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.

Roylco Secures “Best STEM Building Toy” in Best Building Toys for Kids, According to Experts

ANDERSON, S.C. ––  Roylco, a leading innovator in manufacturing educational kids’ toys, proudly announces its recent accolade as “Best STEM Building Toy” in Good Housekeeping’s expert-rating “16 Best Building Toys for Kids, According to Experts.”

Good Housekeeping, a coveted source for all parents seeking quality children’s products, has turned to its in-house panel of experts to test and review hundreds of building toys over the course of the year. Roylco’s determination and commitment to bringing high quality and performing toys is a testament to its core beliefs of promoting cognitive and motor skill development through the course of play.

“We put so much thought and care into each of our toys,” says Darby Smith, Director of Business Development at Roylco, “We are deeply committed and passionate about fostering hands-on educational growth in children through play, and this recognition is extremely meaningful.”…Read More

ClassIn Launches its World-Class Teaching and Learning Platform in the United States

SAN DIEGO (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ClassIn, a world leader in hybrid, blended, and remote learning solutions, today announced the launch of its globally recognized platform in the United States. The ClassIn platform has been purpose-built for education and based on nearly a decade of research, development, and in-market experience. Through its software and hardware solutions, ClassIn provides the digital infrastructure for the hybrid future of education by building classrooms in both the virtual and physical worlds. ClassIn is the only end-to-end education platform with a full suite of innovative tools and features, all designed with hybrid-first pedagogy at its core. It supports active learning, student flexibility, and various teaching and learning methods.

While schools have worked to embrace technology for decades, innovation has been slow and fragmented, and most new technologies have been designed to solve a singular problem. Today, the average US teacher uses 148 different EdTech products and the average US school district uses over 1,400 EdTech solutions. The pandemic exacerbated this issue, as most schools implemented “emergency remote teaching” instead of pedagogically aligned instruction, cobbling together many disparate technologies that were not built or designed for education.

“Remote and hybrid teaching brought long-touted but previously out-of-reach, student-centric instruction to life, making room for self-guided learning, flexible schedules, and additional time to explore volunteer, hobby, and work opportunities,” said Sara Gu, Co-Founder, and COO at ClassIn. “We’re at an inflection point. The classroom of the future will be networked, digitized, and intelligent, which means our learning solutions must be built on a solid foundation: based on hybrid-first pedagogy and backed by learning science. With over 50 million students using our solution in 160+ countries, our hardware and software solutions reduce districts’ need for the patchwork of over 1,400 different technologies by combining many of those capabilities seamlessly.”…Read More

Brand-New Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading Program Earns Highest Rating from EdReports   

PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY — Savvas Learning Company, a K-12 next-generation learning solutions leader, is proud to announce that its Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading © 2023 supplemental literacy program has received the highest rating of “All-Green” from EdReports. The brand-new program delivers research-based, easy-to-use content and teaching tools that support and extend core literacy instruction, giving educators what they need to help students develop reading proficiency. 

“Savvas understands the importance of developing strong readers at an early age, and teaching children to read by focusing on foundational elements can help accelerate their mastery of key reading skills,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “What makes Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading so impactful is that it provides teachers with high-quality, standards-aligned resources to confidently deliver explicit foundational-skills instruction while engaging and supporting young students in learning to read. We appreciate EdReports for recognizing Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading as the exceptional supplemental literacy solution that it is.”

EdReports gave Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading an “All-Green” rating, or “meets expectations” — the highest tier within its ratings scale for standards alignment and usability. The highly regarded, independent nonprofit seeks to improve education by providing reviews of K-12 instructional materials and applying evidence-based analysis in evaluating programs. Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading earned EdReports’ highest rating for each of its “gateway” review criteria: “Alignment to Standards and Research-Based Practices for Foundational Skills Instruction” and “Implementation, Support Materials & Assessment.”…Read More

Equity and Access at the Core of Learning Without Tears’ Breakthrough Literacy Program, Phonics, Reading, and Me™

Cabin John MD – Early learning leader, Learning Without Tears, today affirmed that equity and access are at the core of Phonics, Reading, and Me™—its K–3 supplemental literacy program designed to help students learn the skills they need to become proficient readers. While the content itself provides multicultural access through decodable texts and small group activities, Phonics, Reading, and Me also benefits from artificial intelligence-driven speech recognition technology powered by SoapBox Labs, the first company in the world to achieve independent certification for identifying and mitigating racial bias in AI design. This certification was awarded by Digital Promise, a non-profit established by the US Congress in 2011 to develop research, practice, and technologies to drive education equity, in partnership with the EdTech Equity Project.

“From the start, Phonics, Reading, and Me was designed to be different,” explained Learning Without Tears Chief Executive Officer, Terry Nealon. “In both content and technology and professional learning and support, Phonics, Reading, and Me raises the bar on delivering bias-free and equitable access learning for all students. This is at the core of Learning Without Tears’ commitment to delivering breakthrough learning programs.”

Partnering with SoapBox since June of 2022, Phonics, Reading, and Me leverages this AI technology to accurately capture data on skills proficiency—regardless of children’s race, background, or ethnicity. This data drives personalized pathing within the system: offering scaffolds and opportunities to stretch so all students progress along the skills sequence together. The data from child-specific, accurate speech technology from SoapBox coupled with Learning Without Tears’ activities and proprietary pathing formulas drive efficacy and empowers young learners with the essential literacy skills they need to access grade level text.…Read More

Student engagement remains a major concern

The vast majority of educators said they are concerned about their students’ engagement in classroom-based learning, according to the latest installment of the national Gradient Learning Poll, which examines the growing student engagement crisis in classrooms across the country.

