Archive for November 2nd, 2009

Apangea Learning Receives Tech & Learning’s 2009 Award of Excellence

Apangea Learning Inc., leaders in personalized, one-on-one online tutoring for students nationwide, is pleased to announce Apangea Writing has been honored with the prestigious 2009 Award of Excellence from Tech & Learning magazine, a top resource for K-12 leaders.  Apangea Writing was awarded the Award of Excellence in the New Products category in education and will be showcased in Tech & Learning’s December 2009 Awards Issue and featured online at www.techlearning.com.

Tech & Learning’s Awards of Excellence program has been recognizing outstanding education technology products for the last quarter century. With a solid reputation in the industry as a longstanding, high quality program, the Awards of Excellence recognize the “best of the best” that help educators in the business of teaching, training and managing with technology.

“It is a true honor to be recognized by Tech & Learning and be the recipient of its 2009 Award of Excellence,” expressed Apangea Learning CEO Mark DeSantis. “I am very proud of the work and dedication of entire Apangea team and all of our customers who have contributed great ideas to the development of Apangea Writing.”

All entries are tested by a panel of more than 30 educators in several rounds of judging of more than 100 entries across the country. Evaluation criteria for all entries include: quality, effectiveness, ease of use, creative use of technology, and suitability for use in an educational environment. “Our judges, who include stalwarts such as our resident expert Joe Huber and the staff of Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy, put dozens of entries through their paces. To come out with their seal of approval is a testament to the product” says Kevin Hogan, Editorial Director for NewBay Media’s Tech & Learning Group.

Apangea Writing, a solution designed to help student achieve writing proficiency, was released for the start of 2008-2009 school year. Highlights of Apangea Writing include:

Live, Online Certified Teachers – Customized feedback is provided through “intelligent” tutoring technology and live, certified teachers.

6-Step Writing Process – Based on one of world’s largest bodies of cognitive research, the six-step process teaches students the framework and critical skills needed to become a strong writer.

Built-in Reward – The motivational system rewards students for effort and achievement.

Advanced Reporting and Measurement – Educators monitor and track student progress and pinpoint trouble areas through easy to use, graphically rich reports.

Neuro Kinetics and Military Researchers in push to Improve Diagnosis and Treatment of Combat Brain Injuries

With financial backing from a leading  non-profit supporter of  military medical research,  medical device manufacturer Neuro Kinetics, Inc. (www.neuro-kinetics.com) recently announced that it is collaborating with the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USAARL) at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and three other military medical facilities in a comprehensive research project to improve early diagnosis and treatment of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI).

The coordinated research focuses on using Neuro Kinetics’ I-Portal® NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) system to evaluate and characterize vestibular, auditory and oculomotor conditions in soldiers suffering from hard-to-detect mTBI as a result of blast exposure.  An estimated 20 percent of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from mTBI.

The other military medical facilities in the research project are Tripler Army Medical Center (Hawaii), The Traumatic Brain Injury Warrior Resilience and Recovery Center at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (D.C.).

The military researchers’ purchase of NKI’s I-Portal NOTC system was supported in part by grants from the T.R.U.E. Research Foundation (www.trueresearch.org), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that assists the military medical community.

The project is expected to run until July 2010.

“It is our honor to be working closely with military researchers on this critically important effort,” said J. Howison Schroeder, NKI president and CEO. “Research suggests that the oculometric measurements included in the I-Portal NOTC’s battery of tests can provide effective neuro-physiologic and vestibular-auditory evaluations for mTBI, and that in turn can improve early screening and treatment.
“Our wounded soldiers deserve the best care possible and we are proud to be playing our part to deliver exactly that.”

The NKI-military collaboration comes as a number of U.S. military facilities have installed the I-Portal NOTC system to improve diagnosis and monitoring of returning brain-injured military personnel.  Numerous other federal government medical facilities, including those operated by the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health, also rely on NKI  equipment for conducting daily clinical evaluations of patients as well as undertaking a wide range of research projects.