Press Room
Sprint Adds ASP Version of ParentLink to Empowered Education(SM) Desktop
Sprint (NYSE: FON) announced today that it is adding a new, application service provider (ASP) version of ParentLink to the Sprint Empowered Education(SM) Desktop. ParentLink by Parlant Technologies provides complete school-to-home communications through a single Web-based portal. Using a unique login and password created for each user, ParentLink enables parents and teachers to securely access essential information such as attendance and grades, school announcements, homework assignments, reminders for field trips, standardized testing days, and PTA meetings.
For more than 30 years, research into family involvement in education has shown that children have advantages when their parents support and encourage school activities. When families know what students are studying, communicate regularly with teachers, and help reinforce schoolwork, their children show higher achievement all the way through secondary school.
“ParentLink helps build bridges between families and classrooms and provides timely, comprehensive information about children’s attendance and performance, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Mike Werth, director of education marketing for Sprint Business Solutions. “Sprint is proud to offer a wide range of technologies that integrate effectively into the K-12 learning environment and is the only telecommunications provider that offers ParentLink ASP.”
“Adding ParentLink ASP gives schools another option to work with Sprint to create the educational communication system that fits their specific needs,” said John Graff, president, Parlant Technologies. “By working closely with the Empowered Education alliance, we have been able to present another integrated and effective solution to allow more school districts to strengthen the connection between schools and homes.”
The new ASP version enables school districts to implement the ParentLink system with no equipment or software and with minimal administrator training necessary. The hardware, maintenance and even customer support required to run the ASP on the Empowered Education Desktop is provided remotely by Parlant, which lowers the total cost of technology ownership for school districts.
Sprint also offers a non-ASP version of ParentLink for the Empowered Education Desktop that allows school districts to provide the service using the district’s own infrastructure.
The Empowered Education Desktop, powered by LearningStation, combines Sprint’s communications network with online delivery of a comprehensive listing of high-quality educational learning tools from a wide range of K-12 content providers. In addition, the Empowered Education Desktop provides the unique capability of tracking student application usage in order to support data-driven decision making at both the school and district level. This unique combination of capabilities enables schools to extend the learning experience beyond the classroom while also providing critical tools that ensure that the appropriate applications are used to help improve student achievement.
Editor’s Note:
Sprint is proud to be a tier one sponsor of the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in New Orleans, LA, June 21-23, and will be showcasing a variety of new and emerging education technology solutions at booth 1500.
Sprint is a leading provider of education technology solutions that help school districts overcome the barriers of time and space while lowering total cost of technology ownership. The Sprint Empowered EducationSM initiative enables school districts to advance learning beyond the traditional boundaries of time and space through a world-class technology infrastructure that allows for innovative classroom applications. For additional information, please visit www.sprint.com/education.
About Sprint
Sprint is a global integrated communications provider serving more than 26 million customers in over 100 countries. With approximately 65,000 employees worldwide and over $26 billion in annual revenues in 2003, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States’ first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint provides local communications services in 39 states and the District of Columbia and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
About Parlant Technologies
ParentLink is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to involve parents in their child’s education. ParentLink offers detailed customizable telephone, email, and print-to-mail messages, comprehensive reports, and more. For more information, visit