize, and donate an additional $2,000 to a non-profit of the winner’s choice. According to a study by Turnitin of 350 users, GradeMark’s drag-and-drop QuickMark comments, combined with voice comments and interactive rubrics, reduces instructors’ grading time, improves their feedback and increases student engagement compared to traditional methods of grading.

Funds For Learning announces the latest update to its award-winning E-rate Manager^® service. E-rate Manager for Mobile enables iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry users to quickly and easily track funding data on the go. Building on the success of the E-rate Manager for iPhone application, the mobile version of E-rate Manager offers users simple site navigation and instant access to the most up to date E-rate funding information. The mobile enhancement for E-rate Manager also simplifies and expedites the search function from mobile devices. Users can quickly search their information by entering data points such as funding years, service categories or service provider.

Parchment and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) announce the Pennsylvania Electronic Student Transcripts And Records System (PA eSTARS), a statewide network that will enable Commonwealth schools to quickly and securely exchange student records and transcripts. This initiative will improve the process of moving student records and transcripts across the Commonwealth, while ensuring schools receive more timely access to critical information so that they are able to provide the appropriate services to Pennsylvania’s students.

For the next six months, students will have access to Shmoop material through Chegg Presents Zinch Prep, a college counseling program providing information and materials to guide high school seniors through the college admissions process. By registering on Zinch, a high school student will receive exclusive access to any one Shmoop test prep resource, including the SAT, ACT or PSAT. Both Shmoop and Zinch have proven track records of putting valuable resources in the hands of college-bound students, and helping more of them set their sights on success in post-secondary school and beyond.

Capstone Digital announces the winners of the 2012 Summer Reading Olympics. More than 35,000 students and over 1,450 schools participated in this year’s program, which surpassed 1 million books read overall. Designed to support students’ reading development over the summer break, the program challenged students to read as much as possible from June 1 to Aug. 15. All schools using myON™ reader, the personalized literacy environment that provides access to the largest integrated library of digital books with multimedia supports, were invited to participate in the inaugural Summer Reading Olympics. Click through to read about the winning students and school.

Turnitin is embarking on the Turnitin Teachers Tour, a series of regional user events across North America. The tour will stop in seven cities, featuring presentations from Turnitin experts and power users that highlight best practices for using Turnitin to foster original writing and provide more substantive feedback on assignments. Attendees will also learn practical ways to use Turnitin to streamline the grading and mark-up process, which saves educators valuable time and engages students in the writing process.

Parchment Inc. releases its 2013 Student Choice College Rankings, the only system that compares colleges based on actual acceptance and enrollment data. The rankings are based on a sampling of more than 200,000 college acceptances from 2009 to 2012 with data from all 50 states. Unlike rankings based on subjective judgments like reputation, or factors subject to "gaming," such as how many applicants a college rejects, Parchment ranks colleges and universities based solely on the decisions of hundreds of thousands of students who were admitted to multiple colleges and ultimately chose one to attend. The Top 10 include: 1) Harvard; 2) Stanford; 3) Yale; 4) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 5) Princeton; 6) University of Chicago; 7) Brown; 8) Caltech; 9) Amherst; and 10) Air Force.

Now until Oct. 31, educators and parents can enter FundingFactory’s iLove My School contest, and will be eligible to win an Apple^® iPad^®. The contest, hosted by The Education Center, LLC, is designed to create awareness about electronic waste (e-waste) by providing free downloadable cross-curricular activities and lesson plans for preschool through 8th grade teachers on the iLove My School website. Additionally, the website contains activities for parents to share with their children at home to foster eco-friendly living.

Turnitin welcomed Silicon Valley entrepreneur and high-tech executive Christopher Minson as Vice President of Engineering. Minson will lead Turnitin’s research and development organization responsible for sustaining and advancing Turnitin’s cloud-based services, some of the most widely used applications in education. Minson brings over 20 years of experience building and leading organizations in Silicon Valley.

