New Britannica® School Release Boosts Student and Teacher Engagement, Strengthens Teacher Support
Chicago, Ill. (PRWEB) March 24, 2015 -- Britannica Digital Learning has completed a series of user-suggested enhancements to its flagship education product Britannica School designed to increase interactivity and make the product more engaging and useful to students and teachers.
Britannica School is an online, interactive learning resource for students and teachers in grades K-12. With extensive, up-to-date information sources, it’s specially designed for differentiated instruction and is the only product of its kind that provides three distinct content levels, allowing students to move easily to material at a higher, more rigorous level or a lower reading level as needed. Its content is reliable, age-appropriate, updated continuously and closely correlated to all curriculum standards, including the Common Core State Standards.
The contents of Britannica School support every subject, making it easy for teachers in language arts, math, science, social studies and the arts to coordinate and collaborate on lessons. Unlike an app that displays a different layout or content on a mobile device, Britannica School’s responsive design allows the entire site to work equally well on any device – PC, tablet, laptop or smart phone.
The recent changes to the product include:
• Redesigned and enhanced home pages for the elementary, middle school and high school sections of the site to promote self-guided discovery and inquiry. New features such as Word Wall, Geography Explorer, Behind the News, and quotations are easily accessible for students to explore, making it easier for them to learn on their own.
• Content Collector. A feature that provides a valuable way for students and teachers to save, retrieve, and share material on a topic in one location. It’s a time-saver for teachers preparing lesson plans and for students completing assignments, projects and reports.
• Access to new and revised articles. Britannica School is updated continuously by the 100+-member editorial team; approximately 1,200 items covering relevant, timely topics are added every month. These updates are now more visible and accessible from the home pages.
• Enhanced searching functionality to increase the ease with which users can find information on the site, including the addition of an “At a Glance” feature, “Popular Searches,” and an “Advanced Search” option for high-school-level articles.
• Linking to other Britannica sites. Users who subscribe to other Britannica resources, such as ImageQuest or Pathways: Science can access them directly from the Britannica School home page.
“There's an exciting movement in schools today in which classroom teachers are making greater use of the vast digital resources available to them, and teacher librarians are reinventing their roles to help them do that. We’re developing Britannica School to support and encourage this,” said Michael Ross, general manager of Britannica Digital Learning and a senior vice president at Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. “These newest enhancements provide greater engagement for both teachers and students on a daily basis and help promote this vital, growing partnership between the library and the classroom.”
Free trials are available to schools, districts and consortiums. Interested educators can call 1-800-621-3900 or go to http//:info.eb.com for more information.
About Britannica Digital Learning
Britannica Digital Learning (BDL) provides reliable, high-quality solutions to strengthen student achievement and educators’ ability to teach to best practice. BDL experts produce curriculum-aligned resources for all ages from elementary school to college that make creative and purposeful use of technologies widely used in schools today. Products include Britannica School, Britannica Academic, Pathways: Science™, and ImageQuest™. BDL is a division of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., with headquarters in Chicago.
Tom Panelas, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., http://info.eb.com, +1 (312) 347-7309, [email protected]
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