Tag Archive for: SIIA

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New Autism Social Learning Software Takes Top SIIA Ed Tech Summit Award

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 23, 2012—Brighten Learning, creator of social learning software for children with autism, was voted the Most Likely to Succeed at The Software & Information Industry Ed Tech Summit on May 9, 2012.  The company’s first autism education software program, The Social Express, took home the coveted SIIA Ed Tech Summit Innovation Incubator award. The 350 conference attendees also voted the company a Runner Up in the Most Innovative category.

“We’re honored to receive these awards from the SIIA Ed Tech Summit,” said Marc Zimmerman, Founder and CEO. “We value this recognition and the feedback from parents about how The Social Express has helped their children.” Zimmerman continued, “Moms have told us they credit The Social Express with helping their kids with autism to begin forming friendships with other children. That really makes it all worthwhile!”

Parents and teachers of autistic children have given The Social Express, a 16-lesson interactive video modeling program, high marks for focusing on the right social skills. They also value the high-quality, Hollywood-style animation that holds children’s attention without over stimulation and the scenes that reinforce the best choices for kids to make in social situations.

Children find the characters appearing in The Social Express really engaging and many kids ask to work with The Social Express everyday. Users of the program say that it increases social awareness and learning in students with autism and promotes both social interaction and play.

When Zimmerman’s 10-year-old identical twin autistic boys joined mainstream classes, he realized that social learning was going to be key to their ability to interact well with classmates. That was the catalyst for Zimmerman to recruit the expert team that developed The Social Express. The company was bootstrapped from its founding through development and rollout of the first product. The company recently received its first seed funding which will be used to develop additional social learning software products.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California.  The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

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SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology

Education-for-autism-software-SIIA-recognition

We were excited this week that our autism software for social learning received two education technology (ed tech) awards. The Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) Innovation Incubator Program recognized The Social Express with a first place honor as as being the Most Likely to Succeed. We also received second place for Most Innovative technology.

Below is the official SIIA news release:

For Immediate Release:
SIIA Communications Contact: Laura Greenback, 410.533.1943, lgreenback@siia.net
PR Contact: Charlene Blohm, C. Blohm & Associates, 608.216.7300, charlene@cblohm.com

SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology
Three technology solutions receive honors in SIIA’s Innovation Incubator Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 9, 2012) The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, this week recognized three ed tech solutions with five awards for their originality, innovation, and industry promise.

During SIIA’s bi-annual Innovation Incubator program held in connection with this week’s SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit, Language Express and Filament Games were voted by 350 conference attendees as being the Most Likely to Succeed (first place and runner-up, respectively). Filament Games and Language Express were also voted as the Most Innovative (first place and runner-up, respectively.)

The Innovation Incubator Program supports innovation in the education technology industry by raising the profile of promising new technologies while connecting these innovators with captains of industry for mentorship, expert advice, investment opportunities, and partnerships to support growth.

Overall, 73 applicants were assessed for the Innovation Incubator program on a broad range of criteria, including the education focus, end-user impact, market need for the innovation, representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels, and the level of originality and innovation. Ten finalists and two alternates were selected for the program and their participation was subsidized by program lead and co-sponsors Blackboard Partnerships and Texthelp Systems.

“It has been an incredible experience to see more than 100 presentations from the ten innovation incubator program cycles we have now hosted,” said Karen Billings, Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA. “The number of applicants increases every cycle. We are thrilled to support so many original and exciting products and, just as importantly, to provide SIIA members with early access to these technologies.”

In addition to the recognitions announced above, Blackboard Partnerships™ continued its tradition of identifying the Innovation Incubator most aligned with their own initiatives, providing Smart Science Education Inc. with a complimentary year-long membership as a Blackboard Building Blocks™ partner in the Blackboard Partnerships program. Among the many benefits, partners have access to the thousands of clients using the Blackboard Learn™ platform. Program membership also includes a developer copy of the Blackboard Learn software, a product listing on the Blackboard Extensions online directory, personalized guidance and mentorship on the partnership, and participation at members‐only events.

“We’re honored to have teamed up with SIIA for the sixth consecutive year to sponsor the Innovation Incubator Program at the Ed Tech Industry Summit,” said Ted Hopper, Vice President, Business Development at Blackboard. “Each participant showcased original developments aimed to enhance personalized learning, but we think the online labs developed by Smart Science Education Inc. best align with our continued efforts to enrich our content repository for K-12 and Higher Education. We’re excited to welcome Smart Science Education Inc. into the Blackboard Partnerships program.”

About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education, and intellectual property protection to more than 500 leading software and information companies. The SIIA Education Division serves and represents more than 180 member companies that provide software, digital content and other technologies that address educational needs. The Division shapes and supports the industry by providing leadership, advocacy, business development opportunities and critical market information. For more information, visit www.siia.net/education. To learn more about the Innovation Incubator Program and the Ed Tech Industry Summit, visit http://www.siia.net/etis.

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Autism Software Wins First Place at SIIA Ed Tech Summit

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our autism software, The Social Express won first prize today at The Ed Tech Summit!

The Ed Tech Summit is an an educational tech event!

If you’re on Twitter, here is the Summit hashtag, #ETIS12

Our autism software was named: Most Likely To Succeed Educational Technology Product or Service

It was so exciting yesterday at the SIIA Summit in San Francisco! The photo above is me pitching yesterday during the Summit’s Innovation Incubator after we made it to the finals.

Double bonus. We also won Second Prize – Most Innovative Ed Tech Product or Service – Runner Up. We are so honored and enjoyed meeting all of the other companies and speakers at the event.

Social Learning Software Submitted

A few months ago, we entered our social learning software, The Social Express, in the Innovation Incubator. The SIIA stands for the Software Information Industry Association.

The SIIIA Education Division supports innovation in the ed tech industry (education technology) through the Innovation Incubator Program. The Incubator Program is an initiative that raises awareness of the most innovative ed tech products and services. We entered in our social learning software using our company name, Brighten Learning.

Autism Software to Help Your Child Make Friends

The whole reason my wife Tina and I started our company was to help both our twins with autism and the larger autism community. We know firsthand how many challenges there are for families with children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Especially when it comes to helping your child with autism make and keep friendships with other children.

It was seven years ago when our boys were first diagnosed on the spectrum. I was wondering what to do to help them. They weren’t very social. And I am, on the other hand, very social. That made it very difficult for me, especially.

I really wanted to help them improve their social skills. Things like making and keeping eye contact and knowing the right distance to stand from others.

It was important to help them to develop and work on other basic social skills. Like, recognizing other kids’ facial expressions. That would be key for my boys to make friends. Especially when they left special education and joined the mainstream classroom.

I looked long and hard to find a social learning software program that would help them. But I couldn’t find any kind of autism software to help them with social skills.

Then I had an “aha!” moment one day when the therapist was at our house working with the children. She took out a laptop. They were interested at first. But the autism software  on the laptop was old, outdated and it didn’t hold their attention for very long.

That’s when the idea for The Social Express began. I wanted to make social learning software for children and young adults that was really fun. Animated. Interactive. My main goal was to develop social learning software that would hold their attention.

It took us about three years from the time we came up with the concept for our autism education software. But now it’s finally out in the world.

Winning the Innovation Incubator awards is a wonderful honor.

But helping your kids with autism to improve their social skills so they can make friends. That’s why we get up every day and work to bring The Social Express to the global autism community.

Thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes!

– Marc[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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