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John Neely

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Facing History and Ourselves Selects VIS to Bring Renowned Teacher Training to the Web

VIS Selected to Develop e-Learning Curriculum Based on Acclaimed Program

February 22, 2001 Waltham, MA -- Non-profit educational and professional development organization Facing History and Ourselves (www.facinghistory.org) has selected VIS Corporation (www.vis.com) to develop a web-based version of an important curriculum. Facing History and Ourselves, which has trained more than 12,000 teachers over two decades, will soon be more accessible than ever.

VIS has a truly innovative approach to transforming behavioral and emotional content for effective online experiences. The entire e-Learning industry is in the early stages of understanding how best to leverage the potential of online learning. Facing History and Ourselves has agreed to work with VIS on an experiment that may expand the frontiers of e-Learning.

"We at VIS are also excited by the opportunity to continue our pioneering development and delivery of conceptual education and training through the Internet," said Andy Snider, President and CEO of VIS. "With this project, we will be able to raise to another level the Internet's ability to transfer complex conceptual material to learners."

The main Facing History and Ourselves curriculum is a civic education program designed for middle school and high school classrooms. It teaches about the privileges, responsibilities, and skills of citizenship, while integrating the study of history, literature, science and art. Students learn about the values of democracy by examining a particularly important place and time: Germany from the crumbling of democracy in the 1920s and 1930s through the Holocaust. By learning that democracy's demise and the Nazis' crimes were caused largely by the choices made by ordinary citizens, students begin to understand the importance of making responsible choices. They are then encouraged to apply these lessons to contemporary events and their own experience.

This main curriculum and supplementary curricula highlight issues of inclusion, tolerance and responsibility include a rich library of primary sources and a time-tested method for delivering the material and insuring intensive involvement by students. One important supplementary curriculum focuses upon the Eugenics movement.

Eugenics, a pseudo-scientific ideology that purported to prove that some racial and ethnic groups are inherently inferior to others, flourished in the U.S. around 1900. The realization that such ideology was not only accepted in the United States, but was actually used as justification for sterilization and harsh immigration laws, is extremely disquieting and important.

Teachers trained in the main Facing History and Ourselves curriculum are now offered the opportunity to broaden the scope of their teaching by attending a special classroom workshop to familiarize them with the content and resources of the Eugenics curriculum.

After more than 20 years of training teachers through seminars and workshops, Facing History and Ourselves is testing the power of the Internet to expand the reach of its teacher training. They have chosen the Eugenics curriculum as the first to be delivered over the Web and have selected VIS to help. The objectives are to use technology to reach a greater number of teachers who may not be able to take the Eugenics workshop and to use technology to build community among teachers through discussion groups.

For nine years VIS has been building high-quality custom e-Learning programs. At a time when e-Learning too often meant the delivery of text on line, VIS pioneered in developing behavioral training courses with conceptually challenging content. Through the integration of multiple media, interactivity, quizzes and feedback, VIS courses have proven able to replace or complement traditional classroom education while generating superior results.

"This is a perfect example of a breakthrough application of e-Learning," said Snider. "Many teachers can not afford the time or money to attend a workshop. Our program will enable them to complete the training and then bring this vital curriculum home to a larger number of students." About VIS Corporation

VIS helps progressive companies, schools and organizations develop learning strategies, create learning solutions and deliver flexible and adaptable Web-based courseware to achieve their unique objectives. VIS, one of the industry's most experienced developers of custom courseware, produces e-Learning that employees and students enjoy and use - e-Learning that enables them to retain what they learn. VIS's comprehensive service package includes strategic consulting and technology integration that assures that each custom e-Learning course delivers measurable results today and into the future. In nearly ten years, VIS has produced more than 500 e-Learning engagements for clients that include the American Cancer Society, the American Management Association, Cookson Performance Solutions, Dow Corning, Estée Lauder, Harvard Business School Publishing, Putnam, State Street Research and Unilever. VIS Corporation may be reached by calling 781-890-7777, by e-mailing andys@vis.com, on the Web at www.vis.com or by writing to VIS Corporation at 300 Fifth Avenue, Waltham, MA 02451.

About Facing History and Ourselves

With regional offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, and San Francisco as well as program representatives in Europe, Facing History and Ourselves has trained over 12,000 educators around the world and reached an estimated one million students since its founding almost 25 years ago. Through its study of the historical development of the breakdown of democracy in Weimar Germany and the resulting rise of Nazism, Facing History and Ourselves prepares teachers to help young people make essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. The program provides resource materials, on-going teacher support and professional development training. For more information about the organization and its programs, visit www.facinghistory.org or contact Facing History and Ourselves at 617-232-1595.