itslearning “HUB” for Houston (Tex.) Independent School District Featured in IMS Global Learning Impact Report
Boston, MA (PRWEB) January 22, 2016 -- The itslearning “HUB” learning platform at Houston, Tex., Independent School District (HISD) was recognized as a technological innovation worth emulating in IMS Global's recently released 2015 Learning Impact Report. The report distills the 2015 LIA winners’ initiatives, which HISD was honored to receive, into a series of pragmatic themes, practices and recommendations that help educators to launch their own learning technology initiatives. The report also offers recommendations to help readers facilitate their own successful learning technology implementations.
This annual competition recognizes outstanding, innovative applications of educational technology to address the most significant challenges facing education. Additionally, the consortium has provided an analysis of the HUB and other award winners in its 2015 Learning Impact Report, created to help educators understand how those technologies were used to create effective and cohesive teaching and learning environments.
The itslearning HUB came into being because HISD had found itself managing a growing patchwork of learning resources. Students and teachers completed assignments, assessments, collaborative projects and other activities in several digital locations, resulting in their juggling logins for dozens of third-party cloud services and the hosting of HISD’s student usage data, assessment results and analytics in multiple online sites.
“The itslearning HUB fits in beautifully with the 2015 Learning Impact Report’s implementation themes,” said Arne Bergby, itslearning CEO. “The report recognizes a growing shift towards fully integrated digital curriculum solutions that tie together architecture, platforms and tools. For HISD, our digital learning platform is their hub for collaboration, personalization, curriculum, instruction and communication for all staff, students and parents. That level of integration has improved HISD’s ability to provide an authentic and personalized teaching and learning environment.”
HISD selected the itslearning system to consolidate all its digital resources into one web-based, single sign-on resource. Rebranded the “PowerUp: HUB” or “the HUB” to fit in with the district’s overall initiative, the content-agnostic, open-sourced platform enables HISD to host a wide range of third-party digital content and different file format types that support active learning, flipped classrooms, project-based learning and other forms of learner-centered instruction. The HUB supports IMS open standards to eliminate the need for customized integration of various platforms.
“Our key objective for the Learning Impact Report is to identify and help make sense of pragmatic trends in the application of digital technology to improve teaching and learning,” said Dr. Rob Abel, Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global. “Since the IMS Global community has consistently been 3-5 years ahead of the general EdTech marketplace in terms of adoption patterns, the learning impact trends observed through the analysis of the award winners serve as predictors of the future of mainstream adoption.”
About IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global)
IMS Global is a nonprofit organization that advances technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. IMS members are leading suppliers, institutions and government organizations that are enabling the future of education by collaborating on interoperability and adoption initiatives. IMS sponsors the Learning Impact Leadership Institute, a global program focused on recognizing the impact of innovative technology on educational access, affordability, and quality while developing the people and ideas that are going to help shape the future of educational technology. http://www.imsglobal.org
About itslearning
Designed for teachers and how they want to teach, itslearning is a cloud-based learning platform used by millions of teachers, students, administration staff and parents around the world. It can be found at all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, helping teachers make education more inspiring and valuable for today’s students. Established in 1999, itslearning is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, and has offices in Boston, Atlanta and multiple locations around the world. For more information, visit http://www.itslearning.net.
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Charlotte Andrist, Nickel Communications, http://www.nickelcommpr.com, 770-310-5244, [email protected]
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