FableVision Resources for Distance Learning

With many of us working from home or learning remotely these days, it can be difficult to find fun, quality, engaging activities to pass the time and keep us in good spirits. And now that students of all ages—from kindergarteners to high schoolers and beyond—are home during the school day, you can help them continue to learn with this list of games, animated shows, and more that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Naturally, we’re biased, but here are some of our favorite educational resources we developed with our amazing partners to get you started. Who knows—you may learn something yourself as you follow along!

You can also check out our friends at iCivics, Pinna, BrainPOP, GoNoodle, and Common Sense Media for more quality content. Virtual elbow bump!

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Game-Based Learning

Gasha Go! (free)

Age Range: grades K-3

Help the lovable Gasha Go! characters fill an arcade machine with toys! In this cute and colorful math game from FableVision and Georgia Public Broadcasting, players learn number sense, numeracy, and literacy skills while earning virtual toy rewards along the way.

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Quandary (free)

Age Range: middle school

As the captain of the new space colony Braxos, it’s up to you to use your moral decision-making skills to keep the peace. In Quandary, an online card and story-based game we developed with the Learning Games Network, players assume the role of captain in a futuristic society. In this role, players must make difficult—and important— decisions to help build their colony and strengthen their community.

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Zoombinis ($2.99 on App Store and Google Play, $4.99 on Kindle, $9.99 for Broderbund and Steam)

Age Range: middle school

Join the Zoombinis on a logical journey! In this relaunch of the classic ‘90s game, players use their algebraic thinking, data analysis, and theory formulation skills (also known as Computational Thinking) to solve puzzles and help the Zoombinis find a new home. The game was re-released in 2015 in partnership with TERC and Learning Games Network.

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Read to Lead (free)

Age Range: middle school

The citizens of the fictional city of Fort Douglas are struggling to grapple with the aftermath of a hurricane. In this trio of games FableVision developed with Classroom, Inc.—After the Storm, Community in Crisis, and Vital Signs—players assume the role of a newspaper editor, community center director, and medical clinic manager to help the town rebuild and pick up literacy and career readiness skills along the way.

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Lights, Camera, Budget! (free)

Age Range: middle and high school

Welcome to Hollywood! Can you manage a budget of $100 million to create the horror, comedy, or action movie of your dreams? This online financial literacy game is a collaboration between FableVision, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and the Georgia Council on Economic Education that teaches personal finance and money management in a way that is engaging and aligns with Common Core standards.

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Animation

Digital Citizenship Music Videos

Age Range: grades K-2

Online safety and balance  are crucial, especially in our increasingly digital world. To teach children how to be safe, responsible, and respectful in their digital lives, FableVision created three fun and educational music videos for grades K-2 as a part of Common Sense Education’s K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. While the music videos are perfect for young children to learn the importance of digital safety, online privacy, and more, you may find yourself singing and dancing along!

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Different Kinds of Hurt: Isaac's Story

Age Range: elementary school

Now is an especially important time to have open and honest discussions with children about mental health, and to remind them that it’s okay not to feel okay. FableVision partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the Walker School, and Express Yourself to tell the story of Isaac, who shares his experience of going to the hospital for mental health reasons with his friend Mia. The warm and friendly animated film draws parallels between mental health and physical health using Isaac’s experiences and Mia’s recent stay in the hospital for a broken leg to normalize conversations about kids’ mental health without relying on harmful stereotypes.

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Go! Go! Cory Carson

Age Range: preschool

Navigate childhood with kid-car Cory Carson! In this charming Netflix series from Kuku Studios, and with help from FableVision’s VP of Creative Tone Tyne, viewers follow Cory Carson on his epic adventures, from a field trip to the firehouse to his very first sleepover! The first two seasons are now streaming on Netflix.

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The Paper Girls Show

Age Range: 6-8

Meet Caily and Reese, curious best friends and makers, as they use STEAM to solve problems with help from their friends in the fantastic paper world of Confetti! This animated series from FableVision and Global Tinker empower viewers through creativity and exploration, and shows young girls that “if you can dream it, you can make it!”