This back to school season, Shmoop is helping students get back into the grind with its Learning Guides and Test Prep materials. The free Learning Guides can ease students into school-mode by covering a wide variety of subjects such as literature, economics, biology, algebra and more. Shmoop also provides help to college-bound students with its test prep diagnostics for the reading, writing and math portions of the SAT, PSAT and ACT exams. Last but not least, Shmoop prepares students for life after high school with its free College 101, Career Guide and Financial Literacy reference tools.

As a follow-up to a survey conducted in 2008-09, Funds For Learning has released results from its national 2012 Survey of E-rate Applicants. The results indicate a continued reliance on E-rate funding, particularly for broadband connectivity. In fact, 42 percent of respondents say Internet access is the most important category of service in the E-rate program. Approximately 90 percent of respondents indicate that E-rate funding is critical to their success, but only 30 percent believe the program is adequately funded. Responses were gathered over two months, and the aggregate results will be shared with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in hopes of positively influencing E-rate policy.

Turnitin has added writing rubrics aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to its award-winning cloud-based grading service, GradeMark. The six rubrics are available today within Turnitin for grades 9-10 and 11-12, covering argumentative, narrative and informative essay assignments. Instructors using GradeMark can attach a standard CCSS rubric to any writing assignment to convey their expectations to students, assess submitted work, and track student progress.

To celebrate back-to-school, Califone is launching a contest for the growing community of educators using Pinterest to support educational advancement. Educators who share their inspiration for a dream classroom by creating a Classroom AV Wish List board on Pinterest and pin one of four audio-related packages will be entered to win a prize of Califone products worth $4,000. The contest runs from today to Sept. 24.

Kaplan K12 Learning Services and ScholarCentric have joined forces to offer an expanded portfolio of college readiness solutions. Through their offerings, Kaplan K12 and ScholarCentric ensure that middle and high school students are confident, engaged, and motivated – key factors in improving academic performance and graduation rates according to a growing body of research. Using these resources, educators are able to address the specific social-emotional needs of the student, leading to improved academic performance.

Turnitin is hosting a new, weekly fall webcast series, consisting of 30-minute webcasts to help secondary and higher education institutions advance student writing skills. The webcast series will focus on integrating Common Core into writing instruction, providing effective feedback on student papers, and engaging students and educators in plagiarism prevention. The series is a continuation of the popular spring webcast series, which attracted more than 3,000 attendees.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and information industries, today opened nominations for the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards. The 2013 CODiE Awards feature 27 new and updated categories, reflecting the dramatic changes in technology and business models impacting the software and information industries.

Did you ever wonder about the true meaning behind Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat? Or about the real-life person Yertle the Turtle is supposed to represent? Shmoop breaks down Dr. Seuss’ allegory and symbolism with its new free guide to Shmeussology. Children and adults alike can use Shmoop’s online resource to decode the meanings behind some of Dr. Seuss’ most famous characters like Horton, The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat, and dive into the morality lessons represented in each story.

Turnitin announces a free professional development course, “Turnitin Academy Live.” This 10-session course, designed to help educators engage students in the writing process, will lead instructors through a powerful pedagogy for “writing to learn,” exploring practical methods for incorporating the use of Turnitin to encourage original writing and deliver more meaningful feedback. The course begins Aug. 28, and will be available live and on-demand.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is accepting applicants for its Innovation Incubator Program. Selected developers of promising new technologies in the K-12 and postsecondary space will be invited to participate in SIIA’s Innovation Incubator program at the 11th annual SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum in New York, Nov. 26-27, 2012.

Propelled by the growing awareness among school leaders, students and alumni that electronic transcripts (e-Transcripts) offer a wide range of benefits, Docufide^® by Parchment™ continued its strong growth in the second quarter of 2012. The industry-leading e-Transcript exchange network added more than 200 high schools and colleges between April and June. Schools also exchanged nearly 1 million transcripts through Docufide in the first half of 2012 – double the number exchanged in the first six months of last year. More than 30 percent of American high schools are in the Docufide network, with more than 1,600 higher education providers registered to receive transcripts electronically from Parchment.

