Insights success the 10 most valuable learning and development solution provider companies june 2017

www.insightssuccess.com JUNE MM 2017 2017

The

10 Most Innovative

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT Solution Providers

The way of business solutions

Mentor Mind Popular Technology Waiting To Be Scaled

Pioneer Vista Verified Steps to a Fear-Free Future

Scaling Technology Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled

Karl Mehta CEO

AI Powered Knowledge-Cloud Platform that Drives Performance

GRIP

That Truly Works.

+91-11-23311112-7 www.jktyre.com

Since 1984

www.fossil.com

Editorial

B

efore the rising popularity of the internet-based learning, the Learning and Development programs were not considered as a very crucial sector in any organizations around the world.

Even though many premium ones, who could afford such programmes, had implemented them in their respective organizations, there were little or no enthusiasm shown by the members of these employees. However, with the rise of the globalized economy, many felt a strong sense of challenge from their contemporaries around the world. There was a limit to the amount of upgrades that could be carried out on the technical grounds, but there are no boundaries to how much a person can learn. This was the prime factor that led to the popularity of the Learning and Development sector.

Survival of the Latest: Innovative Methods are the norm for the next-generation

Today, leading corporate houses are taking the initiatives to ensure that their employees are adept at handling the most complex kind of situations that are coming their way. These programmes have turned out to be so effective that today many of these learning and development initiatives are being incorporated at school levels with appropriate curriculum structures. Similar to the corporate programmes, there are structured sessions to work on students’ communication skills and management skills.

In this Digital Age, many institutes are leveraging the full potential of the latest innovations and are utilizing them in their programmes.

This is a very good initiative as the millennials need to be taught in the most familiar medium possible. The harbingers of the nextgeneration L&D programs are swearing by the importance of the latest gimmicks to address the next-generation of students. This evidently has also turned out to be a case of the survival of the ďŹ ttest, with schools, institutes and organizations on-boarding those L&D solution providers that are providing the most technically advanced solutions.

All these talk on innovative methodologies and creative solutions should however be aimed at only one objective and that is to make the entire learning programme engaging and effective. The U.S. prides itself in having one of the highest education budgets in the world, but remains far behind countries like South Korea when it comes to the number of college degree holders. This is where the government, the legislatures and several pertinent organizations are supposed to train their energy on. Giving the opportunity to learn is one story, but engaging them in the process is an entirely different story.

Ujal Nair

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Ujal Nair Co-Editors David Smith Pooja Jain Abhijeet Parade Contributors Chidiebere, Rajarshi, Stephan, Piyush, Abhinav, Kaustav Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Shweta Shinde Art Editor Vinod Alhat Business Development Manager Mike Thomas Nick Adams Marketing Manager Chris Clarke Business Development Executives Mark, David, Peter, George, Brian Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

June, 2017 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com 7

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Sto ry

Content Co ve r

edcast AI Powered KnowledgeCloud Platform that Drives Performance

08 Mentor’s Mind The Greatest Artist in the world is the one who can Teach the Art

22

20

Pioneer Vista

CXO

Veried Steps to a Fear-Free Future

Novel Technologies that Simplify Enterprise Systems

32

Scaling Technology

28

Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled

40

Articles

The Real-Time WorldWide Learning through the Internet

Atomic Jolt Empowering Infosystems with Agile Software Solutions

16 BrightBytes Using Data to Improve the Way the World Learns

18 Fishtree Education In Top Gear

24 G-Cube Solutions Contributing Innovations in e-Learning

36 Sokikom Positively Transforming Mathematics Learning Culture

38 That’s Mandarin Making Chinese Learning Easy and Simple

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COVER STORY

Karl Mehata Founder & CEO

AI Powered Knowledge-Cloud Platform that Drives Performance

COVER STORY

H

umans are endowed with the most sophisticated, impeccable and unequaled tool by nature, The Brain. This natural computer needs to be fed constantly to make the rest of the auxiliary parts of the human body, purposeful. This is the tricky part, and this very feeding part has become even more complex with the advent of various digital resources.

should become a lifelong learner to adapt to the everchanging scenarios of the industry.

The present culture is profoundly influenced by the popularity of the social media and people are dedicating a significant part of their activity on these social media platforms. EdCast taps into this behavior, but with the purpose of enriching their user’s life by giving them knowledge and a healthy learning experience.

“

Our mind has a conscience which is based upon the received knowledge. So, it is evident that all the decisions that we take are built upon the things we know. For various business houses, skill upgradations are essential to extract the right business value. Simply put, the right people should be able to figure out the right actions at the right moment.

There is a massive deluge of information and an equally desperate need to scavenge through this information at the earliest. Apart from this external content, each enterprise has content locked in their SME (Subject Matter Expert) minds, which is “tacit knowledge”.

The $100 billion problem is that corporate employees spend 15% of their time in unproductive search.

We could easily avoid this $100B loss by incorporating sophisticated technologies such as AI and ML. This is where EdCast comes in to the rescue by infusing AI and ML along with cloud and mobile to bring the right content to the right user through intelligent curation and routing. EdCast’s award-winning Knowledge Cloud uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics to weave together internal content, expert insights, and millions of external resources into an easy-to-use, distributed personalized knowledge discovery platform.

The basic structure of EdCast has been built in accordance with the currently popular social media platforms so that people who are familiar with these platforms could easily relate themselves with EdCast. The familiarity begins with the feeds, where a user could post SmartBites and Pathways. These feeds are based on the channels the user subscribes to and it obviously pertains to their area of interest.

The Pathways are a kind of a micro-learning course that is mostly curated by professional trainers and trusted authors. EdCast has also introduced Live Feed Feature. The SmartBites enables the user to share a web page or a video on their feeds.

Unied discovery

and personalized learning are becoming must-have for all enterprises

Users can also download the EdCast App on their mobile phones to instantly post SmartBites on their feeds. The members of EdCast powered organizations can take both microcontent and macro-courses and consequently receive credentials, badges and certificates.

and consumers

The Network for the Lifelong Learner The Current Knowledge economy that we live in is no longer about developing a skill for the first 25 years of your life and then applying it to the rest of your life. Everyone

Today, EdCast’s solutions such as Learning Experience Platform (LXP) and SalesU (www.salesu.io) Suite of sales enablement tools are being used by more than 50 companies, including GE, HP, Dell EMC, Salesforce, Shire, and Accenture.

The Disruption to the Traditional Learning With the track record of building large-scale transformational technology solutions, EdCast’s executive team is passionate about enhancing enterprise knowledge-

sharing, training and learning experiences for organizations around the world.

In phase 1, EdCast is focused on solving the problem at large enterprises that include Fortune 500 or G2000. The wide exploitation of the digital world has generated a large amount of fragmented and disparate data that needs a unified discovery. This is exactly where EdCast is showcasing all its pioneering innovations. With a globally scaled customer base, the team at EdCast is scaling their capabilities to a whole new level.

The Man with the Heart for the Financial Nomads Karl Mehta, CEO and Founder of EdCast has donned many hats. He is a Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, Engineer, Author and a Civil Servant.

He has over 20 years of experience in founding, building, and funding technology companies in the U.S. and International markets.

This Computer Science Engineer has a strong background in building large-scale platforms for the complex technical problem. Karl has leveraged the encouraging ecosystem in Silicon Valley and has taken more risks early on in his life to building companies from the ground up. As of today, all his companies enjoy several million dollars of exit value, which his investors, employees, and co-founders cherish. He is passionate about leveraging technology and entrepreneurship to make a difference to about 4 billion people. Karl is always obsessed with the idea of improving daily access to knowledge and learning that is personalized and drives performance for everyone. Karl firmly believes that the income gap we see in the world is a direct result of the skills gap and he wants to solve that problem and bring more economic equality through EdCast.

was instrumental in devising solutions for the same. It was during this time that Karl was struck with the idea of the now popular “Code for India.” He had founded PlaySpan, a virtual currency based Wallet Company which VISA later acquired. Karl has penned down his experience at White House and his endeavors as an entrepreneur in his book titled “Financial Inclusion at the bottom of the Pyramid.”

