Welcome to the 5th edition of the Quarterly Tractivity digest, where I share what’s new at Tract. Enjoy!
-Ari, Tract Cofounder + CEO

Our first full school year

When Esther and I started Tract, we knew firsthand the power of kids teaching kids through multimedia projects, but never imagined how quickly an incredible community would grow worldwide around this pedagogy. This school year we welcomed 600+ educators and 20,000+ students from 20 countries and almost every state (looking at you, Rhode Island and Alaska!). Students posted 60,000+ projects on Tract as educators brought their passion and curriculum projects to life on Tract.

This summer we are heads down on making Tract even more meaningful and manageable for educators through 3 BIG improvements:

  1. Improved creation experience for students
  2. Improved teaching resources and content discovery for educators
  3. Easier account signup for everyone

Improved creation experience for students

We’ve greatly simplified the process for posting projects and added a native multimedia editor. This means students at all levels can create and share their public products 100% in Tract with a very intuitive experience. The editor today provides video recording, screen sharing, image capture, backdrops, text effects, and more! Stay tuned as we build out the tooling to support additional enhancements like music, voice effects, and avatar overlays.

When students click "Create" they now see a consolidated webcam and screen recording module (shown above) that lets them add effects (text, backdrop) and record media. When media is added, students can then add a title, caption, and turn responses on if they are teaching a topic. For projects with multiple videos, we now support reordering.


Improved teaching resources and content discovery for educators

Whether you have an existing project you want to bring onto Tract, or are looking to find an awesome project for your kids to do on Tract we want to make this really easy, and give you time back. Educators can now explore new curriculum-aligned project guides by grade level and subject area, best practice guides for feedback and reflection, and expert tutorials on driving questions, research, and public product creation (all taught by kids!).

Checkout this US Geography project guide from the Grade 5 base for a preview of what’s coming!


Easier account setup for everyone

In August, we will support Clever and Google SSO for easier sign up and authentication. Educators and students can access Tract through their Google and Clever accounts, and are no longer required to manage usernames and passwords.

Community Spotlight

In June, we launched our first ever Creator Camp. Students were able to build on the video creation and 21st century skills they started to develop this past school year, and apply them toward fun video making challenges!

Do Your Students Have What it Takes to Beat Some of the Top Players in the Nation?

Kentucky’s best football players are challenging the Tract community to a LIVE Minecraft football game on July 29. To see if they have what it takes to beat a team of rising NFL stars, kids around the world can sign in to Tract throughout July and participate in 5 enrichment challenges for the chance to land a spot on Tract’s All-Star team.

Learn More + Share


What’s on deck for next quarter?

  1. Improved Teaching Resources – project plans, tutorials, driving questions
  2. Assignments & Saving – more structured support for assignments through your LMS
  3. Single Sign On – easier teacher & student login with Google, Clever and more!
  4. Enhanced Video Editor (Music, Voice Effects)
Not yet started on Tract? Get started in under 5 min by signing up and then following the #TractForTeachers videos.

In case you missed us, here’s Tract In the News