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Virtual, Interactive Expeditions for Black History Month Provide Students with a Diverse and Multi-Dimensional Look at African Americans Throughout History

North Mankato, Minn. (January 28, 2022) – The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, a veteran expert and thought leader in the virtual learning space, today launched a Black History Month package of fresh and engaging virtual and interactive real-world expeditions for students that cover significant historical, cultural and societal events.

CILC’s 10 virtual fieldtrips transcend other well-intentioned, but often one-dimensional and overly simplified narratives of African American historical figures by providing students with a detailed look at the encounters, achievements, and heroism of everyday African Americans throughout history. In addition to the Civil Rights Era, the fieldtrips cover everything from the American Revolution and its relationship to enslaved African Americans to the impacts of sharecropping and homesteading for Black farmers and western communities to the struggle for racial equality in the military during World War II. These “trips” also examine the meaning of race, the history of jazz, and the myths and misconceptions of Africa.

“These interactive, virtual learning programs break down the walls of the classroom and transport students back into history to witness the generations of African Americans who both struggled and triumphed throughout our country’s history, while also bringing to light current situations that many Black individuals still experience today,” said Glenn Morris, CILC’s executive director. …Read More

DCSS Launches First-of-Its-Kind Initiative to Bring Apple Products and Innovation to Students, Teachers and Staff

ALBANY – The Dougherty County School System is launching a new technology initiative for its students, teachers, and staff as part of a collaboration with Apple and educational non-profit Ed Farm. The initiative will allow DCSS to expand and enhance its educational technology ecosystem districtwide.

The initiative will put the district on the leading edge of technology by equipping all DCSS students, teachers and staff with Apple products, services and instructional supports. As part of this, the district will also launch DoCo Codes, a learning initiative designed to prepare students for the careers of tomorrow through the use of advanced technology.

“When it comes to innovation, the Dougherty County School System embraces it, encourages it and rewards it, and so to work alongside Apple, a world leader in technological innovation, is impactful for us and our students in a multitude of ways,” Superintendent Kenneth Dyer said. “It’s more than just technology. This collaboration embeds a full-time Apple Professional Learning Specialist in our community to build capacity among our teachers, instructional coaches and others.”…Read More

Kansas’ Shawnee Mission School District Initiates New Partnership with Discovery Education Supporting Elementary Science Instruction

SILVER SPRING, MD (Wednesday, January 19, 2022)— Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) in Johnson County, Kansas has initiated a new partnership with Discovery Education supporting science education. Through this collaboration, educators in all 34 SMSD elementary schools have now joined their peers nationwide in integrating Discovery Education’s award-winning suite of flexible digital resources into science instruction. Discovery Education’s digital resources connect students to their inner curiosity in new ways, and provide educators innovative opportunities to design and deliver engaging learning experiences every day. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

SMSD is the third largest school district in Kansas with more than 27,000 students and 3,400 employees. The district has been consistently ranked among the finest school districts nationwide for its high student performance, and serves a diverse student population from 14 cities within northeast Johnson County, Kansas, which is 10 miles from downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

SMSD seeks to ensure all students construct their own foundation for success in life’s endeavors through relevant, personalized learning experiences orchestrated by talented, compassionate educators. To help students build a strong foundation of knowledge in the sciences, the school system sought a suite of digital resources they could easily integrate into instruction in either the classroom or the remote environment.  Those resources are:…Read More

3 tips for maximizing the impact of professional learning

It’s one thing to attend a professional learning or instructional coaching session—but taking what you’ve learned and putting it into action is another. Most often, it’s the experiences built upon collaboration, reflection, and active change that make the biggest difference.

My time as a classroom educator helped me realize a passion for helping fellow teachers learn and grow. It inspired a mission to transform professional learning into something that’s focused on teacher collaboration, learning and follow-through.

With this in mind, I compiled the following tips for getting the most out of professional learning and coaching sessions.…Read More

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Vivi raises US$20m to further accelerate overseas expansion, sets target for 1m classrooms within five years

Vivi, a leading Australia-based visual learning, collaboration, and administration platform for education, is pleased to announce it has successfully completed a capital raise of US$20m (A$26.5m) with New York-based education investor, Quad Partners.

The investment will help Vivi further accelerate overseas expansion, particularly in the US where its team has expanded from two to 18. The funding will allow the company to introduce a series of teacher efficiency features that will further
cement Vivi as a major component of the technological infrastructure of schools and districts. With its technology in over 40,000 classrooms around the world, the investment will expedite Vivi expanding into one million learning spaces within
five years.