As students and educators increasingly turn to Apple tablets for learning purposes, mobile study service StudyBlue announces the launch of its free iPad^® app. Students can use the StudyBlue app to search, create and study flashcards and notes with their iPads. By leveraging iPad’s multimedia features, the app creates an efficient and effective studying experience. Students can make and edit flashcards on their iPads using text, audio and images, and the StudyBlue app also enables students to re-study concepts they’ve not yet mastered – using Study Filters to personalize the process.

Key Curriculum announces the sale of its technology assets to McGraw-Hill Education, including The Geometer’s Sketchpad, Fathom Dynamic Data and TinkerPlots Exploration. Karen Coe, who has led the company's transition from print to digital, will proceed to lead the Key Curriculum team as they enter into this new phase. The Key Curriculum name – a powerful brand in mathematics education – will continue to be used by McGraw-Hill Education as the company plans to leverage Key Curriculum’s technology across its programs.

For students who need a refresher on the difference between connotation and denotation, Shmoop now offers a Literature Glossary. The glossary includes pronunciations and definitions, so students can look up how to use a word like “verisimilitude” in a sentence. The online tool organizes the words alphabetically and by theme, allowing students to search literature categories like characters, narration, drama or theory.

Parchment Inc. announces the appointments of Dr. Ted Mitchell as a member of the board of directors and Rajeev Arora as vice president of marketing. Dr. Mitchell is the president and CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, past president of Occidental College, and a widely recognized influential mind working to reshape the future of education. As a member of Parchment’s board of directors, Dr. Mitchell will provide counsel and strategic insight for the market leader as it innovates the way education credentials work for institutions and individuals. Arora, who joins Parchment from the Blackboard Collaborate executive team, will lead all aspects of the company’s marketing and communications strategy. He’s responsible for developing and executing marketing plans that support business growth and enhance Parchment’s visibility as the leading education credentials data company.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) today released the full report from the 2012 Vision K-20 Survey, its fifth annual national survey to measure U.S. educational institutions’ self-reported progress toward building a framework that embraces technology and e-learning. The comprehensive report surveyed over 1,600 educators and education administrators, and suggests that K-20 institutions are maintaining current levels of technology growth despite difficult budget conditions.

Academics from three continents announced today a global alliance to promote research and knowledge-sharing about academic integrity at the 5th International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K. The International Association of Academic Integrity Conferences (IAAIC) will facilitate an international dialogue on academic integrity that will help foster research and idea exchange.

At FUSION 2012, Turnitin, the leader in originality checking and online grading, and Desire2Learn, a leader in providing innovative learning solutions, announced significant usability and functionality enhancements to the integration of GradeMark with Desire2Learn Learning Suite 10. This enhanced integration of Turnitin’s award-winning online grading tool provides Desire2Learn users with richer grade collection capabilities in GradeMark and the ability to transfer grades to Desire2Learn Learning Environment.

Kaplan K12 has received approved vendor status by The Cooperative Purchasing Network (TCPN), a national governmental purchasing cooperative that contracts on behalf of K-12 schools, local governments, colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations in all 50 states. The agreement with Kaplan includes test preparation offerings, programs for pre-college exams, and online standards-based curriculum and professional development resources, which can be delivered online, by a school or district's own teachers, or by Kaplan instructors.

The 5th International Plagiarism Conference is nearing its registration maximum as more than 250 leading academics plan to convene from July 16-18 at The Sage Gateshead in Newcastle upon Tyne. Presented by PlagiarismAdvice.org, this year’s conference celebrates 10 years of providing academic institutions and organizations worldwide with the latest research on plagiarism trends, research, and innovative approaches to handling issues of academic integrity. Keynote speakers and presenters from around the globe will discuss the challenges of addressing plagiarism, proven strategies for encouraging students to produce rewarding and original academic work, and institutional approaches and developments in the use of plagiarism detection technologies.

As the leading provider of digital literacy curriculum and assessments, Learning.com now offers over 200,000 standards-aligned digital learning objects and assessments from a growing catalog of premier third-party providers and fellow educators. Learning.com’s new project-based learning approach to Common Core provides districts with a model of integrated multi-day projects that require students to apply 21st century skills to solve core curriculum challenges.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) released the preliminary results of the 2012 Vision K-20 Survey during ISTE 2012. In its fifth year, the national survey measures U.S. educational institutions’ self-reported progress toward building a framework that embraces technology and e-learning. The comprehensive report surveyed over 1,600 educators and education administrators, and suggests that K-20 institutions are maintaining current levels of technology growth despite difficult budget conditions.