In this book, he has described how entrepreneurial skills can be extended to the less fortunate people in the world.

Spreading Knowledge for the Betterment of Mankind If we glance back into the future, then it is evident that all the progress of humanity has stemmed from those unique unreasonable people who have customized the world as per their wish. And of course, today we call them entrepreneurs. Karl advises to be that unreasonable crackerjack, one needs to have confidence, courage, and conviction to challenge the status quo and propose innovation.

We are

drowning in content

Everyone is in possession of certain kind of knowledge; knowledge which is supposed to be shared to help others. This is the very purpose behind the idea of EdCast. Karl is on a mission to enable all the competent around the world to give back to the world the knowledge that they have received and put it out without any inhibitions or reservations of any sort. By virtue of EdCast, many people are connected to each other who are all sharing their knowledge with each other. With EdCast, Karl, the entrepreneur, has proclaimed to the world that wealth is not just about money. It is about creating the wealth that helps to give back to the society. His ’Code for India’, a non-profit organization in Silicon Valley, brought together a community of techies, both in India and around the world, to help in the development of India from a digital standpoint and hence aid in nation building. Since it complements the Digital India initiative, Karl has received all the backing from the Prime Minister of India when he attended the Hackathon session held in Silicon Valley, in association with Google.

but starving for insights and

knowledge

Karl Mehta was a Venture Partner at Menlo Ventures, where he focused on finding and funding interesting and worldchanging companies. Karl has worked as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the White House in its inaugural batch. During his short stint as a civil servant, he learned about different problems at national and global scale and

COVER STORY

The #1 Learning Experience Platform Keeping Customer at the center of all activities The core value of the EdCast team is to be customer focused. They solve a problem from the customer’s point of view and apply the most cutting-edge technology to come up continuously with better solution. Karl and his team have great respect for the engineering culture that has the enthusiasm and talent to solve the hardest problem. They partner with enterprises in building the problem statement and co-creating the use-cases and economic impact models. Their close collaboration with their clients goes all the way to deploying and implementing their knowledge.

Karl cites an interesting instance that showcases EdCast’s unmatched customer service. EdCast was invited by a Fortune 100 Pharma & Life Sciences company to solve their issue of personalized knowledge discovery. Karl and his team built integrations to over 10 internal systems including their SABA LMS, and also built a white list of over 500 sites externally that they should be tracking daily. They have also trained the SMEs of this pharma company to record their tact knowledge.

These content pipes are now pushing content to EdCast’s own NLP that is calibrated with the taxonomy engine. This way EdCast can drive AI and ML driven personalization and unified mobile app and web app to provide a seamless user experience. EdCast is continuously expanding its API framework to support more work apps. This way they could compress the distance between working and learning to nothing.

Giving EdCasters a reason to Rejoice There is no doubt that EdCast has a great future ahead and it will transform the entire world by bringing daily lifelong learning in the palms of everyone. Although it seems like EdCast is just getting started, they are already on-board with the idea of implementing AR/VR to bring more knowledge and learning with immersive experience.

10 LEARNING AND THE

INNOVATIVE

DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

Training the Next Generation Minds with the Latest Innovations and the most Proven Tools

T

he Learning and Development Sector is currently being considered as important as the HR in many organizations. With a repeated call-out for globalization and the increasing trend of collaborative work environment, the demand for a workforce with proper communication and management skills is the need of the hour. The race is on to implement the most effective practices in the most cost-efficient and engaging way possible.

In this issue, we have introduced The 10 Most Valuable Learning and Development Solution Provider Companies.

As a Cover Story, we have EdCast with their online learning platform based on the social media principles. The CEO of EdCast, Karl Mehta, is a prolific entrepreneur who has etched his name in various establishments. His latest venture is strongly backed by the industry, the influentials and even the government establishments. EdCast is adored by the students and various education institutes and has truly proved to be a true revolution of the decade in the education sector.

Our List of Solution Providers have all made a mark in the Learning and Development sector with their own set of innovations. We have Atomic Jolt with tools that empower instructional designers and teachers to quickly and effectively dispatch instructions. BrightBytes, a learning analytics company creates evidence-based frameworks that analyze data from schools. Fishtree is renowned for providing personalized, real-time support in terms of resources, for educators as well as students. G-Cube Solutions is a leading CMMi Level 3 e-learning products and services company offering complete learning technology solutions under one roof. We are equally proud to feature Sokikom, the only bilingual online supplemental math program that helps students address the K-5 math gap. We are equally honored to also feature the world renowned Chinese language school, That’s Mandarin, in our magazine.

While reading about these prestigious companies, do have a quick glance through some thought provoking articles by the leaders of the industries. The Real-Time World Wide Learning through the Internet is written by Joe Troyen, Founder of Pen Pal Schools. Novel Technologies that Simplify Enterprise Systems is authored by Austin Rosenfeld, CEO of Macedon Technologies.

Our Editorial team has also contributed a few insights of their own with some erudite articles like, Verified Steps to a Fear Free Future in Pioneer Vista, Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled in Mentor Mind and The Greatest artist in the world.

So, flip through the pages and spread the light.

10

THE

INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

Company Name

Management

Brief

Atomic Jolt www.atomicjolt.com

Joel Duffin & Justin Ball CEO & CTO

Atomic Jolt offers Web Application Development, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, UI/UX Design, ReactJS, Learning Management Systems, Online Learning, Instructure Canvas, Higher Education, Agile Development.

BrightBytes www.brightbytes.net

Traci Burgess CEO

BrightBytes is a learning analytics organization that translates complex analysis and educational research into fast actions that improve student outcomes.

EdCast Inc. www.edcast.com

Karl Mehta CEO & Founder

EdCast is AI-powered Knowledge Cloud for unified knowledge discovery and personalized learning across all content sources.

Fishtree www.fishtree.com

Terry Nealon CEO

Fishtree is an Educational Technology Company, which provides dynamic, web-based platform authorizing personalized learning at K-12 and higher education programs.

G-Cube www.gc-solutions.net

Manish Gupta Co-founder & CEO

G-Cube is an eLearning products and services company with a global delivery and support footprint.

ITAD Learning www.itadlearning.com

Paul Lange Founder and Chairman

ITAD Learning is a full-service bespoke consulting, development and outsourcing company for technologyenhanced e-learning and performance improvement solutions.

Jigsaw www.jigsawme.com

Josette Fleszar President & CEO

Jigsaw is the leading edge, multi-dimensional, virtual personalized learning platform.

Pulse Learning www.pulselearning.com

Derek Johnson Director

PulseLearning is a global learning solutions provider with extensive experience in applying and customizing solutions that combine best practices with organizational culture.

Sokikom www.sokikom.com

Snehal Patel CEO & Founder

Sokikom is the only bilingual online supplemental math program where elementary students help each other learn in a team-based game.

That’s Mandarin www.thatsmandarin.com

Xiaochao Guo Founder.

That’s Mandarin is a Chinese Language School which offers a wide variety of courses such as an intensive/part-time 1-on1 program, part-time small group program, semester program, and a business Chinese.

10

THE

INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

Justin Ball CTO

Joel Dufn CEO

Empowering Infosystems with Agile Software Solutions

L

earning Management Systems create a platform for online engagement and student instruction; with this change in the way, teachers and students access and interact with their classrooms with the reach of education being larger than ever. As adoption and adaptation of LMS systems continue to grow within learning organizations, teachers and instructional designers play an important role in the education ecosystem.

