She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
Vicki Smith Bigham — Friday, September 03, 2010
Welcome to September, everyone! I hope you are looking forward to a special Labor Day weekend. Take just a moment to catch up on a lot of news before you say good-bye to this work week....
New roles for colleagues and friends...
You may be aware that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired the assets of education technology software provider Impact Education and merged its operations with the company's online tutoring tool, SkillsTutor. SkillsTutor was acquired by HMH in 2006, and Impact Education recently launched SkillsTutor Mobile, a mobile learning application that extends SkillsTutor through twenty-first-century outlets like the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. Earlier this summer, SkillsTutor Mobile earned the SIIA Innovation Incubator Program Award for Most Likely to Succeed in the Education Market. HMH sees the new partnership with Impact Education as a way to increase SkillsTutor's success and bring together Impact Education's professional development practices, data reporting and analysis with HMH's own content and platform functionality. SkillsTutor will operate as a separate division within HMH, reporting to Greg DuMont (greg.dumont@hmhpub.com), Executive Vice President of Corporate Development. Impact Education's President and CEO, Adam Hall (adam.hall@hmhpub.com), will lead the SkillsTutor division as President. Adam's leadership team will include Matt Slattery (matt.slattery@hmhpub.com), Vice President of Development; Kevin Sweeney (kevin.sweeney@hmhpub.com), Vice President of Sales; George Elliott (george.elliott@hmhpub.com), Vice President of Operations; and Deb deVries (deb.devries@hmhpub.com), Vice President of Marketing. Send your congratutions to each of these talented team members!
I know Deb has been in Boston, helping daughter Mallory move into her dorm, get a new computer, phone, and all of that kind of thing this week. I also know she and Adam will both be at EdNET and are looking forward to speaking with others of you there about the new plans for SkillsTutor.
Emily Wright has joined Harcourt School Supply as Southeast Sales Representative. She brings extensive experience to her new role, both on the dealer side and the supplier side. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, Emily was Store Manager of The Learning Circle in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for five years. Most recently, she worked as a Sales Representative for Kay Cameron Educational Sales, starting in 2007. Emily will represent Houghton Mifflin Harcourt products including Steck-Vaughn, Saxon Homeschool, Great Source, Rigby, HMH School and Holt McDougal. Her territory includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Congratulate her on her new position at emily.wright@hmhpub.com.
Evie Hantzopoulos has been named Executive Director of Global Kids, Inc. She succeeds Founder Carole Artigiani and assumes this role after serving Global Kids for over 14 years. She has been Deputy Director and Director of Programs since 1998.
After successfully leading Global Kids for twenty-one years, Carole will turn her attention to working with Evie, the staff and Board of Directors to realize the goals outlined in Global Kids' strategic plan. She will focus particular attention on exploring new programmatic possibilities, broadening the organization's donor base and supporting the launch of Global Kids programs in Washington, DC-Global Kids' first site outside New York City.
Before joining Global Kids in 1996, Evie worked for Aspira of New York's AmeriCorps Program and the Creative Arts Team. A community activist, she serves on Community Board 1 in Queens, is actively involved in her daughters' public schools and has worked with neighbors and elected officials to address the proliferation of cellular antennas in residential communities as well as other issues of public concern. She was a Rockefeller Foundation Next GenerationLeadership Fellow and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Carole founded Global Kids in 1989 and established it as a non-profit organization in 1991. Annually, the organization touches more than 17,000 youth and educators in NYC and hundreds of thousands of others around the world through its pioneering online educational programs. Each year, the 500-plus participants in its flagship Power of Citizenry Leadership Programs educate and inspire thousands of others to take action on local and global issues of concern to them. Global Kids will launch a pilot program at two Washington, D.C. public schools in fall 2010. Carole will remain on staff as Founder and Senior Advisor and will continue as a member of the Board of Directors.
And Paul Kuhne, currently with eChalk, has accepted the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Solution Tree. His last day at eChalk will be Friday, September 24th. You may know that Solution Tree is a 25-year old educational publisher (with authors such as Bob Marzano) that provides books, online resources, in-person seminars and consultants to support professional development in schools and districts in the U.S. and across the world. This new opportunity means a move for Paul and his wife from New York City to Bloomington, Indiana in late October/early November. His new work e-mail is not set up yet, but you can send him congratulations now at paulkuhne.nyc@gmail.com. Also look for him at EdNET to learn more about his new role!
