PIXELearning Ltd

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PIXELearning is a learning technologies company specialising in educational game software. The company was founded by Kevin Corti and Suraj Rana in 2002, both of whom attended Coventry University. PIXELearning is based in Coventry, UK. The company has won an ASTD award.

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Products and Technology

LearningBeans is a game-based learning platform. LearningBeans uses Flash technology and consists of a number of tools and APIs which are used to create game applications.

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Educational software is a term used for any computer software which is made for an educational purpose. It encompasses different ranges from language learning software to classroom management software to reference software. The purpose of all this software is to make some part of education more effective and efficient.

Educational games are games explicitly designed with educational purposes, or which have incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an educational environment, however educational games are games that are designed to help people learn about certain subjects, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand a historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. Game types include board, card, and video games.

A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self-motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be used only for a certain job. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used.

Learning Management is the capacity to design pedagogic strategies that achieve learning outcomes for students. The learning management concept was developed by Richard Smith of Central Queensland University (Australia) and is derived from architectural design and is best rendered as design with intent. Learning management then means an emphasis on ‘the design and implementation of pedagogical strategies that achieve learning outcomes. That is, in the balance between and emphasis on curriculum development and pedagogy, the emphasis is definitely on pedagogical strategies. Underpinning the learning management premise is a new set of knowledge and skills, collectively referred to as a futures orientation and which attempts to prepare the mindsets and skillsets of teaching graduates for conditions of social change that pervade local and global societies in the 2000s. The practitioner of learning management is referred to as a learning manager. Adjunct to the theory and practice of learning management is the Learning Management Design Process (LMDP). The LMDP is a curriculum planning process comprising 8 'learning design based' questions. The process was developed by Professor David Lynch of Central Queensland University in 1998 and is used primarily as a tool to train teachers to teach [3]. These 'eight questions' when answered in sequence focus the teacher to what is important when planning to teach students. The LMDP organizes its 8 questions through three sequential phases: Outcomes, Strategy, and Evidence. Each phase represents the bodies of information that its associated questions seek to pursue. The LMDP represents a rethink of the various curriculum development models that have predominated the planning of teaching and curriculum in the developed world over past decades. The teacher develops their 'teaching plan' by engaging with each phase and its questions and recording ‘findings’ in plan form.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Learning management systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. The first introduction of the LMS was in the late 1990s. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BrainPop is a group of children's educational websites based in New York City. It hosts over 1,000 short animated movies for students in grades K–8, together with quizzes and related materials, covering the subjects of science, social studies, English, math, engineering and technology, health, arts and music. In 2022, Kirkbi A/S, the private investment and holding company that owns a controlling stake in Lego, acquired BrainPop.

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech," it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology. In EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age, Tanner Mirrlees and Shahid Alvi (2019) argue "EdTech is no exception to industry ownership and market rules" and "define the EdTech industries as all the privately owned companies currently involved in the financing, production and distribution of commercial hardware, software, cultural goods, services and platforms for the educational market with the goal of turning a profit. Many of these companies are US-based and rapidly expanding into educational markets across North America, and increasingly growing all over the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosetta Stone (software)</span> Proprietary software for learning foreign languages and writing systems

Rosetta Stone Language Learning is proprietary, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software published by Rosetta Stone Inc, part of the IXL Learning family of products. The software uses images, text, and sound to teach words and grammar by spaced repetition, without translation. Rosetta Stone calls its approach Dynamic Immersion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATutor</span> Open source web-based application

ATutor is an open source web-based learning management system (LMS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Mendenhall</span>

Robert Winton Mendenhall is an American educational technologist best known as the president from 1999 to 2016 of Western Governors University (WGU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Educational video game</span> Video game genre

An educational video game is a video game that provides learning or training value to the player. Edutainment describes an intentional merger of video games and educational software into a single product. In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Normally software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula and does not involve educational advisors.

Blackboard Learn is a web-based virtual learning environment and learning management system developed by Blackboard Inc. The software features course management, customizable open architecture, and scalable design that allows integration with student information systems and authentication protocols. It may be installed on local servers, hosted by Blackboard ASP Solutions, or provided as Software as a Service hosted on Amazon Web Services. Its main purposes are stated to include the addition of online elements to courses traditionally delivered face-to-face and development of completely online courses with few or no face-to-face meetings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cengage Group</span> American educational products company

Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K–12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.

The Association for Talent Development (ATD), formerly American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), is a non-profit association serving those who develop talent in the workplace.

Rapid learning has traditionally referred to a methodology to build e-learning courses rapidly. Typically the author will create slides in PowerPoint, record audio and video narration on top of the slides, and then use software to add tests, or even collaboration activities between the slides. The whole package is then sent, most often as an Adobe Flash file, to a learning management system or website.

ExploreLearning is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based company which operates a large library of interactive online simulations for mathematics and science education in grades 3–12 called 'Gizmos'. ExploreLearning also makes Reflex, an online, game-based system for math fact memorization. ExploreLearning is a business unit of Cambium Learning Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael W. Allen</span> American software developer, educator, and author

Michael W. Allen is an American software developer, educator, and author. He is known for his work on e-learning, and led the development of the Authorware software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Williamson Shaffer</span> American academic (born 1964)

David Williamson Shaffer is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the department of Educational Psychology, the Obel Foundation Professor of Learning Analytics at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, a Data Philosopher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and Principal of EFGames, LLC.

First Principles of Instruction, created by M. David Merrill, Professor Emeritus at Utah State University, is an instructional theory based on a broad review of many instructional models and theories. First Principles of Instruction are created with the goal of establishing a set of principles upon which all instructional theories and models are in general agreement, and several authors acknowledge the fundamental nature of these principles. These principles can be used to assist teachers, trainers and instructional designers in developing research-based instructional materials in a manner that is likely to produce positive student learning gains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisco DevNet</span>

Cisco DevNet is Cisco's developer program to help developers and IT professionals who want to write applications and develop integrations with Cisco products, platforms, and APIs. Cisco DevNet includes Cisco's products in software-defined networking, security, cloud, data center, internet of things, collaboration, and open-source software development. The developer.cisco.com site also provides learning and sandbox environments as well as a video series for those trying to learn coding and testing apps.

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