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Good Thinking!: The Science of Teaching Science

Age Range: adults

How do students develop new conceptual understandings? Are “learning styles” out of style? In this animated series for K-8 science educators, FableVision and the Smithsonian Science Education Center tackle common misconceptions students have on a variety of topics, from gravity and inertia to weather and the water cycle, and show how educators can debunk these issues in their classrooms—even if that classroom is now online!

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Dodo Sing Dodo Dance

Age Range: preschool and up

Sing and dance along with the beloved animals from The Dodo, now on a platform designed just for kids! Visit the Dodo Kids YouTube channel for kid-friendly content, including five catchy, cute critter-filled music videos. With original music created in partnership with musical group The Wilders and lyrics from FableVision VP of Creative Tone Thyne, Dodo Sing Dodo Dance features cute animals, colorful graphics, and upbeat music and lyrics that will have people of all ages joining in!

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FableVision Learning Resources:
The Creativity Maker Suite

FabMaker Studio

Age Range: grades K-8

Let’s make something! (And you don’t even need a 3D printer!) With FabMaker Studio, a research-based digital fabrication tool from our sister company FableVision Learning, students can design and fabricate any project—including designing a solar car or modeling a snow fort—using digital tools, including scissors, electronic cutters, and more!

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Get Published!

Age Range: grades K-8

Curious about how to publish a book? Learn from award-winning children’s book author and illustrator—and FableVision founder—Peter H. Reynolds in this web-based digital publishing platform from FableVision Learning. Through videos and hands-on activities, users will learn all about what it takes to make a book, from developing a plot to formatting pages to creating an actual book that you can put on your bookshelf!

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Animation-ish

Age Range: grades K-12

Animation-ish is an easy-to-use, web-based animation program that inspires creativity, and allows students in grades K-12 to "show what they know." Animation-ish includes three levels that provide students and teachers from K-12 with a fun, rewarding experience that fosters the ability to animate across the curriculum with confidence.

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FableVision is an educational media production studio on a mission to move the world to a better place. If you're looking for a production partner for online or distance learning solutions, reach out to us here.

Sharing the Love this World Read Aloud Day!

Here at FableVision, we believe in the power of stories. And with a mission to tell “stories that matter, stories that move,” it’s no surprise that storytelling, literacy-learning, and engaging people young and old in the joy of reading are close to our hearts.

This year, we’re joining long-time partner and leader in publishing and education Scholastic in celebrating World Read Aloud Day. Founded by nonprofit LitWorld in 2010, World Read Aloud Day is all about the power of reading and sharing stories. You can visit Scholastic’s website for more information on the holiday, literary resources for parents and teachers to support their children’s love of reading, and artwork by FableVision founder and award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. The site also features four quick and easy steps to join in on the World Read Aloud Day celebrations:

1. Select a book

2. Find a buddy

3. Read aloud

4. Share your favorite read-aloud moments on social media with #WorldReadAloudDay, and tag @Scholastic, @LitWorldSays, and three friends so they can join, too!

In honor of World Read Aloud Day and the month of love, we’re sending valentines to some incredible organizations doing important work promoting literacy, many of whom we’ve been lucky to partner with on literacy-based projects. Here’s who we’re crushing on this month:

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Scholastic

Our first love letter is, of course, for Scholastic. Scholastic is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, including FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds’ collections! Scholastic provides a number of resources for educators and caregivers, including Scholastic Literacy, which combines incisive standards-informed instruction with access to quality, culturally relevant books and texts “to engage readers, support social-emotional development, and help students become lifelong independent thinkers, readers, and writers,” according to their site. The studio has collaborated with Scholastic on a number of projects, most recently on film adaptations of Peter’s books, such as The Dot, Ish, and The North Star.

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Jumpstart

Next up is our next-door neighbor and shared-kitchen companion: Jumpstart! Jumpstart is an early education organization that trains college students and other community volunteers to help children develop key skills to succeed in kindergarten. With a focus on language, literacy, and social-emotional programming for preschoolers from under-resourced communities, Jumpstart promotes accessibility in learning, specifically early learning, with the hope that every child in America will be able to enter kindergarten ready to succeed. And their Read for the Record celebration is a staff favorite.

