SAFARI MONTAGE NOW IMS LTI AND COMMON CARTRIDGE CONFORMANT

SAFARI Montage and Chicago Public Schools Win 2012 IMS Global Learning Impact Gold Award

Wynnewood, PA (July 26, 2012) - SAFARI Montage is proud to announce its IMS Global Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) v 1.0 conformance certification. LTI is the rapidly growing international K-20 sign-on standard for accessing web-based resources endorsed by more than 60 leading educational vendors. This standard establishes a means for passing grades, other user information and cloud-based resources from one digital learning platform to another, including SAFARI Montage®.

"Widespread, effective and efficient adoption of innovative digital content and applications for K-12 education requires cooperation and commitment from the supplier community on open interoperability standards," said Dr. Rob Abel, Chief Executive of IMS Global Learning Consortium. "SAFARI Montage has been leading this open revolution in the K-12 segment by leading in conformance certification to Common Cartridge and Learning Tools Interoperability standards."

Jill Hobson, Director of Instructional Technology at Forsyth County Schools (FCS), GA adds, “FCS is excited to learn that SAFARI Montage is now an LTI standard provider. As a leading district in BYOT with a proven model of success, we have learned the value of interoperability among various providers to support our learning processes. LTI will expand our use of the SAFARI Montage Learning Object Repository by allowing us to integrate across all of our LTI standard applications.”

Now, in addition to being able to import lessons and resources from Learning Management Systems such as Moodle®, Blackboard® and Desire2Learn® via IMS Common Cartridge standards, SAFARI Montage users will be able to employ a federated search across any cloud-based content or application that is IMS LTI certified. This seamless integration will enhance the learning experience for students by providing greater access to educational resources while also supporting educators by expanding the use of the formative assessment tools available through the SAFARI Montage system.

“IMS LTI standards and the SAFARI Montage platform have empowered Keller ISD to improve our teaching and learning strategies,” said Joe Griffin, Chief Technology Officer at Keller ISD, TX. “The standards have enabled us to transform our focus from a tool-centric teaching model to a more integrated, personalized learning approach. While SAFARI Montage provides us with a unified platform for accessing cross platform learning tools, such as Apple® products and iBooks®, and a single user interface for students, teachers and parents to seamlessly create, communicate and manage educational resources.”

In addition to LTI certification, SAFARI Montage, along with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), was recently honored with the IMS Global Learning Impact Gold Award for continuing work on Digital Media Services in CPS. The award was announced during the 2012 IMS GLC conference in Toronto, and recognizes SAFARI Montage and CPS for their work improving the high impact use of technology to support and enhance teaching and learning.

About SAFARI Montage
SAFARI Montage provides school districts with an integrated Learning Object Repository and Digital Media & Curriculum Delivery solution all wrapped into one. In addition, the solution is interoperable with virtually all classroom technology and most enterprise district systems. The full suite of integrated modules provides a single interface for users to access and manage all digital, visual resources from within the school district network or from home. And now, with the introduction of the Digital Curriculum Presenter™ (DCP) module, curriculum departments can elegantly deliver a full digital curriculum. The award-winning SAFARI Montage solution is also designed to cut costs for school districts by utilizing intelligent digital media solutions to replace traditional methods. SAFARI Montage servers come preloaded with educational video titles tied to the curriculum from the industry’s leading video publishers, which include Schlessinger Media, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, Scholastic, Disney Educational Production, BBC and more. As of July 1, 2012, SAFARI Montage is now the primary major commercial digital distributor of PBS’ library of full-length programs to schools nationwide. In addition, school districts can easily upload and manage their own digital content, and disseminate it to all users throughout the school or district.