Atomic Jolt creates software that supports creating and delivering effective instruction by aligning learning outcomes, assessments, and learning events. They build tools that empower instructional designers and teachers to quickly develop and deliver effective instruction for students to gain understanding and competency.

Diffusing technology and education homogeneously Joel Duffin, CEO and Justin Ball, CTO, both have worked in software for more than twenty years. They met

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while doing graduate work in Instructional Technology at Utah State University. In addition to their combined passion in building software, they were both obsessed with understanding how people learn and how to use technology to support teaching and learning. After finishing his PhD, about 10 years ago, Joel started a company along with Justin and started contracting with Universities and EdTech companies. In 2013, they officially incorporated Atomic Jolt.

Education’s motto is to learn efficiently wherever, whenever In the last ten years, technology has changed the way we work and communicate with others — and it’s also changed how we interact in the classroom. In fact, some educators argue that technology can improve the classroom by eliminating the need for a physical one, and allow students to learn remotely, from wherever they do their best work.

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It's important to remember that technology is supposed to enhance learning. We want to make online learning more enjoyable and effective for students of all ages While it’s still too early to know if this is the most effective way to teach, it’s important to stay up-to-date on these innovations in education and see what we can learn from them. Atomic Jolt helps to build a platform that could provide faculty curation of content and support their unique business model.

Air University required a self-hosted version of Canvas with significant customization and Atomic Jolt was the leading company to do that. As part of the project, Atomic Jolt brought up the Canvas LMS for Air University, helped choose third party integrations, built plugins and add-ons to customize Canvas.

Get preference with salient services Atomic Jolt’s mission is to deliver software solutions that make teaching and learning more efficient and enjoyable.

Atomic Jolt is an important player in the Learning Management Systems industry- they deliver custom development, LMS hosting, and valuable SaaS products that improve upon the functionality of an out of the box system. They create positive user experiences by keeping the solutions focused, simple, and powerful, which affects student motivation. When a student is motivated to learn, you can’t stop them from learning. When they are not, you can’t make them learn.

Values that Atomic Jolt follows Historically, Atomic Jolt’s main line of business has been contract work for EdTech companies and Universities to build custom web and mobile applications. Because of their strong background in education, much of their focus has been in that industry, but they have also built applications for a variety of other industries including healthcare, shipping, e-commerce, and marketing. When Atomic Jolt works with clients to develop custom applications, they use agile processes that emphasizes on continual engagement with the client throughout the lifetime of the project.

Striking approach that dissolves challenges About two years ago Atomic Jolt formalized a partnership with the Canvas LMS company, Instructure, one of the fastest growing LMSs in higher education in the United States. As a partner, Instructure may send customers to Atomic Jolt for customizations and often contracts with them for specific projects. Atomic Jolt has created many integrations, customizations, and extensions for Canvas through this partnership.

Atomic Jolt’s partnership with Instructure has resulted in receiving a number of new contracts including their largest ever which is a 4 year government sub-contract to implement and support the open source Canvas LMS for Air University, the Air Force center for professional military education.

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Looking forward at content management As Atomic Jolt works closely with LMSs and with companies building tools that integrate with them, they’ve had the opportunity to observe the needs of teachers and learners. They’ve also been able to identify the gaps in functionality in LMSs. This year they are focusing on SaaS products that improve and extend functionality of LMSs. For example, Atomic Jolt provides an add-on that makes it possible to search your content in the Canvas LMSsomething you otherwise can't do. They also have a content management system that lets publishers and schools share and reuse their content, in and outside of their LMS.

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10

THE

INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

-Traci Burgess CEO

BrightBytes: Using Data to Improve the Way the World Learns

S

chools have no shortage of data. The hard part is deriving relevant and meaningful information from extremely large data sets gathered from various sources. With a mission to improve the way the world learns through the use of data, BrightBytes,Ⓡ a learning analytics company, gathers research from the best experts in the world and creates evidence-based frameworks that analyze data from schools. Across BrightBytes’ decision support platform, Clarity,Ⓡ educators can access the tools to better understand data and improve student learning outcomes.

In an industry overwhelmed by DRIP syndrome (data rich, information poor), BrightBytes helps educators across schools, districts, and at the state level, by providing personalized and research-driven insights, resources, and support material at each data point. Educators not only see

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the data in an educative and engaging format, but they also know what actions to take to address any gaps or challenges within their personalized results. With seven core modules, and personalization capabilities, the Clarity platform offers research-based and actionable solutions for every area that impacts student learning.

Clarity Humanizes Big Data and Personalizes Solutions Big data has made great contributions to areas like marketing and science over the past few years, but its recent arrival in the education industry has been both exciting and challenging. Big data opens a universe of unexplored information to educators, but without the right lens to understand data, the right tools to execute findings, and the right method to communicate results, the access to abundant data may hinder progress. Increasingly, educators are turning to data to make informed decisions, but various

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Our goal is to help educators leverage big data, turning it into big benets for students

challenges make those efforts unachievable. Many organizations suffer from DRIP (data rich, information poor) conditions, and educators struggle to see solutions behind the numbers. The BrightBytes Clarity platform takes the abundance of data, and humanizes the numbers to provide insight to action. Clarity incorporates the essential elements of a successful data analysis platform that allow educational leaders to realize the infinite power of actionable data to drive learning outcomes and better leverage data to inform critical decisions.

Many companies offer dashboards of educational data, but those products fail to transform that information into decisions. The Clarity platform provides educators with research frameworks that select only the data linked to improved student outcomes. It then maps an education organization's data to these frameworks, identifies strengths and gaps, and offers insights into how to improve, using specific examples from real schools. This combination of data analysis, research, and action plans set the platform apart from every other offering.

Proven Expertise Key to the company’s success is its dedicated team of educators, researchers, statisticians, and designers. The BrightBytes team has decades of experience in the K-12 space and routinely partners with education researchers and experts including McREL International, Mazin™ Education, and iKeepSafe.™ Due to the depth of knowledge around education, individuals across BrightBytes are very familiar with the common challenges that many educators face.

However, the team also recognizes that no two organizations have identical needs. In addition to the seven core modules on the Clarity platform (that address common areas like graduation rates, financial transparency, the impact of technology on learning, leadership, and digital privacy), BrightBytes has the unique capacity to personalize research-based data solutions to meet specific needs.

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The critical components, such as research-based frameworks, engaging data visualizations, collaborative workflow management, data democratization, role-specific views, and data-driven connections are already embedded into all of the core modules. However, these elements are also personalizable to assemble for specific solutions.

Clarity's flexible modular system enables BrightBytes’ team to personalize solutions tailored to address individual organization's diverse needs. By focusing on the key elements of a successful data analytics platform, BrightBytes can assemble education solutions quickly for each organization.

A Team Built for Success and Guided by Visionaries The team behind the Clarity platform is comprised of experts who combine qualitative research and quantitative methods with a proprietary framework specifically designed to link educational factors to learning outcomes. The team is led by Traci Burgess and Hisham Anwar. Traci Burgess, the CEO of BrightBytes, has spent her career entirely in education. Her early love for mathematics led her to pursue a career as a math educator. After deciding she wanted to help students on a larger scale, she made the move to the edtech industry, holding leadership positions in companies including, Thomson Learning, Blackboard, Catapult Learning, and Think Through Learning. Hisham Anwar is a BrightBytes co-founder and the company’s Chief Technology Officer. Hisham has spent the last 12 years building and managing global technology strategies and new product portfolios. The son of an educator, he has held technology leadership positions at Moody's, Royal Dutch/NWA, Mamapedia, and most recently Zynga.

