AUSTIN, TX — (Marketwired) — 02/11/15 — (OTCQB: SIBE) (the “Company” or “Sibling Group”), an educational technology company, announced today that its subsidiary Urban Planet Mobile (“UPM”) will be implementing its web-based writing practice tool, Writing Planet, through a partnership with Integrative Counseling Services Limited to work with Lok Sin Tong Schools in Hong Kong, China.
Through this initial purchase, Lok Sin Tong, a non-profit organization in Hong Kong that runs 14 primary and secondary schools, with total enrollments of more than 9,000, will use the technology of Writing Planet for several schools including Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School, Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School, and Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School, among others.
Writing Planet implementation in Lok Sin Tong Schools is intended to help students better prepare for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) final exam, an exam taken by all college-bound high school seniors. In recent years, emphasis on the English portion of the HKDSE exam has led to increased performance requirements among students indicating growing importance of English skills in Hong Kong and in China.
“There is a growing emphasis in the HKDSE on English language proficiency, and in particular competencies-based skills such as reading and writing,” says Peppina Tse, Vice President of Integrative Counselling Services Limited. “Improving writing skills can be the most difficult task. It has been proven that more writing practice with immediate feedback using programs such as Writing Planet can lead to improved scores.”
The need for Writing Planet comes down to the issue of capacity and student management. Lok Sin Tong secondary schools programs require students to write numerous compositions per semester, each of which require careful grading and feedback from the teacher. This amount of grading is a full load for teachers, who are looking for innovative ways to help students get more opportunities to practice and improve.
“Last year we implemented online reading assessment technology at Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School and Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School, Lok Sin Tong Ku Chiu Man Secondary School and Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School. The results were so promising that we have now implemented the technology system-wide,” says Jackson Mak, an Education Consultant for Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School. “We see Writing Planet as addressing a similar need to support our teachers in writing instruction. Teachers need powerful tools to enhance their own instruction and teaching, and Writing Planet addresses these needs.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Lok Sin Tong Schools to help students improve their writing skills and prepare for the HKDSE,” said Brian Oliver Smith, Co-founder of Urban Planet Mobile and CEO of Sibling Group. “Working with institutional partners who are willing to take a creative approach to improving the level of teaching and learning through innovative online tools is what makes the work we do exciting.”
Writing Planet is currently used by English language learners in the United States and throughout the world in over a dozen countries. In 2013, Writing Planet scored over 700,000 written works through the Writing Planet platform. Writing Planet is powered by the essay-scoring technology, Project Essay Grade (PEG), and is the only online writing assessment tool to be nominated for the prestigious CODiE award for best ELL solution.
Sibling Group Holdings is an educational technology company with two wholly owned subsidiaries, the Blended Schools Network (BSN) and Urban Planet Mobile (UPM), together uniquely positioned in the burgeoning global eLearning and mEducation markets. BSN provides benchmark quality online curriculum for the K-12 marketplace, complete hosted course authoring tools, professional development for teachers and a learning management system (LMS) environment. UPM–s products and platform are utilized in over 40 countries and remains one of the only education companies to offer products for delivery across all mobile and digital platforms.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning the plans and expectations of Sibling Group–s Urban Planet Mobile Writing Planet implementation in the Lok Sin Tong Schools and the Chinese Manufacturers– Association School. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, that the anticipated partnership for Writing Planet and the Lok Sin Tong Schools may not be completed or the expectations of future growth may not be realized. More information about potential factors that could affect our business and financial results is included under the captions, “Risk Factors” in the company–s Annual Report on Form 10-KT for the transition period ended June 30, 2014 which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and available at the SEC–s website at .
Sibling Group Contact:
Richard Marshall
Chief Development Officer
Email:
Phone: (512)-329-1905
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