SUNBURST TECHNOLOGY'S QUICKMIND.NET ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT DRAMATICALLY GROWS MATH, READING AND SCIENCE CONTENT WITHOUT INCREASING PRICE

QuickMind.net incorporates Sunburst's entire best-selling Key Skills Learning System®,
a new QuickMind Assessment, and Interact™ online science courses

SAN DIEGO, July 5, 2006 -At the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) leading educational publisher Sunburst Technology announced that its QuickMind.net online learning environment is incorporating the Key Skills Learning System®, a new QuickMind Assessment, and Interact™ online science courses for back-to-school. Sunburst's award-winning QuickMind.net online learning environment for grades K to 12 is growing its math, reading, language arts and science content, as well as releasing a new QuickMind Assessment for teachers. These new content offerings double the curriculum content for middle and high schools that is available in QuickMind.net. All of the math and reading content from Sunburst's entire award-winning and best-selling Key Skills Learning System® for grades K to 5 will be integrated into QuickMind.net's selection of math and reading activities in time for back-to-school. The powerful Key Skills Teacher Management Tool providing standards-based Assessment and reporting will also be included. XSIQ's Interact™ online middle and high-school courses for biology, chemistry and writing and a brand new QuickMind Assessment are expected to go live within QuickMind.net later this month. Educators will enjoy added value with all of this new content at no increase to the regular price of a QuickMind.net subscription.

All of the new curriculum content will be aligned to every state's benchmarks within QuickMind.net through its state-of-the-art standards engine, featuring the most up-to-date alignments for all 50 states and Ontario and at a higher level of alignment than any competitor. While the retail value of the newest QuickMind.net content is more than $7,000, the price of a QuickMind.net subscription will once again remain the same.

The award-winning QuickMind.net is a powerful intervention program that offers educators in grades K to 12 hundreds of hours of standards-based curriculum content from Sunburst's library of classic titles, as well as the ability to import or create their own curriculum from their districts. Over 20,000 organized and easy to use online resources covering language arts, math, science and social studies allows teachers to enrich the classroom learning experience. QuickMind.net provides educators and students with extensive lesson-planning, homework and Assessment resources at school, home or anywhere that they have Internet access.

"Integrating the Key Skills Learning System into QuickMind.net is a huge enhancement, since the system has some of Sunburst's best software with so many high-quality activities in the core math and reading areas," said David Wolff, Sunburst Technology Senior Vice President. "We gave Key Skills even more functionality within QuickMind.net than it had on CD-ROM with new upgrades and now the product will be school-to-home, since students and teachers can access it over the Internet."

New Content

The award-winning Key Skills Learning System, published by Sunburst, is a comprehensive language arts and mathematics system for grades K to 5, known for appealing standards-based core curriculum exercises, differentiated instruction, and an easy-to-use management process. All 160 Key Skills activities, representing 13 CD-ROMS of content, will be ported to QuickMind.net, strengthening its core K-5 math and reading offerings with award-winning, best-of-breed content. The activities are highly replayable and each is designed to build a specific standards-based skill. The engaging, skill-building style of the language arts activities complement QuickMind.net's portfolio and instructional style activities, offering three complete approaches to phonics instruction.

The Key Skills Learning System facilitates the identification of at-risk students and provides data needed for Title 1 funding. Teachers are able to assign activities, capture student performance, create diagnostic reports, demonstrate accountability and meet No Child Left Behind requirements using this award-winning integrated series of programs.

In preparing the Key Skills content to go online in QuickMind.net, Sunburst facilitated user-friendly improvements. The online version has a new interface and new state-of-the-art reporting system that disaggregates data to help districts prove student achievement and annual yearly progress (AYP). There are new types of reports, district level reports, and more reports to choose from. Teachers can easily compare students, classes and buildings. They can also filter reports against specific criteria. Another new feature is the ability for teachers to set their own mastery level for activities stemming from their feedback.

