11 online tools & apps for dyslexic students

In the past, dyslexia was rarely recognized, and when it was, very little was put in place for the student. It was assumed that students were being lazy, not paying attention, or being disruptive because they were badly behaved, not because they were infuriated.

Nowadays, however, so much has changed, and students with dyslexia are able to thrive in the classroom. The following teaching tools and apps can make learning a lot more enjoyable for dyslexic students.

Shakespeare In Bits…Read More

App of the Week: Program a robot buddy

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here to read the full app review.

What’s It Like? 

SPRK Lightning Lab is an app that lets kids program their Sphero robots from a tablet or phone. Beginning coders use block-based programming to direct and control their robot. A text-based code viewer is also available so kids can see how their block code translates into actual code. This gives experienced programmers more flexibility and is a scaffold to help students scale up their coding skills.…Read More

New generation of Chromebooks designed for millions of students and educators

[Editor’s Note: At Bett, one of the largest education technology conferences in the world, Google is announcing a new line of Chromebooks for education. Check out @GoogleForEdu and #BETT2017 for more information.]

When I was a student, I juggled different tools throughout my day—a paper notebook for history, a shared desktop for research, and a TI-83 for calculus. In the years since, the potential of computers has begun to replace the need for those various tools—what we did on that expensive calculator for example, can now be done with an app. We believe in the power of technology to help students learn however they learn best and help teachers teach the way they find most effective. At Bett this week we’re introducing  a new generation of Chromebooks designed to adapt to the diverse ways students learn. These convertible Chromebooks have touch and stylus capability, world-facing camera and access to millions of Android apps, so technology can flex to the needs of students, not the other way around.

Today both Chromebooks and Classroom are used by more than 20 million teachers and students, and we’re excited to announce that G Suite for Education has now reached 70 million active users. Chromebooks have been the device of choice because of their simplicity, security, shareability and low cost. We’re committed to introducing even more options for the teaching needs of schools, so look out for a lineup from Acer, Asus, HP, Dell, and Lenovo and the recently announced Samsung Chromebooks—a powerful option for educators. We expect that, in the future, our partners will be able to build an even wider variety of Chromebooks, including detachables and tablets.…Read More

App of the Week: Math gets adaptive

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here to read the full app review.

What’s It Like? 

After taking an initial assessment to gauge their competency level, students are presented with a pie chart of competency, a timeline of content to master, and a number of ways to dive into that content. Once they select a subject, they’re given a fairly typical textbook-style lesson, with written explanations and vocabulary, worked example problems, and then a series of practice questions. ALEKS gives feedback on what students are doing well and struggling with along the way, and it either speeds or slows progression as it measures successful work. As kids get through lessons, sectors of their competency pie grow to reflect their emerging skill.…Read More

In the marketplace: Minecraft Education Edition, apps for ELLs, digital citizenship, and more

Tech-savvy educators know they must stay on top of the myriad changes and trends in education to learn how teaching and learning can best benefit from technology’s near-constant change.

Check below for the latest marketplace news to keep you up-to-date on product developments, teaching and learning initiatives, and new trends in education.

Learning Upgrade, an ed-tech company providing digital, differentiated literacy curriculum designed for English language learners (ELLs), launched a mobile app to increase accessibility and expand offerings to a wide range of English learners. The app enables students to access Learning Upgrade’s high-interest musical lessons on their own using any device, including phones and tablets. With the app, Learning Upgrade aims to improve students’ time on task by no longer limiting them to sitting in front of a computer. ELLs of all ages are now able to work through lessons anytime and anywhere. Read more.…Read More

App of the Week: drag-and-drop virtual bulletin boards

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here to read the full app review.

What’s It Like? 

Padlet is a website and app that allows kids to collect information from the internet and pin it onto virtual bulletin boards using a simple drag-and-drop system. Videos, text, links, images — basically anything — can be added to a board and organized there, like a page full of Post-it notes. There’s also the option to include rich text (Padlet provides a simple HTML guide in their Help sidebar). You can add as many notes to a wall as you like; it scrolls in all directions.…Read More

5 top classroom apps for the new school year

Education is increasingly mobile, and if you have access to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, chances are you’re using apps for learning, classroom management, personal organization, and more.

