Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Leading AI Company Launches Classroom Assistant Built on First Large Language Model Designed Uniquely for Education

NEW YORK PRNewswire/ — Today, Merlyn Mind, an AI company focused on building domain-specific AI platforms and solutions for improving human productivity, announced the launch of its AI-powered classroom solution, Merlyn Origin. Built on an education-specific large language model (LLM) developed in-house by a team of researchers from top AI labs, including IBM Research, Amazon Alexa, and Google Brain, Origin helps educators eliminate tech friction and focus on creating powerful learning moments in the classroom.

Built for the unique workflow of the classroom, Origin enables teachers to use their voice from anywhere in the classroom to control their learning applications, computer, and front-of-class display. With Origin, teachers can access classroom lessons, generate quick quizzes, and help students find answers on the spot – all with the confidence that they’re pulling content from an LLM specifically trained on vetted, educational content and resources, not from the entirety of the internet.

In the future, Origin will allow schools and districts to integrate their own content and curriculum into the platform as part of a walled-garden approach that allows both teachers and students to harness the capabilities of generative AI safely to encourage curiosity and promote higher-order thinking during class, which, in turn, enhances the learning experience.…Read More

eSchool News wraps up Celebrate 25! and spotlights winners

eSchool News is celebrating 25 years in 2023, and during a March contest, 25 winners took home Amazon gift cards, with one additional grand prize winner receiving an Apple iPad.

Winners in the Celebrate 25! contest included curriculum coordinators, school office managers, classroom teachers, principals, technology directors, and school library professionals.

From being among the first new outlets to bring awareness to edtech initiatives such as one-to-one device programs in K-12 schools, to covering the myriad ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed what education looks like, eSchool News continues to bring new developments, ideas, and innovations to its audience of K-12 decision makers, IT leaders, and classroom educators.…Read More

ASU course encourages high schoolers to get their heads in the cloud

It’s an early morning wake up call for Trinity Smith, lead teaching fellow and student studying business data analytics at Arizona State University (ASU). During the Spring 2022 semester, Smith started most mornings with 30 high school students who were enrolled in CIS 194 Cloud Foundations, a course delivered by ASU.

The online course was co-developed by ASU’s University Technology Office and W.P. Carey School of Business, along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the National Education Equity Lab. The class offers an opportunity for high school students — targeting those who attend Title I or disadvantaged schools — to earn high school and college credit, as well as an industry certificate, in cloud computing.

Students nationwide participate in the ASU course  …Read More

Pikmykid Achieves Success With Positive Reviews and Excellent Ranking

TAMPA, Fla., Apr. 29, 2022 – Pikmykid, the leading provider of school safety and dismissal solutions, today shares its success among schools nationwide, including its impressive Net Promoter Score (NPS), measuring customer experience and predicting business growth.

The Pikmykid platform has achieved an NPS score of 60, putting the platform in the same category of customer experience management as major brands including Starbucks, Netflix and Amazon, as well as Samsung, Intel and John Deere. Additionally, Pikmykid’s NPS score remains higher than mega-companies, such as Apple and Google.

The intent of NPS is to measure the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer’s overall satisfaction with a company’s product or service and the customer’s loyalty to the brand.…Read More

CoderZ Launches Initiative to Engage Students in STEM with the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge

DERRY, N.H. – Aug. 18, 2021 – Starting August 1, CoderZ will once again bring a real-world industry perspective to computer science classrooms through the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge. In this free, three-hour virtual learning experience, students develop basic computer science skills while discovering the ways that goods are delivered at Amazon. This year’s #StepintoSTEM challenge provides teachers access to resources that make instruction simple for them, regardless of their computer science background.

The Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge transports students to a virtual Amazon warehouse where they practice coding, computational thinking, and computer science. Students collaborate with their friends through hands-on, gamified, and mission-based activities, which involve coding an Amazon Hercules robot. In addition, they meet students interning at Amazon as well as real engineers who are using STEM and computer science skills every day. Participants who share the activity on social media will be sent a teacher goodie bag.

“Last year, 120,000 students received access to the program. The feedback from teachers was exemplary, so we want to see that number grow during these essential back-to-school months,” said CEO of CoderZ, Ido Yerushalmi. “Our mission this year is to introduce 200,000 more students to the interdisciplinary skills that STEM develops, including future-ready skills, SEL, and more. As always, we recommend the challenge for grades four and above.”…Read More

New initiative targets 10,000 underserved students for in-demand cloud computing careers

The National Education Equity Lab (Ed Equity Lab) has launched a new initiative with Amazon Web Services (AWS) designed to prepare more than 10,000 students in underserved high schools across the nation for careers in cloud computing by 2025.

