Santillana launches Edusfera, the first online store for educational resources and a study-oriented social network

Santillana has launched Edusfera, www.edusfera.es, an online store for students, teachers and parents offering a wide range of educational resources from the publisher’s digital catalog aimed at all levels from preschool to high school, as well as a social network focused on education. Users can now access all classroom content adapted to new technologies: reference books, video tutorials, recommended texts and books in English and French. Edusfera comes with tools that will foster and facilitate studying in the 21st century: interactivity, through an innovative educational social network, and mobility, thanks to the application designed for computers and tablets, which provides access to all content in real time and allows users to work with the material (underline, annotate and share).

An electronic backpack for students, teachers and parents

Edusfera sets the standard for educational online stores, offering over 2,000 digital educational resources for students aged 3 to 18. It allows students to quickly access the quality educational material they need to help them with their studies. The Edusfera search engine is organized by product type, by subject, by age, by user type and format to enable quick and easy access for all the family. After selecting the item and confirming the purchase, the educational material is added to the user's library, which can then be accessed from any device via the Edusfera app for PC, Mac, iPad and Android tablet. This electronic backpack provides access to documents purchased even when offline.

In addition, students and teachers can use Edusfera as a complement to their usual textbooks as the contents are adapted to the Spanish school curriculum.

And the Edusfera app is so much more than a digital library: it’s also a new dynamic and intuitive tool for study. All interactions with content, including bookmarks and notes, can be synchronized across all devices where the app has been installed. In addition, users can share views and ideas with their classmates and friends through the social network and enhance their learning experience thanks to notes others have left on the same content.

A social network for learning

Edusfera is designed to make the learning process so much more than studying alone. It is a meeting place for students, teachers, schools and parents, with a social network focused on education where users can share doubts, thoughts, ideas and solutions and ask questions. Users can also create groups that share an interest in a particular subject, by inviting and adding contacts from their e-mail or other social networks. For example, teachers can create a group for their own students and set the reading list in Edusfera.

A safe environment

Users can make Edusfera purchases in several ways: by subscription, by purchase unit, via an account opened by an adult and assigned to a minor, or as a gift from one member to another. Santillana has paid special attention to the safety of minors. Any child who wants to register with Edusfera, has to do so accompanied by an adult. Thus, during the registration process, the accounts of the child and adult will be linked. The child can add the books they want to their electronic backpack for later purchase by the adult, or the adult may purchase a set amount so the child can subsequently acquire the content they want. Both adults and children will have access to content from their respective accounts.

The fourth learning revolution

Edusfera is part of what anthropologist Ignacio Martinez Mendizábal has termed the fourth learning revolution. According to the 1997 winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, learning has undergone a series of evolutionary stages: from the creation of the figure of the teacher, nearly two million years, to the introduction of the blackboard 40,000 years ago, up to the Gutenberg press in the fifteenth century. Each subsequent innovation did not replace the previous one but, rather, they reinforced each other. Thus, new information technologies will not render obsolete the three other fundamental elements of education: teacher, blackboard and books.

Today, the revolution in information technology is transforming education, adding new dimensions and enhancing the learning ability of children. Besides enabling access to almost all knowledge in real time and from almost anywhere, information technologies have also harnessed the recreational potential of studying and have fostered the development of cooperative learning, allowing for the solving of problems and completion of tasks as a team. "Without doubt, this social dimension of learning is the future of the cultural and technological development of humanity," says Martinez Mendizabal. "This fourth revolution opens the door to improving learning, making it more fun and above all, it enables us to do it together."

The Fourth Learning Revolution by Ignacio Martinez Mendizabal is available as a free download at www.edusfera.es.

Embracing this revolution, Santillana has created Edusfera, the first global digital store from the publishing group that brings together reference material, dynamic tools that foster active study, and an innovative educational social network that promotes new ways of learning.