The Story

Apangea Learning, is the only instructional solution to combine tutoring technology that emulates tutoring best practices with online instruction from live certified teachers.  Mick Rose was asked to lead a team of design and technology individuals to update their Apangea Learning Math software which provides one-student-to-one-teacher differentiated math instruction through a unique integration of proprietary tutoring technology and live, online certified teachers. As a Web-based solution, Apangea Math can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection – ensuring student can learn math anytime, anywhere.Mick Rose was then tasked to continue on the success of Apangea Learning’s Math 5.0 with implementing a brand new venture for Apangea Learning.  A supplement to traditional curriculum, Apangea Learning Writing was a research-based, six-step writing process teaches students the critical steps necessary to develop strong writing skills and achieve academic success.

Other duties have included, website design and maintenance ,  multi-lingual dynamic text to speech avatar creation and implementation, and user interface design.

The Results

Mick Rose continues to help Apangea Learning with improving existing software and development of new educational software solutions.  Current Projects include Gateway to College, Tomorrow’s Healthcare, and Reading Comprehension.

Awards:

• 2009 Award of Excellence (Apangea Writing)- Tech and Learning Magazine
• 2008-2009 Best in Tech for Supplemental Math Solutions - Scholastic Administrator Magazine
• 2008 SIIA Codie Award Finalist:  Best K-12 Instructional Solution
• 2008 Reader’s Choice Award - District Administration Magazine

The Story

Back in 2001, (which now seems like an eternity ago) Mick Rose was still back at Carnegie Mellon University, trying to finish off his Electrical and Computer Engineering degree. Luckily for him he had also decided to focus on Film and Digital Editing, which at the time was a recently created minor program. In fact is was so new that 3/4 of his classes were actually taken at the Pittsburgh Film School.

For his final “thesis” project he decided to make a film about the graffiti culture in Pittsburgh. Alas he could not get any graffiti artists to “appear” on camera therefore he had to rethink his idea for his final project. He saw how this new upcoming software called Macromedia Flash allowed it’s users to create animations and could incorporate sound, text, and imagery to get a point across. Mick not being a designer or even instructed in design, decided to give Flash a whirl.

He took all of his notes from various interviews and literature he had and created a script. The script showed the rules that one should live by if you wanted to have street credibility as a rural graphic artist. Next he hand drew 2 characters and redrew them in Flash. He at the time did his best with learning a new software and created a 8 minute long executable of his “film”.

The Result

Here is the opening sequence for his first project in Macromedia Flash.  One  fast note is to adjust the volume of your sound, because this  project no longer had source files to adjust the volume.