Learning Resources

Kentucky Valley Ed Cooperative Adopts Resource Library for Digital Transition

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 01/22/15

The Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative (KVEC) has adopted a resource library to help its member schools transition to using digital content.

The move is part of KVEC's Race to the Top District (RTT-D) grant-funded Appalachian Renaissance Initiative, which includes plans for personalized learning environments, an accessible data system, next generation classrooms, and effective teachers.

KVEC decided to adopt Knovation's icurio, which features more than 360,000 open educational resources (OER), to help facilitate its "digital conversion through hand-selected, contextualized content," according to a news release. "With icurio, the Eastern Kentucky school districts can deliver quality, standards-aligned resources that are relevant to each grade, subject area and learner."

In addition to the library, Knovation will provide two days of professional development for teachers in the schools adopting icurio.

"Strong and reliable instructional content is vital to the success of our digital conversion," said Jeff Hawkins, KVEC executive director, in a prepared statement. "icurio's ability to deliver targeted online resources and tools and organize them around the curriculum, combined with Knovation's professional learning services, enables our students and teachers to confidently move toward developing a blended learning environment designed to make all our students future ready."

KVEC and 17 southeastern Kentucky districts won the RTT-D grant, worth $30 million over four years, in 2014. "The consortium was selected for the competitive award based on their commitment and readiness to provide students with high quality education and engage in innovative strategies to drive academic achievement, increase graduation rates and improve college and career success," according to a news release.