What’s In the Works for 2012

Hi everyone! Jessica has caught you up to date on the Incredible Year we had in 2011, but I wanted to give you a preview of what we have planned for 2012.

New Topics

• January will see the launch of our iPad and Blog Basics topics.
• Our Reading program will reach the completion of its first phase with new Reading Comprehension activities and all 1,000 word videos.
• We will launch a new highly interactive Math program, and an all new Money Series.
• With all the talk about “Gap skills” – the skills workers need to succeed in the workplace – we are really excited about our 21st Century Skills curriculum.
• Finally, look for updated topics, new career topics, and an assortment of computer and technology.  How does a “GCF Life Coach” sound? What about an “Interactive Advisor?” Just some of the exciting things we have in the works.

Apps

Our first run of Apps have succeeded beyond our wildest expectations with 400,000 downloads and rising! The iPad emerged as the dominant platform for 2011, but there is likely going to be stiff competition for 2012. Look for more apps on more platforms. We are launching a Math game for the iPad in January, and plan to release mobile versions of Computer Basics, iPad Basics, Internet Safety, and more throughout the year, in addition to updating the current apps.  If there is sufficient interest, we hope to release many of our Work and Career classes in a mobile format as well.

New Platforms

Although iOS emerged as our dominant platform, we plan to expand our offerings in the Android Market and Amazon App Store. We have been spending some time with the Kindle Fire, and think that it has excellent potential as a learning platform – we hope to port some apps to it this year. Another thing that has us excited is the motion tracking of the Microsoft Kinect platform – with its potential integration with Windows 8, we may see hands free computing become a reality. Our team will be testing the platform and trying to figure out what it means for our learners. Finally, everything is getting “smart” with the advent of smart TVs so we’ll be researching that and other ways to deliver learning to our users through the devices you use everyday.

Online Classes

To meet the unprecedented demand for our Online Classes, we are going to be adding more instructor teams in an effort to serve more learners. Our instructors currently support over 1,200 learners in the system at any time, and the new positions should allow us to support nearly 2,000! So if you are having difficulty registering for a class, be persistent, and know that we are working to meet the demand. If you are in the Raleigh/Durham area and would like to become an instructor please see our current listing.

Growth

GCFLearnFree.org is growing! We are adding several full time positions in our Raleigh office. In addition to our current opening for an Instructional Designer/Writer, we will be looking for more highly creative, talented individuals to join our team here in Downtown Raleigh. So stay tuned!

I hope you all are as excited as we are about the new things coming in 2012. I have the pleasure of working on an incredible project with a team of dedicated, creative, and talented individuals – all working to serve the needs of learners like you!