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Classroom, Inc.

We’re also sending a lil love note to Classroom, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to helping students develop literacy and leadership skills through digital learning games and curriculum. Classroom, Inc. connects academics to the professional world through research-based digital learning games and curriculum that encourage literacy-learning and leadership skill development in an authentic work environment. FableVision partnered with Classroom, Inc. to develop three literacy learning games as part of the Read to Lead series. The three games After the Storm, Community in Crisis, and Vital Signs use real-world simulations—leading a daily news website, running a community center, and managing a community-based family clinic—to put players in a leadership position where they’ll acquire and apply literacy skills.

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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

Our fourth letter is for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book-gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, regardless of family income. The program has launched in five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, and Australia—mailing millions of books to kids around the world. The library began as Dolly’s way to honor her father’s memory and pursue her mission of inspiring children to love to read.

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Reading Is Fundamental

Last but certainly not least is Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit. Reading is Fundamental provides access to books and quality content that helps children learn to read and obtain the fundamental building blocks needed to succeed and reach their full potential. Their work aims to directly impact and engage communities to inspire a passion for reading among children across the United States. FableVision partnered with Reading Is Fundamental to create two literacy projects: Our Book By Us!, an app comprised of six minibooks featuring an original Peter H. Reynolds character, and Water Wonders, an ebook app that introduces readers to themes of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM).

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But the celebrations don’t have to end after today. Reading and telling stories are important to everyday development and fun, for people of any age every day of the year! Check out our portfolio for more FableVision-developed literacy and other educational projects, and keep sharing your stories and love of reading with the people you love.

2020 FableFriday: FableVision’s 10 Year Challenge

With the #10YearChallenge making its way across social media feeds, we at FableVision Studios thought we’d get in on the action with our own 10 Year Challenge. As a new decade begins, we’re reflecting on the great innovations and changes that have occurred in the last ten years.

To take a look at exactly what has and hasn’t changed from 2010 and 2020, we asked some of our staff members who have been at the studio for over ten years to reflect on some of the changes at the studio over the last decade. Though many of the people, projects, and software that we use have changed, the thing that has always stayed constant is our mission to tell “stories that matter, stories that move” using engaging and innovative educational media.

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As co-founder of FableVision, what was the original vision for the studio? How has FableVision Studios continued to work towards that vision this past decade?

Gary Goldberger, President & Co-Founder: The original vision for the company was to use media, art, and technology to move the world to a better place and to help all learners reach their full potential. In the past ten years, this vision has stayed very near and dear to our hearts. People and technology change, but the mission has continued to be the core of the studio’s success. A big part of this is finding like-minded partners that come to us because they believe in using media to engage their audience to think or act differently. We’ve always believed that making small changes in our current system can cause long-term positive effects in schools, culture, and communities. This belief doesn’t just stop at the company level, but it also influences what we want to do in our lives; it comes from our personal beliefs and goals.

For the past 24 years, the ways to reach our audience have changed. We’ve seen a technology evolution, and with every new technology that comes, there’s a short “a-ha!” period where we see the potential. At FableVision, it’s our job to turn that potential into actuality. Personal connection and meaning need to exist within whatever technology you’re using to deliver an authentic experience. That’s been crucial to FableVision’s mission since the beginning, and something we’ve stayed true to throughout the years. I’m still really proud of that.

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How have the types of projects and how FableVision approaches those projects changed from 2010 to 2020?

Leigh Hallisey, Creative Director: The biggest change that I’ve seen is in subject matter, driven by the fact that we are designing learning experiences for older audiences. Although we love to produce media for younger children, FableVision is reaching more learners in middle school, high school, and college.

Within this last decade, we’ve tackled a lot of complex subject matter: bullying, financial literacy, substance use, neurodiversity, empathy, anxiety and peer pressure, mental health awareness, and more. I love that the educational media umbrella is always expanding—learning about being a human in the world, how to respect difference, how to take care of yourself and others. We continue to use our signature blend of storytelling, relatable characters and situations, and authentic language, but we are doing a deeper dive into researching the subject matter and working with experts in the field. 

