We did it! Navigation North is turning 12 years old!
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In the spring of 2005, following a string of life choices which just weren’t working out as expected, Joe Hobson found he’d had enough with stifling his entrepreneurial spirit at a government job. So, he set out to try something new, on his own. After just a few weeks of searching for direction, Navigation North was born.
5/5/2005
Here’s a look back at what Navigation North was working on during May in each of our fantastic previous years!
May 2005
Our founder and President, Joe Hobson, could be found in his tiny home office. He was trying to figure out a way to make individual java portlets come together to create a new system. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means, most people don’t.
#TechNerd
This is the desk and chair Joe had in his home office. He still loves and uses both today! The computer hiding next to a tennis ball was Navigation North’s first dev server, McBain.
May 2006
We installed new search options on CTAP Online and finally convinced our first intern he should find somewhere else to be incompetent. Wherever he ended up, we bet he’s still wearing the same Star Wars shirt he wore to work every day.
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May 2007
Our team rolled out new website administrator tools for Learning Support, helping afterschool program directors keep track of their kids. How many of these kids are old enough to drink today?
May 2008
Two distinct spinoffs from the Venture Communities Portal were developed by Navigation North: Golden Capital Network and Angel Fund Investments. This was one of our few forays outside of the education sector and ended up being a great R&D space for our next LMS.
May 2009
The CTE Pathways system began, connecting high school and community college coursework so students could get a jumpstart on their career aspirations. Meanwhile, we were also expanding the Minnesota Center for College Readiness to include Science and Math sections.
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[irp posts=”6790″ name=”California’s Blended PD/Curriculum Project Works To Explain Growing Popularity In Other States”]
May 2010
After completing and launching the rebuild of CTE Online, we turned our attention to minor feature additions, such as exporting curriculum in PDF format. Fancy!
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CTE Online 2007
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CTE Online 2010
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CTE Online 2012
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CTE Online 2017
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May 2011
One of the improvements to existing systems our team completed was the addition of Common Core Standards to Brokers of Expertise.
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May 2012
Navigation North held our first workshop for the Smithsonian Learning Lab prototype project, working with local teachers to determine how they use digital resources in the classroom.
May 2013
We started building the curriculum development tool we now lovingly call Cartographi. There were LMS improvements we wanted to implement over the previous five years, so we forged ahead and did it ourselves!
May 2014
Our team partnered with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology to provide updates to the Learning Registry, along with launching government WordPress websites like My Brother’s Keeper.
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[irp posts=”7049″ name=”4 Reasons Students Love The Smithsonian Learning Lab”]
May 2015
At a pivotal time in the development of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, initial designs were scrapped, and testing continued to ensure the best user experience possible for educators and students. We had no idea how busy the next year would be!
Below is a snapshot from the project’s user testing documentation, with user clicks shown in red:
May 2016
While preparing the Smithsonian Learning Lab for full launch at ISTE the following month, we simultaneously began training a second Navigation North development team.
This is not an actual photo of the team. Our developers are even happier than these guys.
May 2017
This month our Director of Education, Brian Ausland, presented on how California State Parks can use the Smithsonian Learning Lab to provide digital experiences to website visitors at #InterpTech2017.
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Thank you for taking this journey with us as we walk down Memory Lane.
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