SOLARO

SOLARO <3 Adam

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:45:03 -0500

Our friends at Notion Ink showed their cool new Android tablet “Adam” last week at CES … and SOLARO was on its desktop. Here is a vid showing SOLARO in action on the Adam http://notionink.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/adam-for-students-solaro/

We can’t wait to see this in every student’s hands.

If you want to learn more about SOLARO and how we want to bring education to every student’s desktop and mobile device, check us out at http://www.solaro.com.

SOLARO and the California Sun!

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:13:00 -0500

SOLARO is ready for California. Lessons and practice questions are 100% aligned to the California state standards.

For the lower grades we have:

Math 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7;
Science 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7; and
English Language Arts 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

For the higher grades SOLARO offers:

Algebra I;
Algebra II;
Geometry;
Probability and Statistics;
Trigonometry;
CAHSEE Math;
Science 8;
Biology;
Chemistry;
English 8;
English 9-10; and
English 11-12.

You can get SOLARO on your computer or on your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone. Sign-up at http://www.solaro.com

SOLARO is Free for Schools

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:44:00 -0500

Teachers and Principals! SOLARO believes that every child should have access to high quality learning resources, practice and remediation online and for free. We are offering SOLARO for free to public schools in the United States and Canada so students, while at school, have a trusted place to turn — and teachers have a repository of high-quality, standards-aligned resources to draw on.

Currently, SOLARO covers Grades 3 to 12 Math, Sciences and English Language Arts in California, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. More states and provinces are coming.

While SOLARO is free for students at school, those who want to continue using it while at home (and on an iPad/iPod Touch) can purchase a premium “SOLARO at Home” subscription.

Learn more about SOLARO and schools at http://solaro.com/schools

iPad Assessments

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:48:30 -0400

You can assess what you have learned on the go! The iPad assessments are located with the content that the assessments are related to.

In horizontal view, you will see a menu on the left-hand side of the screen. This is a list of all of the questions on the test. The list will make it easy for you to jump from question to question. You can also move between questions by using the Next and Previous buttons. These are located at the bottom of the page near the Finish Test button. Don’t forget that if you choose to finish your test before completing the entire test, unanswered questions will be automatically marked as wrong. Make sure you only use that button when you are sure you are done with the test. Finally, if you need another way to navigate between questions, you can swipe your finger across the page to go to the next page.

Parent Account Changes

Tue, 25 May 2010 11:13:47 -0400

Significant changes to the parent account include:

Tabbed view of student accounts so you can switch between your students faster.
Easier to change passwords and profile information.
Revamped parent reporting makes it easier to understand how your students are doing.
User interface improved to make everything in the parent’s account more accessible. Your children don’t have their own e-mail address? They can log in under your e-mail with their name and get to their account.
Students and parents can register student accounts for up to five courses across three grades.

iPad Application

Tue, 25 May 2010 11:01:39 -0400

Have you checked out the iPad application yet? We launched the iPad SOLARO™ App on the same day the iPad was made available in the US. It is really cool! It looks very similar to the App for the iPhone and iTouch, so if you have used that App, you should know your way around in the iPad App. To start your SOLARO™ session, download the application to your iPad and log in with your account’s e-mail address and password. Once you are inside the App, you will see a welcome message with some general points on how to navigate through SOLARO™.
At the top of the application, you will see the Menu button on the left, then a To-Do Button, and a Search button.

The Menu button will take you to lessons and assessments. From there, you can follow the links to whatever you want to learn. Any notes you have made or any assessments related to the subjects you are studying will be available on the menu. In the top right corner of the lessons will be an icon with a book on it. That icon allows you to bookmark the lesson so you can navigate back to it again quickly.

Problems with SOLARO™ Activation Emails.

Wed, 12 May 2010 14:03:44 -0400

Did you sign up for SOLARO™ last night but can’t seem to find that pesky activation email?

Yeah, sorry about that.

Around 1AM CST we started experiencing issues where outgoing mail was being blocked. The issue persisted till 12:30PM CST but things should be back to normal now. Hotmail users may still be experiencing some problems - we are working through them as quickly as we can.

If you are still experiencing issues email us - support@SOLARO.com - and we will help you out.

iPhone iTouch and iPad App Available!

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:08:00 -0400

SOLARO is now in the Apple iTunes App Store!

There are two versions of SOLARO™: on the iTunes store.

This is a really cool, new way to use SOLARO every day (What a great reason to convince your parents to buy you an iPhone or iTouch!). Jump into the iTunes store and download the SOLARO App for your iPhone or iPad.

As soon as you log into the App, you will be taken to a list of the courses you have chosen. You can dive right into the lessons and assessments at this point, or you can go to the search section, look at your goals, or even check out your avatar!

The search function allows you to search all of the content. Biology, poetry, polynomials; whatever you want to learn, you will find it here.

In the To-Do List, you will find all of the goals you have set for yourself. You can go straight into the lessons that correspond with your particular goals. It’s just that easy.

The iPhone, iTouch, and iPad applications give you access to all the same content you can get on your computer. You can even do your quizzes right on the iPhone! Even if you don’t have an internet connection available where you are, you can review any lessons that you have seen previously because they are saved on your device. Imagine being able to finish your homework on the bus even before you get home. That will leave you more time to do other things.

