The SciTEX Learning supplemental Science eLearning resource is now available to order through the TEA's EMAT system.
Resources for grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and topic resources for Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Integrated Physics and Chemisty (IPC) can now be ordered directly from the Texas Education Agency.
See SciTEXLearning.com for more information about this resource and to try some of the content online for free.
Wednesday 10 August 2011
Tuesday 19 July 2011
Texas to Save Bucks with eBooks
The cost of buying school text books for entire states including Texas has been a big discussion point in education for some time now, with the suggestion of purchasing digital books (or eBooks) as a cost-effective alternative.
As with all digital content (such as music, film and app downloads), digital versions of text books are said to have major advantages in terms of reduced production, handing and shipping costs, and are therefore seen by many to be a potential solution to massively reduced education spending imposed by governments. Curriculum supplied in a digital format can also be updated immediately and provide a continuously up-to-date source of reference for the students. Digital textbooks are also seen to be a green solution that will greatly the reduce paper consumption across schools in the state.
When the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced that they intended to replace printed science books used in Texas schools with electronic versions, the well established Texan educational company, “Technical Laboratory Systems Inc” (Tech Labs) had a vision of replacing the books with a new and very ambitious 21st century eLearning solution called “SciTEX Learning”.
Tech Labs, based in Houston, decided to develop a full eLearning solution with engaging, dynamic, multimedia and interactive content as an alternative to ‘eBooks’. After all, most of the elementary schools across Texas are already using media-rich science eLearning materials supplied by tech Labs – why shouldn’t the middle and high schools have access to similar resources as well? They saw little advantage in simply digitizing existing text.
This project was a massive undertaking and required a large and highly skilled human resource to action it within a very short time frame. Tech Labs decided to work with one of the world’s best known science, technology and engineering educational software houses, LJ Create Inc. LJ Create has produced teaching materials for a global market for almost as many years as Tech Labs (Tech Labs was founded in 1977 and LJ in 1979). LJ Create was able to provide a highly experienced and multi-skilled workforce of teachers, eLearning specialists, technical authors, educational editors, photographers, artists, graphic designers, animators, video producers, and software development engineers that the project required.
Tech Labs and LJ have worked hand-in-hand on many successful projects for spreading across three decades. With Tech Labs’ knowledge of the Texas science education specification and a massive and highly experienced eLearning development team effort that LJ could readily supply, the partnership became a winning solution.
The Tech Labs / LJ partnership for school science resources is no surprise to many science teachers across Texas. LJ Create’s science materials supplied by Tech Labs have already been used in hundreds of elementary schools across Texas, with teachers stating that the students’ TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) scores have improved dramatically since their new lab installations.
The result of the big team effort, 'SciTex Learning' is a complete online science curriculum solution for Middle and High Schools in the State of Texas. It is a complete science curriculum especially designed for Texas by Texans. Even the name of the science solution comes from the combination of the words ‘SCIence’ and ‘TEXas’.
Tech Labs was proud to have this brand new range of middle and high school science eLearning resource approved by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) during the evaluation process in June this year.
The addition of the middle and high school ranges means that Scitex can cover science from Elementary School or Kindergarten up to year 12 (K12).
The new Scitex system covers combined Science at Middle School level and the subjects of Biology, Physics, Chemistry and IPC (Integrated Physics and Chemistry) at High School level as specified by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The program features 100% coverage of the 2010 TEKS. 100% alignment to the TEKS is assured with a standards based menu system. Teachers and students select lessons base upon TEKS, student outcomes, or even a specific breakout. Students and teachers can display the related TEKS and student outcomes within the software. This makes the Scitex system easy to use with any form of curriculum mapping.
See http://www.SciTEXLearning.com for more information about this project.
As with all digital content (such as music, film and app downloads), digital versions of text books are said to have major advantages in terms of reduced production, handing and shipping costs, and are therefore seen by many to be a potential solution to massively reduced education spending imposed by governments. Curriculum supplied in a digital format can also be updated immediately and provide a continuously up-to-date source of reference for the students. Digital textbooks are also seen to be a green solution that will greatly the reduce paper consumption across schools in the state.
When the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced that they intended to replace printed science books used in Texas schools with electronic versions, the well established Texan educational company, “Technical Laboratory Systems Inc” (Tech Labs) had a vision of replacing the books with a new and very ambitious 21st century eLearning solution called “SciTEX Learning”.
Tech Labs, based in Houston, decided to develop a full eLearning solution with engaging, dynamic, multimedia and interactive content as an alternative to ‘eBooks’. After all, most of the elementary schools across Texas are already using media-rich science eLearning materials supplied by tech Labs – why shouldn’t the middle and high schools have access to similar resources as well? They saw little advantage in simply digitizing existing text.
