SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 26, 2016–Follett announced today it will join the U.S. Department of Education's #GoOpen campaign committed to supporting districts and educators as they transition to the use of high-quality, openly-licensed educational resources (OERs) in their schools.
Follett plans to introduce searching and access to the Learning Registry – a shared repository of learning resource metadata – into its market-leading Destiny solution this fall. This new functionality will make it easier for teachers to search for and find free, open educational resources from the Learning Registry alongside print and digital resources owned by their school, creating lesson plans and playlists that drive appropriate content to students.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) launched the #GoOpen campaign in late October and earlier today hosted the #GoOpen Exchange in San Francisco, a gathering of state and district leaders, as well as representatives from education technology companies and non-profit organizations, all working together to share ideas, expertise, and proven strategies to help educators transition to using OERs.
"We are proud to be one of the first ed tech companies to commit to the U.S. Department of Education's #GoOpen movement," said Nader Qaimari, Executive Vice President, Follett Corporation, and General Manager, Follett School Solutions. "The opportunity for educators – no matter their districts' funding – to seamlessly access trusted, vetted content quickly is hugely significant. As a company with deep roots in K-12 libraries, we are particularly excited about how this will help teacher-librarians further curate and guide teachers where to find the best content and use it effectively."
The #GoOpen initiative is part of the ED's challenge to states and districts to begin replacing traditional textbooks with OERs, which help schools increase equity, save money, keep content relevant and of high quality, and empower teachers.
"Switching to openly licensed educational materials has enabled school districts to repurpose funding typically spent on static textbooks for other pressing needs, such as investing in the transition to digital learning," said Andrew Marcinek, Open Education Advisor at ED.
Follett's Destiny solution is used by more than 60,000 K-12 schools nationally and internationally to provide teachers and students with access to educational resources.
For more information about Follett, visit www.FollettLearning.com.
About Follett's PreK-12 Business
Follett is the largest provider of educational materials and technology solutions to PreK-12 libraries, classrooms, learning centers and school districts in the United States, and a major supplier to educational institutions worldwide. Follett distributes books, reference materials, digital resources, eBooks and audiovisual materials, as well as pre-owned textbooks. Follett also is one of the leading providers of integrated educational technology for the management of physical and digital assets, the tracking, storing and analyzing of academic data, and digital learning environment tools for the classroom focusing on student achievement.
About Follett Corporation
For more than 140 years, Follett has been a trusted partner to pre-K and K-12 schools, districts, and college campuses, taking care of the critical details that make it easier for schools to run, teachers to teach and students to learn. Every day, Follett serves over half of the students in the United States, and works with 70,000 schools as a leading provider of education technology, services and print and digital content. Follett is higher education's largest campus retailer and a hub for school spirit and community, operating more than 1,150 local campus stores and 1,600 virtual stores across the continent. Headquartered in Westchester, Illinois, Follett is a $2.6 billion privately held company.