Booktrack Classroom Enhances Platform With Microsoft Technology To Drive Education And Get Kids Reading

TORONTO, Aug. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Teachers looking to instill a love of reading in their students are getting strong support from Microsoft, thanks to a new collaboration between the tech giant and the rapidly-growing Booktrack. Booktrack is a reading technology platform that synchronizes movie-style soundtracks of music and ambient audio (no spoken words) to eBooks and Audiobooks, creating an immersive reading experience that has been proven to increase comprehension by 17%, retention by 30%, and reading satisfaction by 35% in students.*

Booktrack Classroom helps forward-thinking educators ignite a passion for reading and creative writing in their students by employing a modern approach to teaching in a new and innovative way. Students can choose from a large selection of books or write their own, easily add a soundtrack, and then publish their booktracked story for their classmates to read. Additionally, with Booktrack students can rediscover reading - from the classics, young adult, kids, and other favorite genres - there is a book for everyone.  Today Booktrack is used in over 15,000 classrooms, and was voted a top three education website by American Association of School Librarians.

Booktrack has implemented Microsoft's single sign-on technology, and will provide integration with Microsoft Office 365 for the Booktrack Classroom platform. Currently, 110 million students and teachers are using Office 365 at school and in the home.

"We're so thrilled to be collaborating with Microsoft, in particular because of their commitment to empowering educators with effective technology," said Paul Cameron, CEO of Booktrack. "We've been in talks with them for close to a year and through this time we've come to recognize the great synergies between our two companies in terms of our common focus on education."

The integration will also make Booktrack Classroom accessible to the nearly 1.5 million educators from 235 countries who are members of the Microsoft Educator Network. This reach will build awareness of the platform to young families through students and teachers.

"We're very excited about Booktrack Classroom's integration Office 365 given its proven retention and comprehension track record," said Rob Howard, Director of Ecosystem, Microsoft. "This immersive reading experience will bring new reading and learning benefits to students everywhere."

For more information, or to try Booktrack and Booktrack Classroom, visit booktrack.com / booktrackclassroom.com

About Booktrack
Booktrack  (www.booktrack.com), is an industry leading global technology company that synchronizes movie-style soundtracks and ambient audio to eBooks and Audiobooks. Music, ambient audio, and sound effects are automatically paced to an individual's reading speed and synchronized to complement and enhance the story while a person reads.  Nearly 3.5 million readers and writers worldwide enjoy instant access to thousands of stories, while authors and publishers can easily create their own Booktrack titles by matching their stories to an extensive library of over 26,000 free-to-use music and ambient audio tracks. Booktrack offers over 16,000 titles in 40 different languages, across all genres of reading.  Backed by investors including Valar Ventures (Peter Thiel) and Weta Digital, Booktrack is a disruptive force in the publishing and audio world, equivalent to how the introduction of sound transformed the experience of film forever. The Booktrack application is available from www.booktrack.com and in the Apple App Store, Google Play and Google Chrome Stores. Booktrack has 26 staff across offices in San Francisco, Toronto, and Auckland.

• University studies by NYU and Auckland University

SOURCE Booktrack

Related Links

http://booktrack.com