The new QuickMind.net QuickMind Assessment enables teachers to quickly and easily create multimedia formative Assessments. It is the most flexible and powerful Assessment-building program available. Questions can be aligned to standards and correlated for every state to the benchmark level. The tool displays recommended content that aligns to the standard of a test question and allows teachers to quickly preview and assign that content. Teachers may assign students resources from within QuickMind.net driven by their test or quiz results. This easy-to-use, teacher-generated formative Assessment program allows all types of questions, including essay, and there are no character limits. Teachers can also create passages and add images to both questions and answers. It also enables teachers to upload a test that was created outside the program. Using the QuickMind Assessment, school districts are also able to put their more formal Assessments online.

Through a licensing agreement between Sunburst and educational publisher XSIQ that was announced back in March, content from XSIQ's Interact™ online courses are coming this month to QuickMind.net. XSIQ's courses for middle and high school students are highly Interactive online tutorials for middle and high school subjects that include stimulating animations, 3-D models, videos, worked examples and practice questions, Interactive review activities and digital simulations. The courses provide an engaging learning experience and bring subject matter to life for students in a way that textbooks alone can't. Courses include Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Writing, and Literature and offer hundreds of hours of highly engaging content that includes simulations, Interactive examples, and multimedia.

The courses can be used either for core instruction, similar to any printed textbook, or for supplemental help. The lessons are designed for easy navigation so a student can log in from home and use the program for self-study. Practice exercises and simulations help them successfully grasp complex concepts. Teachers can also incorporate the courses into classroom time by projecting the lessons on a screen or a whiteboard and using the rich Interactive elements and video content to help convey complex concepts to the class.

Online courses for middle school include General Science, Biology, Chemistry, Chance and Data, Writing and Grammar and Shakespeare. In the Science course, middle school general science comes alive with this introductory, informative look at science. Students learn about: the characteristics and classification of living things, cells, food and digestion, atoms and molecules, kinetic theory, the periodic table and acids and bases. Writing and Grammar provides information on punctuation, grammar, writing styles and story writing in compelling Interactive modules. Students explore writing styles through a range of multimedia activities, which provide ideas, story starters and revision exercises. Shakespeare uses extracts from plays such as "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth" and "The Tempest," to explore the language and literary devices of Shakespeare.

Online courses for high school content areas include Physics, Chemistry, Chance and Data, English, Writing and Grammar and Shakespeare, and Biology. The Physics course is designed to help students understand the application of physics in real life. Chemistry explores quality control and the large-scale production of chemicals. It also covers the relationship between the production and use of energy in living and nonliving things, the Periodic Table and food chemistry. English covers the development of critical responses to both literary and non-literary texts. Students learn the art of text analysis, techniques for analyzing and researching issues, skills for effective oral presentations along with methods to engage critically and confidently with audiences. Biology is a comprehensive resource that examines cellular structures and processes.

Sunburst's content enhancements to QuickMind.net are ongoing. QuickMind.net provides 24-hour access to standards-based curriculum, Interactive homework assignments, project templates, tools, lesson plans, reference materials and built-in message system via a password-protected Website. It is one of a select assortment of intervention solutions available through Sunburst Technology's new "Sunburst Learning Solutions" educational consulting program, dedicated to providing schools with student achievement solutions targeting differentiated instruction.

Pricing & Availability

QuickMind.net is available as annual subscription sold exclusively through Educational Resources and the Sunburst Learning Solutions program. The subscription allows teachers, students, parents, and administrators unlimited access to QuickMind.net anytime, anywhere. Pricing for QuickMind.net is customized for schools and districts. The starting price for an annual building subscription with unlimited users is $7,000. Special district pricing is also available. For a free demo of the product or free on-site consultation, educators can visit http://www.quickmind.net or call 888-665-8307 for more information.

Sunburst Technology publishes award-winning instructional software and the QuickMind.net online learning environment for the K-12 school market. Proprietary series in the Sunburst lineup include HyperStudio®, Key Skills™, Tenth Planet, and Little Planet. Top selling titles include HyperStudio, Key Skills Series, Type to Learn, Hot Dog Stand: The Works, Easy Book Deluxe and A to Zap! The publisher, a company of Thayer Capital Partners, is headquartered in Elgin, IL, with its development center in Valhalla, NY.

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