But not all apps are created equal. Some don’t live up to the hype, others claim to offer educational benefits but fall short, and others offer paltry features for free before moving to in-app purchases.

Every week, eSchool News features a new app curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.…Read More

ClassFlow launches new teacher-parent communication app

ClassFlow Moments, a new free app for teacher-parent communication, is the latest addition to Promethean’s collaborative learning software ClassFlow. With the ClassFlow Moments app, teachers can easily share classroom assignments, announcements, and awards with parents so they can proactively engage with their students’ learning. ClassFlow Moments is free for parents.

“Most parents can identify with asking their children about school and receiving a one-word answer,” said Vincent Young, the Chief Marketing Officer at Promethean. “ClassFlow Moments offers a new way for teachers to connect parents to their students’ classroom activities. As teachers assign homework or reward students with award badges in ClassFlow, they can easily alert parents at the same time. The parent-student conversation after school then shifts to ‘Tell me how you earned a badge for excellent class participation today,’ or ‘What ideas interest you for your science project?’ With the ClassFlow Moments app, students receive additional support from their family to reinforce their education.”

According to a report from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), “Programs and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement.” Using the ClassFlow Moments app, teachers can bring parents and guardians into the learning process by sharing classroom content directly from ClassFlow – the hub where they direct classroom activities, deliver lessons, launch quizzes and interactive polls, and send out homework assignments.…Read More

The Friday 4: Your weekly ed-tech rewind

Every Friday, I’ll recap some of the most interesting news and thought-provoking developments from the past week.

I can’t fit all of this week’s news stories here, though, so feel free to browse eSchool News and read up on other news you may have missed.

K-12 innovation is essential if today’s students are to be prepared for college and careers in an increasingly global society. This means educators at all levels must feel supported and empowered as they try new things and explore new instructional possibilities. At the same time, students should feel encouraged to do the same.…Read More

Google adds new features to Classroom, Forms, and more Copy

As back-to-school approaches, Google has just released a grab-bag of new features aimed at K-12 educators—mostly upgrades to existing Google products like Classroom and Expeditions—announced in a new blog post.

For Classroom, Google’s still relatively new LMS, the company is adding summaries of student work that can be automatically shared with parents by teachers, who can send the summaries (or classroom announcements) daily or weekly as they choose.

Classroom’s mobile app is also getting some tweaks, namely the new ability to annotate documents, turning them into whiteboard-like screens. Teachers, too, can use the annotations to grade assignments, highlight passages, or demonstrate concepts. To help organize classrooms, teachers can now also add topics to posts and students can filter their streams for specific topics.…Read More

Google adds new features to Classroom, Forms, and more

As back-to-school approaches, Google has just released a grab-bag of new features aimed at K-12 educators—mostly upgrades to existing Google products like Classroom and Expeditions—announced in a new blog post.

For Classroom, Google’s still relatively new LMS, the company is adding summaries of student work that can be automatically shared with parents by teachers, who can send the summaries (or classroom announcements) daily or weekly as they choose.

Classroom’s mobile app is also getting some tweaks, namely the new ability to annotate documents, turning them into whiteboard-like screens. Teachers, too, can use the annotations to grade assignments, highlight passages, or demonstrate concepts. To help organize classrooms, teachers can now also add topics to posts and students can filter their streams for specific topics.…Read More

7 convenient communication tools for educators

These 7 edu convenience tools offer functionality and ease of use

As mobile technology becomes more commonplace in classrooms and nearly ubiquitous for school leaders, the convenience of having access to emails, text messages, social media and other tools might be taken for granted.

Using smartphones and tablets, educators and administrators have at their fingertips a variety of tools, strategies and digital coaches designed to make their instructional and organizational goals a reality.

The rise of “convenience” tools is here, from parent-teacher communication apps to programs that help teachers track students’ behavioral challenges and achievements.…Read More