Teachers Gain New Professional Resource

Teacher Universe Delivers Services to Educators
New company from Knowledge Universe, Inc.

Emeryville, CA, January 20 - Knowledge Universe, a family of companies providing lifelong learning opportunities to individuals and organizations, has created a unit focused exclusively on the needs of teachers. The division, called Teacher Universe, will provide technology planning, professional development, instructional tools, and career and life services.

"Teachers deserve top quality training and support." said Deborah Bond-Upson, president of Teacher Universe and executive vice president of Knowledge Universe. "Recognizing the difficulty of fitting training into complicated school scheduling and tight budgets, we will support teachers with effective, affordable, accessible training and tools while providing diverse choices in professional development, life and career services."

Teacher Universe currently offers technology planning for schools and professional development services in technology and curriculum integration for educators. These services were previously provided through the Education Marketplace division of another Knowledge Universe company, Productivity Point International. The offerings of the Education Marketplace division, now part of Teacher Universe, were noted positively in the September 1998 Heller Report. Working with Microsoft, Compaq, IBM and others and using the strong base of Productivity Point technology centers, Teacher Universe will expand offerings to educators by leveraging other divisions of Knowledge Universe and developing products internally.

Teacher Universe services will be highlighted at the American Association of School Administrators Conference in New Orleans, February 19–22.

Thomas J. Kalinske, president of Knowledge Universe, said, "Creating Teacher Universe as a separate organization is consistent with our strong belief in the importance of teachers and schools in society. Our goal is to become the leading provider of services and products to educators worldwide. We have a strong record of success in serving the education community by providing top-notch technology training, curriculum integration and technology planning services to more than 100 schools and districts."

About Knowledge Universe, Inc. –
Knowledge Universe, with revenue exceeding $1.2 billion, is headquartered in Burlingame, CA. Other core areas it serves include early childhood education; educational products; new media content development and interactive services; corporate training and custom learning solutions; career management; and strategic and technology consulting.

About Deborah Bond-Upson –
With 25 years of experience in for-profit education, Deborah Bond-Upson has worked extensively applying technology to the learning process, and it the delivery of educational services. She joined Knowledge Universe in October, 1997. Previously, she was vice president, product development, of Kaplan Educational Centers. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she has a Master of Divinity from Starr King School, Graduate Theological Union, University of California at Berkeley.

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