Hishamm has an MBA from MIT. As the company grows, they plan to continue their process of creating solutions that address issues that arise in the K-12 educational sector. The organization is set to expand product lines and sales teams, across the US and internationally.

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CXO Standpoint

The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet

Joe Troyen Founder PenPal Schools

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CXO Standpoint

About Joe Troyen Joe Troyen has founded PenPal Schools, an organization that connects over 100,000 students from more than 170 countries to learn together. PenPal provides a common online platform for all learners from all around the world for overall improvement in all fields. Before starting PenPal Schools Joe worked for 5 years designing software for Education and other industries, taught English in Spain, and researched the effectiveness of after-school programs in the Bronx. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Pomona College and is passionate about connecting learners and expanding educational opportunities around the world.

T

he story of the Internet started in the 1950s with the development of electronic computers. The first message was sent over the internet from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinroc’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

Vast researches and inventions made today’s most sophisticated internet platform that we are using. Within a fraction of a second, we can inter-act with anyone present in any part of the world. This opens the door for highend communication and education.

Pre-Internet Education Prior to the Internet age, students wrote with pen and paper, send it by post, waited for weeks to hear back from their friends around the world; Students have been connecting with pen pals to learn about other countries and cultures; many have even traveled to meet in person after decades of correspondence; Students fully depend on hard copies of the book and their school teachers; unlike today. Today’s extreme architecture of Internet not only overcomes the communication issue but also opens the tremendous opportunity of learning for the students.

Online Learning Opportunities One might think that fast and easy communication through the Internet would have made pen pal exchanges even more popular- but in fact, the opposite has happened. Online

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communication through letters, have fallen out of fashion across the United States. Why? Teachers now face intense pressure to use every minute of classroom time to prepare students for standardized tests that have implications for their school’s reputation and funding. This heightened focus on testing leaves little time for activities such as pen pal exchanges that don’t focus on the skills that will be tested at the end of the year.

career. More than 80 percent of the information stored electronically around the world is in English.

Schools, governments, businesses and nonprofits have invested heavily in English instruction, but despite these efforts many schools are still challenged to find qualified teachers.

Even in wealthier schools, many students struggle to learn English without every-one having the opportunity to interact with a native English speaker.

This decreased the popularity of pen pals couldn’t come at a worse time.

Due to the rapidly expanding network of cultural and economic ties between nations, students are graduating into an increasingly international workplace.

Whether students pursue careers in technology, manufacturing, professional services or almost any other industry, they will be working side-by-side and online with colleagues from China, India, Mexico and dozens of other countries. In an age when employers are increasingly setting their sights overseas, we can’t afford for our schools to shut themselves off from the world for the sake of better scores on a test.

Real Life Awareness and Consideration There must be literacy and cultural awareness within the learning youth of all around the world. Students further aware of the issues like, environmental sustainability, gender equality, human rights and other subjects in addition to world religions, international trade and politics, literature, cooking, athletics and many other subjects. Voluntarily teachers are also needed for schools and adult learners to avoid the barrier for the poor who can’t pay, so that everyone should get educated. All learners require a common online platform that connects them, to learn together, which helps to build the foundation for a more peaceful and collaborative planet, regardless of their age or topic of conversation.

Obstacles in Language Learning While students in other countries may not suffer from the same focus on standardized testing, they face another challenge that is even more urgent: learning English. For students around the world, the ability to understand, write and speak English can often mean the difference between a life of poverty and an opportunity to build a

Pen pals may have gone out of style for a few years, but that’s quickly changing thanks to rapidly expanding access to the internet throughout the developing world and the universal desire to connect, learn, and share the experience.

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Mentor’s Mind

The Greatest Artist in the world is the one who can

Teach the

Art T

here is a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that goes as,

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

It is said that teaching is like lighting a fire. Teachers just act as facilitators between the heat and the paper to enable them to combine with the oxygen from the environment. A Teacher can use various tools to produce that flash, to create that environment full of oxygen. In the end, it is all about the adjustment of the child to the world.

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Mentor’s Mind

The same applies true for any adult learning programmes, even with the minds of the brightest kind. Albert Einstein affirmed that, “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn”. Learners must be left free to express themselves. They must discover knowledge for themselves. A teacher just brings the learners to the subject.

The wisdom behind The Learning Pyramid Dale’s Cone of Experience, that is shunned by some and accepted by others, states that, teachers can introduce the world to the learners through scripts, speech and sight.

Higher percentages of memory retention or subject recollection are happening when the learners are involved in the actual process. It is the purpose of the teacher to provide those conditions where the pupils could get involved. The involvements include a dramatic representation of the subject where the students are involved in it, simulation of the real experience or doing the real thing. Naturally, these things are implementable on the basis of the subject and the conditions available for them.

There is no singular style of teaching and there is no singular style of learning. The Cone cannot be held true in matters where certain minds could conceive more than 70% of what they read while many could hardly remember the entire specifications of a car that passed by their window a few days ago. In an unfortunate environment, even the stars can be termed as failures and in a supportive environment, even failures can shine like bright stars. This again emphasizes on the creation of the right platform for the right mind.

Teaching should be more of a Passion than a Profession As Peter Drucker rightly said, “Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the ‘naturals’, the ones who somehow know how to teach.” It is a known fact in today's digital age that attention spans are running short and the retention capacity only increases when the instructor mixes short lectures with peer collaboration. In the end, it is always the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.

Learning in a structured manner This brings us to the modern style of learning called the structured learning where the subject is introduced by the facilitator through print, visual or through the traditional formal classroom setup. The next stage involves, interacting with fellow pupils or peers having similar interests. This is all about sharing the knowledge you know and getting the knowledge they know. Although there are cynics who state that learners with half the knowledge could create more confusion among others with a similar condition. Again, the teacher can play the role of the facilitator to alleviate the ambiguity. Finally, the learner has to get involved with the subject by actually implementing the knowledge on a day to day basis under the able guidance of the teacher. On various occasions, this has proved to be fruitful for the learners to grow at the speed of business.

It is the responsibility of the teacher to give the pupils the right content, at the right speed and place, to the right team and in the right format. They need to establish a safe proactive learning environment that would challenge the learners to transcend boundaries. The learning solution providers need to replace reading, writing and arithmetic with a curriculum that develops bright minds, skilled hands and a kind heart.

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It is worth mentioning again that teaching is a noble profession, not because it shapes the character, caliber and future of an individual, but because a good teacher is remembered by thousands of people, not for the subject they taught, but for the way they taught it. They knew when to explain and when to let the students discover things for themselves. This is superfluously described in William Arthur’s words when he said that, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

It is the acumen of a great artist to dish out the right act at the right moment for the right audience. The job of a teacher is no less than that of a performer when it is said that teaching is 10% theory and 90% dramatics. A teacher’s job is not done until and unless the pupils understand what they have been taught.

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

–Albert Einstein

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INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

-Terry Nealon CEO

Fishtree: Education In Top Gear

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he education system is starting to see real growth and impact on outcomes from technology adoption in the classroom. High utilization of technology outside of the classroom, education is playing catch up but we are starting to see improvements, however incremental.

Personalized learning, regardless of the definition is growing in demand, with a greater acceptance that scale is impossible without the assistance of technology. Most new educational programs, offer some form of personalized learning to drive better outcomes for students and empower educators.

It has been incredible for one such company called Fishtree, an education platform that is helping educators find the best possible resources, automatically aligned to the standards or outcomes they are teaching, while also offering the opportunity to give each student an individual learning path or just more personalized, real-time support in terms of resources.

