Ideaphora Insights

It's official. President Barack Obama has signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law to reauthorize the long overdue Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replace its latest version, No Child Left Behind. Its passage has long-term implications for digital learning.  While schools and districts have increasingly implemented  digital learning initiatives in recent years, t he  new law bolsters the movement by  funding  key programs, including   innovative instruction and assessments and digital equity research. Digital learning initiatives can also help school districts and states address the  key goals of ESSA to close the achievement gap and ensure all students excel. To address the growing needs of schools districts and states, Ideaphora offers an engaging digital learning environment for students to discover ideas, evaluate their thinking, and apply their knowledge in ways that accelerate that their academic growth.

Open education resources (OER) have the potential to increase educator and student access to high-quality learning materials, no matter where they live or what school they are from, as well as help schools reduce costs as they transition to digital learning. The U.S. Department of Education has launched the #GoOpen campaign to encourage more districts, schools and educators to use openly licensed education resources. However, to truly maximize the potential of OER, students need to have opportunites to engage with those materials in ways that deepen their understanding of curriculum concepts and develop their critical thinking skills.  

Faced with ever-evolving challenges, schools are looking for sound, research-based products that will help them meet their learning objectives. Ideaphora is not only filling an urgent need for a tool that enables students to seamlessly build knowledge maps with digital content, it’s also supported by a rigorous research basis and a continuous improvement process.