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

• US 6,813,474 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2002
• Issued: 11/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Echalk, Inc. (Edlio LLC)
• Original Assignee: Echalk LLC
• Inventors: Garcia, Jose, Garcia, Alberto, Robinson, Torrance, Noll, Charlene, Watts, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Hotaling, II, John M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOSSER, KATHLEEN MICHELE
• Application Number:
  US10/081,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20020177109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 434/322, 434/323, 434/50, 434/353, 434/62, 434/365, 434/118, 434/307.R, 434/330, 434/362, 713/182, 713/200, 705/14
• US Class Current: 434/353
• 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 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 at least one server computer further including;

a user database for storing unique identification information related to users of said client computers, said users each comprising one of;

students, teachers, parents and administrators;

an educational content database for storing educational content that is created, managed and processed by said users;

user access means for allowing users to create, process and manage said educational content for said at least one school;

user management means for allowing administrators to define the educational content said users can create, manage and process;

means for identifying, for each of the users, third-party educational content programs to which that user has access;

means for obtaining, from a third-party educational content provider of said third-party educational content programs, user identifier and password information for each of the users that have access to said third-party educational content programs;

means for storing said user identifier and password information for each of the users, and for each of said third-party educational content programs to which the users have access;

means for reguesting, from said third-party educational content provider, a third-party educational content program selected by a particular user to which said particular user has access, by sending said user identifier and password information corresponding to the particular user to said third-party educational content provider; and

means for delivering the requested third-party educational content program to said particular user.

2. The educational content communication system of claim 1, wherein said user database and said education content database reside in at least one database server.

3. The educational content communications system of claim 1, further comprising an e-mail server, which enables said users to send and receive e-mail messages.

4. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein the at least one server computer includes a calendaring means for allowing said users to process and manage calendar events data for said at least one school.

5. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein the at least one server computer includes a file creation means for allowing users to create a file and save said file so that said file is accessible only to said user that created said file.

6. The educational content communication systems of claim 5, wherein the at least one server computer includes a file sharing means for allowing said users that create said files designate specific users who are permitted access to said created files.

7. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein the at least one server computer comprises a Web server and said client computers include a Web browser.

8. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said at least one server computer includes a directory service processor which maintains the relationship data between said at least one school and said users, the relationship data including which of said users belong to which of said at least one school.

9. The educational content communications system of claim 1, wherein said at least one server computer further includes a classroom means for allowing users to process and manage said educational content on a class by class basis.

10. An educational content communications system for processing and managing education content within at least one school system, comprising:

at least 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 at least one server and client computers; and

the at least server computer further including;

a user database for storing unique user identification information for users of said client computers, each of said users comprising one of;

students, teachers, parents and administrators associated with the at least one school system,

an educational content database for storing educational content that is created, managed and processed by said users;

user access means for allowing said users to create, process and manage said educational content for the at least one school system;

user management means for allowing administrators to define what educational content said user can create, manage and process;

directory service means for maintaining relationship data between said at least one school system and said users, including schools that are within said at least one school system, what administrative entities are responsible for said at least one school system, and which of said users belongs to which of said schools

means for identifying, for each of the users, third-party educational content programs to which that user has access;

means for obtaining, from a third-party educational content provider of said third-party educational content programs, user identifier and password information for each of the users that have access to said third-party educational content programs;

means for storing said user identifier and password information for each of the users, and for each of said third-party educational content programs to which the users have access;

means for requesting, from said third-party educational content provider, a third-party educational content program selected by a particular user to which said particular user has access, by sending said user identifier and password information corresponding to the particular user to said third-party educational content provider; and

means for delivering the requested third-party educational content program to said particular user.

11. The educational content communication system of claim 10, wherein said user database and said educational content database reside in at least one database server.

12. The educational content communications system of claim 10, further comprising an e-mail server, which enables said users to send and receive e-mail messages.

13. The educational content communications system of claim 10, wherein said at least one server computer further includes calendaring means for enabling the users to process and manage calendar events data for said at least one school system.

14. The educational content communications system of claim 10, wherein the at least one server computer further includes file creation means for enabling said users to create a file and save said file so that said file is accessible only to said users that created said file.

15. The educational content communication systems of claim 14, wherein the at least one server computer further includes file sharing means for enabling said users that create said files to designate specific users who are permitted access to said created files.

16. The educational content communications system of claim 10, wherein the at least one server computer comprises a Web server and said client computers include a Web browser.

17. The educational content communications system of claim 10, wherein the at least one server computer further includes a find members means for enabling the users to locate and find any stored profile information on another of said users that is stored in said user database.

18. An educational content communications system for processing and 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 at least one server computer further including;

means for generating unique user identification information for a plurality of users of the client computers, the plurality of users each comprising one of;

a parent, a teacher, an administrator and a student associated with a school;

means for obtaining, from a third-party provider of third-party educational content programs, user identifier and password information for each user associated with the school;

a third-party provider information database for storing data identifying said third-party provider and said third-party educational content programs that are offered to the users, the third-party provider information database further storing data identifying which of said users have access to which of said third-party educational content programs, and the user identifier and password information for each of said users having access to said third-party educational content programs;

third-party provider management means for allowing the administrator to create, process and manage which of said third-party educational content programs each of said users can access, and said user identifier and password information for each of said third-party educational content programs; and

a third-party provider processing means for responding to user 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 the third-party educational content program to said third-party provider with said user identifier and password information, and delivering said third-party educational content program to said users.

19. The educational content communication system of claim 18, wherein said third-party provider information database resides in at least one database server.

20. The educational content communications system of claim 18, wherein the at least one server computer further comprises a Web server and said client computers include a Web browser.

21. 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 at least one server computer further including;

a user database including unique identification information related to users of said client computers, said users including at least one of students, teachers, parents and administrators associated with each of said school communities;

a community information database 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 enabling administrators in each of said school communities to define said school communities to which each of said users can access;

school community access means for enabling each of said users at each of said school communities to create, process and manage said educational content for each of said school communities;

directory service means that maintain relationship data between said school communities and said users, including which of said users belong to which of said school communities;

means for identifying, for each of said users, third-party educational content programs to which that user has access;

means for obtaining, from a third-party educational content provider of said third-party educational content programs, user identifier and password information for each of said users that has access to said third-party educational content programs;

means for storing said user identifier and password information for each of said users, and for each of said third-party educational content programs to which that user has access;

means for requesting, from said third-party educational content provider, a third-party educational content program selected by a particular user to which said particular user has access, by sending said user identifier and password information corresponding to the particular user to said third-party educational content provider; and

means for delivering the requested third-party educational content program to said particular user.

22. The educational content communication system of claim 21, wherein said community information database and said user database resides in at least one database server.

23. The educational content communications system of claim 21, wherein said school community access means further includes a bulletin board in which each of said users with access to one of said school communities can post and respond to messages from other users with access to that school community.

24. The educational content communications system of claim 21, wherein said school community access means further provides links to information related to said school communities.

25. The educational content communications system of claim 21, wherein the at least one server computer 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.

26. The educational content communications system of claim 21, wherein the at least one server computer is configured as a Web server and said client computers include a Web browser.

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

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

identifying, for each student, third-party educational content programs to which that student has access;

obtaining, from a third-party educational content provider of said third-party educational content programs, user identification and password information for each student who has access to said third-party educational content programs;

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

requesting, from said third-party educational content provider, a third-party educational content program selected by a particular student to which said particular student has access, by sending said user identification and password information corresponding to the particular student to said third-party educational content provider; and

delivering the requested third-party educational content program to said particular student.