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Fishtree does not look to replace the educator, but empower them in a whole new way. The scale is unmatched, and it does this by working with partners such as Learning Management Systems and content publishers.

Expansion Of An Idea To Business Scaling personalized learning was considered by the founders to be one of the world’s greatest problems, not just for our classrooms, our students need to be accommodated based on their individual needs, they needed to be better prepared for the work place and the cost of doing so needed to come down. Current systems have massive inefficiencies.

In 2012, Fishtree was originated by CEO Terry Nealon and CTO Jim Butler. Both were senior executives in the edtech and publishing industries and felt the need to address that scale problem, using better technology, machine learning and offer more possibilities in terms of user

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Personalized learning can scale, it needs teachers and tech to work together experiences and integration with other systems. In 2014, Fishtree won the SIIA NextGen Most Disruptive and Overall Mobile Award. In 2015, Fishtree Inc, announced the raise of $3 million in venture capital funding to expand the business in the U.S. education marketplace. Fishtree has partnered with Instructure, HP, Blackboard, proven out the model in districts in the US, as well as some leading higher education institutions. With financial investment and collaboration, Fishtree then announced a deal with Jefferson Education that helped them to expand the research and data so as to build further efficacy data around the solution.

Throughout the journey, they came across many challenges while positioning the business in this noisy market. Many solutions claim to be personalized or adaptive, some actually benefitting from that noise. Another challenge they faced was in ensuring world class implementation. Fishtree had to work with district and institution leaders to align with their vision, empowering local sponsors and honoring a commitment of over-serving the customers.

Out of the Box Services By Fishtree At the initial phase of the company, Fishtree saw the need to address a major challenge in curating resources and aligning them with outcomes such as standards, competencies or outcomes. This was an unmet need in the industry and with personalized learning in the growth phase, this solution is in great demand in education institutions, with publishers looking to align to different standards and learning environments looking to offer dynamic content experiences that can be personalized.

Fishtree platform is still the easiest to integrate as it has the most dynamic content environment, and very importantly it is easy to use.

management tasks such as authoring lessons and courses, recording grades, finding aligned resources, personalized learning, and tracking student trends.

Adept Leaders Of Fishtree Since 1998, Terry worked in the software industry, and in education, since 2005, and holds the responsibility of CEO at Fishtree. He worked in remote South African communities and schools in 2005, where he lived with a Sotho family. He ran sports and educational programs for community development such as HIV awareness in local schools and villages. Terry then returned to head International operations with Riverdeep Interactive and post-merger with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as Executive Vice President, where he delivered the company its fastest growing division.

Future Steps from Fishtree An interesting trend for Fishtree is the need for all sectors to align learning and resources with an outcome. In K-12, publishers need to align with multiple sets of standards. In Higher Education, it might be competencies or just course outcomes. In the corporate space, the demand for role-based learning, aligning to skills in the work place means fishtree has a unique position in being able to align all resources to the skills of the job, on the fly.

The goal was to build a platform that would understand the broader need of each individual student, but more importantly, help instructors to find the best combination of resources aligned to standards or competencies or skills, as well as individual profiles. Fishtree aims to continue to out-innovate the market in becoming the industry standard in partners for personalized learning.

Fishtree is also used by the teachers and school administrators to automate curriculum planning and

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WEB AND MOBILE EXPERTS

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CXO Standpoint

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he three big technologies impacting the enterprise in the near future are mobile, social, and cloud. These have all, of course, been around for a few years, but they are finally reaching the maturity required for enterprise robustness and scale.

In the mobile space, the community has standardized on iOS and Android (much to the chagrin of early leader Blackberry/RIM). More companies are comfortable with Bring-Your-OwnDevice policies or have an enterprise wrapper such as Good to harmonize security policy. A decade ago, we entered into the world where you were expected to be able to answer a work call or email at any time, because you had a cell phone. Now, mobile access to systems and data is going to push us towards a norm of 24-7 “complete responses.” No more one-line “I will look that up in the morning” responses from a phone. Instead, we will be able to access enterprise systems seamlessly

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regardless of platform or form-factor.

Development platforms that enable simultaneous construction of mobile and web/desktop interfaces will also become the norm, as no application should be limited to a single client device type. Today's users, frequently use tablets in the field as opposed to the old-world pattern of the user as an assembly-line worker chained to a desktop. A mobile user can much more effectively interact with the customers, suppliers, other workers, assets, and other entities that business systems are all about. Real-time interaction generally results in better data and faster visibility throughout the organization, both core components of Return on Investment. With the rise of larger phones, tablets, and the HTML5 standard, using the web version of an application from a mobile device has become an acceptable alternative to building a specific, native mobile version, but doing so generally compromises usability.

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CXO Standpoint

On the social front, citizens of the Millennial and X generations have become accustomed to their personal software supporting feed-based interaction. Every object supports commenting, tagging, ďŹ ltering, etc.

Images, video, and text are all intermingled seamlessly. A user can follow hundreds of contacts by exerting only a few minutes a day of scrolling through updates, and mobile technology makes it easy to take these few minutes whenever downtime emerges. Enterprise systems are still fairly locked into the old paradigm of forms, reports, using email for less structured communication. As these systems are refactored to use a social interface, users will get the same interaction their personal software has led them to expect. A sales executive can follow updates to a pipeline, events for when a demo was performed, and collaboration points with the contracts team the way he or she would follow streams of social events. It can even be done while walking through an airport.

The social posts made by both system

Austin Rosenfeld CEO Macedon Technologies

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CXO Standpoint

and human actors become part of the audit trail of the records they are associated with, minimizing the dreaded searching of emails that often becomes a poor substitute for this functionality.

Finally, the cloud has reached a level of security and maturity that is acceptable to the vast majority of businesses, crossing the chasm from “bleeding-edge advantage” to “expected infrastructure.” Certifications give businesses comfort that data will be secured and backed up.

The price point has continued to fall, to the point where hosting servers in a private data center is no longer competitive with the economies of scale of the cloud. Budgets can easily be set to gear more towards the operating expense model of cloud offerings as a service than the cap-ex model of building and hosting in a proprietary data center. Customers expect the ease of use and uptime of cloud-based systems. Additionally, since few enterprise systems exist in vacuum, modern standards greatly facilitate integration among an organization's cloud-based systems, including integrations with systems maintained by partners, suppliers, and even customers.

Enterprise technology vendors are simplifying deployment, maintenance, and procurement with a range of PaaS and SaaS offerings, simplifying the adoption of cloud technology.

Macedon Technologies is an Appian reseller and services partner. We build all of our systems around mobile, social, and cloud architecture. Whether the paradigm is workflow automation, case management, integration with end-user visibility, document management and routing, or just a general-purpose enterprise system, we use these maturing technologies as the foundations of 21st-century enterprise systems.

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Pioneer Vista

Verified Steps to a Fear-Free Future A

fear-free life is a healthy and productive life. It is a very common thing when humanity is the point of discussion, that fear of the future is inevitable. Even with the money that is screaming loud from the banks, your treasury boxes and in any format you have stored it, the fear of what will happen next, most times, deters one from enjoying the moment.

There is a saying that goes, “Live today like there is no tomorrow.”

This idea is believed and accepted by many people, but it doesn’t guarantee the true satisfaction of what it could have been when there is no atom of fear.

Fear; being the state of uncertainty about the next minute or hour, is the very opposite of courage.

“Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to control fear.”

Being courageous doesn’t mean that you have complete control over your state of mind, because it is likely impossible to control what comes in and goes out of the mind, but you can be in charge, if you know the three main divisions of the brain – the Conscious, Subconscious and the Superconscious. The subconscious is in charge of action and instant response, so if you can be in charge of what comes to this level by giving a counter sentence when the brain says its own, then only you have started a successful journey to a fear-free life.