As part of Amazon’s ongoing commitment to help 29 million people worldwide increase their technical skills by 2025, the new collaboration, launching this fall, will enable students in low-income school districts to access AWS cloud computing educational content and resources offered by Arizona State University (ASU) at no cost to students.

“Students from underserved school districts and communities face challenges that prevent them from pursuing and succeeding in some of the country’s fastest-growing technical careers,” said Wil Zemp, Director of Education to Workforce at AWS. “It will take intentional, proactive effort by employers, education leaders, and the tech industry to remove those barriers and build more equitable pathways to economic mobility.”…Read More

Experience the Power of a Spoken Word Poetry

Good Deed Entertainment announced today that their spoken word, Rotten Tomato certified-fresh hit film SUMMERTIME, directed by Carlos López Estrada (Raya And The Last Dragon (2021), Blindspotting (2018) and Marvel’s Legion (2017)), and executive produced by Kelly Marie Tran, will be available for fans to own beginning on August 27, 2021 and can be purchased through all major retailers including, iTunes/AppleTV, Amazon, Vudu and Google Play. The film can currently be preordered at iTunes and a full list of where to purchase the film can be found at the SUMMERTIME website.

The film SUMMERTIME takes place over the course of a hot summer day in Los Angeles, following the lives of 27 young adults as they intersect. A skating guitarist, a tagger, two wannabe rappers, an exasperated fast-food worker, a limo driver—they all weave in and out of each other’s stories. Through poetry they express life, love, heartache, family, home, and fear. One of them just wants to find someplace that still serves good cheeseburgers.

The film was developed over a summer workshop with the young poets, who were all part of Get Lit – Words Ignite, an LA based nonprofit that fuses classic and original spoken word poetry to increase teen literacy on the page and in visual media. All 27 poets served as co-writers and stars in the film.…Read More

CoderZ Encouraging Title I Schools to Sign-up Students for the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge

The Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge has passed the halfway mark, but it’s not too late for teachers and students to sign up. Since the fall, CoderZ and Amazon Future Engineer have been bringing real-world industry to Title I classrooms with this free, three-hour virtual learning experience. Students can sign up for the challenge to learn the basics of computer science at any time until the end of the current school year. They will also uncover how Amazon uses computer science and robotics daily to deliver customer goods.

Schools that support students from underserved communities who finish the challenge will have the chance to keep learning on CoderZ’s cloud-based platform with its virtual robots and game-like “missions.” For teachers who want to continue with CoderZ, Amazon will also sponsor free access to the yearlong curriculum for 100,000 students from underserved communities within the United States for a full semester during 2020 – 2021.

“We’re truly delighted to be partnering with Amazon Future Engineer,” said Ms. Yaarit Levy, VP Business Development at CoderZ. “This challenge has proved to be an excellent way to keep students engaged and learning even if they can’t be together with teachers at this time.”…Read More

CoderZ Contributes to the National Computer Science for All Movement

The CSforALL movement, to bring computer science to all US students, marked a major growth milestone today. Along with 126 organizations, CoderZ has made new commitments to advance computer science education access and opportunity for youth across the United States at the 2020 CSforALL Commitments Showcase.

“In partnership with Amazon Future Engineer, we’ve committed to providing coding and robotics instruction to 150,000 students over the next 12 months,” said Ido Yerushalmi, CEO of CoderZ. “We’re doing this by offering free access to our virtual robotics platform for up to 1,000 teachers working in Title I schools across the United States by the summer of 2021.”

Additionally, CoderZ in partnership with the Intelitek STEM and CTE Education Foundation, is committed to empowering traditionally underserved communities with better access to STEM. “CoderZ is very pleased to be involved in the national movement to increase access to and equity in computer science for all,” said Yerushalmi. “It’s extremely important for all students to have access to this area of knowledge, even if it does not become their career of choice. We are dedicated to making this type of learning fun, empowering and accessible to as many students as possible.”…Read More

CoderZ & Amazon Cyber Robotics Back-to-School Challenge

This fall, CoderZ and Amazon Future Engineer are bringing real-world industry to classrooms with the Amazon Cyber Robotics Back-to-School Challenge. In this free, three-hour virtual learning experience, students learn the basics of computer science while uncovering how Amazon uses computer science and robotics daily to deliver customer goods.

Schools that support students from underserved communities who finish the challenge not only have the chance to win prizes, but also to keep learning on CoderZ’s cloud-based platform with its virtual robots and game-like “missions.” For teachers who want to continue with CoderZ, Amazon will also sponsor free access to the yearlong curriculum for 100,000 students from underserved communities within the United States for a full semester during 2020 – 2021.

 …Read More