AT&T Launches Free Digital Learning Platform Featuring Popular WarnerMedia Characters
The Achievery Includes Lessons and Student Activities in SEL, the Arts, English, Technology and Engineering, with More Subjects Coming Soon
- By Kristal Kuykendall
AT&T has launched a free digital learning platform for K–12 students called The Achievery, aimed at making distance learning more engaging, inspiring, and entertaining, AT&T said in a news release.
The Achievery lessons — in such subjects as social-emotional learning, the arts, English language arts, and technology and engineering — feature content from popular WarnerMedia films, TV shows, and animated series, according to the news release. Additional subjects coming soon to the new platform are science, social studies, math, and digital literacy, AT&T said.
The WarnerMedia content is integrated within The Achievery’s lessons and self-guided learning activities that can be completed anywhere, according to the news release. Some examples of this are clips from the Wonder Woman film paired with reading and writing lessons; Aquaman film clips integrated with “lessons teaching responsible decision-making”; and animated clips from the Craig of the Creek series on Cartoon Network used in social awareness and language lessons, AT&T said.
The launch of The Achievery is the latest development of AT&T’s Connected Learning initiative, launched last year as part of the company’s $2 billion, three-year pledge to “address the digital divide through investments in digital literacy tools, education resources, broadband technology, low-cost internet service, and computers, to help today's learners succeed inside and outside of the classroom,” according to the news release.
The Achievery launch follows a 2021 survey it sponsored by Morning Consult that polled 1,000 parents, 500 teachers/administrators and 100 non-profits in the K–12 space; responding parents and teachers said “one of their students’ biggest frustrations when it comes to online learning is that it is boring,” AT&T said. Nearly 80% of respondents said their students’ interest in and engagement with learning tools would increase if the lessons included characters from popular entertainment.
To ensure The Achievery’s instructional content is appropriate and impactful for every grade level, AT&T collaborated on the platform’s design with education advocacy organizations and parent groups including Khan Academy, Young Storytellers, Scratch, National Parent Teacher Association, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the company said.
Additional contributors with content coming online soon include Girls Who Code, Code.org, Urban Arts, Quest For Excellence, Boddle, and others, AT&T said.
Parents, students (13 and older), and teachers can create a free account on TheAchievery.com, or on The Achievery mobile app launching next month, according to the news release. For children younger than 13, parents or caregivers may create a sub-account.
Once an account is created, lesson plans and learning activities can be searched by subject, grade, academic standards, or media type.
Learn more at ATT.com/ConnectedLearning and at TheAchievery.com.
Kristal Kuykendall is editor, 1105 Media Education Group. She can
be reached at [email protected].