Medical Approach To Fear There is a research that is already going on that could lead to new ways to identify and possibly treat individuals who are experiencing fear of uncertainty. The finding clearly states that people who have difficulties in coping up with uncertainty or having the ambiguity about their future may have an unusually large striatum. The striatum is an area of the brain that is associated with general anxiety disorder, as published by the American Psychological Association.

According to Kim, “People who do not easily tolerate an uncertain future had a relatively enlarged striatum.” To be free from this occurrence, the natural approach is to do things which please you; like taking your favorite food, taking part in exercises and going out for exhibitions to relieve the mind and focus on what is important.

Stopping Fear at Early Stage Now your question might be, what can I do to completely stop this fear? Should I have never been born? But the answer to these questions will give you hope. You have only three things to watch over; • Utilize “Time,” when you have it • Build a “Team of Helping Hands.”

• Be Action Oriented and “Work Hard.”

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Pioneer Vista Utilize Time when you have it Time is a recycling element of existence. It comes and goes but we remain. How much time you have doesn’t matter, it is how you utilize the time that matters. Do you leave what is supposed to be done today for tomorrow or do you face it and get it done? Your answer determines how free you will be from the grip of fear in the near future. Endeavor to get rid of procrastination and be action minded.

“The common thing in the life of most successful people is the fact of always seeming to be in a rush.” This doesn’t mean they are rushing life but it simply highlights the importance they give to that treasure called time.

Time cannot be enough, but what is most important in your life will always get the higher share of your attention and resources. That is the interesting thing about time.

Build a “Team of Helping Hands” The success of every business depends on how many people you serve. How satisfied they were to come back for more of your services. To meet up with the mass needs, you need the ideas of more than one person, experiences of these individuals and their practical involvement to help move the industry to a higher esteem. As a leader or a potential leader, learn how to appreciate the efforts of people around you, motivate them in every way possible, and give them the room for self-initiatives. This helps to increase the productivity in people to get them involved to move whatever goal you are going after. Look for diverse abilities and skills to unite and build a stronger firm.

Be Action Oriented and “Work Hard.”

A dreamer is better appreciated when he/she wakes up and takes action to actualize his/her aims and dreams. It is not enough to dream, have/make a wish, aspire for a certain desire or even have a magnificent imagination. But the point is what you did to materialize your aims, wishes, and goals. Sometimes when you are doing something to achieve your goals, it becomes difficult or proves futile, but if you keep up the hard work and exercise a calculated patience, surely you will reach to the fruitful finishing end.

Take a collective quota of what has been highlighted above, the three of them, if followed effectively with no form of excuse, soon your future will be free of those uncertain fears. No one is coming down to do them for you. You are alone in making them happen. Do not look behind for what did not work well, rather look forward to what can make a change and difference. You were not born with fear, you allowed it to grow, and you can still let it go, to live a fruitful life.

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INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

-Manish Gupta Co-founder & CEO

G-Cube Solutions: Contributing Innovations in e-Learning o be a Successful Entrepreneur, one should focus on strategizing the business module, and elaborate the prime mover transparency. G-Cube Solutions is a leading CMMi Level 3 e-learning products and services company with a proliferating global delivery and support footprint. It is one of the fastest growing organizations in Asia Pacific offering complete learning technology solutions under one roof.

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simulations and consulting for curriculum design.

Innovation is the change that unlocks new values and GCube has its latest innovation to introduce IVR based learning solutions for blue collared workforce. G-Cube solutions range from custom content development, rapid authoring, mobile learning, responsive content, game-based learning, social learning solutions, translation and localization in over 60 languages.

Expansion of G-Cube The journey of G-Cube started in the year 2000. The company is known for its thought leadership in learning technology space contributing extreme outstanding magisterial innovations in e-Learning Industry. The mission of the company is, “To be amongst the most respected learning technology organizations globally.” The product portfolio of the company includes cutting edge WiZDOM Learning Suite, comprising an LMS, Virtual Classroom, Content Authoring Tool, Assessment Engine, Skill-Gap and ILT management systems. The services of G-Cube include designing and developing custom e-courses, mobile learning, content localization, game-based learning,

The outstanding achievements of G-Cube have placed them among the victorious businesspersons of the world. The crown for Deloitte Tech Fest 50 India is with G-Cube for five consecutive years. It has also won spiffing awards including multiple Brandon Hall Awards for Excellence in Learning and Technology, the NASSCOM Emerge 50 Award and multiple Apex Awards for Excellence.

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The Seed of the Tree Manish Gupta, along with two other young dynamics, CoFounded G-Cube in the year 2000. Manish is a popular speaker at many industry summits, including the DevLearn Conference, CLO Summit and The Learning and

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Pushing the Envelope to Build Better Solutions and Products Technology Show. He was named as one of the Top 10 Movers and Shakers in Fortune India’s prestigious listing of leading entrepreneurs, in the e-learning space in AsiaPacific by industry analytics.

Manish is an entrepreneur at heart, and he believes that, “We need to understand that not all strategies work as planned in business, and some ideas do not work at all.

Learning from experiences- good or bad, big or small is what makes us successful in life as well as in the business world.”

Along with a passion for business, Manish pursues all his other passions with equal perseverance. He is an avid runner and has participated in various marathons, including one of the toughest marathons in the world- The Great Wall of China Marathon.

Eclectic Player in Education With more than two decades of experience in the industry, G-Cube provides world-class learning solutions that are cost effective and cater to varied training needs. G-Cube has designed learner-centric solutions for diverse industries, including leading Fortune 500 companies. The team with the ultimate level of passion and dedication with more than 300 professionals have extensive experience and high acumen derived out of working closely on numerous eLearning projects. The strategic focus on creating the most appropriate training solutions unites with the practical knowledge of e-learning processes and tools to provide maximum utilization of time, effort and money.

G-Cube’s WiZDOM LMS has acquired a million user base, with more than 100 installations. It has been acclaimed by numerous awards- such as the Top 15 Learning Portals Award by Trainingindustry.com for past 3 years, Brandon Hall Excellence Awards, LearnX Impact Award, Global eLearning Award and many more.

WiZDOM is now established as one of the world’s mighty leading LMSs. It has skillfully assisted organizations across the globe to manage their learning function better. It has also equipped learners with the right tools to take control of their learning and growth. WiZDOM LMS has a new-age user interface, learner-focussed workflows, responsive

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design that enables users to seamlessly access the LMS through multiple devices, insightful dashboards and much more.

Challenges and Road to Success As corporate e-learning is a very fragmented segment, competition is acutely unfurled across the globe. To be able to scale in this competition is one of the biggest challenges for any player in the industry. G-Cube has a deep focus on developing expertise in identified domains. It helps to solve real business problems leading to measurable business impact. This provides G-Cube high visibility in its chosen domains, and allows it to rise up in the value chain while maintaining very sticky customer relationships.

Considering just the running time of learning delivery codes, G-Cube sturdily believes that future of corporate learning lies in personalized driven data. Data and analytics will automate learning need analysis and learning delivery.

It is predicted that medium of learning will stop to evolve.

Since the past decade, it has swiftly moved from overhead transparencies to PPT’s to web based tutorial to mobile based learning. Today, the movement towards VR and AR has started which are very effective means to deliver certain kinds of trainings. G-Cube is gracefully working with its customers to explore how these technologies can lead to enhanced learning experience for the users.

Driven Values and Factors G-Cube is constantly driven by their desire to wow the customers. Not only with the design of the content or feature richness of LMS, but also with their focus on the measurable impact, they can create unmatched solutions for their customers. Innovation coupled with passion to excel is what constantly makes them to push the envelope to build better solutions and products.