It’s amazing to have a job where you learn new things with each project—the effects of drugs and alcohol on an adolescent brain, mindfulness techniques for relaxation, digital citizenship, managing crops, tips for resisting peer pressure, and how to save for retirement by managing a vampire nightclub (no joke). It’s never boring! FableVision’s work has always been unique and quirky, and a lot of that comes down to the trust our clients put in us because of the reputation we’ve built over the years. Between art, game design, production, and content, we have the vision to push the expectations around educational media, and we have the amazingly talented people to make beautiful things that really impact the world.

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What did FableVision’s animation process look like in 2010, and how has it changed over the last decade? What impact have these changes had on studio projects?

Didi Hatcher, Lead Animator:  This past decade, we’ve made a lot of improvements to the animation process to ensure better organization, optimization, and streamlining. One main focus has been better documentation and communication. We also learned to use a lot of new software and tools, and gained a lot of new skills. Before, we primarily animated in Flash (now named Adobe Animate), but to adapt to new platforms like mobile and AR, FableVision artists and animators have learned After Effects, Unity, Spine, and many other software platforms along with Adobe Animate. We have also expanded our process to include a lot more freelancers, and our management of the workflow has improved to accommodate that, especially given that most freelancers are off-site and often in different time zones.

These changes have improved our performance tremendously. Projects run smoother and faster, and our process is a lot more efficient. This allows for better quality of our work, and it lets us stay competitive by achieving more for less time and money. And, last but not least, it makes working less stressful and more enjoyable. All in all, it’s been a good decade of growth!

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What kind of technology was the studio using in 2010? How has technology changed this past decade, and how does FableVision stay on top of emerging trends?

Brian Grossman, Technical Director: The vast majority of the games, animation, and interactives we developed in 2010 were created using Flash. Knowing that Adobe’s support for Flash Player officially ends in December 2020, we switched to using HTML5 and Unity. We continue to push these technologies and use one of them on almost all of our projects.

In 2010, we just started developing iOS apps. Even though no one could have predicted mobile's full-scale takeover at that time, we made sure we were getting up to speed. In the past 10 years, we’ve created dozens of apps for iOS and Android phones and tablets for our clients. On the other hand, the technology in 2010 that people predicted would have huge growth in the education space was interactive whiteboards. At that time, we had several, large-scale projects designed specifically for classroom instruction on a whiteboards, including our own Big Screen Books. While the demand for interactive whiteboard projects has died out, we learned about the nuances of developing software for teachers to teach and entire class using a large display.

We’ve always strived to balance the need to deliver quality products built on stable, proven technologies with the need to research and learn about the latest and greatest technologies. We’re currently working on several extended reality (AR and VR) projects, and keeping an eye on advancements in AI and IoT. As we look toward 2030, it’s impossible to know which technologies we’ll be using, but FableVision will definitely be ready.

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Where do you see FableVision in 10 years?

Allie Caton, Production Assistant: In 10 years, I see FableVision reaching more and more communities and broadening our knowledge in new, upcoming technologies! I also see the "FableVision jokes" folder on my computer growing to take up 10GB of my computer storage. 

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Monica Chen, Communications Strategist: In 2030, I see FableVision continuing to break barriers in storytelling, technology, and interactivity through our engaging educational media. I also see FableVision using media to teach and inspire in new, innovative ways with our own educational games and animation.

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David Welsh, Game & Narrative Designer: In 10 years, I expect FableVision will take our experiences to the next level as we continue to innovate new ways to use storytelling to move the world to a better place. I'm already working on some exciting games that I think will be fondly remembered and still played in the next decade!

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Peter Stidwill, Executive Producer: I see FableVision working with even more fabulous partners to create impactful experiences, celebrating success with our latest research-proven XR game, and kicking off another season of our own original animated series! (And I see myself still gorging on super-tasty staff-made snacks).

Top 9 FableVision Moments of 2019

2019 was one of our best years, filled with enriching partnerships and projects, invaluable opportunities, and positive press. Best of all, we got to share it with YOU, our incredible community. Before we say goodbye to the year and the decade, let’s flip through the scrapbook and take a look at some of our favorite FableVision moments from 2019!

