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.

How to navigate the new device-agnostic classroom

Technology in the classroom is nothing new; most of today’s educators have embraced the ability to draw upon an increasingly diverse array of digital tools and programs to enrich their lessons.

With the advent of more device-agnostic digital classrooms, many tech-savvy teachers and schools are taking a step back and reevaluating how best to use technology to support their goals. In the new device-agnostic classroom, educators are taking the opportunity to ensure they are focused on purposeful applications first, with a secondary emphasis on the device itself.

So how can schools ensure that they are creating effective, purposeful learning environments in a device-agnostic classroom? Ultimately, it helps to begin by asking three questions:…Read More

EXO U launches Ormi BYOD teaching platform

New solution lets teachers quickly share instructional content in classrooms with any combination of devices and operating systems, with or without internet access

At TCEA 2016 Convention & Exposition, EXO U launched Ormi, its new BYOD teaching platform, to the North American K12 market.

Ormi (meaning “momentum” in Greek) was engineered to minimize steps and eliminate common interruptions experienced by teachers when attempting to integrate mobile devices into classroom lessons.

Teachers and students (when given permission) can share content to individuals, groups, a central display, or the entire class. Students and teachers can collaborate through group messaging and sharing. Setting up Ormi takes less than two minutes.…Read More

BYOD helps boost rural school’s performance

Last video in Smarter Schools series features rural principal’s BYOD program that took school from “F” to “A”

byod-programA new video released by the Smarter Schools Project highlights the ways one rural school is driving up attendance, motivating students, and bringing new opportunities through a BYOD program.

In the video, former St. Paul Schools Principal Daisy Dyer Duerr says that because of tech, her school has “everything we need to be just as great as any school in America.”

She said that tech has allowed her students to stay connected and access resources they wouldn’t otherwise have. “I do believe that wi-fi and connectivity is very much like the power lines used to be to us… I think it’s so important for students to have that connection, especially in such a rural area, because our students aren’t going to get that connection at home.”…Read More

One state’s plan to bring better internet to schools and homes

Ohio’s OneCommunity brings broadband to schools and private homes

ohio-equitySince 2003, OneCommunity of Cleveland has been connecting and enabling public benefit organizations across the state like schools, government agencies, healthcare, museums, and libraries with next-generation fiber optics. And lately, they’re begun working with schools to identify private homes that lack sufficient bandwidth.

Lev Gonick, chief executive, said OneCommunity was born out of the need to elevate Northeastern Ohio’s “Rust Belt” status by infusing the region with faster and more accessible Internet. “Northeast Ohio was looking for a roadmap to reinvent itself,” said Gonick, who at the time was vice president and chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University, one of OneCommunity’s founding partners.

“Community leaders embraced the idea that whatever our future might be,” he adds, “fiber optics would [provide] a very important underlying and enabling infrastructure to get us there.”…Read More

If you can Google it, why teach it?

With Google in the classroom, teachers should reimagine lessons

google-teachingAre any of us better than Google as an instructor?

Is there anything value-added vis-à-vis your classroom teaching? Might one contribute a unique understanding, or presentation, of content? Is offering a professional, high-quality, filtering of fluff and misinformation your unique contribution? Or, is there high-quality feedback that deepens and furthers learning – something arguably Google still does not do?

Kitchen table pedagogy…Read More

Barracuda, Aerohive work to integrate tighter wireless security

Technology integration offers customers cost-conscious solutions to address wireless and BYOD security concerns

wireless-byodBarracuda and Aerohive announced the availability of products that automate communication of wireless security policies between devices to reduce costs and improve efficiencies for customers.

The mobile landscape is dramatically evolving, with trends such as BYOD and the Internet of Things (IoT) affecting every kind of organization, often without them even being aware of the infiltration.