StudyBlue is part of App Packs made available for Google Chromebooks for Education. Google App Packs contain popular educational apps found in the Chrome Web Store. Each pack includes a variety of educational tools made directly available through the Chromebook Management Console.

eChalk announces it is integrating with Google™, Microsoft Live@edu™ and other applications to produce a more collaborative and engaging online learning environment. The move enables seamless integration, access to cloud-based applications, and the safety and security of eChalk’s school-friendly, student-safe platform. Beyond security and single sign-on, the new integration adds more engaging ways for teachers and students to collaborate. Teachers can create and embed Google Docs directly into class and group pages, and students have the ability to submit Google Docs via eChalk’s Homework Drop Box. In addition, calendars now include iCal™ subscription and export event options so users can subscribe to them from within Google, Live@edu and any other third-party calendar that supports iCal.

Capstone Digital announces new mobile capabilities that make myON™ accessible through virtually every mobile platform. Students, educators and parents may now access the myON reader personalized literacy environment through Macs, PCs, iPads, Kindle Fire tablets and most Android devices equipped with Android OS version 3.0 or higher. Once securely logged in through myON.com, users gain full access to more than 2,600 books with multimedia supports such as embedded dictionary, highlighting and audio. The mobile experience is identical to what users see on their computers, meaning all of the literacy environment’s personalization features – including student profiles and recommended book lists – remain intact.

now!Board™, new portable interactive technology from Learning Resources, provides educators nationwide with a simple, affordable solution that turns any flat surface into an interactive learning environment. Aligned with 21st century learning and innovation skills, now!Board conveniently integrates with all software applications and is compatible with any projector and a computer. In addition, due to its compact size and lightweight design, now!Board facilitates interactive teaching throughout the school building, in spaces such as the gym, hallway, traditional or mobile classrooms.

Funds For Learning announces expanded user package options for the award-winning E-rate Manager^® tool. The new structure enables schools, libraries and service providers to select from three feature-specific packages that will best serve the size and scope of each user. The three tiers range from a basic package, which includes E-rate funding reports and form statuses, to a professional package that gives users an all-inclusive feature list that includes the ability to prepare and submit E-rate forms as well as cloud storage to store forms and documents. All three levels will offer 24-hour access to critical E-rate data, reports and compliance tools.

Just as we manage music on our computers and listen to it on iPods, students organize their class material on laptops and study it on smartphones – and they’re doing it more often. New analysis of usage data from mobile study service StudyBlue indicates that mobile studying among high school and college students grew significantly during the first half of 2012. The data shows a 10-fold increase in study minutes from mobile devices over the past year, and StudyBlue mobile users are twice as likely to study as their web-only counterparts. More than 70 percent of mobile studiers utilize features such as flashcard flipping and quizzing, while just 30 percent of web users access these tools.

With game-based learning forging its way to the forefront of 21st century education practices, PCI Education announces the launch of Algebra City Interactive Activities. The new module constructs an online space in which students choose their own adventures to practice key algebra concepts. A web-based component of the blended intervention program Algebra City™, Algebra City Interactive Activities provides fun and motivating practice to correct the 28 most common algebraic misconceptions. Students engage in an online story while completing activities and solving specifically targeted algebra problems, earning stars along the way.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has recognized StudyBlue as a 2012 Best Website for Teaching and Learning. The awards program honors websites, tools and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning as embodied in the AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. The Top 25 are free, web-based sites that are user-friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. This year’s honorees offer tools and resources in media sharing, digital storytelling, managing and organizing, social networking and communication, curriculum collaboration, content resources with lesson plans, and more.