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1. Community Building

Every year FableVision strives to build a bigger and stronger community, and 2019 was no different.

• We met talented creatives at BostonFIG Fest, where we exhibited four of our educational games: Zoombinis, Quandary, Gasha Go!, and Cyberchase Fractions Quest!

• We opened our doors for a public play-date at the studio for our annual Creative Juices art show, displaying vibrant artwork inspired by the theme of play!

• On September 15-ish, we celebrated creativity on International Dot Day, now celebrated by over 16 million in 184 countries! Inspired by Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot, Dot Day encourages children, parents, and teachers to make their mark!

• We invited talented artists, animators, producers, and developers to the studio to show us their work for our first-ever Portfolio Day!

• We raised a record-breaking $8,642 for Boston Children’s Hospital through Extra Life, an annual 24-hour game-a-thon!

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2. Another Award-Winning Year

Creating meaningful projects is already fulfilling, but a little recognition always feels good. We’re grateful for another year of award winning releases from FableVision staff and partners! The distinguished projects include:

• The Word Collector, an imaginative picture book by founder Peter H. Reynolds, was nominated for the NAACP image award. The short film, created in partnership with Weston Woods, received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award.

• Project Here Games, a substance use prevention game created with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Health Resources in Action, and the GE Foundation, won a Parents’ Choice Gold award and a Bronze Serious Play Award.

• Zoombinis, created in partnership with TERC, won Best Original Score at the ED Games Expo.

• Navigating Our Way, our animated film created with Big Picture Learning, won Best Animation Award at Boston International Film Festival.

• Lights, Camera, Budget!, a game we created with Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Georgia Council on Economic Education, won a Silver Serious Play Award.

• Different Kinds of Hurt: Isaac’s Story, a multimedia campaign the promotes child mental health awareness created with Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Walker, was a NEPCo award finalist.

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3. New Partnerships 

In 2019, we were grateful to partner with new people and organizations committed to moving the world to a better place. We look forward to continuing to grow these important connections!

• American University

• American Library Association

• Common Sense Education

• Dodo Kids

• Games for Change

• Peabody Essex Museum

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4. Continuing Partnerships

We can’t make “stories that matter, stories that move” without long-lasting relationships with our incredible partners—thank you! 

• Big Picture Learning

• CAST

• Concord Consortium

• CSL Plasma Inc.

• Georgia Center for Assessment, Georgia Department of Education

• Georgia Public Broadcasting

• Global Tinker

• Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Learning Games Network

• Library of Congress: Maryland Public Television, CIRCLE, Maryland Humanities

• National Fire Protection Association

• National Health Promotion Associates

• National Wildlife Federation

• Northeastern University

• Pearson

• SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects: Reading Is Fundamental, THIRTEEN/WNET, and Education Development Center (EDC)

• TERC

• The Family Dinner Project

• UMass Boston

• WGBH

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5. FableFridays

Intelligent and conscientious, our partners are innovators of educational media and have incredible insight to share. Read more about them and their work in our 2019 FableFridays:

Olubunmi Mia Olufemi

Shannon Meneses

Julie Dobrow

Steve Nordmark and Cassandra Sell

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6. New Hires

In 2019, our FableFamily grew even more. Our three new FableVisionaries are already making names for themselves across departments with their talent and hard work. 

Erin Carvalho: Junior Developer

Julie Oliveira: Production Artist

Beth Santarpio: Senior Producer

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7. FableVision in the News

FableVision made headlines in 2019 with meaningful press on our projects and their impacts. We are extra, extra grateful for this staggering recognition. Read all about it!

FableVision’s Peter Stidwill, Leigh Hallisey, and Christina Kelly attend May 7 Isaac’s Story launch.

How Digital Games Take the Stress Out of Formative Tests

Department of Mental Health Launches New Public Awareness Campaign, Isaac’s Story, during Children’s Mental Health Week

Isaac’s Story: A Book About Mental Illness Written for Children

How Dodo Kids Landed a Dora-sized Boost

Learning Apps for Parents That Help Kids

What is Blue and White, Makes You Smarter and Cracks You Up?