A Tale of Whoa!
I heard this week from Chuck Grant, CEO of Hotmath, Inc. Poor Chuck slipped a disc on his boating vacation that resulted in a nasty case of sciatica which gradually worsened each day to the point of a hot burning pain in his tailbone and down his left leg, making it painful to lie down, sit, stand or walk. He saw no alternative but to get to the spine doctor right away. His wife Julie offered to drive him, so he painfully folded himself into the reclined passenger seat of her Honda for the drive from Kensington to Oakland. Not wishing to cause a late arrival, Julie ignored the speed limit, and Chuck happened to see from his reclined position that she was roaring towards the speed bump on Oxford near Rose. "Whoa!" he cried but too late. He was launched from the reclined seat and bounced back down with a smack....to incredible relief! The pain was completely gone. He is guessing the disc slipped back into place! So, they went and threw a Frisbee around instead of going to the doctor and discussed plans for a new business. They will just remove the right front seat from Julie's Honda, add an adapter to connect it to mechanical bulls and travel around the country putting full page ads in newspapers inviting folks to the local bars for instant back pain relief-$5 per ride. Naturally they will do this in a most professional manner, per Chuck, as car-opractors! Congratulate Chuck on his tale of whoa and his new business concept at cgrant@hotmath.com.
From our Canadian neighbors....
Robert Martellacci, M.A. EdTech, President & Publisher, MindShare Learning, is thrilled to share that his company will be hosting the inaugural MindShare Learning Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit, Tuesday, November 2, at the new Markham Convergence Centre in association with York University. Keynotes will include Don Knezek, CEO, ISTE; Kathy Hurley, Chair, Partnership for 21st Century Skills; and Hall Davidson, Discovery Education. One of the highlights of the event will be a Cross Canada Check-up panel of experts. To learn more and to register, go to www.mindsharelearning.com. Sponsors include York University, EPSON, Pearson Canada and Discovery Education. Limited sponsor opportunities are still available. If you have interest, drop Robert a message at robert@mindsharelearning.com. You can also catch up with Robert at EdNET in a few weeks!
And for a walk down memory lane....Robert is calling all former TLC School division alumni. He has created a special LinkedIn group for this esteemed collection of dedicated education industry professionals with whom he had the pleasure of working. Simply search The Learning Company School Division Alumni to join!
Look who's coming to EdNET!
People are making their plans for EdNET 2010, September 26-28 in Boston. Let me fill you in on the search I did this week on the password-protected directory of registered attendees. I search on different criteria each week to pull a subset of the audience who has identified the criteria in their online directory profile, and this week I searched to identify those organizations that indicated they will be networking at the conference to FORM NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS - I mean, after all, that is what EdNET is all about! Here is what I found:
1105 Media
A Pass Educational Group
Academic Business Advisors
Adaptive Curriculum
Agile Education Marketing
American Education Corporation
Applied Educational Systems
Archipelago Learning
Atomic Learning
Avery Dennison
AWC - Ann Watson Consulting
BABalaz Consulting Group
Benchmark Education Company
Big Deal Media
BrainPOP
C. Blohm & Associates, Inc
Calvert Education Services
Carolina Biological Supply
CDI Computer Dealers
Century Consultants
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council & Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network
Clarity Innovations, Inc.
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
Cuesta Technologies
Custom Computer Specialists, Inc.
dataMetrics Software
De Leon (TX) ISD
Dynamite Learning
EdNET Insight
Education Talk Radio
Educational Insights
Educational Solutions LLC
Educational Systemics
Educational Testing Service
Educational Tools, Inc
EDUMETRIX
EduTone Corporation
Edvance Research, Inc.
edWeb.net
e-Luminate Group
Emantras, Inc
ePals Inc.
eSpindle Learning aka LearnThatWord.org
Faronics
Florida Virtual School
Follett Software Company
FYI Online
Gaggle.Net, Inc.
