1. Supporting the Next-Generation of K-12 Curricula!

    Mark Rivett posted July 1, 2022

    Download White-paper here

    The “digital transformation” of K-12 education is accelerating! Curricula vendors now have digitized offerings which allow curricula to be consumed on tablets, PCs and other electronic devices, and mercifully eliminates the need for children to carry a bag full of books! Typically, paper based curricula have simply been scanned to a digital file, and, perhaps, augmented with online videos. However, as these digitized curricula have not substantively changed how students’ learn no significant improvements in learning outcomes have been observed.

    Driven by the belief that every child, from entry into school, is entitled to experience success via a high quality educational experience regardless of the financial circumstances of their school district, the University of Michigan’s Center for Digital Curricula (UMich.CDC) is perfectly positioned to disrupt the “digitized” curricula development and consumption model. Created by two university professors who have dedicated their careers to understanding “teaching and learning,” and tirelessly studying how technology can be used to improve those activities, the UMich.CDC’s next-generation learning environment, the Collabrify Roadmap Platform, brings deeply-digital, highly-interactive, curricula to life. Collabrify Roadmaps are visual lesson plans where a learner can literally see where their learning starts, where it ends and all the stops (learning activities) along the way. (See attached “Roadmap Lesson.”) The highly-interactive tools in the platform, such as Collabrify MediaWriter and Collabrify Flipbook, improve lessons by enabling learners to construct artifacts and in so doing, manipulate audio, video, animations, and images as easily as they manipulate text. True to its name, the Collabrify Roadmap Platform readily enables student-student and student-teacher collaboration, whether students or teachers are face-to-face, remote or hybrid. For example, integrated into the Platform is Twilio’s Voice-over-IP service; with a simple tap on the phone icon in the Roadmap, a teacher or learner in the classroom to can talk through the computer and collaborate with a student at home. Collabrify Roadmaps support how the Alpha Generation children learn and enable teachers to truly mentor their students and not just monitor them.

    Download White-paper here


  2. We’ve developed a digital education model that works

    Mark Rivett posted

    Read full story at Detroit Free Press

    Technology has changed many aspects of how we work and learn, and especially how young people search for, generate, share, and consume information.

    But the way we teach K-12 students hasn’t changed much at all. There might now be some computers involved using digitized lessons with a few videos, but in most cases we still conduct instruction for the digital generation with paper and pencil.

    Truly transforming education for the digital generation is a must for Michigan’s competitiveness. In this increasingly digital world, our future quality of life – and that of our children – depends upon our ability to keep pace with change.

    To meet the needs of today’s “digital-first” generation, we use an approach that we call “deeply-digital.” This is a new paradigm for education that goes beyond simply digitizing existing lessons.

    Read full story at Detroit Free Press


  3. University of Michigan student Justin Kasieta presented with the 2022 Rosenthal Legislative Intern Award

    Mark Rivett posted April 13, 2022

    Read press release here

    State Rep. Greg Markkanen, Bill Azelton, Justin Kasieta, and Sarah Blakely

    From left to right: State Rep. Greg Markkanen, Bill Azelton, Justin Kasieta, and Sarah Blakely

    An Upper Peninsula native on State Rep. Greg Markkanen’s team has won an award for outstanding legislative performance.

    Justin Kasieta, a graduate of Marquette Senior High school and currently a junior pursuing an interdisciplinary Bachelor in General Studies degree at the University of Michigan, has been presented with the 2022 Rosenthal Legislative Intern Award.

    Justin Kasieta and University of Michigan Regent Sarah Hubbard

    Justin Kasieta and University of Michigan Regent Sarah Hubbard

    Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, as well as the university’s James Madison College, administer the annual award named after Daniel Rosenthal, who was one of MSU’s first Legislative Student Intern Program participants in January of 1977. Undergraduate legislative interns in the Michigan House and Senate regardless of school affiliation are eligible for nomination, and the award recognizes outstanding service and dedication within the role.

    “I’m thrilled and honored to be the recipient of the 2022 Rosenthal Legislative Intern Award,” Kasieta said. “I am so grateful for the great team I work with in Rep. Markkanen’s office who helped make this possible.”

    Read press release here