Houghton Mifflin Co.

How The Big 5 Publishers Hobbled The Amazon Unlimited Launch
July 22, 2014

Amazon Unlimited was dubbed the Netflix of books. That is correct as long as you imagine a Netflix consisting of an endless array of low-budget indie releases and some major small-studio films. In truth, Amazon's new $9.99 all-you-can-read service features no books by "big 5″ trade publishers, an issue on which Amazon has remained mum.

I've asked Amazon for clarification but haven't heard back. However, if you look at the list of popular titles on the Unlimited list, all of them are either published by smaller publishers

Press Release: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Launches HMH Player, Simplifies Digital Instruction for the Classroom
June 30, 2014

Atlanta - International Society for Technology in Education Conference - Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today unveiled HMH Player, a new app that tackles the major pain points faced by educators as they integrate technology into the classroom. The app enables offline access to quality content, allows teachers and students to collaborate in real time, and offers the opportunity to enhance HMH content through extensive customization tools.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Supports Google Play for Education with K-12 Content
January 30, 2014

Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced a partnership with Google to deliver K-12 core curriculum for the first time through Google Play for Education. Already established as a trusted resource for students and teachers in the higher education space, Google Play for Education will now provide access to a broad range of HMH's market-leading K-12 education content across multiple devices.

Mein Kampf Rises in Ebook Rankings
January 8, 2014

You won't see Adolf Hitler peering back at you from the featured display tables at Barnes & Noble any time soon. But browse the most popular e-book stores these days and Der Führer's mug is seemingly unavoidable. For a year now, his magnum manifesto has loomed large over current best-sellers on iTunes, where at the time of this writing two different digital versions of Mein Kampf rank 12th and 15th on the Politics & Current Events chart alongside books by modern conservative powerhouses like Sarah Palin, Charles Krauthammer and Glenn Beck.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Introduces Only All-In-One Reentry Curriculum Designed for Correctional Facilities
June 27, 2013

Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced its new Reentry Prerelease Program designed specifically for correctional facility education centers. According to 2011 research from the Pew Center for the States, four in ten released prisoners will violate terms of probation or commit new crimes and be reincarcerated within three years. The Reentry Prerelease Program provides resources that cover not only academics but an array of social skills, from career guidance to problem solving to relationship management, to disrupt this cycle, with the ultimate goal of success upon reentry and reduced recidivism.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt buys firm that develops digital games for pre-schoolers
April 12, 2013

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a Boston company with a venerable textbook heritage, said it has increased its in-house game development skills by acquired Tribal Nova, a Montréal-based educational technology company focused on developing digital games, products, and services for pre-school children.

Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Tribal Nova operates online learning services for young children in partnership with major media partners in North America including PBS “Kids Play!”

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Big Ideas Learning Introduce Rigorous New Mathematics Program for Common Core
March 15, 2013

Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), in collaboration with Big Ideas Learning, a renowned mathematics instructional materials provider, today introduced Big Ideas Math 2014 – a Common Core-aligned math series that presents a focused, coherent, and rigorous approach to instruction.

Big Ideas Math 2014 is aligned to the newest progression documents that form the Common Core State Standards for math. To reach Common Core proficiency, students must show a progression of skills that develops year over year. The pedagogy behind Big Ideas Math is designed to help sequence the Standards and provide coherence to each topic.

“Big Ideas Math 2014 provides the conceptual building blocks that help to develop a deeper understanding of math concepts,” said Denise McDowell, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Big Ideas Learning. “It challenges students to think critically about what is in front of them, rather than complete a simple, static problem.”

Former Obama Admin CIO bets on Agile to drive change at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
March 14, 2013

Brook Colangelo has already made his digital mark. As the former CIO of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) for the Obama administration, he pursued open source website-development projects for the WhiteHouse.gov site, ushered in mobile devices while ushering out desktop computers with floppy discs, and embarked on such crowdsourcing experiments as We the People. Colangelo, 35, also shook up the culture in another way: He leveraged the benefits of an Agile methodology to make sure these innovations happened fast. That adds up to some serious CIO street cred…