[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/publishers-warehouse-helps-alabama-switch-to-online-learning\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/publishers-warehouse-helps-alabama-switch-to-online-learning\/","headline":"Publishers\u2019 Warehouse Helps Alabama Switch to Online Learning","name":"Publishers\u2019 Warehouse Helps Alabama Switch to Online Learning","description":"The statewide closure of schools has prompted educators to find ways to add to their teaching capabilities. Faced with an unprecedented challenge of quickly connecting the state’s online learning platform, last month Publishers\u2019 Warehouse in partnership with EBSCO Information Services, created EBSCOed, a digital PreK-12 resource portal for educators, parents and students. The portal pulls... Read more »<\/a>","datePublished":"2020-04-22","dateModified":"2020-10-07","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/author\/jdiuguid\/#Person","name":"jdiuguid","url":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/author\/jdiuguid\/","identifier":10,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a04adf53118166bfc56f5e44bba1073b590695d049476c93a2480beccf5c3849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a04adf53118166bfc56f5e44bba1073b590695d049476c93a2480beccf5c3849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"EBSCO Industries, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ebsco-industries-logo.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ebsco-industries-logo.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/EBSCOed-News-Image1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/EBSCOed-News-Image1.jpg","height":371,"width":563},"url":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/publishers-warehouse-helps-alabama-switch-to-online-learning\/","about":["News","Publishing & Digital Media"],"wordCount":582,"articleBody":"The statewide closure of schools has prompted educators to find ways to add to their teaching capabilities.Faced with an unprecedented challenge of quickly connecting the state’s online learning platform, last month Publishers\u2019 Warehouse in partnership with EBSCO Information Services, created EBSCOed, a digital PreK-12 resource portal for educators, parents and students. The portal pulls together online and published resources purchased by the state.EBSCO Information Services, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc. based in Birmingham, provides optimized e-journals, e-books and research databases combined with discovery service to support information needs.\u201cWhen it was decided that Alabama would not be going back to school, we started on the think tank and on March 16 we had a test site for the State Department of Education to look at,\u201d Lisa Silver, president of Publishers\u2019 Warehouse, said in a phone interview.From there, a technology team worked to launch the digital portal. On March 23, the EBSCOed site went live.Teachers who are educating students remotely can visit the digital portal and build lesson plans to send them. For educators who do not have devices or internet access at home, materials can be printed from EBSCOed and then built into packages to push out to students.Eric Mackey, the State Superintendent of Alabama, said the state has been \u201cvery successful\u201d in distributing support and resources.\u201cWe send things to local superintendents, and then they get them out to their principals and teachers,\u201d Mackey said in a phone interview. \u201cThat system has, fortunately, worked wonderfully so far.\u201dFormerly named the Alabama Remote Learning Portal, EBSCOed is the first step in what EBSCO plans to provide school districts across Alabama and others.“We look forward to a day when these platforms can be customized not only for school districts and schools, but for specific classes\u202fand individual students,\u201d Silver said.Mackey says some communities had \u201cglitches but for the most part, (remote learning) has worked really, really well.\u201dIncluded in the Alabama State Department of Education\u2019s Continuity Plan, EBSCOed will indicate a long-term intention toward a product that will allow for customizable digital learning, Silver says.Uniformity exists across the state for getting information to schools, but \u201cworking the plans changes from school-to-school and community to community, and even you know grade or subject, one to another,\u201d Mackey said.\u201cWhat\u2019s going on in, you know, eighth-grade math class in one part of the state is not going to be the same as the eighth-grade band class in another part of the state,\u201d Mackey said. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve given them a lot of discretion to write their own plans, but they did have to submit their plans to us and at this point, every school system\u2019s plan has been reviewed and approved.\u201dSome Alabamians who do not have access to the Internet cannot take advantage of this opportunity.\u201cThere are a lot of resources out there as long as a person has an internet connection and that is the main thing that we are concerned about,\u201d Mackey said.The next step, Mackey says, is to ensure internet connections across the state.\u201cWe\u2019re focusing our efforts on trying to get strong internet connections in every community in the state – and not just every community but every household, actually,\u201d Mackey said. \u201cThere are so many great resources available, but if you don\u2019t have an internet connection that becomes incrementally more difficult to access those resources.\u201dEducators, students and parents can access EBSCOed at EBSCOed.com."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Publishers\u2019 Warehouse Helps Alabama Switch to Online Learning","item":"https:\/\/www.ebscoind.com\/publishers-warehouse-helps-alabama-switch-to-online-learning\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]