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8. Extraordinary Intern Projects

Every year our interns create interesting and engaging independent projects, and this year was no different. Check them out!

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Communications Director Sarah Ditkoff and Producer Mikaela Johnsons demoed Project Here and Cyberchase Fractions Quest at the ED Games Expo.

Executive Producer Peter Stidwill teamed up with Shannon Meneses, Executive Producer at Learning Games Network, to present a talk on Quandary at Games For Change 2019

FableVision co-hosted the Libraries, Games, and Play Conference alongside American University and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

9. Thought Leadership

FableVisionaries are inspirational, dedicated, and experts in their fields. In 2019, we had fantastic opportunities to share our wisdom at prestigious conferences and to interact with other leaders in the educational media industry. Missed any of our speaking events? Here’s a quick recap:

FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds released his new book, Say Something, which was included in the New York Times Bestseller list. Peter also spoke at Bett Show in London.

Co-founder and CEO Paul Reynolds held two FabMaker Studio workshops at ISTE 2019, met edtech fans through the Meet the Authors series at FETC, held a book signing of “Going Places” at ESEA, and spoke on integrating STEAM and using it to develop 21st century skills as the Featured Keynote Speaker for iSteam.

Executive Producer Peter Stidwill spoke at Connected Learning Summit 2019 as a part of the panel “The Future is Now: Games as Assessment” with Filament Games, MIT Education Arcade, and MIT Playful Journey Lab. 

Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Product Solutions Shelby Marshall explained working with service providers at SIIA.

FableVision President Gary Goldberger, Creative Director Leigh Hallisey, and Vice President of Creative Tone Thyne shared their kids’ media knowledge with other experts in the field at the 2019 Kidscreen Summit.

Our session on game-based assessment was picked for the 2020 SXSW EDU Festival thanks to the thousands of votes that came in through the PanelPicker process! Thank you to everyone who voted, and we hope to see you there next year!

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Looking forward to next year:

We can hardly believe just how exciting 2019 was, but that’s just the beginning! We already have many new and engaging projects and events lined up for 2020. Be sure to catch the FableVisionaries at the ED Games Expo, Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival, Kidscreen, and SXSW EDU!

Has our work caught your eye? Let us know your toughest challenge and we’ll help you meet it in 2020!

December FableFriday: CAST’s Steve Nordmark, Director of Business Development, and Cassandra Sell, Senior Interaction Designer

With the growing trend of personalization in education and educational design, people are realizing that personalization extends beyond technology. While technology is an important part of addressing the needs of all types of learners, equity and inclusion are becoming crucial to building and designing whole education systems. CAST, an education nonprofit research and development organization, is addressing this by not only providing physical access to supports through technology but also supporting personalization across all design domains, focusing on accessibility and usability.

Partnership and cooperation is at the forefront of CAST’s work. “The more we continuously improve inclusive communication, trust, and foster an iterative mindset, the more we can put our common goals at the forefront and real people at the heart of the work to make continuous barrier-busting progress,” explains Cassandra Sell, the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST.

CAST, through their Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and other learning platforms, works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals. FableVision worked with CAST on their reading and reading comprehension platform, Udio. The online platform serves “as both an intervention and a context for conducting research” and is a holistic approach to learning resources for middle school students. 

The UDL framework is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. “Ultimately, it comes down to proactively and intentionally designing for learner variability in order to reduce barriers in the learning experience,” says Steve Nordmark, CAST’s Director of Business Development. “That’s what UDL is all about. This is at the heart of how CAST designs solutions.”

This intentionality also serves as the basis for how they design, develop, and maintain Learning Designed, an online learning platform that provides a supportive and collaborative community for educators and learners. To explain the mission of Learning Designed, FableVision designed a one-minute animated explainer video, which is now live on the website. In our December FableFriday, we sat down with Cassandra and Steve to learn more about CAST’s research platforms, the Learning Designed community, and their educator and learner-focused projects. 

Tell us about CAST and your roles there!
Steve: CAST is a nonprofit organization that believes learning should have no limits. We strive to help meet the needs of every learner, at any age, in any learning environment. We created the UDL framework over 20 years ago. It remains one of our core levers of change to make education equitable, inclusive, and transformative for everyone.

