Announcing Math alive at #FETC! Yay!!

fetc conference alive studios

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Are you headed to FETC this week? Us too!

Alive Studios will be among 475 exhibiting companies at the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) this week in Orlando!

If your brain starts getting mushy from all of those presentations, or you want to just skip to the best solution on the market for early childhood learning in reading and math, start your tradeshow stroll with a visit to Alive Studios. We will be at booth 263 on the trade show floor!

Demos Demos Demos!

Alive Studios will be holding ongoing product demos as well as two drawings for the NEW Learning Alive Suite (a total value of $2,590). The first drawing will be on Thursday January 22nd at 4:10 pm and the second drawing will be on Friday, January 23rd at 1:50 pm. Be sure to stop by booth #263 to register for these drawings and meet Gerdy the Giraffe and Amos the Alligator!

Laser Training (that doesn’t hurt)!

Already using Alive Studios products in your school? We’ll be offering free laser trainings on the hour for Letters alive, Math alive and Storybooks alive in the booth. Want to check out how augmented reality mixed with smart curriculum design can boost reading and math results? Come by for a demo at any time. If we’re slammed, just schedule a time to come back for a personal demonstration.

A Sneak-Peek at the Learning alive Suite:

Letters alive is a supplemental reading curriculum currently in use by educators in 11 countries and in hundreds of classrooms across the United States. Letters alive was designed in alignment with Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten classrooms, as well as early childhood reading within grades 1 – 5 for ESL students, RTI students and students with special needs.

The curriculum gets students excited about reading by using the same mind-blowing, computer-generated augmented reality technology implemented by the Imagineers at Walt Disney World, only in the classroom, where 26 alphabet cards spring to life to help students grasp key concepts in reading.

Each card features an animal that corresponds to a letter in the alphabet, but these are not just simple flash cards or basic animations; These animals pop up in 3-D with no glasses needed, and seem intelligent as they amazingly respond to the questions and sentences that students will build. Even reluctant learners enthusiastically respond to the animals, sounds, and movement. [more]

We will be introducing our newest software, Math alive! Math alive gets students excited about math by helping teachers teach math to early learners in a new and engaging way. Lessons and activities are mapped to Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten and First Grade. Math alive develops critical learning skills that children need to meet major milestones throughout the school year at Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st Grade levels. Math alive uses 45 skill-based interactive games and the latest “mind-blowing technology” — Augmented Reality. [more]

Interactive Stories makes reading fun and engaging for children with digital interactive storybooks. They can read the stories themselves or have the program read it to them. Children are able to interact with the pages of the digital book with the same lovable animals that are in Letters alive and Math alive. One character trait is incorporated in each digital story. (i.e., being on time, courage, or kindness) Each story has mini games and activities that are aligned to Common Core State Standards.

Contact Information for Journalists:

To receive interviewing contact information for parents, teachers, school, or district administrators, please contact Ian Bryan at Algorithm Agency, 828.713.3310, pr@alivestudiosco.com. For independent research: http://bit.ly/K-12study

Ian Bryan | Algorithm Agency

Top 3 (or 4) Crowdfunding Tools for Teachers

 

adoptaclassroomlogoThe average teacher spends up to $1,000 of their own money on supplies for students every year. Adopt A Classroom allows crowdfunders to partner with a teacher to ensure students have what they need to succeed. Here’s how it works:

  1. Donors find and fund a classroom by searching for a teacher they know, a school they have a connection with, or a subject they’re passionate about. 100% of your tax-deductible donation goes to the classroom.
  2. Teachers purchase supplies online. Since every classroom is different, our partners provide a wide selection of everything from pencils and paper to iPads and projectors.
  3. Students have the supplies they need to succeed. It’s amazing what teachers and students can accomplish together when they have the proper resources.
  4. Donors receive updates on their impact. When you donate through AdoptAclassroom.org, you’ll receive reports on what your donation was used for and how it helped students.

Visit [www.adoptaclassroom.org]

incitedlogoCreated by two English teachers at Oregon’s Clackamas Community College, IncitED is a crowdfunding community created for anyone with an education project that is in need of money. Whether you want to create an after-school program, develop new educational technology, help disadvantaged learners, establish a scholarship fund, or acquire classroom supplies, the possibilities for great education projects are virtually limitless. IncitED has a basic design and goal: to become the Kickstarter equivalent for education. So far they are accomplishing just that:

http://www.incited.org/

Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 5.33.28 PM Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 5.33.45 PMKickstarter and IndieGoGo are the two most popular crowdfunding sites on the internet, however, none focus specifically on education. We’ve heard mixed reviews from teachers using these tools and the one thing they all have in common is this: both crowdfunding tools draw far more out-of-network (possible donors who you did not invite, who found you because they were searching for similar projects or stumbled across you on the home page) traffic than education-specific pages. The main difference between the two? IndieGoGo allows you to capture funds from projects that do not make their total fundraising goal, while Kickstarter will only release a fully-funded project.

www.indiegogo.com

www.kickstarter.com

Study Shows Gains in Pre-K using Augmented Reality

AUGMENTED REALITY STUDY SHOWS GAINS IN PRE-K, KINDERGARTEN READING

Atlanta, GA – (June 16, 2014) – Pre-K and Kindergarten students made greater gains on two standard reading skill assessments when using the Letters alive® augmented reality program, according to research by Dr. Tamra Ogletree at the University of West Georgia. The Letters alive® curriculum is aligned to Common Core Standards and is best suited for early learners. 26 alphabet cards spring to life using augmented reality, aided by a broad library of lesson plans to help students grasp key concepts in reading.

While students using the full curriculum of Letters alive made the greatest gains, even those exposed to only a partial implementation showed greater improvement than students in classrooms with no implementation. The two measures taken were the AIMSweb® Benchmark Assessments for Letter Naming Fluency and Letter Sound Fluency. For both measures, the full implementation classroom showed on average more than twice as much improvement as the control classroom.

New Research into Augmented Reality in K12


Study: Augmented Reality Shows Gains in Pre-K, Kindergarten Reading 

Pre-K and Kindergarten students made greater gains on two standard reading skill assessments when using the Letters alive® augmented reality program, according to research by Dr. Tamra Ogletree at the University of West Georgia. The Letters alive® curriculum is aligned to Common Core Standards and is best suited for early learners. 26 alphabet cards  use augmented reality and are aided by a library of lesson plans. 

The two measures taken were the AIMSweb® Benchmark Assessments for Letter Naming Fluency and Letter Sound Fluency. For both measures, the full implementation classroom showed on average more than twice as much improvement as the control classroom.

Click here to read the full article.