Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/531516
E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y W e d n e s d a y, J u l y 1 , 2 0 1 5 3 0 new classroom and student sets designed with teachers in mind. Tiggly Shapes is a set of four geo- metric shapes designed to help children learn about fundamental geometry con- cepts, improve language skills and devel- op motor skills, spatial thinking, and cre- ativity. Tiggly Shapes Learning System also includes three learning apps (Stamp, Draw, and Safari), student workbooks, in-class activities, and thinker journals. "Tiggly Shapes provide an environ- ment for my students to be creative and work on their literacy skills through sto- rytelling." – Kindergarten Teacher, Texas Tiggly Math Learning System is the first of it's kind. Inspired by classic Cuisenaire rods, Tiggly Math includes five bright counting rods designed to help students develop their understanding of math operations, such as addition, num- ber line and one-to-one correspondence skills. Tiggly Math Learning System includes three learning apps (Cardtoons, Chef and Addventure), student work- books, in-class activities and thinker journals. "Tiggly Counts is awesome! The kids are engaged in learning new math facts and concepts. They have so much fun they ask for Tiggly time." – Prekindergarten Teacher, Wisconsin Tiggly Words Learning System is specifically focused on early literacy. A set of five vowels designed by educa- tors, helps students recognize Tiggly (Cont'd. from p. 1) phonemes, construct sounds and learn words. Tiggly Words Learning System includes three learning apps (Tales, Submarine and Doctor), student work- books, in-class activities and thinker journals. "Tiggly Words is phenomenal! My students are grasping literacy concepts right away. It helped us get a step-up on skills that we are just starting to learn." – Kindergarten Teacher, Maine "All of Tiggly's learning systems are designed from the ground up based on the first principles of play and learn- ing research," said Dr. Azadeh Jamalian, Chief Learning Officer and Co-Founder of Tiggly. "We know phys- ical play is an integral part of develop- ment in children and we bring physical play into digital sandbox." "We are delighted that more and more teachers and schools are integrating our learning tools into their classrooms – a sign that our products form part of the future of play and learning," said Phyl Georgiou, CEO and Co-Founder of Tiggly. "We are honored to be working with so many educators who have har- nessed the unique learning opportunities Tiggly provides." Visit Tiggly at booth #139 to see how you can get a free sample to try in your classroom! For more information, visit www.tiggly.com, email educators@ tiggly.com, follow on Twitter @TigglyLearn or stop by booth #139. ESD: Tell us why you feel this fills an important gap in the educational technol- ogy marketplace. SM: A couple of dynamics in the market allow us to come in and create value. Schools have a variety of needs as they look at building out their digital strategy. RGS has the ability to take schools through a complete process to understand where they are in their digital learning journey. We then develop a learning experience that fits their needs. We take a modular approach that allows schools to implement their vision regardless of where they are along the way and scale up as needed in terms of content, educa- tion services, devices and mobility plus integration services. ESD: It sounds like you're a partner for digital learning. SM: We look at the complete digital learning environment and architect a solution that addresses the needs of each student today while providing future flexibility. The Ed Tech market is very fragmented. It's costly for a school to go the road alone. RGS delivers the help schools need help to create the learning solution that fits while optimizing their investment. ESD: What if I already have a piece of it from a vendor that I'm very happy with? SM: RGS takes a process approach where we assess your entire digital learn- ing readiness, taking into consideration what solutions you already have in place and how they are used. We find out where you are in your journey, determine what's needed to help get you where you want to go and then modularly build around that. This maximizes the invest- ment that the school has already made RGS (Cont'd. from p. 1) and creates an equally modular strategy for future implementations. ESD: Why should customers trust RGS with this important project? SM: RGS offers a deep understanding of learning and what schools are trying to create, balanced with our technology expertise and leadership. Both of these competencies – the learning environment and the technology have been around for many years, but now the tools are coming together to achieve evolution. We have the ability to understand all the needs and requirements and can bring those togeth- er to create the experience that drives the desired value for the schools. As a part of Avnet, Inc., a global technology leader, RGS has the global scale and expertise that differentiates us in this space. ESD: What can ISTE attendees look to learn from RGS this week? SM: At ISTE, we encourage people to spend some time with our team learning more about the complete digital learning solutions we offer, discussing the digital transformation that's taking place and how it pertains to them and their schools. We invite them to stop by our