Amazon’s TenMarks releases a new curriculum for educators that teaches kids writing using digital assistants, text messaging and more — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez
Excerpt:
Amazon is expanding its efforts in the education technology space [on 8/23/17] with the launch of a new curriculum from TenMarks, the company it acquired several years ago which previously only focused on math lessons and related activities. Now, the business is offering an online curriculum for teachers designed to help students learn how to be better writers. The program includes a writing coach that leverages natural language processing, a variety of resources for teachers, and something called “bursts,” which are short writing prompts kids will be familiar with because of their use of mobile apps.
These bursts, which can be used by teachers as warm-ups or supplemental activities, make writing seem less intimidating for students, as they’re similar to what kids might do online or on their smartphones.
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TenMarks is only one way that Amazon is aiming to insert itself into the classroom. The company also runs Amazon Inspire, still in beta, a collection of K-12 curriculum resources. Currently, educators can browse the content library and download those they want to use, but a sharing feature that will support uploads is soon to launch.