The findings are bolstered by Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up research, in which 50 percent of student respondents claimed they are not engaged in what they are learning in school for the majority of their classes.

Teachers highlighted a number of reasons students are struggling to stay engaged in the classroom this year—from a lack of intrinsic motivation on core subjects to the long-term impacts of pandemic-driven disruptions.…Read More

Why design thinking is important in early childhood education

In early childhood education, most parents are aware of the importance of teaching key academic skills such as early literacy and mathematics skills. Recent research also suggests that problem-solving is an equally important skillset to teach young children. While the design thinking model is implemented in K-12 education, it is relatively new in early childhood education but highly effective.

What is design thinking? Design thinking is an iterative process used to solve real-world problems. At its core, design thinking has several steps: Identify a problem, design potential solutions, test the solutions, redesign as needed and share the solutions with a wider audience. Design thinking is used regularly in many fields (engineering, business, IT, health care, etc.) and has recently gained wide popularity due to the effectiveness of this problem-solving approach.

Why is design thinking important? As pediatrician Laura Jana notes in her book, The Toddler Brain, 65 percent of today’s children will face unknown careers and problems when they are adults. Children will always need to solve problems throughout their lives and the difficulties they face will grow in complexity as they mature. Design thinking is a lifelong skill that children may use to tackle complex problems throughout their lives, so it is a valuable skill to learn early in life, particularly within the first five years. According to Dr. Jana, there is a direct connection between early skills and workforce development. The 21st century competencies valued by today’s business world are one and the same with the core social, emotional, language and executive function skills that can be fostered in early childhood. Forbes explains that design thinking is a way for businesses to increase productivity, foster innovation and eliminate wasted time and money on guesswork-based development by empowering front-line workers to collaborate on diverse teams and explore new ideas. Design thinking helps children build a resilience-focused mindset and teaches many of the 21st century skills, such as the four C’s: creativity, collaboration, compassion and confidence. These are skills children can use to address increasingly complex problems throughout their lives.…Read More

Leading American Educator And Journalist, Esther Wojcicki, Joins Award-Winning Edtech Startup Pressto Ai

New York, NY — EdTech startup Pressto AI is thrilled to announce that Esther Wojcicki will be joining the leadership team as the Chief Academic Advisor. Wojcicki brings a plethora of experience to the role, ranging from journalist and educator to speaker and author. As Chief Academic Advisor, she will be guiding pedagogy, building a teacher task force, and creating a library of exemplary lessons for students. Having built the best student journalism program in the world, Esther and Pressto are together distributing her exemplary lessons to millions of students.

“Using AI to develop new and useful tools that help teachers improve their students’ education is at the core of empowering a successful next generation, and Pressto is doing just that,” says Esther Wojcicki, Pressto Chief Academic Advisor. “This means adapting to how we approach teaching overall to remain relevant with the times, so students not only learn the skills needed, but also become intrinsically motivated to learn more in all subject areas.”

Wojcicki is widely heralded as the one of the most successful parents, educators and journalists in the United States. She created a high school journalism program that changed the lives of thousands of kids, inspired Silicon Valley legends including Steve Jobs and raised three daughters – YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Fulbright Scholar Janet Wojcicki, and 23&Me Founder Anne Wojcicki – each of whom have become distinctively successful.…Read More

4 edtech SEL trends to follow this year

Technology has become increasingly important to every level of education, and its value to social-emotional learning, or SEL, is no exception. Just as digital tools provide educators with innovative and flexible ways to reinforce learning in core academic subjects, they can be used to more effectively teach the social-emotional and life skills that students need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

An essential part of my role as vice president of product for Committee for Children, an industry leader in SEL, is to keep a close eye on trends in education technology. After spending more than 25 years in edtech, I know how crucial it is for educators to understand how to leverage technology to support SEL in practical, meaningful ways.

Here are four of the latest SEL edtech trends that districts and schools can use this year to support the social-emotional well-being of students and staff, enhance students’ engagement with SEL content, and improve family communications.…Read More

95 Percent Group Unveils 95 Phonics Core Program for Grades 4 and 5

Lincolnshire, Ill. – 95 Percent Group LLC, the trusted source for comprehensive, proven literacy solutions, launched 95 Phonics Core Program® Word Study, Grades 4 and 5. The new program extends the evidence-based classroom success of 95 Percent Group’s K-3 program, a Tier 1 solution for whole class and small group instruction, supporting explicit, structured literacy instruction. It engages students with informational text and literary passages to help them develop fast and meaningful word recognition and build fluency, comprehension, and confidence. It also includes professional learning and ongoing coaching at the district and building level to support teachers in mastering phonics-based instruction.

Chief Academic Officer for 95 Percent Group Laura Stewart noted that 95 Phonics Core Program® Word Study, Grades 4 and 5 is a natural evolution for the company’s phonics ecosystem, a cohesive suite of products and professional learning services aligned with the Science of Reading.

“Expanding our phonics ecosystem to support fourth and fifth grade is the direct result of educators asking us for a solution to fill the continued, growing need for explicit Tier 1 phonics and word study skill development beyond the third grade,” said Stewart. “This is a unique offering for schools and it is exciting to be able to bring this resource to the classroom to help both struggling and on grade-level students improve their reading and spelling abilities.”…Read More