What is Kami? A connected family of learning products

By Dan Kemp, Senior Brand & Content Manager at Kami. Dan was the marketing director at Book Creator since 2013 before joining Kami in 2025.

The evolution of Kami – what’s next?

Kami is now a connected family of products, helping teachers make learning visible, accessible, and meaningful.

We understand that school leaders are having to make hard decisions around technology right now. Budgets are tighter. AI is changing how we think about student work.

There is increasing pressure around limiting the amount of screen time we give to our children in schools. In this context, you need to work with technology partners you can trust, that will respond to your needs, and that can help you justify the investment you make in edtech.

I truly believe Kami is that partner.

In this post:

This post is relevant to you whether you’re already part of the Kami or Book Creator community, new to Kami, or somewhere in between.

Last October, we shared that Book Creator had joined Kami.

Since then, a lot has happened behind the scenes. We have been listening, learning, bringing teams together, and asking a bigger question than simply “how do these products fit together?”

The question we have been working through is this:

What does Kami need to become for the teachers, students, and districts we serve now?

We’ve taken that responsibility seriously. If you’ve been wondering “what is Kami now?”, this post is a chance for me to explain where Kami is heading, why Book Creator matters in that story, and what this new family of products can help you achieve.

Kami is more than a PDF annotation tool

For many teachers, Kami started as a simple way to work with PDFs in the classroom.

That still matters. Teachers need a practical way to take the materials they already have and make them interactive, accessible, and usable for students. Kami app helped with that, and it became part of everyday classroom practice for millions of teachers and students.

But classrooms have changed. The pressure on schools has changed too.

• Districts are being asked to show learning impact more clearly.
• Teachers are supporting a wider range of needs in the same classroom.
• Budgets are tighter.
• Technology stacks are under more scrutiny.
• AI is raising new questions about authenticity, integrity, and what real evidence of learning looks like.

In this context, Kami cannot only be understood as a tool for annotating documents.

Kami is now a family of learning products designed to make learning visible, accessible, and meaningful.

Our tools support the everyday work of teaching and learning, from engaging students in a lesson, to helping every student access the same learning, to giving students authentic ways to show what they know.

Kami has grown from a single classroom app into a broader learning family. Not because schools need more tools, but because teachers and students need more connected support across the learning process.

Why Book Creator matters in this story

Book Creator joining Kami was never just about adding another product.

Book Creator has its own history, its own community, and its own place in classrooms. Teachers use it because it gives students a simple, powerful way to create, reflect, and share their understanding. It helps students express what they know in ways that feel personal, creative, and meaningful.

That is something worth protecting.

The more we worked across Kami and Book Creator, the clearer it became that these products are connected by a shared belief: learning should not disappear the moment a lesson ends.

Students should have ways to show their thinking. Teachers should be able to see progress while it is happening. Every student should have a fair chance to participate, create, and be understood.

Book Creator strengthens Kami because it brings student expression and authentic evidence into the wider learning journey.

It helps answer an important question:

Once students have engaged with learning, how can they show what they understand?

How the Kami family of products supports the learning cycle

Kami App, Kami Companion, and Book Creator each support a different part of the learning process.

Kami App helps teachers bring lessons to life. It turns everyday materials into interactive learning experiences where teachers can guide instruction, ask questions, and see student thinking in real time.

Kami Companion helps make web-based learning more accessible. It gives students reading, language, and expression supports across online content, so more students can participate independently without being separated from the same learning as their peers.

Book Creator gives students agency to demonstrate their understanding in an authentic way. Students can express ideas, reflect on learning, and create work they are proud to share.

✚ We have a new product about to be launched at ISTE.

Learn more here.

Each product stands on its own. Teachers can use one, two, or all of them depending on the needs of their students and the shape of the lesson.

Together, they support a more complete learning cycle:

That is what we mean when we talk about the Kami family.

Learning for all

Let’s just focus for a moment on our mission to make learning visible, accessible, and meaningful. Of these three, accessibility is the golden thread that runs through all Kami products and truly sets Kami apart from other educational technology tools.