As the Director of Business Development at CAST, I focus on building strategic partnerships throughout the global education field to advance the adoption and implementation of UDL. This includes fostering strategic growth opportunities for CAST's products, consultancy services, and membership services, including:

1. Assisting publishers, technology firms, and other constituents to infuse their products with inclusive best practices.

2. Assisting federal, private, state, and local education agencies to identify, acquire, and use inclusive and responsive products and services.

Advancing quality UDL implementation through the promotion and implementation of Learning Designed and affiliated products and services.

Cassandra: I’ve been the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST for four years and I've been honored to contribute to a variety of awesome projects and initiatives within our organization. I work with our interdisciplinary teams in design and development, applied research, and professional learning. I also collaborate with others across the organization, supporting CAST with art direction and communications design as we find more opportunities to share who we are and what we do with the world and bring more of the world into CAST’s work. We try to hold ourselves up to a standard of constant and deliberate iteration around best practices for engaging the field and reaching beyond.

How did you start working at CAST, and what drew you to the organization?
Steve: I’ve been in educational product research and development for over 25 years. I always admired CAST’s work, especially the development and promotion of UDL, since I first encountered them in 2002. About six years ago, I became more directly involved with building awareness, adoption, and implementation of UDL throughout the global education industry. In 2016, I partnered directly with CAST to build Learning Designed, and global standards for UDL credentials and certifications for people, products, and schools. Then, at the beginning of 2019, when given the option to join CAST full time, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Cassandra: I came to CAST in 2015 from WGBH Digital where I was the lead digital designer on a handful of robust websites and experiences for PBS national brands, such as Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow. One of my design mentors mentioned her hope to build a design team at CAST, which I had not heard of at the time. As I got to know CAST and UDL, I saw so much kinship in how we applied design thinking and got super nerdy about the process. I also saw what intentional and goal-oriented collaboration could look like in the service of nothing less than all learners. I couldn’t pass up the chance to join a team of people so dedicated to learning and raising the bar for each other every day. 

What is “Universal Design for Learning,” and in what ways does CAST continue to lead the national conversation around UDL? 
Cassandra: Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. Based on scientific insights into how people learn and decades-long observations about what works in the classroom, UDL synthesizes a number of best practices into a clear framework to address the needs of all learners at all levels.

In the 25 years since CAST coined and defined the term, UDL has provided leadership to a growing, global field. We research and develop creative solutions to education’s thorniest challenges, usually in partnership with major research universities, R&D organizations, and companies. We work closely with educators at all levels from California to New Hampshire to improve the implementation of UDL’s best practices. We have also authored comprehensive guidelines for implementation, and UDL is endorsed by all the major federal education laws covering children and adult learners in formal and informal learning environments. Recently, CAST partnered with the UDL-IRN, an international research and implementation network, to scale up UDL and launch a credentialing and certification process. We’re busy!

What is Learning Designed? How does being a part of the Learning Designed community impact educators and learners on the individual, school, and district levels?
Steve: The animated video that FableVision helped us create really explains Learning Designed the best. FableVision brought our words to life. In summary, Learning Designed is a state-of-the-art, online learning platform for professional learning and collaboration that provides personalized experiences for educators in a supportive community. Learning Designed harnesses the evidence-based UDL framework to support educators in designing more effective learning environments and experiences for all learners. Ultimately, educators can better serve all types of students—especially students with learning disabilities, learning and attention issues, those suffering the effects of trauma, those who are often not served well by the system due to gender, race, language, class, culture—at scale.

How can educators best integrate the research of CAST and Learning Designed into their classrooms?
Steve: We view everything CAST works on as an opportunity to integrate research into educator practice, from technical assistance on accessibility and inclusion to innovative educational product R&D, to professional learning, to our consulting work, to Learning Designed. Research is embedded in all our work, and our research is used to empower educators and educational leaders to better design and implement learning experiences for all learners.

Learning Designed contains links to a variety of research-based resources for educators, including:

1. Universal Design for Learning Theory and Practice: a well-known resource book that provides a comprehensive research background on the UDL framework.

