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.

Savvas Learning Company’s enVision Mathematics Honored with Gold Stevie Award

Nationally recognized curriculum earns distinction for best “Mathematics Instructional Solution”

PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY — May 19, 2021 — Savvas Learning Company, a K-12 next-generation learning solutions leader, is proud to announce that its enVision® Mathematics Common Core ©2020/2021 Grades K-8 received a Gold Stevie® Award in The 19th Annual American Business Awards®, with judges hailing it as “a great solution” with projects that “bring math to children in ways that make sense to them and encourage their efforts to learn.”

“We are so pleased that enVision Mathematics has won this prestigious award,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Teaching with high-quality instructional materials has a direct impact on student learning outcomes. With its adaptive learning and differentiated instructional design, enVision provides an innovative and engaging curriculum with extensive customization options to empower teachers and increase student achievement.”…Read More

Lexia Learning Wins Gold Stevie Award in 2021 American Business Awards

BOSTON (May 13, 2021) – Rosetta Stone® English from Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning® Group company, was named the winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the ELL/World Language Acquisition Instructional Solution category in The 19th Annual American Business Awards®.

The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. Nicknamed the Steviesfor the Greek word meaning “crowned,” the awards will be virtually presented to winners during a live event on Wednesday, June 30.

More than 3,800 nominations – a record number – from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories. Rosetta Stone English was nominated for a Stevie Award in the Education and Education Technology category group.…Read More

Cox Business Brings High Speed Fiber Connectivity to Historical Jamestowne Island To Provide Virtual Explorations of the James Fort and Archaearium

30,000 students from 175 schools in 27 states have experienced the immersive demonstration powered by the new optical fiber connectivity

ATLANTA and JAMESTOWN, Va., April 16, 2021 — England’s first permanent colony in North America, Historical Jamestowne Island, is modernizing with the help of Cox Business. The 411-year-old staple in American history now has high-speed, optical fiber internet, enhancing the visitor experience – both on-site and virtually.

Today, Historical Jamestowne Island and Cox Business will present a virtual trip for King’s Grant Elementary School from Virginia Beach, VA. In attendance and making remarks will be Congresswoman Elaine Luria, who represents Virginia’s second district, Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni and Virginia Chief Broadband Advisor Evan Feinman.…Read More

Pivot to Remote Learning Allows TCS’ Ignite My Future in School Program to Reach 1 Million U.S. K-12 Students

Tata Consultancy Services’ Pioneering Computational Thinking Initiative Accelerates Adoption by 350+ U.S. School Districts Across all 50 U.S. States and Expands to 70+ Countries

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that its Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) STEM/computer science education program — which was created in partnership with Discovery Education, the global leader in K-12 digital resources and professional learning — surpassed its five year goal of reaching one million U.S. K-12 students, a full year ahead of schedule. The pioneering program empowers educators to teach computational thinking, which are the critical skills that help students solve real-life problems and challenges by expressing them in a way that computers can solve.

In the wake of COVID-19, TCS moved the IMFIS program to a 100 percent virtual format, helping improve equity and access to high-quality digital content for educators and students, specifically those from under resourced communities. TCS will continue growing its investment to bring IMFIS to every student and educator in the U.S. and abroad, while focusing on supporting disconnected and marginalized student populations and empowering girls in STEM. Beyond the U.S., the virtual program is now enabled to be rapidly adopted by educators in more than 70 countries in response to the growing global interest in computational thinking resources to engage students.…Read More

Carousel Digital Signage Launches Express Players

Carousel Digital Signage announces the immediate availability of Carousel Express Players, a new cloud-based software media player solution designed for keeping remote workers and students informed and up to date. The players help organizations extend their digital signage beyond location-based end points, and reach people wherever they work, learn and live.

Carousel Digital Signage developed the Express Players in response to pandemic-driven changes in business, learning and healthcare environments. The lightweight players are a perfect complement to Carousel Cloud digital signage software, as both are deployable together within an organization’s existing IT infrastructure. Once live, users can extend their “classic” digital signage content to desktop computers, laptops and tablets, with each Express Player solution licensed based on the size of the organization. Larger organizations also have the flexibility to target content for different business divisions, regions or teams.

“With so many students, instructors, and businesspeople working remotely, it is more important than ever for people to remain connected,” said JJ Parker, Carousel CEO. “Carousel Cloud customers using Express Players can now easily communicate across their entire organization, and not just in dedicated spots with fixed digital signage. Carousel Express Players unify organizations at a time when being in the same building is at best a challenge.”…Read More

Pivot to Remote Learning Allows TCS’ Ignite My Future in School Program to Reach 1 Million U.S. K-12 Students

NEW YORK, February 25, 2021:  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that its Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) STEM/computer science education program — which was created in partnership with Discovery Education, the global leader in K-12 digital resources and professional learning — surpassed its five year goal of reaching one million U.S. K-12 students, a full year ahead of schedule. The pioneering program empowers educators to teach computational thinking, which are the critical skills that help students solve real-life problems and challenges by expressing them in a way that computers can solve.

