NLIS 4
May 17, 2000
(Education)

 Government, industry launch Curriculum Information System

Cutting-edge technology, being developed through a cooperative effort of the Department of Education, MediaTouch Technologies and Operation ONLINE will be available in schools throughout the province in the fall, and will be marketed at an international education trade show, "World Education Market" in Vancouver next week.

"We are very excited about the Curriculum Information System," said Education Minister Judy Foote, today. "We are breaking new ground in education. This software is not available anywhere else in North America."

"Anyone, anywhere in the province will be able to access the province�s curriculum on-line and search for the information they want. There are great benefits to teachers, school boards, parents, students, the university and colleges and the general public! This database will make resources available to teachers throughout the province, to assist them with lesson preparation - including cross-curricular projects and activities. Parents will be able to access the database from their home or library Internet connection and retrieve information about what their children are studying and follow their programs. The department will be able to update information, such as changes in geographical borders (i.e. Nunavut) with a few keystrokes that will make the appropriate changes to references throughout the entire database. The Faculty of Education at MUN will have an on-line resource to help link their required course work with the actual K-12 curriculum - ensuring that graduating teachers are well prepared. The general public will be able to do an on-line search of a particular topic throughout the entire K-12 curriculum. This will be the most innovative way we have ever had of making our curriculum publicly available," added the minister.

The Department of Education conceived of this project in the mid-nineties and teaming up with MediaTouch and Operation OnLine has made it possible to develop the Curriculum Information System for use throughout the province. The Department of Education will have a fully-developed software program which MediaTouch will market internationally.

"This curriculum management system combines with our existing product line to build the class-to-home connection through curriculum. The software accommodates any framework-based curriculum system, and provides parents, teachers and curriculum developers unparalleled access to the curriculum. The response has been so positive that we opened a separate product marketing division with a regional re-seller network across the United States to realize sales, and the response is very positive. Several Canadian provinces have already requested proposals, and are in the evaluation stages. We are pretty confident of rapid growth as we bring this software to market," said Diane Hollett, president of MediaTouch Technologies.

"One of Operation ONLINE's main goals is to stimulate private/public partnerships that enable the local industry to grow while at the same time deliver tangible benefits to public sector partners. This product delivers on both counts. The Department of Education will have an extremely useful tool to allow them to better deliver curriculum outcome- based education and Mediatouch Technologies Limited has cultivated and maintains a relationship with the department that can be leveraged into additional sales in other educational jurisdictions," said Craig Slaney, director, Research and Human Resources Development, Operation ONLINE Inc.

The program is in its final development stage and teacher resources should be on-line in the fall. Work will continue on improvements and upgrades to the system.

Media contact: Andrea Maunder, Communications, (709) 729-0048.

2000 05 17                             3:00 p.m.