Houston ISD Taps Private Partner To Supply Digital Resources for 1-to-1 Program
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.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.