Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Author Wins Prestigious Award for Best Educational Use of a Social Networking Service
McDougal Littell Literature author Jim Burke awarded 2009 Edublog of the Year
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — January 11, 2010 — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today announced that author Jim Burke, who teaches English at Burlingame High School, has won the 2009 Edublog Award for Best Educational Use of a Social Networking Service. The award, sponsored by Edublogs Campus and Classroom 2.0, was given to Burke for his creation and management of the English Companion community on Ning. The English Companion Ning, created in December 2008, boasts more than 10,000 members and serves as a destination where teachers can meet virtually to discuss education issues, ask peers questions and offer best practices for instruction.
“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a leader in educational innovation, and recognizes the value of utilizing social networking services for teacher collaboration and ongoing professional development. We congratulate Jim for his accomplishment,” said John Sipe, K–12 Vice President for HMH’s California Region. “Our organization believes in providing opportunities to connect teachers with the authors who developed the textbooks they use in the classroom.”
The English Companion community was created for high school English teachers and provides a consortium of collaborative opportunities including discussion forums, content sharing, event promotion, professional development topic exploration, blog writing and relationship building with colleagues and peers. Ning is a social networking platform that houses more than 1.8 million Ning Networks and 39 million registered users, and provides people the opportunity to create niche networks that serve as interactive websites formed on common professional goals, hobbies or a variety of other shared interests.
Burke is an author of HMH’s McDougall Littell Literature textbook. McDougal Littell was founded in 1969 and initially published supplementary softcover textbooks for secondary English teachers. In 1994, McDougal Littell became part of Houghton Mifflin Company.
“I am very humbled by the network everyone on the English Companion Ning has helped me create in the last year,” Burke said. “While I began it originally to help new teachers, who I felt were not finding their way into the larger discussion about teaching English language arts, it became clear almost immediately that this was something all English teachers — myself included — needed. The award from Edublogs validates the work we have done in the last year and challenges us to do even more in the year ahead.”
As a technology leader, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has creatively developed technological programs and textbook compliments that provide opportunities for educators to improve and expand upon the current resources available to them. The Company recently created the California Teachers’ Network on Facebook as part of their commitment to delivering innovative resources to help California schools and teachers. HMH has also created Learning Village, a customized technology platform that allows school districts to compile and organize free and standards based materials, lesson plans and other teacher-created instructional materials. HMH’s DataDirector™ technology helps educators make sense of a huge range of data to provide longitudinal tracking and reporting of student assessment data, student demographic data and program/event attendance, as well as professional development activities, paraprofessional activities, student grades and teacher data.
Visit the English Companion Ning. Visit the California Teachers’ Network.
About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world’s largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of best-in-class educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards-based assessments for students and educators. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. To learn more about Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, visit www.hmhpub.com.
CONTACT:
Josef Blumenfeld
Vice President, Communications
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
617-351-5432
Josef.blumenfeld@hmhpub.com
Margeaux Esler
Randle Communications
916-448-5802
mesler@randlecommunications.com