booth to hear what well-respected Ed Tech author- ities have to say about RGS. A key RGS partner, Intel, will speak on the topic of Moore's Law and its impact on Ed Tech in RGS booth #1363. We'll also be shar- ing the success that schools are having with SmartStart, the RGS solution allow- ing schools to pilot digital learning on a small scale to get the feel of it before scaling it up to other grade levels or across the district. For more information and to attend the ses- sions, visit booth #1363 during ISTE 2015. After the ISTE conference, call 800.222.7374, email rgs.comm@avnet.com or visit www.avnetrgs.com. customers, we've learned what technolo- gies are relevant in the classroom. The Connected Classroom was born through all of the feedback we've received over the years. Because we're a smaller, more nimble organization, we can customize it to the individual cultures of the schools we work with – if the school needs a better understanding of how to best collaborate using Google Docs, we can work real time within the Connected Classroom to make that happen. We can also work with the technical team to review the different features of the management console. It can be molded to whatever the individ- ual school needs it to be. ESD: Having attended a good amount of PD, what kinds of things are you noticing about tech and education working togeth- er? LB: First, the amount of education- approved content that's available for the classroom is becoming easier and easier for teachers to find. This means less time vetting content and more time working with students. Newmind Group (Cont'd. from p. 1) I view technology not as a replace- ment for the teachers or the content, but as a way to augment the content with something that students better identify with. It's about how much more effective students are becoming. Being able to read, research, take notes, even hand in assignments – all on one platform – keeps it engaging for the student. Technology helps fill a certain gap. ESD: Where is Newmind taking Connected Classroom next? LB: It will continue to evolve as we learn from each person who experiences it and as Google continues to develop its prod- uct set. For example, we added Google Classroom when it was released. The Connected Classroom allows teachers and administrators the ability to deter- mine the best fit for their environment. Again, our goal is to give each district the ability to understand their options and determine the best fit themselves. We're excited to showcase the Connected Classroom at ISTE! Come visit us at booth #1658! For more information, visit www.new mindgroup.com, call 269.492.0469 or stop by booth #1658 at ISTE. that you can teach people to think better and to make better decisions. This would be the first step towards the larger goal of a world of thinking people. So, I opened the school in 2008, called it Ideal Schools, and off we went. The school was designed to give students highly capable teachers, rich texts and seminar classes, so students would learn and think more deeply about academic content and big questions. We saw great success, but I also saw that we needed to do more to help students learn from challenging texts. No matter what we did at school, we needed to help them learn when they read on their own outside of school. Otherwise, they wouldn't be ready to get the most out of classroom discussion the next day and their learning would suf- fer. Ultimately, I realized we needed an electronic reading environment that pro- vided scaffolding and encouraged close reading everywhere students read. ESD: How do you hope to achieve this with Actively Learn? DS: What Actively Learn does is make visible to students what they should be thinking about and doing while they read, by giving teachers tools to show students what is important, to have students write and think as they read, and to give teach- ers ways to fill gaps in students' back- ground knowledge, so they better under- stand what they're reading. The tools in Actively Learn also give students new ways to discuss texts, and to engage their peers, even when they're not in a class- Actively Learn (Cont'd. from p. 1) room together. Being able to discuss a text while you read at home fundamen- tally changes the reading experience for students, and changes how meaningful and educational the next classroom dis- cussion will be. ESD: Tell us more about how you creat- ed this environment. DS: My goal is always to show students why reading great texts is important, meaningful and, dare I say it, even enjoy- able. This is why I feel our goal of show- ing students there is joy and purpose in reading texts – particularly the rich, chal- lenging ones that deal with complex questions and issues – goes to the heart of why I and other teachers went into teach- ing in the first place. We want to show students why we love learning so much – and why they should keep doing it. ESD: How do you keep improving Actively Learn? DS: We probably work harder than any other company to listen to what teachers say about our product and to incorporate their feedback promptly. This tool was designed for teachers to help them make great texts great for students and we trust teachers' guidance on what works for their students. So, teachers, please keep in touch and reach out if you ever need help using Actively Learn in your classes. For more information, visit www.actively learn.com, email info@activelylearn.com or stop by booth #1136 at ISTE.