System and method for creating, processing and managing educational content within and between schools

• US 20020177109A1
• Filed: 02/22/2002
• Published: 11/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Echalk, Inc. (Edlio LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alberto Garcia, Charlene Noll, Daniel Watts, Jose Garcia, Torrance Robinson
• Inventors: Garcia, Jose, Garcia, Alberto, Robinson, Torrance, Noll, Charlene, Watts, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 6,813,474 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/118
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip

Abstract

An educational content communications system that provides a system and method for creating, processing and managing educational content so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators (including staff) can better access, share, create, input, manage, store and/or deliver educational content. The educational content communication system is designed with the capability to create, process and manage educational content within a school, within and between a system of schools, within and between a community of schools, and within and between third-party providers of educational content.

Claims

1. An educational content communications system for processing and managing the educational content of at least one school comprising:

at least one server computer and at least one client computer including, respectively, server and client processors for executing server and client input and output elements for communication between said server and client computers; and

said server computer(s) further including;

a user database, said user database including information related to users of said client computers wherein said users include students, teachers, parents and administrators,

an educational content database, said educational content including any school or educational content that is created, managed or processed by said users;

a user access means through which said users can create, process or manage said educational content for said user'"'"'s school;

a user management means for a systems administrator at said school to define what educational content said user'"'"'s can create, manage or process;

2. The educational content communication system of claim 1, wherein said user database and said education content database reside in one or more database servers.

3. The educational content communications system of claim 1, further comprising an e-mail server, which enables said users of said schools to send and receive e-mail to and from users within each of said user'"'"'s school and to and from persons outside of each of said user'"'"'s school who have an e-mail address and are connected to the Internet.

4. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said server computer(s) further include a calendaring means wherein said users can process and manage calendar events data for said user'"'"'s school wherein said calendar events data includes the scheduled date of said calendar event and any details regarding said calendar event.

5. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said server computer(s) further include a file creation means wherein said users can create a file and save said file so that said file is accessible only to said user that create said file.

6. The educational content communication systems of claim 5, wherein said server computer(s) further include a file sharing means wherein said users that create said files can designate specific users or groups of users who are permitted access to said created files.

7. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said server computer(s) are configured as Web servers and said client computers include a Web browser.

8. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said server computer(s) include a directory service processor which maintains the relationship data between said schools and said users including which of said users belong to which of said schools.

27. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said server computers further include a classroom means wherein said users can process and manage said educational content on a class basis.

9. An educational content communications system for processing and managing education content within one or more systems of schools, comprising:

at least one server computer and plurality of client computers including, respectively, server and client processors for executing server and client input and output elements for communication between said server and client computers; and

said server computer(s) further including;

a user database, said user database including information related to users of said client computers wherein said users include students, teachers, parents and administrators for each of said schools and administrators for administrative entities responsible for each of said system of schools,

an educational content database, said educational content including any school or educational content that is created, managed or processed by said users;

a user access means through which said users can create, process or manage said educational content for each of said user'"'"'s school or said user'"'"'s system of schools;

a user management means for a systems administrator, teachers or parents at said school to define what educational content said user can create, manage or process; and

a directory service processor which maintains the relationship data between said schools and said users including which of said schools are within which of said system of schools, what administrative entities are responsible for which of said schools and which of said users belongs to which of said schools or which of said administrative entities.

10. The educational content communication system of claim 9, wherein said user database and said educational content database resides in one or more database servers.

11. The educational content communications system of claim 9, further comprising an e-mail server, which enables said users of said schools to send and receive e-mail to and from users within each of said user'"'"'s school and to and from persons outside of each of said user'"'"'s school who have an e-mail address and are connected through a network.

12. The educational content communications system of claim 9, wherein said server computer(s) further include a calendaring means wherein said users can process and manage calendar events data for each of said user'"'"'s school wherein said calendar events data includes the scheduled date of said calendar event and any details regarding said calendar event and wherein said users of said administrative entities that are responsible for each of said system of schools can process and manage said calendar event data for each of said schools within said system of schools.