More than 1,144 total schools and nonprofits nationwide contended for the Top Recycler title in FundingFactory’s Recycling Rumble competition from March 13 to May 31. The winning schools and nonprofits earned a 25 percent fundraising bonus, while the top recycler, Panhandle Human Society of Scottsbluff, Neb. won a new Apple^® iPad^®. Throughout the competition, participants collected and shipped used inkjet and toner cartridges, cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and GPS devices to FundingFactory, earning one point for each qualifying item redeemable for cash or new technology.

The shift from print to digital books has been well documented, and publishers such as Capstone Digital have been at the forefront of this shift in the education market. Due in part to exponential growth in the variety and depth of digital resources available, Capstone Digital’s myON reader has surpassed 1 million students 18 months after the literacy platform launched. Since myON reader launched in January 2011, students have logged on to read more than 3.5 million books. The personalized literacy environment provides access to the largest integrated library of enhanced digital books with reading supports such as an embedded dictionary, highlighting and audio.

Capstone Digital announces an expanded Publishers Program designed to provide students with access to more digital books throughout the year. The developer of personalized learning environments for students has added a dozen more publishers to its popular myON™ reader platform. Already the largest integrated library of digital books with multimedia supports such as an embedded dictionary, highlighting and audio, myON reader will gain new upper-level titles and books for young readers and preschool students. The new partners bring an additional 1,000 digital books to myON reader’s ever-expanding virtual library.

Three educators will each receive $2,000 in portable interactive technology for their classrooms as winners of a nationwide teacher grant from Learning Resources. The grant program, which was hosted by the online community WeAreTeachers, is designed to provide teachers the opportunity to win technology for their classrooms and share creative lesson ideas with educators nationwide. Additionally, two merit-based winners were selected by a panel of teachers to receive a technology prize package worth $700.

Industry leader Parchment Inc. reports robust first-quarter growth as secondary and postsecondary education providers quickened their embrace of electronic transcript (“e-Transcript”) exchange in the first three months of 2012. Volume of e-Transcripts exchanged through the company’s industry-leading Docufide^® by Parchment™ network increased 92 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Capella University, the NCAA and Pittsburgh Public Schools were among more than 65 academic institutions in the first quarter of 2012 to join or expand their Docufide membership.

The third annual Summer Reading List from Shmoop ranks the top twenty books for high school and middle school students to read over the summer. Shmoop lists both recently published reads as well as literary classics. A few of the classics include the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Lord of the Flies and The Call of the Wild, while newer books like The Alchemyst, Beautiful Creatures and Catching Fire made the list as well.

Research shows that students favor personal media players over computers, tablets and other e-learning devices. The new 8201 Player from Califone International provides a durable touch-screen MP4 player with video, audio, images, gaming, and eBook capabilities, the first of its kind designed specifically for school use. Students can use the device in 1:1 and group mobile learning programs to record audio of science experiments, class presentations, or educator lessons for later playback, as well as view educational videos, charts or diagrams.

Hobsons and Parchment Inc. announce an exclusive partnership that enables students to securely send application forms, recommendations and transcripts electronically through Docufide™ by Parchment to more than 1,600 participating colleges and universities. The combination of Docufide by Parchment and Naviance eDocs – a tool that allows schools to prepare and send college application documents electronically – offers users reduced time, resources and costs, and provides the peace of mind that applications will reach post-secondary institutions quickly and securely.

Since “being in the military isn’t just about crawling along the ground in camouflage and shooting up the bad guys,” Shmoop announces the launch of its new ASVAB Guide. Open to all eligible candidates for the Armed Forces, the ASVAB is a tool used by recruiters to gauge whether an applicant is qualified for enlistment. Shmoop’s guide gets military hopefuls in tip-top shape with extreme topic review, hundreds of explanations, examples and exercises, more than 900 practice problems, and two full-length ASVAB practice tests.

More than 4,500 educators and students have gained increased knowledge of water-based environmental issues through the 2011-2012 Smithsonian Education Shout program. The entire "Water Matters" webinar series presented this spring, as well as last year's "The Land" webinar series, may be viewed online through archives on the Shout website. To extend student learning through Shout, Smithsonian is offering is a new online program for students and educators to earn digital badges by completing learning activities and community service projects that build on the concepts explored in the interactive webinar series. Smithsonian Badges encompasses multiple academic disciplines and skill sets, which help to engage students in and out of the classroom.