This project was a massive undertaking and required a large and highly skilled human resource to action it within a very short time frame. Tech Labs decided to work with one of the world’s best known science, technology and engineering educational software houses, LJ Create Inc. LJ Create has produced teaching materials for a global market for almost as many years as Tech Labs (Tech Labs was founded in 1977 and LJ in 1979). LJ Create was able to provide a highly experienced and multi-skilled workforce of teachers, eLearning specialists, technical authors, educational editors, photographers, artists, graphic designers, animators, video producers, and software development engineers that the project required.
Tech Labs and LJ have worked hand-in-hand on many successful projects for spreading across three decades. With Tech Labs’ knowledge of the Texas science education specification and a massive and highly experienced eLearning development team effort that LJ could readily supply, the partnership became a winning solution.
The Tech Labs / LJ partnership for school science resources is no surprise to many science teachers across Texas. LJ Create’s science materials supplied by Tech Labs have already been used in hundreds of elementary schools across Texas, with teachers stating that the students’ TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) scores have improved dramatically since their new lab installations.
The result of the big team effort, 'SciTex Learning' is a complete online science curriculum solution for Middle and High Schools in the State of Texas. It is a complete science curriculum especially designed for Texas by Texans. Even the name of the science solution comes from the combination of the words ‘SCIence’ and ‘TEXas’.
Tech Labs was proud to have this brand new range of middle and high school science eLearning resource approved by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) during the evaluation process in June this year.
The addition of the middle and high school ranges means that Scitex can cover science from Elementary School or Kindergarten up to year 12 (K12).
The new Scitex system covers combined Science at Middle School level and the subjects of Biology, Physics, Chemistry and IPC (Integrated Physics and Chemistry) at High School level as specified by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The program features 100% coverage of the 2010 TEKS. 100% alignment to the TEKS is assured with a standards based menu system. Teachers and students select lessons base upon TEKS, student outcomes, or even a specific breakout. Students and teachers can display the related TEKS and student outcomes within the software. This makes the Scitex system easy to use with any form of curriculum mapping.
See http://www.SciTEXLearning.com for more information about this project.
Wednesday 11 May 2011
The Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke will be in Africa with LJ Create for eLearning Africa 2011
The Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke, as former UK Secretary of State for Education and Skills was responsible for one of the largest implementations of classroom technology on a national basis seen in the last 10 years. He is now a Director of LJ Create, one of the UK’s leading providers of interactive eLearning resources for science, engineering and technology.
Charles will be attending a networking event hosted by LJ Create on stand D5 in the main exhibition hall at the eLearning Africa event on the 26th May 2011. Come and meet Charles over a drink and canapé from 16:00 to 16:45.
Visit the LJ Create stand at eLearning Africa and find out first hand how ICT-based teaching and learning can play a transformational role in schools, colleges and universities across Africa.
Charles will be attending a networking event hosted by LJ Create on stand D5 in the main exhibition hall at the eLearning Africa event on the 26th May 2011. Come and meet Charles over a drink and canapé from 16:00 to 16:45.
Visit the LJ Create stand at eLearning Africa and find out first hand how ICT-based teaching and learning can play a transformational role in schools, colleges and universities across Africa.
ELearning Africa
LJ Create, TSI and Promethean will be at eLearning Africa. Visit their stand and see how the integrated resources from LJ and Promethean create interactive eLearning environments for science, engineering and technology.
See the eLearning Africa 2011 website for more information about the conference, or LJ Create's event page to see other events that LJ Create are attending in the near future.
Wednesday 16 February 2011
SciTex Learning - Science Curriculum for Texas.
Our development team has been working at full power to get a whole range of lessons ready to allow teacher to teach physics, chemistry, biology and IPC topics to their students.
This has been a major task and it has been great to see pretty much the whole of the creative team within LJ working so hard on a single project.
The teaching resource consists of online lessons in HTML format, PowerPoint presentations that can also be delivered remotely in Flash format, and online assessment. To back up all of the curriculum, we have also produced many interactive applications and simulations that will help teach the science theory.
In all my years at LJ Create, I have not seen so many teachers, editors, graphic designers, animators, technicians, technical authors, software engineers and web developers working together on a single project. It is however a project to be proud of.
Each of the lessons map directly to the learning objectives specified in the Texas State standards, and we have also provided the instructors with an easy to use tool that helps them to quickly find learning materials for each objective.
This resource can be found at http://www.SciTexLearning.com
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