Abre Launches 'Abre Everywhere' Designed to Support Educators Doing Extraordinary Things Outside the Classroom

CINCINNATI, June 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading school management platform provider Abre.io announced today a new program designed to enable educators to create courses based on their experiences and share them with others. Two educators are inaugurating the program; one by being the first American to row across the North Atlantic Ocean and the other by attempting to break the speed record for running the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

"Educators do amazing things every day in their classroom.  We want to support them when they do extraordinary things outside the classroom as well.  So, we are working with an initial group of educators to create templates that will simplify the process of getting their experiences into a digital course to be shared with anyone," said Abre CEO Damon Ragusa.  "The benefit to the student is to provide engaging learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom environment.  And by making it easier for educators to convert experiences to curriculum, the barriers to engaging courses will break down."

According to Ragusa, the genesis of the program came when Abre connected with a couple of teachers in the Cincinnati area who, independently, were embarking on amazing adventures.  At the same time, they were adding new features to their Curriculum app, one of the eight connected apps that help manage school and deliver education.

Harvey Lewis is a high school government teacher in Cincinnati and outside of school he is an ultra-runner.  He embarked on his quest to run the Appalachian Trail on May 29.  He plans to beat the "FKT" -- Fastest Known Tme -- of 45 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes, set by Joe "Stringbean" McConaughy a year ago. Lewis plans on averaging 48 miles a day, almost two full marathons a day. Across the entire trail, he'll climb and descend 1 million feet -- the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 16 times.  Along the way, Lewis will be keeping a journal of his experience.  Road ID, one of his sponsors, will be tracking GPS data and timing of his run.  Information on his diet will be captured, too.  All this data and information, along with photos and video, will be used to build engaging curriculum.

Bryce Carlson, a Cincinnati high school biology teacher will row solo unsupported across the North Atlantic, starting from Newfoundland and landing in England. He is expected to embark on his trip this week and it will take several weeks to complete his adventure. "I'm gearing up for the biggest adventure of my life," Carlson said.  "I've never been overly motivated by records, but as of today, no American has ever completed a solo row across the North Atlantic. I'd be lying to say that doesn't stoke the fire a bit!"  Carlson will document his voyage by capturing weather data, GPS tracking, exact food consumption along with photos, videos and a log.

"We are working with these two teachers to sculpt a process that will convert their experiences and the recording of those experiences into a series of courses covering a wide range of topics from math to climatology to land rights issues," said Zach Vander Veen, Vice President of Instruction and Co-Founder at Abre.   "We will utilize pictures, videos, sound, data and journals from these teachers to make the course material engaging to students."

"Our first two educators just so happen to be teachers and extreme athletes," said Ragusa. "Ultimately, our goal is to reach different types of educators who are doing amazing things of all kinds in any area of interest. Teachers should be able to draw on their experiences in a way to help kids learn."

To learn more About Abre Everywhere visit the Abre website https://abre.io/everywhere/.

About Abre

Abre.io provides an education management platform that delivers a growing number of connected apps designed for schools who use the web to manage information and to deliver instructional content.  Abre apps are built to simplify managing school and delivering education.  School districts benefit from Abre by reducing professional development time for teachers, freeing up data to support improving performance and saving money.   Abre.io manages a community edition based on an open source project of the same name developed at Hamilton City School District (OH). https://abre.io/ Follow Abre on Twitter @abreplatform.

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