Flipped Learning pioneers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams have launched the Flipped Learning Network™, a non-profit organization for teachers interested in the Flipped Learning ideology. The Network’s mission is to provide educators with the knowledge, skills and resources to successfully implement Flipped Learning. In addition to hosting the annual Flipped Conference and regional training workshops, the Network coordinates the Teacher Vodcasting and Flipped Learning Network Ning Community where thousands of educators can participate in flipped educator groups and discussion forums.

eChalk announces that it has joined Pearson’s K-12 Technology Independent Software Vendor (ISV) program. The partnership creates a suite of online tools for the 21st century learner, allowing Pearson and eChalk to jointly bring functionality to market and extend Pearson’s PowerSchool student information system (SIS) capabilities. By easily integrating student data into a central hub, PowerSchool users can connect, communicate and collaborate around personalized learning. This new partnership is designed to create a stronger connected education community for all stakeholders.

Shmoop announces the launch of Flashcards, a free site-wide tool that helps students learn and retain information. Students can use the online flashcards for a variety of subjects including algebra, literature, biology and even mythology. Shmoop also developed SAT and AP test prep flashcards to assist students who are preparing for college.

Through a new partnership with IData, Parchment Inc. is simplifying transcript and credential data exchange for higher education institutions. The companies teamed up to integrate transcript exchange processes into college student information systems (SIS), including market leaders Jenzabar, Datatel, and Oracle PeopleSoft, among many others. The partnership enables colleges and universities to send and receive transcript data from Docufide® by Parchment™ in their preferred data format and easily manage the process from within their SIS, reducing the need for active staff management.

Shmoop announces the launch of a free DMV Guide designed to assist individuals who are preparing to receive their driver’s license. The online guide provides state-by-state test preparation questions, driving rules and regulations, and driving school locations. In addition, the DMV Guide offers driving tips and other pertinent information for first-time drivers.

Funds For Learning announces details of CEO John Harrington’s upcoming broadband panel discussions. Harrington will participate in two major panel presentations during the month of May, focusing on the role of the E-rate on broadband.expansion.

Shmoop now offers a comprehensive guide to the all-important high school equivalency exam. The GED gives individuals who might otherwise struggle finding their place in the workforce an opportunity to thrive. The exam includes five subject area tests on mathematics, reading, science, social studies and writing. Shmoop’s online test prep course features hundreds of explanations, examples and exercises, more than 600 practice problems and essays, and two full-length, timed GED practice tests.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) honored two education leaders with the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ed Tech Impact Award during this week's Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS) in San Francisco. SIIA also recognized long-standing members of the Education Division during the conference.

Kaplan K12 Learning Services today announced the winners of its “First Year Teacher e-Book Contest.” Submissions from Vickie Elswick of Boyd County Middle School (Ashland, Ky.), Loi-Natalie Laing of Miami Edison Senior High (Miami, Fla.), and Jessica Pilgreen of Wesclin Senior High School (Trenton, Ill.) were selected for publication in the revised edition of Kaplan’s top-selling book “First Year Teacher.” The new version is now available in the Apple iTunes Store for free throughout the month of May in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7-11). The book also will be available for free on Amazon.com starting on Mon., May 14 through the end of the month.

Shmoop announces the launch of new online test prep resources designed to prepare students for the SAT Spanish exam scheduled for June 2. The guide for SAT II Spanish and SAT II Spanish with Listening includes hundreds of explanations, examples and exercises. In addition, students can get ready for testing day with eight full-length practice exams, 160 practice problems and 70 additional grammar problems – all with real-time feedback and explanations.

During this week's SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS), Language Express and Filament Games took home top honors at the bi-annual Innovation Incubator program. Language Express and Filament Games were voted by 350 conference attendees as being the Most Likely to Succeed (first place and runner-up, respectively). Filament Games and Language Express were also voted as the Most Innovative (first place and runner-up, respectively).

