News & Events
Waterford Institute Joins the Critical Links School 2.0 Alliance™ to Deliver Best-in-Class Early Learning Content to Schools World-wide
Critical Links Education Appliance will now bring the award-winning early learning and literacy solutions from Waterford Institute™ to schools world-wide, in both connected and disconnected environments
FAIRFIELD, NJ, October 5, 2011 – Critical Links, a pioneer in delivering Information & Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure solutions for School 2.0—the next generation of schools, announced today that it is partnering with Waterford Institute to deliver high-definition early learning content to schools world-wide using the Critical Links Education Appliance platform. This partnership between the two Intel® Learning Series Alliance members aims to bring a highly engaging learning experience to the classroom, in schools with or without an internet connection.
Waterford Institute, a nonprofit early education solutions company based in Salt Lake City, UT, and a member of the Critical Links School 2.0 Alliance™, is a leader in developing early learning content for the K-12 education sector. With award-winning curriculum focused on reading, math, and science, Waterford Institute has consistently created content that is highly engaging and has been proven effective through numerous independent research studies. The Critical Links/Waterford Institute joint solution for content delivery was recently demonstrated at the USAID Conference in Washington D.C and is also being deployed world-wide.
Critical Links’ Education Appliance eliminates bandwidth constraints at the school by acting as an off-line (or on-line) central repository for all types of content and applications. It is estimated that over 90% of the world’s schools have no broadband access. The Education Appliance makes content from the Waterford Institute available to students and teachers independent of the connectivity infrastructure. The content is stored locally on the Education Appliance and accessed by student devices and laptops via the local LAN or wireless access points.
Based on the Intel Learning Series, the Critical Links Education Appliance is an industry-leading platform unrivaled in its level of integration and support, enabled by the School 2.0 Alliance™. It is the world’s first purpose-built, fully integrated, and comprehensive solution for schools that combines learning, networking, and administration capabilities on a single server platform. The Critical Links Education Appliance has been deployed at over 1200 schools in the world’s largest school modernization program and it has been recognized with numerous industry awards.
“We are delighted to partner with Waterford Institute,” commented Abdul Kasim, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Business Development at Critical Links. “Their leadership in the early-learning and literacy categories is unrivaled, and with this partnership, the Education Appliance can deliver their content seamlessly even to schools without a basic internet connection, while also bringing a ICT portal and local network to the school to enable collaboration and communication and to host and manage all types of content.”
“We believe that partnering with Critical Links allows us to deliver high-definition content to all types of schools world-wide, with great ease,” said Charles Callis, Vice President of International Development at Waterford Institute. “Education Appliance platform acts as a secure content repository and simplifies and speeds up the secure deployment and delivery of our solutions across hundreds of student PCs, simultaneously."
About Waterford Institute
Waterford Institute (http://www.waterford.org) is a nonprofit research center dedicated to providing every child with the finest education through the development of high-quality educational models, programs, and software. Founded by Dr. Dustin Heuston in 1976, Waterford Institute uses rigorous research to build award-winning, proven educational programs. Since creating the first educational videodisk, Waterford Institute continues to be at the cutting edge of technology-delivered instruction. Today, Waterford Institute is an international leader in preschool through second grade software for reading, math, and science programs and has reached millions of children globally. Waterford Institute is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. For questions please contact media@waterford.org. For further information go to http://www.waterford.org.
Charles Callis
VICE PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Waterford Institute
p: +1.801.349.2260
m: +1.801.834.3318
About Critical Links
Critical Links is a pioneer in delivering innovative ICT infrastructure solutions for Schools 2.0—the next generation of Schools. Critical Links’ School 2.0 portfolio provides the learning, networking, and administration capabilities necessary for delivering a highly collaborative and interactive educational experience. In addition it also strives to dramatically simplify the administration of both the IT and data infrastructure of schools.
The Critical Links Education Appliance is the flagship product of the School 2.0 portfolio and can support up to 3000 students. It has been deployed at over 1200 schools in the world’s largest school modernization program and has been recognized with numerous industry awards. Critical Links is an active member of the Intel Learning Series alliance and is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.
More information on the Critical Links education appliance portfolio and the School2.0 AllianceTM can be found at our School 2.0 portal: http://education.critical-links.com/PR or contact us at sales@critical-links.com. You can also follow Critical Links School 2.0 on Twitter or Facebook.
For more information, contact:Jai Edathil
Marketing Communications
Critical Links
jedathil@critical-links.comx1014
www.critical-links.com/PR