Rebranding, New Website and a New Blog Location

Please go to jharrisonpr.com to see my new site. All blog posts will be posted here: jharrisonpr.com/blog/

x2VOL, by intelliVOL, Picked as Top 100 Education Product for Third Year

DALLAS — December 4, 2014 —District Administration editors have again picked x2VOL as a Readers’ Choice Top 100 Product for 2014. Each December, the magazine highlights the top products enhancing learning in districts nationwide. x2VOL from intelliVOL was nominated by schools which use the product to make community service programs for service learning or student service easier to manage. Click to Tweet.

Read full release here

Nepris Wins Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom from Learning Magazine

DALLAS – December 3, 2014 – Learning Magazine recently announced that Nepris is a winner of the Learning® Magazine 2015 Teachers’ Choice ℠Award for the Classroom. Nepris—a cloud-based platform connecting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals with teachers—manages the end-to-end process including matching professionals’ skills to teachers’ needs and hosting the interactive sessions that bring STEM relevancy to the classroom. Click to Tweet.

Read full press release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/12/prweb12368028.htm%20

Press release: Nepris Wins Awards of Excellence for “Outstanding Education Technology”

Recognizes Nepris for Connecting Teachers with STEM Professionals for Virtual Sessions

DALLAS – November 17, 2014 – Nepris has been named by Tech & Learning magazine as a top Click to Tweet.

education technology product for K-12 schools. Nepris is a cloud-based platform that virtually connects professionals to classrooms for online, interactive discussions covering the spectrum of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers.

Read full release here

Article: Sacramento Edtech Firm Is Passionate About STEM Education (J Harrison Public Relations Group)

I appreciated this profile about my firm in our CBS Local edition on November 10, 2014

Jennifer Harrison owns her own thriving educational technologypublic relations firm, JHarrisonPR.com. Born and raised in Sacramento, CA, Harrison was part of the last graduating class
of La Sierra High School.

But what may have given Harrison a true edge, was her scientific background, or what is now being referred to in the field as STEM. STEM is an acronym for the following fields of study: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Read full article here: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/11/10/sacramento-edtech-firm-is-passionate-about-stem-education/#.VGDuCXXPgY0.twitter

Article:San Juan USD Expands LMS Adoption To Support Digital Learning

By Joshua Bolkan
THE Journal 11/03/14

The San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD) has adopted the enterprise version of its existing learning management system (LMS) to integrate it with its student information system (SIS) and gain access to additional analytics and administrative features.
Read full article.

Leveraging EdTech for Personalized Learning, San Juan USD Implements Schoology Districtwide

Carl Fahle of San Juan Unified School District shows a Will Rogers Middle School student how the Schoology learning management system is used for collaboration and personalized learning.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – October 30, 2014—In San Juan Unified School District, over 22,000 teachers, parents and students have been using the Schoology Learning Management System for everything from online book studies to web-enabled collaborative learning. With so many District users and educational applications already in place, San Juan USD made the decision to invest in the enterprise version of Schoology—which provides additional analytics, integration with the District’s student information system, and administrative features--to deploy throughout the District.

Read full release on Businesswire.

Article: #SBSTEM Pathways: Q&A with Sabari Raja, CEO of Nepris

Join us this week on SmartBlog on Education as we highlight Q&As with the panelists from our recent STEM Pathways Roundtable event. Read our most recent interview with Sabari Raja, CEO of Nepris.

Why is the issue of connecting industry and education to enhance STEM education important to you?

I landed in engineering because my parents said so. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of control over my kids. Kids today need to understand the relevance of what they are learning in the classroom and how it applies to the real world and eventually how it ties to a career. Sixty-seven percent of kids have no idea what STEM professionals do.

Read full interview in SmartBrief

x2VOL, by intelliVOL, Added to Pearson School Systems List of Partners

x2VOL Simplifies Management and Reporting of High School Community Service Programs

DALLAS — October 29, 2014 — Pearson School Systems has added x2VOL by intelliVOL to its list of Independent Service Vendors. x2VOL solves the problem schools have in managing the community service and volunteer hours their high school students give to nonprofits. x2VOL simplifies management, verification and reporting for student service programs, making hours submission and verification a turn-key process. Administrators and students can also easily generate reports as needed for scholarship and college applications. Click to Tweet.

Read more on Businesswire.

Three California School Districts Select Schoology as Their Learning Management System

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Three school districts in California: San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento, Modesto City Schools, and Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District in Los Angeles recently selected Schoology as their Learning Management System (LMS).

See full press release on Businesswire.