13. The educational content communications system of claim 9, wherein server computer(s) further include a file creation means wherein said users can create a file and save said file so that said file is accessible only to said user that create said file.

14. The educational content communication systems of claim 13, wherein said server computer(s) further include a file sharing means wherein said users that create said files can designate specific users or groups of users who are permitted access to said created files

15. The educational content communications system of claim 9, wherein said server computer(s) are configured as Web servers and said client computers include a Web browser.

16. The educational content communications system of claim 9, wherein said server computer(s) further include a find members means wherein said users of each of said schools can locate and find any stored profile information on any other said users who is defined in said user database

18. The educational content communication system of claim 17, wherein said third-party provider information database resides in one or more database servers.

19. The educational content communications system of claim 17, wherein each of said server computers are configured as Web servers and said client computers include a Web browser.

17. An educational content communications system for processing managing education content from third party providers, comprising:

at lease one server computer and a plurality of client computers including, respectively, server and client processors for executing server and client input and output elements for communication between said server and client computers; and

said server computer(s) further including;

a third-party provider information database, said third-party provider database including data identifying said third-party providers and third-party educational content programs that each of said third-party providers are offering to users of said client computers wherein said users include students, teachers, parents and administrators for each of said schools, data identifying which of said users have access to which of said third-party educational content programs, and the user identification and password information for each of said users to access each of said third-party educational programs;

a third-party provider management means for a systems administrator to create, process and mange what said third-party educational content each of said users can access and said user identification and password information for each of said third-party educational content programs;

a third-party provider processing means for responding to each of said user'"'"'s requests for a third-party educational content program to which said users have access by retrieving said user identification and password information for said third-party educational content program from said third-party provider information database, transmitting said request for a third-party educational content program to said third-party provider with said user identification and password information, and delivering said third-party content program to each of said users.

20. An educational content communications system for processing and managing education content within school communities comprising:

at least one server computer and plurality of client computers including, respectively, server and client processors for executing server and client input and output elements for communication between said server and client computers; and

said server computer(s) further including;

a user database, said user database including information related to users of said client computers wherein said users include students, teachers and administrators for each of said schools;

a community information database, said community information including data identifying said school communities that said users have created, data on said users that have access to said school communities, and educational content created by said users that have access to said school communities;

a school community management means for a systems administrator within each of said schools to define said school communities to which each of said users can access;

a school community access means whereby each of said users at each of said schools can create, process and manage said educational content for each of said school communities;

a directory service processor which maintains the relationship data between said school communities and said users including which of said users belong to which of said school communities.

21. The educational content communication system of claim 20, wherein said community information database and said user database resides in one or more database servers.

22. The educational content communications system of claim 20, wherein said school community access means further includes a bulletin board in which each of said users with access to said school communities can post and respond to messages from other users with access to said community.

23. The educational content communications system of claim 20, wherein said school community access means further includes links related to said school community that each of said users with access to said school communities can access or create.

24. The educational content communications system of claim 20, wherein said server computer(s) further includes a calendaring means wherein said users can create, process and manage calendar events data for each of said school communities to which said users have access wherein said calendar data includes the scheduled date of said calendar event and any details regarding said calendar event.

25. The educational content communications system of claim 20, wherein each of said server computers are configured as Web servers and said client computers include a Web browser.

26. A method of providing third-party educational content programs available over the Internet to school users, comprising the steps of:

generating unique student identification information for each student in a school;

identifying for each of said students, teacher, parent or administrator said educational content programs to which each of said students shall have access;

obtaining from third-party educational content providers of said third-party educational programs user identification and password information for each user who will have access to each of said third-party educational content program;

storing said user identification information for each of said users and for each of said third-party educational content programs to which each of said user has access;

requesting from said third-party educational content provider said educational content program that said user has requested and to which said user has access by sending said user identification and password information to said third-party educational provider; and

delivering said educational content program to said user who selected said educational content program.