Other than everything mentioned before, an extremely well built team, with an experience of working with Fortune listed organizations across the globe and domain depth that G-Cube brings onto the table are some of the other factors that are driving growth for the organization. As it is rightly said, ‘Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.’

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THE

INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

-Snehal Patel CEO & Founder

Sokikom:

Positively Transforming Mathematics Learning Culture

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or decades, the U.S. K12 system has struggled to produce successful student outcomes in mathematics achievement compared to the rest of the world. The elementary grades is when the foundation of mathematics gets laid, but is often when students begin slipping behind.

Many elementary teachers also identify math as an area they are less comfortable teaching compared to other subjects.

As of now, two major shifts are occurring in the U.S. K-12 education system. The new online end-of-year test, which replaces the old scantron multiple choice test, is proving to be the most challenging test of the modern U.S. Education system. School systems are rapidly upgrading their technology, training, and infrastructure which invariably have turned out to be a big boost for the teachers and students. The other shift is in the funding guidelines at the federal, state and local level. This emphasizes the need for research-based and research-validated learning tools.

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Sokikom was founded by Snehal Patel, a former elementary math intervention teacher, to help schools address the K-5 math gap. Sokikom is the only bilingual online supplemental math program where elementary students help each other learn in a team-based game as well as being able to learn independently or through teacherassigned practice. Unlike any other math program, Sokikom was developed through 6 SBIR grants from the U.S. Department of Education. Sokikom is the first program in the U.S. to show significant increases (18%) in the new online state test (SmarterBalanced) through a year-long 3rd party study published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal.

Bringing the Excitement that Every Class Needs What makes Sokikom unique is the blend of team-based social learning along with myriad levels of independent learning options, that excite students and differentiate the entire experience of learning math. Ms. Kobs, a 3rd grade teacher that uses Sokikom loves it because “The level of engagement my students have for Sokikom is intense. They

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Team-based games allow students that otherwise wouldn’t participate, to be highly engaged in mathematical discourse would rather learn math on Sokikom than go to recess! My kids are empowered to do math much more than previously.”

The Math Program is designed to cater to grades K-5. The program starts with a diagnostic assessment test that places the students at the correct skill level. This ensures that each student receives a personalized and differentiated instruction. The interactive learn by doing experience assures to make math as exciting as possible. It also includes instructional videos to help students when they face any difficulty. After independent practice, students can play team based multiplayer games where they collaborate and compete in real-time to solve math problems.

Sokikom makes Math less Intimidating It is a sight to behold when students are using Sokikom in the classroom. Students tend to become intensely engaged and experience social learning where kids help each other to learn math. Interestingly, tackling a tough math concept becomes much less intimidating when students can see their classmates come together to solve problems and help one another. This culture of compassion has inculcated a thinking of the highest order and has created a positive approach to math amongst students. Mathematical discourse, which is essential to higher-order mathematical thinking, takes place naturally in the context of team-based games. “One of my students that rarely participates in math discussions I saw explaining concepts to another student and asking questions from another student that were all in the same team.” Ms. Houghton, 4th grade teachers.

The Math Whiz with the Mission to Make Math Lovable A former elementary math intervention teacher, Snehal Patel is the Founder and CEO of Sokikom, with a mission to positively transform the beliefs and mindsets of students and teachers in mathematics. His experience teaching math dates back to his elementary school days where Patel helped his fellow classmates in various cities and states throughout the country. Snehal immigrated to the U.S. from England with his parents when he was 1. Like many immigrants, his family moved around a lot seeking opportunity. Patel moved 17 different times to various cities and states throughout the country by the time he graduated

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high school. Unbeknownst to many, Patel grew up as an undocumented student, otherwise known as an “illegal alien”, through elementary school and into middle school.

He enjoyed helping his peers learn math and became a math tutor in college and high school. Patel later became the youngest senior software engineer in his department at Motorola. His passion for positively impacting the teaching and learning of mathematics has even got him invited to speak at several events and conferences, including TEDx. Snehal is also the principal investigator and awardee of 6 SBIR grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), a research branch within the U.S. Department of Education.

Before Sokikom, Snehal started a math tutoring company as a franchisee for Mathnasium, an international chain of K-12 math tutoring centers, where he grew his location to the #1 performing in the world.

Changing the Way the World Looks at Math Throughout his life, Snehal has found that due to lack of foundational math skills, many students end up getting frustrated with math and lose confidence, especially in later levels. This leads to a vicious circle of avoiding math courses which are the gateway to math and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) related careers. But if the U.S. is to maintain its leadership position in the global economy, this needs to change. As a country, the U.S. is known for celebrating success in sports and entertainment but is not that keen on celebrating academic success, especially in elementary math. One of the key goals behind developing Sokikom was to help students develop a natural joy and love of mathematics by engaging them at their level and allowing for collaboration through team-based games.

And then, involving educators in celebrating student math achievement. Schools are already beginning to show some remarkable changes. Schools are now holding Sokikom achievement assemblies and announcements regularly.

Sokikom student achievements are being listed on school webpages and newsletters that go out to parents. All this is bringing more focus to celebrating what students are truly capable of achieving when given the proper tools and framework. “We’re excited and grateful for the opportunity to help positively transform mathematics learning culture in the U.S.” Mr. Patel.

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Scaling Technology

Popular Technology

Waiting to be Scaled

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he millennials are all born with a keen sense of technological acumen. At an age when baby boomers were being introduced to the concept of computers, millennials are well versed with the intricate workings of modern computers. Today’s students are experimenting with 3D printers and are having full access to all the books found in a library right from their homes.

So, yes, the internet is a serious revolution if you consider every sector operating in the world. But, how far have the solution providers been able to properly harness the full potential of these latest innovations in the field of education, is a real concern?

What the millennials want to learn?

With improvised learning tools and some suave gadgets, students are actually much more engaged in their learning objectives than ever before. Math is actually turning out to be fun for many with a dedicated perseverance from many Math-lovers to increase its fan base. Software modules are the latest norms that have been implemented with regards to learners of different levels.

However, these software modules need to be constantly upgraded with latest updated subject materials and citations or else they stand to go obsolete. This is where AI and Machine Learning are being perfected upon. There are few researches going on and some companies are already preparing to incorporate both into their learning modules.

According to one ongoing research, Artificial Intelligence is being developed, so as to be able to understand the learning patterns of the learner, their grasping power, the kind of citations they can relate to, the difficulty level of tests, and the points where the module itself is not capable of convincing the learner. The modern Artificial Intelligence systems are being designed to learn about the student while

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the student is learning on the modules. This way, the system learns about the student’s interest in various topics and hence the lessons can be crafted accordingly, similar to the way videos are recommended on video hosting sites.

Social Media – The Power of Collaborative Learning There is no doubt that social media plays a very proactive role in everyone’s life today. The popularity of various social media platforms is already being tapped by institutes in every corner of the world. The only concern, however, with social media is, keeping them engrossed into the educational topics and not the usual fun and frolics that social media attracts.

Social Media could be the most powerful learning tool with the right, well-focused groups and erudite discussion sessions. Such groups do exist in most of these platforms, but like many, they are hardly unbiased and hence, could not be relied upon for doing complete justice to the purpose. Once again, Artificial Intelligence comes to the rescue. Many of the newly developed social media platforms are investing highly into the power of real-time Artificial Intelligence-based Analyzing technology to keep the students engrossed in their learning activities, much like the current social media platforms.