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE Awards in education technology during SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Industry Summit. Overall, 29 winners were recognized for their products and services deployed specifically for the education technology market. All of the education technology nominated products and services were first reviewed by a group of tech-savvy educators from across the nation, whose evaluations determined 128 finalists. SIIA members then reviewed these finalists and voted to select 29 CODiE Award winners.

Kaplan K12 Learning Services’ Teach!^® Strategies & Resources has been honored as the top Curriculum Development program in the “Teacher Tools” category, by The ComputED Gazette, as part of its 2012 Best Education Software Awards (BESSIE Awards). Winners were selected from around the world and judged on academic content, potential for broad classroom use, technical merit, subject approach, and management system. Teach!^® Strategies & Resources is an online toolkit with robust instructional and professional development assets to support teacher development as the new Common Core State Standards and academic benchmarks shift from policy to practice.

Ten-year-old Dylan Horne and his family from Bryant, Ark. are headed on a trip to Morgan’s Wonderland, the world’s first ultra-accessible family fun park. Sponsored by PCI Education and Dell, and hosted by online community WeAreTeachers, the nationwide contest asked special education teachers to nominate their students for the trip of a lifetime to Morgan’s Wonderland. As the nominating teacher of the grand-prize winner, Jane Sago of Bryant Public Schools’ Bryant Elementary School will be awarded a $2,500 gift card for products from PCI Education. Teachers who nominated the second through sixth place students will also receive a $500 gift card to spend on PCI Education products.

In conjunction with Teacher Appreciation Week, StudyBlue is helping students thank their teachers with the Cards For Teachers annual recognition program. From May 7 through May 31, students are invited to visit the Cards For Teachers site and send digital thank-you messages to teachers and school staff who have made a difference in their lives. From those who are recognized, StudyBlue will randomly select 300 educators to receive a gift card for a free latte. The Cards For Teachers program is open to everyone, including students, former students and parents. In addition, any teacher or school staff member may be recognized.

Shmoop announces the launch of Shmoop Careers, a guide designed to help students glean more information about career paths they may be considering. For each career, Shmoop breaks down what students can expect if they decide to pursue the profession. The guide provides a snapshot of what the occupation entails and a glimpse into a typical day in the life, along with a run-down of salary, power, fame, glory, stress, qualifications and more. Shmoop will add new careers to the guide every month, helping students discover career paths they may have never previously considered.

Learning Resources announces the availability of now!Board™ portable interactive whiteboard technology for classrooms across the country. As educators nationwide are facing increasingly smaller budgets, now!Board offers an affordable solution for interactive classrooms. Aligned with 21st century learning and innovation skills, including critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity, now!Board conveniently turns any flat surface into an interactive learning environment.

On track to double the volume of transcript data it exchanges this year, Parchment announces the appointments of Robert Colletti, C.P.A., as chief financial officer and Jeff Dinski as vice president of business development. With experience scaling fast-growing, early-stage ventures, Colletti and Dinski bring a combined 35-year track record in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and consumer Internet companies to the Parchment management team. Parchment doubled in size during 2011 and forecasts stronger growth throughout 2012 and beyond.

With AP exam season only a week and a half away, Shmoop introduces updated guides and practice exams for 20 AP subjects to help students brush up on their favorite (or least favorite) subjects. From AP World History to AP Environmental Science, test prep resources from Shmoop help students prepare for exam day with test-taking tips, practice drills and full-length practice exams.

Sponsored by several community organizations, a new reading initiative in Hillsborough County, Florida, is designed to boost literacy among young students. "Read on myON" provides all Hillsborough County children from birth to eighth grade with free access to myON reader from Capstone Digital. The personalized literacy environment is home to the largest integrated library of enhanced digital books, customized to a student’s interest and reading ability.

Learning Resources invites teachers to submit collaborative lesson ideas for a chance to win $2,000 in products. Hosted by the online community WeAreTeachers, the grant program is designed to provide teachers the opportunity to win portable interactive technology for their classrooms while sharing best practices with educators across the country. Teachers can apply for the grant online at WeAreTeachers from April 24 through May 22, 2012.

