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.

The STEM Careers Coalition Celebrates Black Leaders in STEM with Dynamic Digital Careers Content and Exclusive Virtual Events

The  STEM Careers Coalition – the first-of-its-kind national STEM initiative powered by corporate leaders and anchored in schools by Discovery Education – invites educators, students, and communities to celebrate Black leaders in STEM year-round with the launch of dynamic careers content and a series of virtual educator events. The array of new on-demand resources leverages the power of digital content to connect all learners to their innate curiosity by bringing real-world STEM to life in the classroom. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms worldwide.

Connecting the dots between classrooms and careers, the STEM Careers Coalition presents a robust array of career profiles introducing students to leaders in dynamic industries and job roles – like Boeing aircraft maintenance technician Brandon James, engineering project manager Antoine Sande from American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Microsoft program manager Wadood Daoud, drilling engineer Jesica Holley at Chevron, and senior policy advisor Uni Blake from American Petroleum Institute – and shows how students can use their STEM skills to make a difference in the world. Each career profile video is accompanied by fun activities that help students gain a deeper understanding of the world of work, helping them see themselves as the next generation of STEM leaders. Learn more  here.

Discovery Education is supporting the launch of this new content with two exclusive virtual events spotlighting the importance and value of diversity in STEM:…Read More

Interactive Field Trips Offered to Educators for Black History Month, President’s Day, Women’s History Month and Earth Day

In preparation for several upcoming significant historical, cultural and societal events, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) has curated a list of live, interactive virtual field trips that educators can access to enrich discussions surrounding Black History Month, President’s Day, Women’s History Month and Earth Day. The diverse list of interactive learning experiences ranges from an immersive underground railroad experience to an exploration of women war reporters who have made indelible marks in the world of journalism. Several of the offerings are free to the public, while others have a fee associated.

Virtual expeditions have gained in popularity in recent years and even more so since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. What sets CILC and its content collaborators’ programs apart from traditional web-based experiences (prerecorded) is the live interactive aspect. Museum curators, historians, authors, researchers, and other expert instructors engage directly with students during the virtual field trip to create a richer learning environment. The selections below offer an engaging resource to educators who want to expand their curriculum in a unique and authentic manner.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH, FEBRUARY 2021…Read More

Rise Vision Creates Free Black History Month Posters for Schools

In honor of Black History Month, Rise Vision has released 10 FREE Black History Month posters for schools to print out, share on their digital signage, websites, and social media, or use in their classrooms and lesson plans.

The posters are available for download in high-resolution JPG and landscape and portrait-oriented PDFs.

“As a software company that supports K12 schools, we live and breathe technology development and all things education. For Black History Month, we want to help raise the visibility of unsung contributors to U.S. and world history.” Shea Darlison, Head of Marketing…Read More

Kids Discover Partners with Rhino Records to Release Free Units Celebrating Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Curtis Mayfield for Black History Month

Kids Discover, a leading provider of high-interest nonfiction for social studies and science, has partnered with Rhino Records, the catalog division of Warner Music Group, to celebrate Black History Month by releasing three free units honoring classic Atlantic Records artists Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin as well as Curtom Records’ Curtis Mayfield. Each of these units, featuring music, original album art, and more, will be freely available on the Kids Discover website for the entire month of February.

Designed to shine a light on the lives and impact of these music industry legends, the free units engage students in grades 3–8 through music and raise awareness of Black contributions to the arts and society. Educators can choose from three different Lexile levels for use in grades 3–4, 5–6, or 7–8. To make the materials available to as many students as possible, the free units do not require a registered account or login.

“In the past, we’ve always made a number of units in our library free to celebrate Black History Month,” said Ted Levine, the President and CEO of Kids Discover. “Given what has transpired in our country over the past few years, we took time to reflect on what else we could do to share the stories and impact of Black history and culture. In July, we released a five-part pledge, two tenets of which were to increase the number of stories we tell about Black figures in American history and to collaborate with organizations that share this vision. We’re excited to partner with Rhino to offer engaging, multimedia content that will educate and inspire students while highlighting the impact these three figures have had on our history and culture.”…Read More

Registration is Now Open for the 10th annual PBL World Conference

PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), will host its 10th annual PBL World conference virtually on June 21-24, 2021 with the theme “Racial Equity at the Center.”

The conference, which last year drew more than 1,000 teachers and school and district leaders from 37 states and 26 countries, offers inspiring speakers, engaging workshops, and dedicated time for networking. PBLWorks is presenting the conference online for the second year in a row in order to support teachers and administrators who can’t travel or who prefer to attend virtually due to the pandemic.

This year’s theme “Racial Equity at the Center” highlights the power of Project Based Learning to advance educational equity for all students — especially Black and Brown students. Keynoters will bring their perspectives on how participants can put equity at the center of their work. And during workshops, attendees will consider educational equity in their classrooms and their projects.…Read More

We Stand Together: Finding a Better Way to End Racial Inequity Starts Today

In the midst of protests across the country driven by the death of unarmed Black Americans George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others, K12 Inc.—the nation’s leading provider of online and blended education—is committing to a series of initiatives that support racial and socioeconomic equity and inclusion in and through education.

Since its inception twenty years ago, K12 has been committed to removing barriers that impact academic equity and to providing high-quality education for anyone—particularly those in underserved communities —as a means to foster economic empowerment and address societal inequities through college and career readiness.  The company’s new pledge and continued support of racial equality and justice are consistent with this commitment.

“At K12, we support eliminating racism, prejudice, and violence in all forms and against all groups,” said K12 CEO Nate Davis. “As a community of educators, we believe that Black Lives Matter, and that K12 teachers, administrators, and management must serve as a role model for children, parents, and families.  Only through sustained actions can we strive to create real change.  It’s my hope that our continued efforts to bridge the differences that divide our communities will help build a better, stronger, more inclusive nation.”…Read More

Black Box Makes the IoT Building a Reality With Its Connected Buildings Solution

Black Box, a global solutions integrator, today introduced Connected Buildings — a suite of solutions and services that enable digital experiences in smart, IoT buildings. Black Box designs, deploys, manages and maintains the foundational technology that connects the internal ecosystem of interoperable devices and sensors that work together to enable human-to-human, human-to-device and device-to-device interaction. Black Box’s Connected Buildings services modernize IT infrastructure, solve in-building connectivity challenges and link clients’ devices at locations around the world.

“Demand for the IoT building is growing exponentially. Now more than ever, our customers need spaces that are interactive, adaptive, automated and secure,” said Doug Oathout, senior vice president, Portfolio and Partnerships, Black Box. “At Black Box, we apply our broad portfolio of IT solutions to take the complexity out of connected buildings and make it simple for our customers by giving them one trusted partner to handle their IT services. Whether updating hundreds of existing locations or outfitting one location from the ground up, our team of project managers, engineers and technicians works with our clients to craft a solution that creates consistent customer experiences and reliable communications at every location.”

The Black Box Connected Building is enabled by several faster, more robust technologies: 5G/CBRS and Wi-Fi to augment existing wireless systems and create fully connected buildings; edge networking and data centers to collect data where it’s created and combine it with AI to make smarter devices; and cybersecurity for governance and assessments, incident and event monitoring, endpoint detection and response, and VPN and firewall services.…Read More