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February 2018 - In This Issue
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Greetings everyone,
It started with a group of teachers. In 1997 (pre-MIT OpenCourseWare project and pre-Creative Commons) a group of educators from Washington State's Peninsula school district banded together to develop a system to harness the internet's growing number of freely available open content.
The idea was to create a customized website to house, organize, and centralize resources aligned to state standards for the four core subjects. With the first big client under our belt (the State of Wyoming!), EdGate expanded and grew, eventually focusing more so on standards alignment work than Open Educational Resources (OER).
All the while, for the past 20 years, the OER repository has grown in size and scope to contain nine subjects with content alignments to thousands of K-12 U.S. and international standards. We are now pleased to be working with Microsoft Education in support of their work to expose students and teachers across the world to the vast amount of high-quality OER available on the internet. Find out more about the work we are doing for Microsoft below.
Gina Faulk
EdGate General Manager
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 Hot Topic
Standards-Based Grading and the Structure of Standards
Discussion continues to take place regarding the integration of standards into teaching in ways beyond outlining the curriculum to be taught. One idea that has arisen recently has been the concept of standards-based grading, in which students are given ratings based on their level of mastery of individual concepts within a larger course. Proponents of this system state that it has advantages ranging from enabling better-targeted teaching to reducing test anxiety.
In contrast to this, however, there is a viewpoint that warns against taking too reductionist an approach to standards in the classroom. According to this view, the overall structure of the standards and the way that they are addressed within an integrated course of study that takes into account the interrelationships between the concepts is as, if not more, important than the individual concepts themselves.
These two viewpoints are not mutually exclusive, but they do present examples of the various factors teachers must balance when considering standards-based learning.
Project Manager
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Client Solution
EdGate Supports Microsoft Education with Thousands of Educational Standards and OER
We are excited to announce EdGate's partnership with Microsoft Education. Through an agreement with Microsoft, EdGate supplies links and metadata for carefully curated and vetted OER that have been aligned to national and international educational standards. Additionally, EdGate provides Microsoft with ongoing and constantly updated K-12 education standards. Microsoft's Education Resources allows educators to differentiate instruction by offering thousands of standards-aligned open educational resources. Subjects consist of Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Health and PE, World Languages, Arts Education, Media/Technology, and Career Technical Education. Standards are included for the U.S., Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, and India. As Microsoft expands their Education Resources offering into new countries and territories, EdGate is poised and ready to correlate a growing body of OER to each country's unique set of educational standards using EdGate's patented correlation technology. The technology allows for dynamic re-correlation as new standards are implemented by state and other agencies. The methodology that EdGate utilizes sets its database apart from other educational repositories, alleviating the need to align content state by state or country by country, saving publishers valuable time. This makes EdGate's repository unmatched in its robust capability and reinforces EdGate's reputation as a leader of educational solutions for practical classroom use. As we noted last month, our OER repository recently grew by 6,000 items and there are thousands more items in the queue.
By: Gina Faulk
General Manager
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Bringing technology into the classroom is a topic we revisit often as it is such an important aspect of the 21st century classroom. Content providers are continuing to integrate innovative and fun resources to enhance student learning. One such resource is Microsoft's Minecraft game which was recently featured in an
article touting its use in the Montour Pennsylvania School District.
The article explains how
students are initially engaged since it is a game in which many are already familiar with but now it includes opportunities to actually learn the skills and competencies they need in the classroom.
Another great feature is that Microsoft's Minecraft Educational Edition allows teachers to connect with each other, sharing ideas and lesson plans using the interactive game. The popularity of the program has spread and now forty districts in Pennsylvania alone are using the game.
We are always excited to hear about innovative ways content is brought into the classroom and when our clients are celebrated, we celebrate! A great testament to success is hearing how students benefit and are engaged in learning! Congratulations to the Microsoft Minecraft team!
By: Jennifer Larson
Project Manager
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EdGate Services
Standards-to-Standards Comparison; EdGate makes it a cinch
Have you ever entertained the idea of how much variation there is or is not between educational standards? If you have, the next question that may naturally come to mind is, "What would be the best way for me to find out?" then groan internally when you realize you may need to go state-by-state and compare each set.
This type of project could take up a substantial amount of time and resources, right? What if we told you the hard part is complete and all you really need to know is the standards you want to compare!
With EdGate's Standards Comparison report, you can easily compare a primary set of educational standards to other educational standards using EdGate's robust repository of standards.
How does this work?
Let's say you would like to compare the Common Core, California, Florida and Texas educational standards. You will first need to identify the primary (or main criteria) set of standards to compare the remaining standards to which will become the secondary sets.
For example, Common Core is the Primary, which would then make California, Florida and Texas the secondary sets of educational standards. You will then choose the subject and grade level you would like to review and click Search. Results will display showing accurate comparisons based on concepts in the standards and not merely text matches or text similarities.
How many standards can you compare in a single report?
As many or as few as you need! If the standards are in our repository, they can be included in the comparison report, and if they are not, just ask us! For the past 20+ years, EdGate has worked to maintain a standards repository housing 5 million educational standards and our repository continues to grow every day! This alone will save you valuable time and resources.
If you would like additional information about EdGate's Standards Comparison report or any of our other services, please visit our
website
or feel free to
contact us
and one of our Account Executives will be happy to schedule an appointment with you.
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Gina Faulk
General Manager
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Tracy Olstad,
Senior Account Executive
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Heather Hawthorne
Account Manager
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Standards Update
Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:
- ACT College & Career Readiness Standards - Math ( 2017 - Grades 8-12)
- ACT College & Career Readiness Standards - Science (2017 - Grades 8-12)
- Alabama World Language (2017 - Grades K8, 7-12)
- Arkansas CTE Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) - (2015 - Grades 9-12)
- Connecticut Science (2015 - Grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-8, 9-12)
- Kansas Language Arts (2017 - Grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-10, 11-12)
- Mississippi CTE Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) - (2015 - Grades 9-12)
- New York Learning Standards for Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) - (2013 - Grades 9-12)
- New York Social Studies (2017 - Grade 11 Revision)
- Oklahoma Health (2016 - Grades PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12)
- Oklahoma Media Technology (2007 - Grades PK-12)
- Oklahoma Physical Education (2016 - PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12)
- Oregon Early Childhood Education (2017)
- South Dakota Early Learning Guidelines (2017)
- Utah CTE Business Management (2017 - Grades 10-12)
- Vermont Arts Education (2016 - Grades PreK, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-12)
https://www.facebook.com/EdGateCorrelationServices/
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Are digital assistants teaching bad manners?
A new study finds 42% of younger children
use digital assistants, such as Siri or Alexa, for homework help, facts and spelling. Without please or thank you's this could lead to children communicating differently with other humans.
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Teachers struggle with disconnecting students from technology
Constant checking of mobile devices has triggered classroom technology bans, some going so far as using apps to shut down smartphones during lectures. Research finds the more students multitask, the lower their grades.
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About Us
EdGate Correlation Services works with over 250 content providers to increase the value of their products in a
rapidly expanding
digital world. EdGate uses its patented technology and highly skilled staff to assure client success. Employing its nearly two decades of innovation experience, EdGate has proven learning platforms, robust metadata tools and
comprehensive correlation services to serve every clients unique needs.
EdGate currently focuses on correlation consulting, content and metadata development and management, media segmentation and licensing of international educational standards. EdGate Correlation Services LLC is a division of EDmin, Inc., a learning management and instructional technology solutions company based in San Diego, California.
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