ExploreLearning Goes Back To School!

Two members of our ExploreLearning team recently went back to school to talk with a group of 11th grade Computer Mathematics students — all members of the Blue Ridge Virtual Governor's School. The students, from four different high schools, are not only learning their first programming language (Visual Basic), but are also learning how to use technology to solve problems and to work with others across physical distance.  The discussion, led by Paul Cholmsky (Director of Product Design and Analysis) and Margarita Figueroa (System Administrator Extraordinaire), focused on ExploreLearning Gizmos and what happens behind the scenes to turn an idea into a design, and a design into a new Gizmo, a Gizmo that (we hope!) will make its way into classrooms across the world. Here are some discussion board postings from the group about what they learned from the presentation (the teacher was kind enough to share the feedback with us):

… think it's neat that they're using technology to help out all the visual and kinesthetic learners of the world understand subjects that are otherwise difficult (at least for me — math and science isn't really my thing). Good job guys.…

… I think that the most interesting thing about our field trip yesterday was the gizmos. It was really interesting that a small group of 15 people could make so many useful tools to help people learn certain topics. The gizmos made something complicated, such as tides, seem incredibly easy, and it was neat how they allowed the user to interact (with the topic).…

… I actually thought the presentation was interesting, especially seeing how they took a complicated concept and made it into an easy-to-understand program.…

… I'd say that the most interesting thing that I... well, realized, as opposed to learned, was that static images do make learning hard. Trying to learn some science concepts (DNA, etc.) from the textbook last year was murder because you couldn't have a moving image in your head. It would make sense that a company would move in to fill this niche.…

… I thought the most interesting thing I learned from the presenters was that they started their own business from scratch, and now they have more customers every day, even though they still have the same amount of employees working. People from all over combined their ideas and formed their business from scratch. I think that's pretty impressive.…

Thanks for the feedback! We enjoyed giving the presentation and demonstrating some of our Gizmos.