Learning Resources

Houston ISD Taps Private Partner To Supply Digital Resources for 1-to-1 Program

• By Michael Hart
• 11/04/15

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) has selected a curated content provider to supply resources for its PowerUp campaign, which aims to put a laptop in the hands of every single one of its 65,000 students by next year.

Knovation's collection of 360,000 digital assets will link up with the Houston district's HUB, the core platform for the 1-to-1 program that supplies teachers with digital curricula, enables students to tailor classes to their own learning profiles and allows parents to track student performance.

All of the assets in Knovation's collection being made available to HISD have been selected, evaluated, tagged and aligned with Texas state standards.

"We look forward to providing high-quality, standards-aligned resources that help Houston ISD achieve a personalized learning experience for every student," said Knovation CEO Randy Wilhelm.

While the PowerUp campaign is in full swing now for 18,000 students in the district's 11 high schools, it will be rolled out before the end of this school year to all of its 283 schools. All laptops will include Microsoft Office and Internet search engines Explorer and Google Chrome.

Another part of the PowerUp program focuses on partnering with community spots, such as restaurants, churches, YMCAs and apartment complexes, to install wireless infrastructure to enable students to use their devices off campus.