We don’t believe accessibility should be an afterthought or a separate system that isolates students. Instead, our tools are built on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), ensuring that accessible design is woven directly into everyday Tier 1 instruction.

Whether a student is in kindergarten or high school, in math class or language arts, they have the tools they need to engage and succeed alongside their peers.

This is especially impactful for Special Education (SpEd) teachers and those supporting Multilingual Learners, as the Kami family of products provides built-in scaffolds—like read-aloud features, voice typing, dictionary tools, translation and more. These features empower every learner to participate fully, regardless of their age, ability, or background.

What Kami means for teachers

Teachers, you are already carrying a lot.

You’re adapting lessons, supporting diverse learners, giving feedback, managing technology, responding to district expectations, and trying to keep students engaged. You don’t need more complexity. You need tools that support your judgment and make the work of teaching clearer, not heavier.

That is why our focus is not on adding technology for its own sake.

Our focus is on supporting the moments that matter in everyday instruction:

• Can every student access the task?
• Can the teacher see who needs support?
• Can students express their thinking in more than one way?
• Can learning be seen before it is too late to respond?
• Can the work students create become meaningful evidence of progress?

When those things happen, technology becomes less of a layer to manage and more of a way to support better teaching. This is what Kami can do.

What Kami means for schools and districts

For district leaders, the challenge is different but connected.

Schools are under pressure to do more with fewer tools. They need to support accessibility, strengthen instructional practice, prove impact, and make responsible decisions about AI and student data.

At the same time, teachers need tools that fit into the systems they already use. A product can look strong on paper, but if it adds friction in the classroom, it will not support learning in the moments where learning actually happens.

Kami is building toward a simpler, more connected answer.

This means:

• Full compatibility with the LMS systems and existing tools you use – Canvas, Google Classroom, Schoology and more.
• Kami is FERPA and COPPA-compliant and SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
• Built-in support for accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, highlighted by Book Creator’s CAST UDL Product Certification.
• Research-backed pedagogical solutions that prove impact. See our efficacy research.

We want to help districts invest in tools that support the full learning process, not a patchwork of disconnected tasks. With Kami, you can justify your investment in edtech, and be confident that you’re working with a trusted partner that exists to improve education for all.

Here’s what Kami believes in

This next chapter of Kami is guided by some clear values. These are shaped by an overall mission to keep humanity and creativity at the heart of learning.

• We believe learning should be visible while it is happening, not only after work is submitted.
• We believe access should be built into everyday Tier 1 instruction, not handled through separate systems that single students out.
• We believe students need authentic ways to express what they know, especially in a world where AI makes it harder to tell whether work reflects real understanding.
• We believe teachers deserve tools that support their judgment, not replace it.
• And we believe trust is built over time, through steady product evolution, responsible decisions, and a clear commitment to the community who use our products every day.

Kami in a sentence

As part of our refresh of Kami branding, one of the tasks was to come up with a new tagline to encapsulate all of this into something short and memorable. Not an easy thing to do!

Our new tagline is See the spark happen.

See: making learning visible, it’s visual, it’s tangible.

the spark: It is the moment a student understands something for the first time. The moment a teacher sees where support is needed. The moment a student finds the right way to express an idea. The moment learning becomes clear enough to respond to, celebrate, and build on.

happen: real-time, authentic, in the moment, taking place right now.

What happens next for Kami?

As Kami grows, some things will change, some things will stay the same.

We are still developing new tools and features Kami App, Book Creator and Kami Companion. Check out the latest updates on our ‘What’s New’ page.

The products will keep their distinct roles because those roles matter. But we’ll keep exploring new ways to integrate and improve the transition between products to support the learning cycle.

We’re also working on other things to better support educators:

• Merging websites to give you a clearer message and unified place to access resources.
• Creating one simplified, broader Kami Community.
• Developing a refreshed visual identity that better reflects Kami as a growing family.

There is more to come, but the direction is already clear.

Kami is no longer just a PDF annotation tool. Kami is a family of products for more visible, accessible, and meaningful learning.

That next chapter is being shaped carefully, with respect for what teachers already trust, and with a clear view of what classrooms need now.

We are grateful to every teacher, student, district leader, and community member who has helped us get here.