2. UDL and the Learning Brain: a white paper that provides a summary of cognitive neuroscience research within UDL and how it can be used to inform the design of environments that support all learners.

CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice—and change students’ lives—through UDL. Also, CAST Professional Learning partners directly with educators, teachers, administrators, and organizations to enhance their professional understanding of UDL.

What are the biggest difficulties when making education accessible, and how do you strive to overcome them?
Steve: Providing accessible learning for every learner requires an intentional and proactive design of many aspects of accessibility and usability, such as cognitive, developmental, cultural, etc. We must actively consider all learner variabilities to reduce barriers in the learning experience.

Cassandra: As a designer, I enjoy helping individuals designing in isolation to become problem-solving, collaborative teams. With all members’ skills and perspectives, we can improve access to education and move us all forward. Listening to, earning, and seeking honest feedback from all learners and other stakeholders is key - and so is agreeing on what to do with that feedback. It’s challenging, but satisfying when teams nail it.

You worked with FableVision in 2016 on a website for Udio, CAST’s online literacy intervention and research context. What’s happening with Udio now?
Cassandra: The Udio project was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new ideas we’d been working on, including data visualization and supporting student/teacher decision-making. One of the great things about CAST is that the work we do on each project always influences our future work. The ideas we had and the things we learned with Udio are now present in our CISL project as we think about accessible digital learning environments, our digital science notebook project, and many of our other design, development, and applied research projects. The concepts and ideas also make their way into our professional learning and publishing offerings.

We know that collaboration and user-testing are important, especially in the education field. How does CAST form and strengthen strategic partnerships, and how do you ensure that your audience—educators and learners—are at the forefront of all your decisions?
Steve: Collaboration and partnership are really important to our work. CAST is always seeking and working directly with partners who share our passion for increasing equity and inclusion in learning. We have partnerships with schools, districts, states, universities, government agencies, research organizations, companies, and foundations to explore challenging questions in education. We collaborate with these organizations due to their representation of the learners we care about. We often remind ourselves, “nothing about us without us,” to highlight the importance of having authentic relationships with people we design for and with on our projects. 

For example, CAST is currently partnering with career and technical education schools, industry partners, and colleges to produce prototype career exploration modules that showcase the varied pathways into these new industries. One example is our partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and several Local Education Agencies (Districts and County Offices) across central and northern California. SCCOE and the partner education agencies are using Learning Designed to enhance and support the state-funded California 1: Highway to Success for ALL initiative to address the equity needs of all students. 

Another example is our partnership with SRI International and the Inclusive Design Research Centre. Together, we are exploring and creating tools to ensure that K-12 students with disabilities receive engaging, high-quality, accessible digital learning materials, especially open education resources (OERs). This project, called the Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL), is actively seeking co-design and beta testing partnerships with schools and students who can help strengthen the quality and effectiveness of the software designs.

Fun Facts About Steve & Cassandra

Skill you’d most like to learn:
Steve: Playing guitar.
Cassandra: Playing the drums—let’s start a band, Steve!

Quote you live your life by:
Steve: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Ghandi
Cassandra: I have a new favorite every week. The communications team always comes across words of inspiration we want to share with the world. Right now it is, “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not” by Nicholas Kristof. But my go-to usually is “... the world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world” from Ani DiFranco’s song, “Joyful Girl.” 

Favorite educational game:
Steve: I love word puzzles and really enjoy the Wordbubbles and Wordscapes apps.
Cassandra: I’m not sure if it counts but my brother and I got really into history, geography, and strategy by playing Age of Empires together as kids. That’s probably an all-time favorite. 

Ultimate comfort food:
Steve: I could eat pizza every day, and I cannot say no to strawberry Twizzlers.
Cassandra: My husband has been making the most amazing soups lately, so at the moment it might be a rich soup —with warm, fresh, crusty bread. 

Favorite winter activity:
Steve: Downhill skiing. I would love to be able to enjoy it every winter.
Cassandra: Anything that combines being crafty with my family, a roaring fire, and the perfect blanket.