EdSurge Article: Nepris Raises $550K to Bring STEAM Experts to Classrooms

Tony Wan
Oct 7, 2014, EdSurge

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“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a difficult question commonly asked of kids (and sometimes adults).

Nepris, a startup based in Austin, TX, wants to offer students a peek at different career choices by playing matchmaker between industry professionals and classroom teachers and students. For Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO, the goal is “to make industry engagement a part of the everyday classroom experience, instead of something that happens just once or twice a year.”

Read full article here: https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-10-07-nepris-raises-550k-to-bring-steam-experts-to-classrooms

Education Week: Peek Inside a Learning Management System - Schoology

See this infographic in Education Week about Schoology. Education Week published a Special Report on learning management systems at the end of September, 2014.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/peek-inside-a-learning-management-system.html?qs=schoology 

Schoology Portfolios Highlight Academic Achievement

Learning Management System Empowers Users to Share Academic Portfolio with Faculty, Peers and Potential Employers
ORLANDO, Fla. – September 30, 2014—All the technology being applied in K-12 and higher education makes learning a richer experience but it can be difficult to manage the multimedia and digital work generated by a student. Schoology, today announced a new vision for digital portfolios for students to store and manage their own customizable, portable digital profiles, attaching research papers, certificates, endorsements, test results and other learning projects.
Read more on Businesswire.

New Partnership Between intelliVOL and AdmitHub Gives Students Better Odds at College Acceptance

DALLAS — September 9, 2014 — A new partnership between x2VOL by intelliVOL and AdmitHub will give students a better chance to get accepted by the college or university of their choice. x2VOL manages and tracks the hours students give to community service, which is critical for college acceptance. AdmitHub offers expert advice on the admissions process to college applicants.

Read full release on PRWeb

TechEdge article: Connected Classrooms with Schoology

by Alexis Carroll Cline
TCEA, TechEdge, August 2014

On the first day of school this year, Mindi Vandagriff will introduce her fourth graders to Schoology. Over the past four years, her experience with this free-for-instructors Learning Management System (LMS) has been so transformative that she now can't imagine running her classroom without it.

The rest of the article here.
Read the full issue of TechEdge here.

eSchoolNews Readers' Choice Awards

Congratulations to my clients for the Readers' Choice Awards 2014! Fifty education products selected by teachers/administrators for their effectiveness.

Schoology
...“Schoology has a great, easy to use interface that students and faculty really love,” said John Case, technology coordinator for Ohio Hi-Point Career Center. “Academic content standards are included, and a new analytics tool [helps] teachers in identifying students who are struggling.”

Nepris
...The website is “an awesome way to connect your classes with an expert or even other classes around the country that are studying the same units,” said LeAnn Waldie, instructional technologist for the Godley Independent School District in Texas.

x2VOL by intelliVOL (Honorable Mention)

Read the full article here

Bridging the Gap Virtually: Companies Outreach to Schools Simplified and Systemized with Nepris

200 companies participate in virtual sessions about STEM with Nepris since January launch.
Dallas (PRWEB) July 22, 2014 Students better grasp abstract concepts like ratios when a working architect shows them how mathematics affects building design. Few professionals, however, have the time to drive to a school or they are ill-prepared for translating their professional work into concepts students understand. Nepris has now bridged that gap for over 200 companies.
Read More: http://www.prweb.com/releases/nepris/hks/prweb12034023.htm 

Investments Decline As Education Technology Grows Up

TechCrunch, Posted Jun 25, 2014 by Jonathan Shieber (@jshieber)
School may be out for summer, but the nation’s education-focused technology startups are still hitting the books, drumming up new business and new investments to capitalize on overwhelming demand for innovation from primary and secondary schools and colleges.

Read full article here: http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/investments-decline-as-education-technology-grows-up/ 

Schoology Raises $15M to Help Educators Use Tech to Best Effects in Class (And Beyond)

Dow Jones Venture Wire
Lora Kolodny

June 24, 2014

(c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Schoology Inc. has raised $15 million in a Series C round of venture funding led by Intel Capital and joined by Great Oaks Venture Capital and Great Road Holdings, along with earlier backers FirstMark Capital and Meakem Becker Venture Capital, according to founder and Chief Executive Jeremy Friedman.

Read full article here (subscriber content) http://pevc.dowjones.com/article?an=DJFVW00020140624ea6ovyi2c&from=alert&pid=32&MessageId=927002  

Schoology raises $15M for global ed-tech push

Ben Fischer, Reporter- New York Business Journal

June 24, 2014

Schoology, a New York-based education technology developer, has raised another $15 million in private investment to spur growth into new markets and add features.

Read full article here: http://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2014/06/25/schoology-raises-15m-for-global-ed-tech-push.html