Diny Golder of JES & Co. spoke at the EdReNe international seminar in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 6th and 7th about the connection between the learning object and the learning line, the curriculum. Ms. Golder was invited to speak due to her worldwide recognition as a leader and expert on interoperability and repositories and for her role in developing the Achievement Standards Network (ASN). The ASN is a framework for describing curriculum standards developed by governments and other organizations to prescribe what students should know and be able to do as a result of specific educational experiences. The Achievement Standards Network joins the National Education Association sponsored digital library, Gateway to 21st Century Skills, as part of the Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC). The GLRC connects the dots between learning resources across borders and learning sectors.

JES & Co. appoints Terry Smithson as Director of Marketing to bring the Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC) solutions to educators worldwide. JES & Co., a world leader in research, development, and deployment of education programs based on open standards, announced today that Terry Smithson has been appointed director of marketing. Mr. Smithson is well known to the education community through his eight years of leading Intel’s education initiatives and the national Hurricane Education Leadership Program (HELP). Mr. Smithson will focus on the Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC) growth worldwide with dedicated attention to the providers of the next generation of education systems. The GLRC will result in teachers and learners being able to seamlessly navigate related learning resources across state and national boundaries thus enriching curricula while simultaneously providing the means of relating learning outcomes to educational activities such as student ePortfolios, professional development, and assessments.

"I am proud to announce Terry’s appointment as Director of Marketing. The magnitude of the GLRC‘s reach demands someone with extensive education experience and the ability to get GLRC sponsors’ messages out to the mass of educators worldwide. No one could do this better than Terry,” explains Diny Golder, the Executive Director of JES & Co. "I am excited about joining the JES & Co. team and the focus on the Global Learning Resource Connection,” said Smithson. “The GLRC is the first global education initiative using the Semantic Web and will play a key role in the advancement of education worldwide through technology. It is an honor to be a part of a team that is both visionary and is recognized as a world leader in the research and development of programs that have such a profound impact on education around the world."

JES & Co. announced today the inclusion of the Common Core State Standards in the Achievement Standards Network (ASN). The Common Core State Standards Initiative was led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) representing 48 states, 2 territories, and the District of Columbia.

Jon Phipps, JES & Co.'s Lead Scientist for Internet Strategies presented a technical overview of the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) RDF vocabulary at the Linked Data Pre-conference at the American Library Association's Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Jon was an Invited Expert on the Semantic Web Deployment Working Group that developed SKOS. JES & Co.'s Open Metadata Registry also describes registered value vocabularies using SKOS. The special Linked Data Pre-Conference day was a complete sellout and generated quite a bit of excitement among the attendees. Jon also participated, with Ed Summers of the Library of Congress, in a 45-minute question and answer session that was followed immediately by a panel discussion moderated by Corey Harper of NYU. A copy of Jon's presentation can be found here.

Pairing the award-winning WGBH programming with the Country's most popular educational digital library, The Gateway, creates a win-win situation for teachers and parents.

Popular PBS programs such as Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, Design Squad, Peep and the Big Wide World, Curious George, Masterpiece Theatre and Martha Speaks are now complemented with associated free lesson plans and activities that are easy to find on the National Education Association (www.nea.org ) sponsored Gateway to 21st Century Skills (www.thegateway.org). "We are looking forward to our partnership with the Gateway to 21st Century Skills." said Natalie Hebshie, WGBH Outreach Coordinator for PBS. "The Gateway makes it so easy to find exactly what a teacher or parent needs to engage learners."