In the wake of COVID-19, TCS moved the IMFIS program to a 100 percent virtual format, helping improve equity and access to high-quality digital content for educators and students, specifically those from under resourced communities. TCS will continue growing its investment to bring IMFIS to every student and educator in the U.S. and abroad, while focusing on supporting disconnected and marginalized student populations and empowering girls in STEM. Beyond the U.S., the virtual program is now enabled to be rapidly adopted by educators in more than 70 countries in response to the growing global interest in computational thinking resources to engage students.

Launched in September 2017, the program has now empowered nearly 20,000 teachers and 1.1 million students across 353 school districts, across all 50 U.S. states. The top 10 states for classroom adoption are California, Texas, New York, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Educators across core subjects use lessons such as Build a movement, where students learn how data and algorithms impact something that ‘goes viral’; Outbreak, where students analyze how a virus spreads and can be contained; and Emoji Essay, where students use abstraction to explore language and communication.…Read More

BenQ Introduces First Wireless Presentation System Purpose-Built for Classrooms

BenQ, an internationally renowned provider of visual display and collaboration solutions, is ensuring teachers and educators can quickly and easily respond to new demands in the classroom with the launch of the InstaShow WDC20E. The first wireless presentation system (WPS) built for the education market, the WDC20E delivers the same intuitive screen-sharing functionality to meet user and IT standards as leading corporations but fit for a school budget.

“There’s no time to waste in the classroom, and teachers must be ready with easy-to-use, network-free tools that engage and immerse students smoothly and immediately,” said Bob Wudeck, senior director of business development at BenQ America Corp. “Our new InstaShow WDC20E was built in direct response to the rising need for educators and students to share their screens right from their seats and to do so easily, affordably, and securely. Learning is just a tap away.”

Tap & Teach …Read More

Mark Friedman Joins Frontline Education as Chief Marketing Officer

Frontline Education™, a leading provider of school administration software purpose-built for K-12, today announced that Mark Friedman has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Friedman will lead Frontline Education’s go-to-market strategy, business development and client communications programs, bringing 25 years of sales, marketing and business development experience to the company.

“The chief marketing officer is critical to the future success of Frontline Education as we continue to scale the company, growing our portfolio and our brand,” said Mark Gruzin, CEO of Frontline Education. “We are excited for Mark Friedman to bring his broad expertise and client-centric approach to Frontline, enhancing ur go-to-market initiatives with a proactive strategy that provides tangible value to our clients.”

Prior to joining Frontline Education, Friedman served as SVP, Global Customer Success for Genesys, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for SoundBite Communications, President & CEO of Peppercoin and VP of Global Marketing for Lucent/Kenan Systems. In these various positions and throughout his career, Friedman has explored the organic integrations between marketing, customer success, and other customer-facing functions.…Read More

SplashLearn Raises $18 Million in Series C Funding Round From Owl Ventures & Accel

SplashLearn, the US-headquartered learning company began 2021 on a high note raising $18 million in Series C funding round led by Owl Ventures. San Francisco based Owl Ventures is the largest edtech sector-focused venture capital firm in the world. Accel, who earlier invested $7 million in Series B, also participated in this round.

SplashLearn was incorporated in 2010. The bulk of the business comes from the United States and currently, students in one in every three schools in the country use SplashLearn. SplashLearn is a game-based learning program that intelligently adapts to each child’s learning ability and helps them master skills at their own pace. Its curriculum covers pre-kindergarten through grade 5 for math and reading. With a strong focus on engagement and efficacy, it has over 4,000+ curriculum-aligned games and activities, designed to create an exciting learning experience for kids.

With the onset of Covid-19, SplashLearn saw a surge of almost 3x in adoption, as more students turned online and families began seeking educational support. In 2020, more than 10 million new users joined the SplashLearn program. The demand came in not only from the US but also the UK, Australia, and Canada. In the latter half of 2020, SplashLearn expanded its offering beyond the math program to include reading and also launched a personalized tutoring product, owing to growing demand from parents and teachers.…Read More

CoderZ Takes First Place as the Education Solution with Greatest Growth Potential

CoderZ was selected as an “Education Solutions: Greatest Growth Potential” awardee in the Edventures Global Business Acceleration Fellowship. The international event was an inaugural part of the Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF), Cyberport’s annual flagship tech investment in Hong Kong. Held in a virtual format for the first time, the two-day CVCF forum recorded a total of 97,000 views on its virtual event platform.

The Edventures Global Business Acceleration Fellowship aims to assist growth-stage edtech companies in capturing market opportunities and expanding their business operations across the global market. Among the event’s judges were Cindy Chow, executive director of Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund; ISTE CEO Richard Culatta; and Peter Yan, the CEO of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited. In the fellowship’s culmination, 10 fellows delivered their final pitches to compete for exclusive tailor-made business matching and consultation services to achieve their global ambitions.

“We’re privileged to receive this very significant honor from this highly-respected global organization,” said Ido Yerushalmi, CEO of CoderZ. “It recognizes the importance of making tech education more inclusive and more mainstream. We’ve committed ourselves to develop a program that promotes equity and inclusiveness and it’s so nice to receive the validation that we are on the right track.”…Read More