Ginger Software Inc
GlobalScholar
GoVenture by MediaSpark
GradeCam Corporation
Grand Canyon University
GrantsQuest
IESD Inc./EDRoom
infosnap, inc.
Inspiration Software, Inc.
Instructional Resources Corporation
ISTE
JES & Co.
Key Curriculum Press
Kids4Schools
Kindermusik International
Knowledge Delivery Systems
Lakeshore Learning Materials
Laureate Education, Inc
Learning Media
Learning Resources
Learning.com
Madison Equity Associates
MarketingWorks, Inc.
MDR
Measured Progress
Mentoring Minds, L. P.
MetaMetrics
MGRM Technologies LLC
Millmark Education
MIS, Inc.
MMS Education
National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA)
National School Boards Association
netTrekker
Northwest Evaluation Association
P.E.T. Learning Styles
Pearson
Pearson's Data Solutions
Pegeen Wright Associates
People to People Ambassador Programs
Peoples Education, Inc.
Peter Li Education Group/Today's Catholic Teacher
PolyVision
PR with Panache!
PrepMe
Promethean, Inc.
Q2AMedia
Realityworks, Inc.
Red Wings Learning
RedRock Reports
RM Education
Scholastic Professional Media
School Improvement Network
SchoolSpring.com
Scientific Learning Corporation
Search Institute
SEG Assessment | SEG Research
Sensible City
SkillsTutor
SMART Technologies
SOBCon at SOBEvents, LLC, Successful Blog
Software & Information Industry Association
Sophia Consulting LLC
Spectrum K12 School Solutions
Sprint Nextel
Teachscape
Tech4Learning
Technology Based Learning & Research/Arizona State University
TERC
Texthelp Systems Inc.
The Amos Group
The Douglas Stewart Company
The Education Center, Inc.
The Hayes Connection, Inc.
TregoED
Troxell Communications
Twist Education, LLC
Varitronics, A Brady Business
Vernet, Inc. (Virtual Educational Resources Network)
Virtual High School
Vocab Network LLC
VPG Integrated Media
WordWise Tech
X2 Development Corporation
Yolink
Don't be left out! To register, just go to www.ednetconference.com/ednetregister.asp. You know you want to be there, and I so hope to see you!
Sad news from a friend....
As many of you know, Ginny Kirkland's dad, Edwin L. "Boe" Williams Jr., has struggled with a rare form of leukemia for the past three years and has been quite the fighter. But the past couple of months, and especially the last two weeks, have been very tough.
On Wednesday Ginny's dad was admitted to the hospital due to dehydration, and while he was doing better on Thursday, he started running a fever. By Saturday, they determined that he needed to be moved to ICU. The next night, they learned that in addition to the advanced stage of the leukemia, he had a staph infection that was aggressive. He simply wasn't responding to any of the medications. The doctors gave him some medications to ease his pain and make him comfortable. And Ginny's whole family was able to get there and be together with him before he passed away. As fate would have it, he passed away on the last Sunday in August, in the ICU in Valdosta, Georgia. Ginny's mother passed away seven years ago yesterday in the ICU in Valdosta. I have learned over the years and certainly over the last three how close Ginny's family is, and I know how difficult this loss is. Her father sounds like he was an amazing man in so many ways. You can drop her a note of sympathy at ginny.kirkland@pearsonfoundation.org or let me know if you would like a postal mailing address. Condolences may also be conveyed to the family on the obituary page of the funeral home. For those interested, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: Joe and Fredda Cason Scholarship Fund, Waycross College, 2001 South Georgia Parkway, Waycross, GA 31503, (912) 449-7600; The Huxford Genealogical Society, PO Box 595, Homerville, GA 31634-3151, (912) 487-2310, www.huxford.com; or The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Donor Services, PO Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA 01202, www.leukemia-lymphoma.org. I know you join me in holding Ginny in our hearts and prayers.
I hope you plan to enjoy time with family and friends this Labor Day weekend—a time to salute the American workforce, bid farewell to summer and put away those white shoes and bags lest we commit a major fashion faux pas! For those of you threatened by Hurricane Earl, take the word of those of us who live along the Gulf Coast and take all necessary precautions. Wherever you are this weekend, have fun and be safe! Till next week....Vicki, the Snoop
