Wisconsin

  Wisconsin DEN Members:  Be sure to let me know if you are interested in having a special opportunity to have a trial account for COSMEO !

This opportunity is available to you for a limited time so be sure to email me asap if you are interested!

The following October 2006 review by Yahoo Tech is validation of the wonders of COSMEO and how it makes a tremendous difference for students!   Every unitedstreaming   school library can have access to COSMEO for their just be signing up via www.learningaddsup.com!

Learning Adds Up makes a real difference by helping your school fund needed resources.  Check out Learning Adds Up NOW!!!

Hands-on Review: COSMEO, the YouTube of Homework Help

What if you could really learn something new from watching short video clips? That’s the meat and potatoes behind a new homework help site for kids in grades K-12 called COSMEO. The site was developed by Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications. Discovery Channel has certainly proven successful at teaching through TV by mixing education and entertainment, so COSMEO has an intriguing pedigree.  Cosmeo’s roots stem from the fact that Discovery owns thousands and thousands of educational video clips (many acquired from a company called United Streaming).
Educators can currently subscribe to a United Streaming school-based service that brings the videos into the classroom. The new COSMEO is a consumerized version.  Discovery has put some tremendous effort into creating a simple but elegant user interface. The videos are also aligned to national curriculum standards, which helps parents know that the kids are learning "the right things." Subjects include: science, math, social studies, english, health, art and music.
COSMEO is a subscription-based service. You pay $9.99 per month or $99 per year for a family subscription that can be run off any computer, anywhere—school, library, home, grandma’s. A parent can sign up multiple kids in the household and can monitor the activity. You will need broadband and sound, though.
The service is rich and well organized by topic, grade level, media type, and your favorites; there are many ways to get at the material. Most of the videos are quite stunning, though there are plenty of uneven moments. The arts and science clips are magnificently done: some of the social studies clips sound a bit like those filmstrips I endured as a kid. Topics like anglers and global warming are richly covered. The NY Yankees, Joan of Arc, and neurobiology are not. And of course the articles from the encyclopedia and other text sources feel like a let down when placed next to the multimedia.
The math sections, powered by company called NutshellMath, are nothing short of miraculous (considering that I’m still mentally scarred from my 6th grade geometry teacher). Watching sample problems get solved by an invisible hand wielding a pencil, I accessed a set of tools on a math scratchpad and followed the hand’s example. I was figuring out the area of polygons in no time and simplifying equations. And younger kids will get a kick out of the video game techniques used to teach some of the math lessons like fractions.
Combine all this with an atlas, an encyclopedia, some brain games, polls, fun, and other homework tools, and you’ve got a deal that’s hard to refuse. COSMEO is beginning to build in a component to match the textbook your child is using in school to the lessons on the service. It’s like having a tutor in a box, just in time for those "I’m stumped" moments.
Video, researchers are finding, has a real effect on retention. And this generation, we know, are more highly tuned to video than any before them. After a night with COSMEO I can tell you where sulphur lies on the periodic table and why it was called brimstone. My heart’s gone out to Peter Tchaikovsky (a sensitive mama’s boy in an unhappy marriage) and I know why advance warning tsunami alerts are problematic. Imagine if your kids did this instead of the YouTube thing. There’s a free trial offer for 30 days. Let me know what you think.
Yahoo! Tech
October 20, 2006

COSMEO  was also named one of the TOP TEN HOMEWORK HELPERS via Online Homework Help Services Reviews 2006!

Do *not* let your school LMC be left out of this GREAT OPPORTUNITY! Learning DOES ADD UP!

Register for Learning Adds Up Today!    Read through the helpful FAQ (frequently asked questions now!)

Help your school, help your students!

Parents purchase COSMEO (Discovery’s online, engaging homework helper which has 30,000 educational videos, 20,000 images and clip art, and 27,000 full text articles) via a program called Learning Adds Up , which is a unique partnership opportunity.   Many Wisconsin DEN members are already sending feedback that their children love COSMEO and are even using it as a reward!

Schools, districts and/or parent organizations register for FREE at http://www.LearningAddsUp.com and when a parent purchases COSMEO via the Learning Adds Up website, a portion of their subscription fee will automatically go back to the registered entity.

Schools can earn on average of 15-25% with very little man power to run the program. Discovery recognizes that not all families have the resources to take advantage of COSMEO at home. Therefore to help maintain equity in the schools, Discovery will provide one free COSMEO subscription per school library to any school that has a unitedstreaming subscription.

However, schools must be registered for the LAU program to take advantage of this offering. For more information on getting started with Learning Adds Up, please contact Brendan Wilkin at (800) 323-9084 x 7263 or Brendan_Wilkin@Discovery.com