Virtual Nerd is excited to announce that our Classroom Edition app is available on Edmodo.  If you just can’t wait for your school to make the “buy decision” for the entire school, you can get Virtual Nerd Classroom Edition (CE) on Edmodo today.  Virtual Nerd CE app allows a teacher to purchase and distribute up to 30 user licenses (for students) for use during an entire school year!  The current promotional price is only $30 — but hurry, that won’t last!  Virtual Nerd CE provides teachers the ability to create, assign and manage playlists, access reporting information and manage class rosters through Edmodo.  No need to wait any longer, get your class started today with Virtual Nerd Classroom Edition on Edmodo!

Edmodo provides a secure and safe online environment for teachers and students to connect, collaborate and share educational resources.  Their goal is “to harness the power of  social media to customize the classroom for every learner”.  Cool stuff.

You spoke and we listened!  Based on your suggestions and feedback we have been working diligently and are excited to announce the addition or enhancement of key features on our website:  Assessment Mode ~ Enhanced Reporting ~ Sharing Playlists

Assessment Mode allows teachers to gauge student learning and provides insight into learning strengths and needs at the student and classroom level.

• Intuitive, one-click process
• Convert any playlist into an assessment
• Gauge student performance and identify student needs
• Measure improvment over time

Enhanced Administrator & Teacher Reporting provides new reports at the school and class levels, offering valuable usage statistics and enabling real-time, data-driven decision-making.

• Get the details at the student level and the big picture at the school, teacher and class levels
• Track ROI
• Drill down with ease

Share Playlists with Colleague  share playlists you create with other educators in your school with the click of a button!  The Share Playlists with Colleague feature allows you to collaborate and share your best work.

View a current copy of our User Guide which has updated instructions on all of these new features.

While you were away eating  pi (ha!) we were very busy making updates to our website. Now when you log in to Virtual Nerd and begin a search, you will see that we have given it a new face — we hope you think it’s pretty!  And we added functionality to improve your search experience and assist with creating playlists.  Here is what’s new on the Search Results page:

1.  Thumbnail views of videos and now problems too – you can choose your view
2.  Ability to add a tutorial directly to a new or existing playlist and print or view the tutorial worksheet
3.  Tags referencing key words and related concepts

If you’d like the play-by-play or how-to’s, check out the latest version of our User Guide.

Virtual Nerd partnered with LivingSocial, Groupon and RDeals (for our Canadian fans!) to offer a special deal on our very popular Math Boot Camp programs.  Vouchers for the 5-week program were sold at over a 50% discount and sales shot through the roof!  We know you love our boot camp programs and especially love getting them for a DEAL!  So make sure to like us on Facebook and next time we have a deal-of-the-day special offer we will be sure to let you know!

Join the Virtual Nerd Community on Promethean Planet, home to more than 1.4 million educators world-wide.  Planet offers free memberships to teachers with the stated benefits of providing ready-made lessons, tips from a global community of teachers, and free professional development.  A great source of fresh ideas for using Virtual Nerd in your ActivClassroom.

“A world-class education includes ensuring students are prepared to create future innovations to solve global challenges, and fluency in math is critical.  By providing teachers with dynamic content they can use to build engaging and meaningful lessons and activities, inside and outside the classroom, we are supporting their efforts to deliver transformational, 21st Century learning,” said Brent Taggart, Head of Promethean Planet. “We are delighted to be working with Virtual Nerd and believe their resources will facilitate higher-level understanding of math concepts.“

So what are you waiting for?  Join today!

We are very excited about the new and expanded Playlist features now offered at VirtualNerd.com. Previously available only to teachers and tutors, Playlists allow students and parents to create their very own math and science personalized study guides by bookmarking and building collections of tutorial videos and practice problems by subject and problem type.

