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Elluminate News: Press Release
Elluminate Launches Ground-breaking Social Learning Network for Education
LearnCentral™ Offers Free Social and Professional Networking, Real-time Online Meetings, Live Online Events, Peer-rated Resources, and More
Pleasanton, California — June 29, 2009
News Facts:
- Elluminate, Inc. is expanding its role as the leading provider of web, audio, and video solutions for real-time online learning and collaboration by launching a new social learning network for education. More than a social network or learning community, LearnCentral™ is an open environment that enables those who are passionate about teaching and learning to connect with like-minded colleagues to share, collaborate, inspire, and be inspired on a global level.
- LearnCentral is free and open to professionals in the global education community, not just Elluminate customers. In addition to providing the social networking tools that enable members to find and connect with others to share content and best practices, LearnCentral also provides collaboration tools for meeting in real-time virtual rooms and holding and attending events. Upon joining LearnCentral, each member receives a free Elluminate vRoom™, a virtual meeting room for up to three participants or locations.
- The network is moderated by Elluminate’s Social Learning Consultant Steve Hargadon, founder of Classroom 2.0, director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and a columnist for School Library Journal. Hargadon is a frequent blogger, podcaster, and webinar host who covers a wide variety of topics, including Web 2.0, educational technology, and social networking.
- LearnCentral is an opportunity to connect on a global level, enabling educators to be more productive and effective. Studies show that professional networking and development leads to improved student outcomes, increased teacher job satisfaction, and higher teacher retention, saving institutions cost of professional development and new hire programs. At a deeper level, it is a call to action to help bring about positive change within the education community worldwide.
- The network provides tools that enable members to:
- Connect with peers worldwide
- Share ideas, discuss issues, solve problems
- Meet with colleagues in real time with Elluminate vRoom
- Develop and share standards-based curricula
- Access a library of peer-rated resources
- Discover relevant content for the classroom
- Improve skills and increase effectiveness
- Create and maintain a portfolio of learning content
- Join and create groups
- Collaborate on projects and best practices
- Mentor and be mentored
- Increase visibility of an academic institution
- Conduct professional development training
- Attend events with thought leaders in education community
- Participate in global dialogue to help transform education
- A custom-branded community, LearnCentral Private Edition enables academic institutions and industry organizations to use their own logos and colors, provide single sign-on to a private community, access searchable public/private content, schedule community-wide events, and facilitate real-time meeting, teaching, and learning with Elluminate web collaboration technology. In the future, the company plans to integrate this social learning component with its core suite of web collaboration products.
Quotes for Attribution:
Elluminate's LearnCentral has blended the best features of social networking with a content management system that provides the ability to share resources and content within groups or the whole educational community. The ease of use and multiple functionalities allow districts, schools. educational organizations, and individuals to easily develop and deploy a dynamic communication and sharing network. LearnCentral allows individuals and groups to participate in scheduled cross-network events as well as provide live events for a specific group.
We've been looking for a way to connect our faculty groups so they can share tips, guidelines, and teaching strategies with one another online, and LearnCentral certainly has that potential. It may also become a useful way to organize and distribute learning/teaching objects, like lesson plans and portable archives, among a community of instructors. I'm looking forward to seeing this grow and blossom!
I'm really excited about the potential of what LearnCentral will become for educators! The combination of educational networking, with the free Elluminate vRoom capability, holds tremendous opportunity to significantly contribute to teaching and learning world-wide. LearnCentral will also make it easy for classrooms to connect, providing an organized platform for collaboration and student engagement.
While still in its early stages, LearnCentral has the potential to help bring about historic changes in the ability of educators to communicate, collaborate, and share by combining asynchronous social networking with the synchronous online meeting capability of Elluminate. We are in the midst of nothing less than an educational renaissance, where the collaboration with other educators that took place only at annual conferences starts to happen every day, and where educational careers can be built around or supplemented as part of specialty areas of focus.
Steve Hargadon, Founder, Classroom 2.0
Elluminate Social Learning Consultant
Elluminate is making history. We listened to those in the education community who told us they wanted a destination for education, a way to connect, collaborate, and learn with others on a global level. We believe that 21century education calls for 21st century solutions, and we understand that the learning landscape must evolve into what we call EDU 2.0. The way we accomplish this is to be always learning, together. We believe that the power of community has the power to transform.
Maurice Heiblum, President, Elluminate, Inc.
Copyright ©2001-2009 Elluminate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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