News Briefs for Monday, Dec. 18

Enciclomedia Program To Add 2,300 VSATs

Mexico's Enciclomedia Program will add some 2,300 VSATs to be used as part of the country's Enciclomedia Program to serve more than 3,100 classrooms in Mexico. "The ongoing program uses the latest technologies as part of an application suite to modernize classrooms in public schools throughout Mexico," said STM Group, a systems integrator supplying the VSAT terminals. In addition to Satlink VSAT terminals, each classroom involved in the project is equipped with an electronic white board, projector and custom education software. The VSATs provide wide area network IP connectivity from the school to a project data center sponsored by Mexico's ministry of education.

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Wright Group Launches Phonics Program

The Wright Group, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, has launched a new phonics program called The Wright Skills. Designed for pre K-3 students, the program targets phonemic awareness and phonics and vocabulary development. Curriculum materials include decodable books, various Big Books, card sets and an audio CD.

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eChalk Updates Lesson Planner

eChalk has released Lesson Planner 7.5, an update to the company's module for curriculum distribution and lesson planning, submission and review. The new version offers ease of use improvements and provides new tools for managing and reporting on curricula. Lesson Planner is a part of eChalk's Online Learning Environment, a hosted service for school and classroom administration. The latest enhancements to the Online Learning Environment, according to eChalk, include new Web site personalization options and new organizational and planning tools.

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Spectrum K12, Edustructures Partner for Education Technology

Spectrum K12 School Solutions and Edustructures have entered into a partnership to provide enhancements to instructional, administrative and communications Technologies in schools. The two companies will be working together to bring a "more comprehensive, SIF-compliant special education data management solution" to districts and educational service centers based on Spectrum K12's Encore! and Edustructures SIFWorks integration platform. SIF is a standard that enables various education software solutions to interact and share data so that educators can integrate new software into systems they're presently using.

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About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at [email protected].

Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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