Schools and nonprofits reached a record-level 3.2 million pounds of e-waste recycled in 2011 through FundingFactory, yet only a small fraction of printer cartridges, mobile devices and other small electronics are recycled in the United States. To heighten awareness, and participation in e-waste recycling, FundingFactory pledges an Act of Green in honor of Earth Day 2012 by planting one tree for every 100 recyclable items received during the month of April.

Mark your calendars: the 5th Annual Flipped Conference is scheduled for June 18-20 in Chicago at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy, 28 North Clark Street. More than 300 emerging and experienced “flippers” will gather to discuss, create and post video lectures for their flipped classrooms during the event. High school science teachers and flipped classroom pioneers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams will keynote the Flipped Conference, which includes 24 hands-on sessions.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, today released a Primer on K-20 Education Interoperability Standards. This Primer provides a framework for understanding interoperability standards that facilitate the exchange of information among educational systems, and support the integration of content, data, and components from different technology applications.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces 10 qualifiers and two alternates for its Innovation Incubator Program, which connects developers of promising new technologies with industry leaders, potential investors, and established companies seeking partnerships or acquisition candidates. The winners of the program will be chosen at the Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS) in San Francisco, May 6-8.

Learning Resources introduces the Simple Technology product line designed for students in preK-8 classrooms. The technology offerings encourage early childhood development by helping students build fundamental skills through exploration, imagination and fun. Highlights of the company's new Simple Technology line include the Zoomy™ handheld digital microscope, the Easi-Speak™ USB recorder, and the Luna™ interactive projection camera. The affordable technology tools are designed to be easy to use for both teachers and students.

With Earth Day only a few days away, environmental education and corresponding classroom activities are top of mind for many educators. The Shout environmental exploration program from Smithsonian Education enables educators to engage students in standards-aligned, interdisciplinary content through high-quality online resources. The program is concluding its 2012 “Water Matters” series with the interactive webinar sessions, “Water Quality: When It’s Not Clean and Healthy,” from May 16-17, with a Teacher Preview Session on May 2. The Shout program also includes Smithsonian Badges, where students can earn digital badges by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental topics and participating in community activities.

The ninth annual Ed Tech Industry Summit (ETIS), hosted by the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), will be held May 6-8 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. ETIS is the nation's leading education technology conference, featuring content-rich sessions on the edtech market and connecting industry executives through networking sessions.

The Funding Year 2012 filing window for the E-rate program closed last month. Demand is likely to outpace available funding, as requests for E-rate funding have increased by 108 percent since 1998. During a time when demand for E-rate is outpacing available funding nearly two to one, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, today released an updated guide to the E-rate program in partnership with Funds For Learning. The guide will help software and technology companies manage the challenges and opportunities for the E-rate program.

A study released by Empirical Education Inc. (Empirical) identifies implementation as a key factor in the success of mobile technology such as the HMH Fuse™: Algebra 1 app. The 2010-2011 study examined the pilot of a new educational app from global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) that re-imagines the conventional textbook to fully deploy interactive features of the mobile device. Empirical found that the iPad^®-using students in four participating districts performed, on average, as well as their peers using the traditional textbook. However, after examining its own results, Riverside Unified School District found an increase in test scores among students taught with HMH Fuse compared to their peers. Empirical corroborated these results, finding a statistically significant impact equivalent to a nine-point percentile increase. The Riverside Unified teachers also reported substantially greater usage of the HMH Fuse app both in teaching and by the students in class.

Shmoop announces the launch of online test prep resources designed to prepare students for the AP Spanish Language Exam and AP Spanish Literature Exam scheduled for May 8th and 18th respectively. Students can brush-up on their Spanish language and literature skills with extreme topic review, grammar review, practice drills, full-length practice exams, and more. With these latest additions, Shmoop online test prep resources now cover 20 of the most popular AP Exams, in addition to the ACT, SAT and PSAT.

Shmoop announces the launch of a new online course designed to prepare students for the AP Chemistry Exam on May 7. The test prep course provides extreme topic review on everything from atomic theory to organic chemistry. Students can also sharpen their skills with test-taking tips, two full-length practice exams and practice drills. Shmoop now offers online test prep for 18 of the most popular AP Exams, in addition to the ACT, SAT and PSAT.