FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2001

NetDayCompass.Org Celebrates Year One

Atlanta, GA -- Amidst the busy exhibit floor at the National School Boards Association's Technology + Learning Conference, NetDay, a leading education technology nonprofit organization, celebrated the one-year birthday of NetDayCompass.org, an innovative web directory of high-quality education technology resources. For the past year, teachers, administrators and technology coordinators from all around the country have been tapping into the resources and support delivered on the site to help meet education goals and maximize technology investments.

"We want to help educators find answers to their questions and to provide them with support on new or emerging challenges," explained Julie Evans, CEO of NetDay. "With NetDayCompass.org, we provide answers, support and guidance to educators who are technology savvy as well as those who are technology novices. Within just one year, we know that we are making a difference as evident by the compliments we are receiving from teachers and administrators all over the country, by the number of schools and education organizations that are helping to promote NetDayCompass.org by linking directly to the site, and just through the increases in our site traffic."

It has been a very successful first year for NetDayCompass.org. The award-winning site has received accolades from Pacific Bell's Blue Web'N and is a featured site in Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators on the Discovery School web site. NetDayCompass.org has been selected as the directory of choice by 84 education sites (K-12, university, government organizations), 20 national education associations and 33 nonprofit organizations. Within just twelve months, NetDayCompass.org has almost tripled the number of resources from 400 to over 1,700. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, NetDayCompass.org added a special category, "Children in Crisis" to provide teachers with a comprehensive list of resources on how to discuss national tragedies with children. With just one click, they had access to research and news articles, support groups, charitable organizations, and other materials that helped them through a difficult time.

Each resource listed on NetDayCompass.org is hand-selected by an experienced team of education technology specialists. This team of education technology research editors puts every site through a rigorous test based upon their own real life experiences with technology in schools to ensure the quality of the content and its usefulness for educators in the schools and classrooms. For example, only about fifty percent (50%) of the resources submitted for consideration are actually catalogued into NetDayCompass.org.

NetDayCompass.org is comprehensive in scope and depth. Listening to the needs of educators, NetDay designed the site to cover a range of issues -- technology planning, infrastructure, grants and funding, classroom support, and best practices and real stories. Within each of these categories, five percent (5%) of the resources are from federal and local governments, forty-one percent (41%) from business, twenty-seven percent (27%) from nonprofit organization, fifteen percent (15%) from K-12 schools, seven percent (7%) from universities, and five percent (5%) from news media. Providing this diverse range of resources enables education technology leaders to gather opinions and ideas from a wide range of entities on how to deal with current education technology challenges.

The support educators receive from NetDayCompass.org doesn't stop at the outstanding collection of resources. One of the newest features is a Research Desk, where teachers, technology coordinators, principals, and administrators are invited to send in their most challenging education technology problems. The expert research team at NetDay personally reviews each question and searches for solutions. Each answer provided is unique. "The response to this personalized research service has been very positive," said Evans.

From the U.S. Department of Education to state education departments to the Hobart School District in Hobart, Indiana, NetDayCompass.org is the preferred education technology resource directory. Even the Library of Congress encourages web users to tap into NetDayCompass for "an excellent set of links to sites that can help in every phase of planning to use technology."

Looking forward to its second year, NetDay will be kicking off a new online survey to assess how teachers, administrators and technology coordinators are using NetDayCompass.org resources. Additionally, NetDay will conduct a series of onsite evaluations of NetDayCompass.org with teachers to learn about the current challenges school leaders are facing and what new resources will help solve them. Both activities will be used to improve the site.

About NetDay
NetDay (www.NetDay.org), an education technology nonprofit headquartered in Irvine, CA, is connecting every child to a brighter future by helping educators meet educational goals through the effective use of technology. Founded five years ago, NetDay connects people by creating environments where the magic of learning for all participants - students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community members - is enhanced with appropriate technology resources.

NetDayCompass.org Timeline

November 8, 2001: Site turns one-year old; number of resources inches toward 2,000.

September 2001: "Children and Crisis" sub-category is added to address needs for Sept. 11 attaches.

June 2001: Research Desk is launched; Site is enhanced to include source codes.

January 2001: Blue Web'N names NetDayCompass.org as "Hot Site of 2001."

October 2000: NetDayCompass is launched at NSBA's T+L

NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS:
949.609.4660
info@netday.org