Archive for Collaborize Classroom
Collaborize Classroom Updates – Groups and the Topic Library
Posted by: | CommentsToday we released the latest and greatest updates to Collaborize Classroom. As many of you know, last month the Collaborize Classroom Topic Library launched. With a single click, teachers can share individual question-based topics that have already been proven successful in individual Collaborize Classroom websites around the world. If you haven’t yet checked out the library you can here: http://library.collaborizeclassroom.com.
This month we’ve added some long-awaited features to Collaborize Classroom:
Permission-Based Categories
We’re excited to have delivered the feature that has been most requested by our users! You can now set group-level permissions on your topic categories. The benefit of this feature is that students will only see the topics that are relevant to them.
To use this feature, start by creating student groups. Roll over Manage at the top of your site and click Groups.
The Manage Groups section will appear, which lists all of the groups you have created in your site. To set up a new group, click Create New Group.
Once you’ve created your groups you can set permissions on any category so that it is only visible to members of the group(s) you select.
On the Manage Categories screen (the second tab in the “Manage Site” area), you’ll see the current visibility setting for each category. Collaborize Classroom defaults the setting to “Visible to Everyone.”
Click Edit and the Category Visibility window will appear. You have the choice to make the category you’ve selected visible to everyone, just the site moderators or the site moderators and the groups of your choice. Check the box(s) for the groups that apply and click Save Changes.
No Email Required for Student Registration
Another request we’ve heard from many of our users is for students to be able to join a Collaborize Classroom site without using an email address. With this release, we provide a link on the registration form for students to register without an email address:
If your students choose to create a username, it must be at least 6 characters in length. Just like an email address, they’ll use their new username to sign in to your Collaborize Classroom site.
Easy Access to Managing Categories
We’ve heard from many of our users that they were having a hard time finding where to go to manage their categories. To address this, we’ve added a simple way to navigate to the Manage Categories section. On the top right of the Categories list, you’ll see a pencil icon. Simply click on the pencil and the Manage Category section will appear. From this menu, you can add, delete, edit and rearrange categories. You can also set your visibility permissions using student groups, as described above in Permission-Based Categories.
We are always looking for feedback from our community of teachers. If you have an idea, feature request, or anything else you would like to share, please send it to us at feedback@collaborizeclassroom.com or find us on Twitter at @Collaborize.
Democrasoft Enters Into Agreement with Major Corporation
Posted by: | CommentsDemocrasoft Inc. today announced that it has executed an agreement with one of America’s largest and best-known corporations to participate in a special joint project involving the Collaborize Classroom online learning platform, Democrasoft’s flagship product. Under the terms of the agreement, Democrasoft is not able to disclose the name of the other party. In addition, Democrasoft has agreed to prioritize the development of certain aspects of its technology with a view to accelerating the deployment of various new features that Democrasoft has recently developed.
While there can be no assurance that this agreement will lead to any continued relationship, this agreement represents the first significant revenue event for Democrasoft related to its Collaborize Classroom blended-learning platform. Under the terms of the agreement, the other corporation will make a payment in the low six figures in the current quarter and another equal payment at the completion of the project.
“We are extremely gratified that one of America’s household names has expressed this level of interest in how our web-based platform can potentially create a significant opportunity for both parties in the education arena,” said Richard Lang, Chairman and CEO of Democrasoft. “While nothing is guaranteed, this relationship, if continued, could go a long way toward achieving our long-range goal of extending the reach of Collaborize Classroom around the world,” Lang added.
In an unrelated development, Democrasoft announced that, since its last update on July 5th, the number of Collaborize Classroom sites launched by teachers has now topped 8,300.The monthly growth rate for launched sites has averaged 34% since January; in June the growth rate exceeded 60%, even though school was out of session most of the month in most areas.
Richard Lang on the Dylan Ratigan Show
Posted by: | CommentsRichard Lang, CEO of Democrasoft and creator of Collaborize Classroom visited MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show to talk about innovation and technology in the classroom and how Collaborize Classroom can help teachers with in-class discussions, assignments & instruction.
“Gives them something specific to interaction with each other. It’s called blended learning. “
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Democrasoft to Unveil Collaborize Classroom Topic Library
Posted by: | CommentsDemocrasoft, Inc. today announced that it will be releasing an important evolutionary extension to its rapidly expanding Collaborize Classroom platform for online education. The Company is poised to unveil the Collaborize Classroom Topic Library™, a vast repository of individual, pre-formatted “learning units” created by and for teachers. The Topic Library will allow teachers everywhere to share individual question-based topics used to engage students online, that have already proven successful in individual Collaborize Classroom websites around the world.
With just a few clicks, teachers will be able to populate their own Collaborize Classroom websites with individual discussion topics from the global Topic Library on almost any subject, or be able to share their own discussion topics with other teachers on the Collaborize Classroom network. Additionally, the new Topic Library will provide real-time ratings and comments from other teachers who have already used these topics, creating an unparalleled peer-review system for assessing the relevance and potential value of any topic in the library.
According to Democrasoft, Chairman & CEO Richard Lang, “What is exciting about this new extension of Collaborize Classroom is that the Topic Library will it make it possible for any teacher in the world to benefit from the success of other teachers. And like our basic platform, it will remain free of charge for all teachers.”
The new Topic Library builds exponentially on Collaborize Classroom’s award-winning online learning platform, which has been been exeriencing rapid growth and glowing reviews from teachers, students and independent organizations since its official launch in January of this year. Teachers who have previously launched their own private and secure Collaborize Classroom websites have reported significant improvements in student engagement, depth of learning, and test scores. The new Topic Library will allow teachers to share the individual topics that have had the most success in their own Collaborize Classrooms around the world.
Collaborize Classroom has emerged as a preferred choice in education technology because of its simple and engaging design, its ease of use, the “fun” factor reported by students, and its ability to embed documents, video, and other multi-media directly into discussion topics. The collaborative online learning platform also provides student participation reports and quantified results of online student discussions, further supporting a new depth of learning, as reported by teachers already using the platform.
Beginning later this summer, once teachers launch discussion topics on their own private Collaborize Classroom sites, they will be given the opportunity to post their topics to the shared Topic Library. Any educator will be able to easily search through all of the pre-formated question-based topics, sorted by subject, grade, custom tags, or even by the author of the topic.
According to Lang, “The new Topic Library is designed to provide two huge benefits: It allows newer teachers to benefit from the work of more experienced teachers around the world and it makes it possible for any teacher in the world to rise to prominence as a provider of effective, successful topics that have been validated by peers world-wide. All this in just a few, simple clicks.“
The new Collaborize Classroom Topic Library is scheduled to be released in time for the beginning of the fall school semester.
Collaborize Classroom at ISTE 2011 Conference
Posted by: | CommentsISTE 2011, the nation’s largest educational technology conference is coming up in a few months. This year marks the first year the team at Collaborize Classroom will have a booth (#2361) during the June 27-29th event in Philadelphia, PA, and we couldn’t be more excited to attend.
We have created a whole website dedicated to updates about ISTE 2011 including:
- ISTE Sessions
- Info about our #Edtech Karaoke Tweetup on Tuesday, June 28th
- Fun things to do in Philly when not at the ISTE trade show, sessions, etc.
- ISTE 2011 News
We look forward to meeting many Twitter friends and online faces in person at the event!