This mobility explosion is also causing organizations to rethink their underpinning infrastructure and security approach.…Read More

6 steps to a successful BYOD program

Bring your own device programs are evolving. It’s time to take a fresh look

byod-schadBring-your-own-device and one-to-one laptop/tablet implementations on K-12 campuses usually sound simply enough in theory—but they can actually be quite complex. Lenny Schad, chief technology information office at Houston Independent School District (HISD), has spearheaded a number of successful BYOD rollouts, and frequently distills advice to struggling districts. Here, he gives technology teams his top six strategies for ensuring a smooth implementation and long-term success for a K-12 BYOD initiative:

1) Brand your BYOD effort. Much like a large corporation would “brand” a new product rollout or internal management effort, K-12 districts should develop a brand and messaging that clearly identifies and promotes their BYOD initiative. At HISD, for example, BYOD falls under PowerUp, a district-wide initiative aimed at transforming teaching and learning. “PowerUp is about ‘powering up’ all 282 of HISD’s schools to create a personalized learning environment for today’s 21st Century learners and to enable teachers to more effectively facilitate instruction, manage curriculum, collaborate with their peers, and engage today’s digitally-wired students,” according to the district’s website.

“For such an initiative to really grab hold, you have to spend time putting a brand on it,” said Schad. “At HISD, you can go anywhere in the district and mention PowerUp and everyone knows what it is.…Read More

How schools can keep students safe, and on Facebook

In a BYOD world, managing access to popular social media sites has become critical

facebook-mdmToday, educators are implementing exciting technological advances in teaching and learning. e-learning and a broadening acceptance of social media, online collaboration, and other forms of technological engagement are shaping how we view education, and what it will look like going forward. However, this paradigm shift also opens a Pandora’s Box of threats that require administrators to rethink IT strategies and solutions.

In addition to complying with regulations such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), K-12 administrators have to deal with concerns like cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and students accessing inappropriate video content on a host of devices—a problem made more challenging by the increasing adoption of mobile devices on school networks through one-to-one initiatives and BYOD policies. K-12 administrators have to consider ways to extend their network security policies to these devices as well.

As K-12 organizations embrace a more mobile environment, security necessarily becomes a top priority in keeping students and networks safe, while providing access to educational tools and resources online.…Read More

District launches cloud Wi-Fi to support BYOD

ADTRAN managed Wi-Fi solution enables high-speed connectivity and ease-of-management for a 20,000-device BYOD initiative

cloud-wi-fiADTRAN is partnering with Calhoun County Schools to deploy district-wide, high-speed Wi-Fi to support the district’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.

This initiative is enabling teachers to incorporate new tools into their curriculum that will allow students in Calhoun County Schools to compete more effectively in today’s data-driven economy. As part of its Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, ADTRAN is helping more than 9,300 students, teachers and administrators in Calhoun County create an environment that stimulates a passion for learning and provides an opportunity to reach maximum potential.

The K-12 school district in Northeast Alabama leveraged ADTRAN ProCloudSM managed service to connect 16 schools, a technical career center, athletic fields and four administrative offices onto a single high-performance wireless network. Calhoun County Schools are significantly simplifying IT operations by offloading the management of the Wi-Fi network to create a strong foundation for its BYOD program and facilitate the use of iPads and Apple TVs in every classroom.…Read More

Why cellphones belong in our classrooms

As NYC lifts its infamous cellphone ban, one local principal sees nothing but possibilities

cellphone-learningAs the principal of Hudson High School of Learning Technologies in Manhattan, I know firsthand how cellphones can both help students stay in touch in today’s world and how they can be a valuable teaching and learning tool in the school setting. The New York City Department of Education’s recent decision to lift the cellphone ban in schools—a decision I support—acknowledges and affirms this notion.

At Hudson HSLT, we strive to create an academically rigorous and personalized environment that prepares all of our students to be college- and career-ready. We want our students to be critical thinkers, ones who practice the art of questioning and are able to deconstruct, reconstruct, and communicate information in today’s society.

We believe that the use of technology, including cellphones, when implemented purposefully to support classroom instruction, can help foster these skills.…Read More