Editor’s note: Jim Goodnight is CEO and co-founder of Cary-based SAS, one of the world’s largest privately held software and analytics companies.
CARY – Much of what SAS does to support education focuses on putting children on track to bright futures. More than 20 years ago, as efforts were taking off to integrate more computers into classrooms, I was concerned about the lack of quality online educational resources. We needed to engage those students, the first generation of digital natives, with interactive resources that mirrored how they consumed information outside of school.
We formed a division comprising master teachers, software developers, designers and other specialists to tackle the problem. This division is now known as Curriculum Pathways. It provides interactive, online resources and mobile apps for the core subjects of English Language Arts, math, science, social studies and Spanish, mapped to individual state standards.
For several years, we charged a nominal fee. But it became clear that any expense could be a barrier to educators and students accessing the high-quality resources. Ten years ago today I decided the resources, training and professional development of Curriculum Pathways should be free to everyone. Teachers, homeschoolers, parents, students, adult learners… anyone interested in online learning.
SAS Curriculum Pathways
Now, more than 4 million users in 132 countries use Curriculum Pathways’ more than 1,800 resources, whether teaching and learning about the New Deal, compound fractions or Mendelian genetics.
Those are numbers to be celebrated, but I’d like to highlight a few areas of which I’m particularly proud.
The Curriculum Pathways team has advanced educational technology research, policy and innovation. They literally wrote the book on mobile learning, sharing hard-earned lessons on the challenges of developing educational apps in a world of rapidly changing technologies and policies.
Curriculum Pathways mobile apps address a variety of educational needs. Read Aloud is a personal favorite as it provides a way for children to read on their own with help from the app. And, parents can use the app to record themselves reading books. Young readers can see words highlighted as the familiar voice speaks each word.
Partnerships with organizations like the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Hill Center and the Poe Center for Health Education extend the benefits of the free resources into other communities, even bringing astronomy to life for the visually impaired. A new collaboration with Microsoft creates more powerful writers by making Writing Reviser, powered by AI and machine learning, available to all MS Word users. It is also available as a Google Docs Add-on, iOS, Chromebook and web app.
As more and more states have embraced computer science as essential coursework, the Curriculum Pathways team has served as advocates and advisers to states interested in creating and integrating computer science into state standards. The team contributes to the national conversation, such as by investigating gender diversity trends and asking important questions, such as, who will teach all these new computer science courses?
Curriculum Pathways in the classroom, and in the community
SAS was a founding member of the Computing in the Core coalition, which originally conceived Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). CSEdWeek is an impetus for many employee volunteer efforts. Over the years, hundreds of SAS employees have spent thousands of hours in classrooms as part of CSEdWeek and Hour of Code. Lately, many of those efforts feature CodeSnaps, an app that teaches programming basics.
A teacher can conduct an entire lesson using a single iPad and Sphero robot. Kids are up and out of their seats, working together to gather requirements, assemble and test code, and fix bugs. The Curriculum Pathways team trains SAS employees, parents and others to lead the lesson, which has been repeated hundreds of times in classrooms around the world. This year, a group of 3rd grade girls received the crash course in coding thanks to a young women’s high school science club. What a fantastic way to empower these students to become the STEM leaders of tomorrow.
Turning teachers into digital lesson creators
This year marked a culmination of sorts with the release of Crio®, which allows teachers to combine classroom expertise, imagination, creativity and technology to bring their ideal lessons to life. Crio lets teachers build lessons as the creators of Curriculum Pathways do, giving educators the capability to add and combine audio, text, images, video and interactive content.
In the 5 months since Crio’s launch, more than 3,000 lessons have been built or are in process. Lessons have been launched nearly 20,000 times.
New and better technologies and evolving standards, coursework and policies create a dynamic education technology environment. Through Curriculum Pathways, SAS remains committed to empowering teachers and supporting students through this exciting learning journey.
(C) SAS
This blogpost is reprinted with permission. It was originally published at LinkedIn.