SOLARO™ Mobile for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:06:00 -0400

Great News! SOLARO™ is now in the Apple iTunes App Store

SOLARO™ and SOLARO Mobile™ are for Students - SOLARO™ Parent is in development and will be coming soon

There are two versions of SOLARO™:

Both version of SOLARO™ Mobile allow students to:

Access Lessons, Notes, Quizzes and Tests from their iPhone or iPod Touch.
Complete Quizzes and Tests when connected to the internet.
View previously accessed content when offline or in Airplane Mode.
Search Lessons and Notes both offline and online.

SOLARO™ (iPad) and SOLARO™ Mobile (iPhone and iPod Touch) are FREE so grab them now.

SOLARO™ Update

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:08:33 -0400

SOLARO™ was just update with a focus on improvements to the parent interface.

We will give you the details of all the new features over the next few days but I thought I’d let you know the top three changes that we have made:

This is the big one - parents can add students without their own email address. This should really help families that share an email account.
We have simplified the parent interface. It now uses tabs to manage students and provide access to their progress.
We have modified the Outcome Reports to simplify them. As a parent you can see how many questions need to be reviewed for a specific outcome and lesson status.

We love to hear your feedback on the changes!

What do you like or dislike about the updates?

Activation E-mails

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:10:00 -0400

Just to let you know, you may not be able to receive your activation e-mail on an MSN Hotmail account. If you are using Hotmail for your profile e-mail account and are having this issue, please try a different e-mail account (Gmail, etc.)

Let us know if there are any further issues. E-mail support@solaro.com

Printing Your Notes.

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:00 -0400

Have you seen the new features in the note section? You can now put your notes into a single PDF. Then you can keep the PDF to study later or print it off for a hardcopy to study from. It is an easy process:
•   After you have made your notes, go into the note tab.
•   Select the notes you want to print in the PDF.
•   Click on the Print button.

The PDF will be formatted with a Table of Contents. This table will link the PDF version to each of your notes so you can navigate with just a click. After your PDF is created, you can either save it to your computer or print it off to read later.

Where are my Notes?

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:55:00 -0400

Are you a chronic note taker? Notes always make studying easier because you can see what is important at a glance or see the concepts you want to explore further.

SOLARO™ now allows you to highlight the text of the lesson you want to refer to and make a note about it.

Great! I made a note, now what?

It is easy to find your notes so you can refer to them later. After you create a note, you will see a sticky-note pinned near the text that made the note about.

Also, if you go to the Notes tab on the top navigation bar, you will see your notes organized by subject.

Where are my old notes?

You can now find a link near the top of the lessons that contained your old notes with a link pointing to your old notes.

General Changes

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:49:00 -0400

SOLARO™ is changing for the better! The My SOLARO page has been re-organized so you can see what is important to you at a glance. Rewards, Star points, and the Assessment Report Chart are available in a new, easy viewing format.

Also, with the new changes come new opportunities to create a customized avatar that really represents you. This way you can put your personal touch in the SOLARO™ community, discussion boards, etc.

One of the most exciting features is the lesson navigation. The “breadcrumb” trail has a drop-down feature that allows you to see related content at each level of your study, whether that is lessons or individual items.

Finally, SOLARO™ now allows you to take notes. You no longer need to use the slide-out tab in the side. Instead, you can highlight the exact text you are referring to and add a note. This way you will remember exactly what your note refers to. All of your notes will be available under the note tab on the My SOLARO page.

Navigation Changes

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:45:00 -0400

Navigation in lessons has changed. Now you can see a “breadcrumb” trail of where you are in the lesson structure, and related information will drop down as you hover over the different levels in the lesson structure.

Now you don’t have to guess which lesson you should cover next. You can just grab the next related lesson and be back in the thick of it.

Pull out tabs

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:40:00 -0400

Tabs are gone! You no longer have to click on the side of the page to see what people are discussing about your current lesson. Now you can see the related questions at the bottom of the lesson you are working on. The cloze questions are just above the discussions. The cloze question will check your understanding of what you just read. All in all, it is much easier to find what you need as you need it.

SOLARO™ Beta Program Updates

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:41:00 -0500

In the next two weeks we will be introducing changes to SOLARO™ based on the feedback you have been providing. THANK YOU!

Some of the new goodies include:

Notes upgrade - notes are now easier to use, organized in a new note viewer and printable.
Navigation changes - we are working on reducing the number of clicks between you and your lesson or quiz.
Extended Dashboard - the dashboard now includes recently accessed content for each course.

We have moved the calendar to the reports section and are working to get all the graphs converted from Adobe Flash to plain HTML so that SOLARO™ can work on a variety of mobile devices (think iPad).

More details will be provided as we get closer to the release date.

SOLARO™ Beta Now Online

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:50:00 -0500

I am excited to announce that the SOLARO™ Beta site is now accepting registrations for users.

To help Alberta students preparing for diploma exams we have uploaded preview versions of many grade 12 courses. In addition, we have full courses up for Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario in grades 6-9.

Additional courses and grades are being added as quickly as possible.

More information about the beta is available at beta.solaro.com.