Virtual Nerd Playlists supplement classroom learning by allowing customized lesson plans for each student and focusing in on areas where they need the most help. With Playlists, users can:

• Bookmark video tutorials and build a corresponding list of practice problems
• Include personalized notes to provide additional guidance
• Add material from outside sources, like YouTube videos and Prezi presentations
• Share their Playlists with others

What are you waiting for?  Visit Virtual Nerd and try out Playlists.

iLearn Project, a WA-based organization that reviews and evaluates educational technology tools to help schools, parents, and policy-makers make better choices for student education identified Virtual Nerd as a “fun, fact filled math resource” in their four part series entitled “Friday Fun with Learning”.

As you may have heard, we have just formalized a partnership with Promethean Planet (Planet) to provide their members access to our web-based interactive Dynamic Whiteboard and extensive library of pre-recorded math videos.   Planet is an online community created by teachers, for teachers to connect, create and change the classroom.  A truly unique teaching, sharing and support community.  Check out our blog post on Planet that discusses how teachers can be “the Captain of technology integration” in their classroom.  In support of effectively implementing Blended Learning, we offer the following tips to help teachers introduce Virtual Nerd to their students:

Step 1.  Captain the Ship.  Use Virtual Nerd to review key concepts taught during the week or in preparation for an upcoming test.  The best and probably most important place to start is with the search function.  Demonstrate how to search by keyword, topic or textbook so students know how to find the help they need.

Step 2.  Create a Support Team.  As your Support Team members take over and you are reviewing instructional videos, discuss the concept, solicit questions and drill down using the embedded links to review terms, FAQs and prerequisite knowledge.  Demonstrate additional product features and functionality.  Basically demonstrate the Dynamic Whiteboard’s interactive capabilities which offers students personalized help they need, when they need it – a very significant and critical product benefit.

Step 3.  Engage your Crew Members.  Demonstrate the practical application of using the tool with a specific assignment.  Ask students to identify Virtual Nerd tutorials for each problem on a homework assignment for extra credit points.

As your classroom moves forward within the Blended Learning model, be sure to take it one step at a time.  Make sure that the incredible new technology tools and resources available deliver the intended benefits to you and your students.  Be the Captain, Build your Support Team and Make it Worthwhile.

On Tuesday, February 7 2012, President Obama hosted the second-ever White House Science Fair.  This year’s program assembled more than 100 students representing 30 student teams that won science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions from across the country.  President Obama took time to visit with students and learn about their winning entries that ranged from robots and rockets to marshmallow cannons.  The student projects showcased the talents of America’s next generation of scientists, engineers, inventors, and innovators.  Marshmallow jokes aside, learn more about one of the winning students Angela Zhang. She is an amazing seventeen-year old girl from Cupertina California who may very well have created the cure for cancer using nanotechnology to eradicate cancer stem cells.

The Science Fair coincided with President Obama’s announcement that he plans to invest $100 million dollars to train new math and science teachers over the next decade.  He intends to ask Congress for $80 million in support of new Department of Education grants and secure $22 million from private sources.  The President spoke at the Science Fair about the increasing demand in the next decade for employees in STEM-related jobs, stressing the importance of math and science education and the need for well trained teachers.

In case you you haven’t heard, we’ve launched Virtual Nerd School Edition to help middle school and high school teachers provide many of the benefits of one-to-one tutoring at a fraction of the cost.  Virtual Nerd School Edition allows teachers to create and offer personalized supplemental instruction based on specific student needs. “The School Edition Playlist feature simplifies the process of making assignments,”  stated Sarah Asma of the Merit Learning Center. “It is a tool that enables me to deliver personalized instruction, gather real-time feedback on how my kids are doing and take immediate action so they are getting the most out of class.”

Virtual Nerd School Edition enables teachers to quickly create and organize assignments for an entire class or for an individual student. The Smart Reporting feature lets teachers see when each assignment was last accessed, as well as usage and performance data showing how many students viewed and completed the assignment. Teachers then review performance data at the individual level to learn where each student is excelling and where they need more intervention. Administrators and educators have real-time access to comprehensive reports that allow them to view performance on Virtual Nerd tutorials at the student, classroom, school and district levels.

Learn more about Virtual Nerd School Edition here!