McGraw-Hill Education Announces New K-12 Digital Partnerships and Offerings at International Society for Technology in Education's 31st Annual Conference

DENVER, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- ISTE CONFERENCE (BOOTHS 610 and 616) -- McGraw-Hill Education today announced a series of new technology-based partnerships and products that will enhance the company's line of digital K-12 education solutions that drive student achievement and foster the development of 21st century skills. Presented at the International Society for Technology in Education's annual conference in Denver from June 27-30, the announcements include:

The selection of M&A Technology, a Texas-based company, to manufacture and distribute a device based on the Intel-powered convertible classmate PC reference design. The device will be called the McGraw-Hill Companion Touch. The McGraw-Hill Companion Touch combines Intel® Learning Series' technology, designed specifically for the elementary school classroom, with McGraw-Hill's trusted educational content. This collaboration offers school districts the flexibility to choose from a variety of options including total digital solutions or hybrid models consisting of print and digital components. Through McGraw-Hill's expanded collaboration with Intel and the new partnership with M&A Technology, school districts will be able to offer students instruction that is engaging, individualized and personalized – all with the aim of driving student achievement and keeping today's students from "powering down" when they enter the classroom

The first McGraw-Hill Education programs optimized for this device are LEAD21, an all-new elementary 21st century literacy program designed to reach a new generation of readers, and CINCH Mathematics, a digital K-6 math curriculum that uses the power of interactive whiteboard teaching and versatile online capabilities to fully engage students. Both programs were developed in conjunction with McGraw-Hill's Center for Digital Innovation (www.MHECDI.com).

The McGraw-Hill Companion Touch will be supported by the Intel® Learning Series, a complete education solution designed for 1:1 eLearning. The Learning Series includes infrastructure, hardware, software, content, training, and support delivered by local vendors to meet local needs.  Earlier this year, McGraw-Hill became the first major educational publisher to join the Intel® Learning Series.

CTB/McGraw-Hill's expands its alliance with Promethean, a leading provider of interactive learning technology. Through the alliance, Promethean will provide its ActivExpression Learner Response Devices ("clickers") for CTB's Acuity UnWired® solution. ActivExpression Learner Response Devices are wireless transmitters that allow students to take assessments using remote "clickers" instead of pencils and paper or computer terminals.

The combination of Promethean's Learner Response Devices with CTB's Acuity UnWired yields immediate, concrete benefits, which allow teachers to:

• view real-time results and make critical instructional decisions faster than ever,
• generate standards-aligned Acuity reports within minutes that can be shared at the classroom, school, district, or multi-district levels,
• eliminate the need to print, barcode, distribute, collect, and scan answer sheets,
• deliver assessments with minimal preparation and no computer lab time required, and,
• engage students during the assessment process with inspiring and motivating technology.

McGraw-Hill also announces a new collaboration with Learn360, an interactive media-on-demand service for the K-12 education market, which will link McGraw-Hill's leading educational content to media-rich assets designed to engage every student in the classroom. Students will be able to navigate directly from McGraw-Hill's online content to relevant multimedia resources that have been specially selected by the publisher. In addition to the resources directly mapped to the content, students can access Learn360's complete library of 8,300 digital video titles and thousands of images, articles, audio files and podcasts via the Learn360 website (www.learn360.com). Videos offered by Learn360 range from snippets to full-length features. The collaboration marks the first time that Learn360 has partnered with an educational publisher to integrate its assets with core content.

In the fall of this year, McGraw-Hill's K-12 social studies program will be the first program to incorporate Learn360's multimedia assets. Other curricula will incorporate Learn360 assets in 2011.

McGraw-Hill announces the launch of ConnectED, an all-new online resource center that allows educators to easily access and navigate the digital versions of McGraw-Hill Education programs their district has purchased. Through ConnectED, educators can find a wealth of resources aligned with their programs, including interactive online teachers' editions, assessments, ancillaries and activities, as well as useful tools like lesson planners and the ability to search curriculum standards to locate digital assets aligned to the standards.  Additionally, students can use ConnectED to access both instructional and assessment activities.

"McGraw-Hill Education is proud to offer innovative learning solutions that combine the latest digital technology with leading content that's backed by years of research and field-testing," said Randall Reina, senior vice president of McGraw-Hill Education's Center for Digital Innovation. "Through these new offerings and collaborations, we're furthering our mission to equip all students with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in school and in today's competitive global economy."

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PreK–12 and teacher education, representing more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. For more than three decades, ISTE's annual conference has featured hands-on workshops, lecture-format and interactive concurrent sessions, discussions with key industry leaders and the largest educational technology exhibit in the nation. McGraw-Hill's presence at the conference includes product demonstrations and presentations.

McGraw-Hill will be posting live tweets from the conference under the hashtag #ISTE10. The company's Twitter account can be found at (twitter.com/MHEducation).

About McGraw-Hill School Education Group

The McGraw-Hill School Education Group, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, is a leading innovator in the development of 21st century teaching and learning solutions for K-12 education markets, offering traditional and digital instructional, assessment, and reference content and tools for teachers and students. The School Education Group addresses critical areas in primary and secondary education through Learning Solutions Centers focused on improving student learning outcomes and promoting digital innovation in literacy, STEM, college and career readiness, and intervention and special needs education. All of McGraw-Hill's content for elementary schools and secondary schools is available in digital form. McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 65 languages. Additional information is available at www.mheducation.com.

About McGraw-Hill Education Center for Digital Innovation

The Center for Digital Innovation is a first-of-a-kind research and development center with a mission to create leading-edge, paradigm-changing resources to meet the challenges of education in the 21st century. The Center's work capitalizes on the net generation's deep engagement with the digital world outside of the classroom to improve their learning in school. The Center designs educational solutions that accelerate mastery of the 21st century skills that our students – our nation's future workforce – need for success in tomorrow's world.

About CTB/McGraw-Hill

CTB/McGraw-Hill has an 84-year record of innovation and excellence in assessment, and serves more than 18 million students in all 50 states and in 46 countries. One of the first American publishers to introduce objective, standardized achievement tests to schools, today CTB/McGraw-Hill is a leader in testing with recognized products for online formative, adult, and language proficiency assessment. Dedicated to advancing the use of student performance data to inform instructional decision making, CTB/McGraw-Hill's innovation continues today with technologies that include Web-based assessment and reporting, student response device (clicker) software, and artificial intelligence for automated scoring of student essays. CTB/McGraw-Hill is part of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). McGraw-Hill Education is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. For more information, visit CTB.com.

SOURCE McGraw-Hill Education