Archive for News
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.
Democrasoft Presents at Private Conference
Posted by: | CommentsAt a private conference late Friday attended by sophisticated participants in the technology space, Democrasoft, Inc. presented its current business plan, which included a statement of the Company’s internal expectations regarding the financial performance the Company believes might be attained in 2014. This Company’s business plan was provided to assist attendees in understanding how the Company believes its business model could produce profits in the future.
Noting that the Company presently has no meaningful revenues or significant customer base and that its products are constantly being refined and are subject to a great many contingencies, the Company also noted that it believes, if a great many things go right and go according to the Company’s plans and assumptions, the Company could achieve revenues of up to $100 million and pretax net income of up to $89 million in 2014.
Some basic information regarding the Company’s business plan and models are set forth in the 2010 Annual Report on the Company’s website: http://Democrasoft.com . There can be no assurance that the projections will indeed be realized.
Collaborize Classroom heads to ISTE Conference
Posted by: | CommentsDemocrasoft, Inc. the creator of Collaborize Classroom, a free online learning platform, will be at the ISTE 2011 Conference in Philadelphia, PA from June 24th through June 30th. The ISTE Conference is one of the largest educational technology conferences in the nation. Over 15,000 educators, technology coordinators and education industry insiders attend each year.
Collaborize Classroom will be featured in the exhibit hall at booth #2361 where the team will demonstrate the free online learning platform and host several contests. In addition, Colt Briner, VP and General Manager at Democrasoft and Catlin Tucker, a high school English teacher, will be speaking about blended-learning during three different sessions at the conference.
“ISTE 2011 is a key event for Democrasoft,” says Briner. “It is a great opportunity for us to introduce our blended-learning platform to pioneering educators interested in using technology to engage students and improve learning outcomes.”
ISTE 2011 will also feature many networking events that will give attendees the opportunity to meet each other outside of the sessions and trade show. Collaborize Classroom is one of the sponsors of EduBloggerCon and Classroom 2.0 “LIVE in Philly” 2011. The event, held the Saturday before the ISTE Conference, is an all-day un-conference for those who share a passion for social media, blogging and Web 2.0 in education.
On Tuesday, June 28th, Collaborize Classroom will join other leading educational technology brands: Edutopia, SchoolTube, SymbalooEDU, TestSoup and SweetSearch at the Public House Philadelphia for one of the largest networking events for ISTE 2011 attendees, the EdTech Karaoke Tweetup @ ISTE 2011.
For more information about ISTE 2011 and latest news about the conference, please visit: http://collaborizeclassroom.com/ISTE-conference.
The Process of Global Innovation
Posted by: | CommentsAt the end of April, our VP and General Manager, Colt Briner was asked to be a part of the opening keynote panel to speak about Global Innovation in Education at the Georgetown Global Forum in San Francisco. Joining him onstage was Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial, Chris Kelly, founder of Kelly Investments and Former Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook and moderated by John J. DeGioia, President, Georgetown University.
“More than just 21st century buzzwords, social entrepreneurship and global education are the building blocks of an international discourse surrounding the future of economic growth and develop.”
Colt discussed innovation in education and how blended learning can help reach students in this new global world: The hottest term in education is Differentiation. We have come to understand that people learn things in many different ways. Reading and listening to a lecture is just one slice of the education pie.
The way that people interact with information is so diverse and the technologies that are coming out each day make it possible to reach students through their best method, through their strengths.
You can teach anything through these (blended learning) methods.
I am excited when I see teachers approaching students in different ways, giving them opportunities and giving the students the “power of the playbook” – where students have the capacity (whether learning online or other ways) to stop, rewind, go back, fast-forward and review their homework so they can truly understand it.
Technology is what makes this possible and I would love to see more teachers explore this in their classes.
Democrasoft, Inc. today announced its operating results for fiscal 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company reported a net loss of $3,427,051 on revenues of $9,675 as it continued its transition from intellectual property licensing to purpose-driven social networking. For the quarter ended March 31, 2011, the net loss was $502,842 on revenues of $732,500.
The Company also reported that, since the end of 2010, it has closed sales of three legacy patent portfolios, two of which have been previously disclosed. Net proceeds of $731,250 from the sale of two portfolios are reflected in the first quarter results, and additional net proceeds of $162,000 will be reflected in the second quarter operating results. The Company does not expect any further material net proceeds from the sales of legacy intellectual property.
Of the four offerings built on the Company’s Collaborize® platform, the Company has been particularly emphasizing deployment of Collaborize Classroom, its highly-regarded cloud-based tool for extending classroom discussions beyond the classroom walls. From a standing start during the fourth quarter of 2010, more than 3,500 teachers throughout the United States and elsewhere have now created Collaborize Classroom sites with a member base of more than 15,000 experiencing the benefits of Collaborize Classroom, and growing. As deployment increases, the Company will pursue various monetization channels, which it has identified.
“We are extremely pleased that both teachers and students really love how Collaborize Classroom enriches the education process, resulting in engaged and motivated students,” said Richard Lang, Chairman and CEO. “In these challenging times, we know that school administrators will notice both the educational benefits and the proven savings from our free offering, which can save schools up to $100 per month per classroom. Though the growth so far has occurred from a very small base, Collaborize Classroom has been consistently growing at more than 30% per month, compounded for quite a few months,” Lang noted.