One of the company’s co-founders, US-based Simon Holland, led the oversubscribed raise with investors immediately buying into Vivi’s vision.…Read More

Capstone and Buncee Invite Classrooms to Help Share Holiday Cheer “Holiday Hugs” Program To Bring Messages and Books to Patients at Children’s Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – December 3, 2021 – Capstone, an innovative publisher and education technology provider of children’s content for schools and home, and Buncee, its newly acquired creation and collaboration tool for students and educators, are inviting students to help create kind and supportive Holiday Hugs messages to children in the hospital this holiday season. Capstone has pledged to donate one book for every five Holiday Hugs ecards created which will be gifted to patients at Children’s Minnesota pediatric health system.

Holiday Hugs encourages students and educators to create fun, interactive holiday ecards with thoughtful messages or even silly jokes for children spending their holidays in the hospital. Classrooms add their ecards to the official Holiday Hugs online board, which will be shared with patients at Children’s Minnesota. The more Holiday Hugs created by December 15, 2021, the more books Capstone will donate to Children’s Minnesota, up to 500 books. 

“We hope Holiday Hugs helps make the Holidays shine a little brighter for kids in the hospital and shows them that they have a community who cares and is rallying behind them. Capstone would love to reach our goal of 500 books to donate to Children’s Minnesota, so we hope that sparks students to create more Holiday Hugs,” said Scott Sustacek, Capstone President.…Read More

New ManagedMethods Report Reveals 30% of K-12 School Districts Lack Cloud Application Security

BOULDER, Colo.—November 16, 2021— ManagedMethods, the leading Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 cybersecurity, student safety, and compliance platform for education, today announced new research that found gaps in the cybersecurity strategies of district administrators when protecting their cloud collaboration and storage applications. The research findings were released in a special report,  What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: New Survey Identifies Gaps in K-12 Cloud Security, commissioned by ManagedMethods and administered by the  EdWeek Research Center.

The report reveals 30% of district administrators with at least a medium level of influence on technology decisions do not have a security platform to protect cloud applications. In total, half of respondents either did not have a platform in place or did not know if a platform had been implemented in their district.

“School districts have long led the charge into cloud technology by embracing Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 cloud applications. This new research tells us that some district administrators are unaware of the cybersecurity, safety, and privacy risks that come with using them,” said Charlie Sander, Chief Executive Officer at ManagedMethods. “Technology leaders need to know their cloud environments may be vulnerable, and that it’s their responsibility to secure them.”…Read More

How wireless screen sharing helps schools cut cords

Technology has become central to day-to-day processes inside schools, whether it’s the classroom, common areas, staff rooms or lunch areas. In fact, 95 percent of teachers report that they use technology regularly, highlighting just how prevalent and inseparable it is from modern methods and styles of educating.

However, in this post-pandemic and technology-abundant era, teachers are faced with the challenge of facilitating collaboration amongst students–something that was lacking from the remote scene–while still being mindful of health concerns and guidelines. One potential solution that satisfies the need for collaboration while simplifying complex technology is wireless screen sharing. 

Wireless screen sharing: The convenient, touchless solution …Read More

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Arkansas’ Corning School District Enters New Age of Digital Science Instruction Through Partnership with Discovery Education

SILVER SPRING, MD (Tuesday, November 9, 2021)—Arkansas’  Corning School District (CSD) is entering a new age of digital teaching and learning through a partnership with  Discovery Education. Through this new collaboration, educators districtwide have begun integrating Discovery Education’s award-winning suite of digital resources into science instruction for all students in grades 3-8 as well as grade 10.  With these exciting new resources, CSD’s students are connecting to their inner curiosity in new ways through engaging digital learning experiences investigating the mysteries of the universe. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.   

Located in northeastern Arkansas, the Corning School District provides comprehensive education for approximately 900 prekindergarten through grade 12 students and is accredited by the Arkansas Department of Education and AdvancED.  With a graduation rate in the top 1% of Arkansas school districts, CSD prides itself on preparing students for success beyond graduation.    

To support CSD’s continuing efforts to prepare students for college and career success, the school system sought to enhance their science curriculum. Following a careful review process, CSD selected two resources from Discovery Education for use.  Those resources are: …Read More

11 facts about K-12 IT leadership

Broadband access and the ever-growing equity gap are among K-12 IT leaders’ top concerns, according to CoSN’s annual IT Leadership Survey.

The survey, released in collaboration with the Ed-Fi Alliance and other partners, is based on a national survey of nearly 400 school systems and provides a nuanced look at the challenges K-12 IT leadership has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were proud to once again work alongside the CoSN team in developing this report,” said Sean Casey, manager of strategic partnerships at the Ed-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit devoted to helping school districts and states achieve data interoperability. “At Ed-Fi, our goal is to define data standards to solve problems shared by all educators and to arm the learning community with useful information, as found in this report, for conscientious decision-making that leads to better outcomes for learners everywhere.”…Read More

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