Florida Virtual School Joins 1EdTech Consortium as New Contributing Member
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Lake Mary, FL. - 27 April 2007 The 1EdTech Consortium (1EdTech GLC) announced today that Florida Virtual Schools of Orlando (FLVS), a nationally recognized e-Learning model for developing and providing virtual K-12 education solutions to students throughout the country has joined 1EdTech GLC as a Contributing Member.
FLVS will join the new 1EdTech GLC project group that has been formed to work specifically on using Common Cartridge and other 1EdTech GLC standards in the K-12 education space. The Common Cartridge work is being adapted to provide benefits to users, providers, and developers involved in K-12 education. Common Cartridge is a set of technical specifications that allows the exchange of learning content and applications among education programs. Creating a uniform system that providers and developers can use for all K-12 digital content will give educators and school administrators greater choice in content and applications to support education.
"We are pleased that Florida Virtual School, one of the country's pioneering K-12 e-learning schools, will be taking a more formal role in sharing their expertise and insights about this burgeoning marketplace with our members," commented Rob Abel, CEO of 1EdTech Consortium. Abel added, "We look forward to FLVS' active participation in our discussions about Common Cartridge's evolution. Not only will their experience and insights provide additional value, but participation by FLVS along with other organizations will ensure the success of the initiative."
The resources specified by Common Cartridge include digital content (such as html, media files, external links, SCOs), assessment items, collaborative forums, and enterprise or web accessible applications. In use, a Common Cartridge can be used to support a wide variety of commonly used instructional constructs such as a courses, lessons, seminars, lesson plans, digital course paks supporting textbooks, and so forth. Content formatted by the forthcoming Common Cartridge protocol will be supported by multiple learning management systems and web applications for learning. The Common Cartridge specification has recently been released to the 1EdTech GLC Affiliates.
"As more schools launch online learning programs, it is imperative that the content available to them can be easily integrated so students receive the best quality education possible," said Jennifer Whiting, Chief Academic Officer, FLVS. "We believe Common Cartridge is a pivotal area and look forward to working with our peers on refining the protocol for the K-12 market. The new K-12 Common Cartridge specification combined with some exciting developments from our LMS, UCompass Educator, will allow us to more efficiently support the curriculum needs of our partners."
About Florida Virtual School
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is an established leader in developing and providing virtual K-12 education solutions to students throughout the country. A nationally recognized e-Learning model founded in 1997 FLVS was the country's first, state-wide Internet-based public high school. Today, FLVS serves middle and high school students with more than 80 courses. FLVS is
governed by an independent educational entity with a gubernatorial appointed board and is the only public school where funding is tied directly to student performance. Additional information can be found at www.flvs.net.
About 1EdTech Consortium (1EdTech GLC)
1EdTech GLC is a global, nonprofit, member consortium that provides leadership in shaping and growing the learning and educational technology industries through collaborative support of standards, innovation, best practice and recognition of superior learning impact. 1EdTech GLC provides open interoperability specifications, reference models, and adoption practices for learning and educational content and systems. 1EdTech GLC sponsors the annual Learning Impact conference and awards program. For more information visit www.imsglobal.org.