Virtual Reality – Learning from a Whole New Perspective Currently, this technology is popularly being used in the gaming industry. With the requirement of advanced processing technologies and sophisticated programming, Virtual Reality would really take some time to get adopted

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Scaling Technology

for the financially backward learning industry. However, there are many non-profit organizations that are taking huge strides in making it a reality as soon as possible. The cardboard cut-out, smartphone-enabled, budget virtual reality devices available today are considered too naïve to be adopted for the current lot of students. That is, it doesn’t have the ability to keep a student engaged for a long time.

This, however, is a matter of developing the content that leverages the complete potential of the VR Technology.

Holographic Projectors – Making Classroom Sessions Lively The science-fiction phenomenon that has been continuously portrayed as a thing of the future is soon going to be a reality. We already have laser projector keyboards and mouse and other motion-enabled, holographic-based user interfaces. The Holographic projectors certainly seem to be the next frontier in the smartphone era and inevitably it will be the next best thing to happen in the education sector.

Videos of classes being conducted using the holographic technology seems very promising and with an engaging user interface, holograms are going to make the topics very interesting and easier to grasp.

3D printing – Harboring the Future Designers This is the most happening tool that has got the entire research world excited. From printing a prosthetic limb to a synthetic DNA strand and even a whole building, the possibilities with 3D printing is endless. This is exactly what makes it the most demanded tool in almost every industrial sector in the world.

However, the biggest drawback of a 3D printing equipment is its cost. It is beyond the reach of most of the research institutes and its accessories also come at a premium. Yet, there are some premium schools that are incorporating the know-hows of 3D printers and making their students accustomed to the basics of its operation. In the near future, craft activities using clay and paper are going to be complemented by the use of 3D printers. Even though it is shunned by many, there are still some art installations that are garnering attention around the world, just for being developed on a 3D printer.

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Cloud and IoT – Evaluating Performance on Different Levels This technology cannot be termed as the future, but is being heavily exploited by the present system itself. Students no longer need to haul heavy books in their backpacks. But there is more to this technology than just data storage.

There are programs coming up that aims to implement Big Data Analytics in student's study patterns, their overall performance in various subjects and consequently, their scope of creativity.

There has been a long-standing argument regarding the removal of the present evaluation system where the students are evaluated based on their scores in various subject matters. However, there are some revolutions coming up that consider the performance of an upcoming sportsman, a scientist, a civil servant and many more. Proposals have been going around to give equal considerations to every student showcasing different strata of interest in different activities. Using the cloud-based performance evaluation tools, it is possible to evaluate different students on varying benchmarks and hence, they could be recommended for the most apt career options. In a way, the world would be getting the most productive citizens through this program.

As per an undergoing program, students’every little academic activity will be monitored through smart cameras installed in every nook and corner of the campus, which would be equipped with spectral technology, motion trackers (even for the eye that senses your level of interest for a particular subject) and other gimmicks. These cameras and other sensors, won’t be just tracking the students' academic activity, but also their personality and their social interactions. The entire information will be processed, analyzed and evaluated to determine the further course the students need to follow. The only glitch to this collaborative technology would be the level of sophistication to acquire the required level of accuracy.

With the advancements in the timeline of Mankind, the amount of data and knowledge will only go on increasing and the upcoming generations are bound to learn many things in a much shorter amount of time. However, the latest technologies stand to be the only respite to the growing concerns of the educational institutes. Be it in preparing an engaging curriculum or in the smooth functioning of the institute, students are going to reap the benefits of the latest advancements in the technology.

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10

THE

INNOVATIVE

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION PROVIDER

-Xiaochao Guo Founder

That's Mandarin: Making Chinese Learning Easy and Simple

T

hough a larger section of the world says that the Mandarin Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn on earth, yet its popularity is increasing daily, making it one of the world’s most spoken languages. The world has seen an exponential growth in the demand for Mandarin lessons in just 10 years. Linguistic researchers say that the possible reason for such a hike in the demand for learning Mandarin Chinese is China’s economic growth which is attracting foreigners to the country for education and job opportunities.

Interestingly, entrepreneur and tech giant Mark Zuckerberg, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the daughter of former US President Barack Obama, Malia Obama, have something in common and that is, they all took Chinese as their second language and probably because learning this language opens the door to numerous

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prospects like Chinese history, politics, economy and business opportunities.

A prominent institute which is making the Chinese language easy and simple for learning for more than a decade is That’s Mandarin. It is a Chinese language school based in Shanghai and Beijing which is teaching pupil in an innovative and interactive way. The institute has already set a benchmark of enrolling over 3000 students every year. That’s Mandarin has an extreme level of expertise and experience in Chinese language teaching and offers a wide variety of Chinese courses to fulfill the demands of each of their students’ needs and goals. The school offers various pupil-focused courses such as intensive or part-time one to one program, part-time small group program, semester program and business Chinese learning programs. That’s Mandarin helps international

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We are eager to spread our fascinating Chinese culture and want to help our students nd a place in Chinese culture and not just learn the language students, not only by offering online Chinese courses but also by helping them through the entire visa application procedure and HSK preparation.

That’s Mandarin is a unique player in this field The world of technology is advancing at a rapid pace and due to which the sector of learning and development is undergoing a lot of changes and challenges. The entire process of language learning is evolving, and more and more people are moving towards the process of selfstudying on their personal devices. While keeping this in mind, That’s Mandarin is always developing their teaching methods to accommodate users to enjoy learning with apps.

They are always into creating and improving their own apps, programs and learning materials to meet the expectation of their students. The things which make the institute a unique one are as follows.

Technology: The team of Smart Lingo has dedicated all their time to research and development. That’s Mandarin consists of an international engineering team which works with the latest and greatest in the web and mobile technologies.

Highly experienced teachers: The teachers at That’s Mandarin are highly experienced along with a degree in teaching Chinese to foreign students. Even after having extreme levels of experience and expertise, all their teachers are trained methodically.

Excellent Learning Environment: The classrooms of That’s Mandarin are equipped with modern and high-end technological teaching facilities.

Affordable learning programs: The Institute charges a reasonable price for all the courses and facilities they offer to ensure that every person can fulfill their desire to learn Chinese.

That’s Mandarin Aims to Share the Essence of Rich Chinese Culture to the World That’s Mandarin is one such institution which values the

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Chinese culture and the spirit of Chinese people. It wants to share the true flavor of Chinese civilization by educating the world about the rich heritage of Chinese novels, short stories, prose, poetry, drama and film. “To be at ease and effective in a Chinese environment, learning the language is half the battle, but knowing about the culture behind the language is the other and nothing but joy lies beyond that,” as quoted by the Institute.

The Man Behind That’s Mandarin After completing university graduation and gaining five years of teaching experience, Xiaochao Guo, Founder of That’s Mandarin, decided to develop his own teaching methods and establish an effective way for people to learn Chinese as a second language. That is when he founded his own Chinese Language Teaching school, That’s Mandarin.

Along with the teaching experience, Guo has a solid experience of 10 years in the field of online marketing. He is a passionate teacher who has taught Chinese to absolute beginners to advanced pupils all around the world.

After observing the typical teaching structure in Beijing University and elsewhere, he started his own teaching venture to break away the strict structure of university curriculum. His idea was to develop teaching in a way where tradition meets innovation and that is when That’s Mandarin was born. His teaching methods bind the Institute together and his daily chores involve nothing but his efforts to improve the teaching structure of That’s Mandarin.

That’s Mandarin is always ambitious about their future Seeing the future ahead, That’s Mandarin has already started to develop their online teaching programs. They are taking the challenge of carefully managing the transition of traditional language teaching to online methods through their online Chinese learning program, Smart Lingo, which is providing students with rich multimedia content and didactic activities such as listening, reading, writing, speech recognition and vocabulary development to give the best to meet their pupils’ expectations.

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