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.

Carousel Cloud Scales with Indianapolis School District for K-12 Communications

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Washington Township in Indianapolis is midway through a district-wide Carousel Cloud digital signage network deployment that will eventually reach more than 11,500 students and staff in eight elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school plus a career and technical center. The district reports 70 screens are live today with Carousel digital signage content coming from multiple contributors per school, with approximately 150 screens expected upon completion.

The Carousel Cloud deployment coincides with a district-wide remodeling project that includes the school district’s Central Campus, home to North Central High School, Northview Middle School and the J Everett Light Career Center. The district has adopted a “one school at a time” rollout strategy that helps its technology specialists effectively train staff before using the system. 

“We wanted to implement a digital signage network that invites many contributors, and that means the system has to be easy to learn and easy to use,” said Matthew Whitt, Audio Video Specialist – Technology, MSD of Washington Township. “We also wanted software that could be flexible for the needs of different education levels. With Carousel, each grade has a unique channel with its own voice.”…Read More

Carousel Digital Signage Transforms Information Workflow at Mount Desert Island High School

MINNEAPOLIS, August 31, 2021 – Carousel Digital Signage continues to build its K-12 education customer base with a Carousel Cloud deployment at Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Carousel Cloud network reliably delivers digital signage content to 63 displays, covering all classrooms and several common areas.

The installation marks a first for Mount Desert High School, which relied exclusively on e-mail and public address audio to keep staff and students informed. This became increasingly challenging at the start of the 2020-21 school year as in-person classes resumed following a period of pure remote learning due to COVID-19-related lockdowns. With staff and student safety a priority, the number of announcements quickly increased; classes were often interrupted for updates on social distancing and release schedules.

The shift to digital signage in early 2021 now provides everyone inside the school with immediate access to information that often changes quickly, while also fostering a stronger sense of community and school spirit.…Read More

3 ways IT teams can manage tool sprawl

Since schools transitioned to remote learning, districts have added or upgraded their IT education technology and monitoring tools to provide better outcomes for all. But it’s not necessarily a good thing. The saturation of edtech tools may be leading to wasted money, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.

The reality of tool sprawl in the U.S. education system

In 2020, the deployment of edtech tools in schools increased by nearly 90 percent year-over-year. In Washington, D.C. alone, public schools spent $2.48 million of their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds (almost half) on software tools that facilitate learning. …Read More

3 tech tools to engage students beyond the physical classroom

There is no doubt that education-focused technology has taken the world by storm over the last year. As a matter of fact, new research suggests that the federal government, state governments, and local school districts combined spend somewhere between $26 billion and $41 billion per year on edtech. Some disagree on the finer nuances of these figures, but one thing is for sure—tech tools are becoming more and more intertwined within the fabric of our educational systems.

One factor contributing significantly to the recent surge in the deployment of tech tools has been the pandemic. However, as remote learning begins to ease and in-class sessions start back up, more and more of these technologies will fade into the background. The tech tools with staying power are those possessing utility beyond the classroom—those that can be adopted for things like remote afterschool programming and tutoring sessions. These include technologies that aren’t meant to replace physical learning, but instead enhance it.

Here are three new tech tools that educators should think of when looking to engage students beyond the physical classroom: …Read More

Carousel Digital Signage And Moki Announce Partnership

Carousel Digital Signage and mobile device management company Moki have announced a new partnership that will simplify the deployment and management of media player software across multiple operating systems. To be integrated within Carousel Cloud’s CMS, Moki’s cloud-based mobile device platform (MDM) will establish a unified interface for digital signage networks with a diverse mix of media players, and remove the burden of working across different device management interfaces.

Moki’s cross-platform benefits means that a systems integrator or network operator can now simultaneously address Android, iOS and BrightSign’s proprietary media player software, for example, instead of logging in and out of separate interfaces. Upon deploying Moki’s MDM, customers have a single interface to manage and control every media player on the network, and can easily deploy and update media player software. Moki’s configuration establishes a direct connection between the central Carousel Cloud server and media players, allowing the right content to flow immediately to screens regardless of the hardware platform.

Unlike most device management companies, Moki provides a dedicated MDM solution for unattended devices. That makes Moki an ideal fit for digital signage networks, since most media players are now remotely managed and maintained over the network.…Read More

LaunchCode Pilot Program Trains St. Louis Teachers in Job-Focused Coding Curriculum

This week, workforce development nonprofit LaunchCode , announced their new LCHS Pilot Program has successfully deployed in 6 different St. Louis area schools. The program encompasses the creation, deployment and evaluation of a new computer science curriculum for Missouri high school juniors and seniors based on the new curriculum/training standards set forth through Missouri House Bill 3 (HB3).

LCHS Pilot Program is backed by a gift of over $200,000 from Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer, with additional support from AT&T.

As of now, 6 teachers from 6 St. Louis area high schools – Vashon, Gateway STEM, Confluence Academy, KIPP, Affton and Rosati-Kain – are participating in the pilot. Over the summer, the teachers participated in training conducted by LaunchCode’s staff in the curriculum, which includes tech skills that mirror what is needed by area companies. At the start of the school year, those teachers began delivering LaunchCode’s curriculum in their 11th and 12th grade classrooms.…Read More

4 ways Apple may soon solve the iPad deployment headache

It’s no secret iPad deployments are a slog for schools. But all that may be changing

ipad-deploymentThe ultimate goal of technology deployment is for device use to become “invisible,” where students create and communicate with their devices as easily as they might pick up a pen.

That goal unfortunately remains a distant vision for most schools regardless of the technology students are using. Device deployment has been a particular challenge for schools with iPads. In fact it’s been such a headache that iPad sales into schools have started to lose momentum over the last year. Apple has taken steps recently to make device management somewhat simpler and rumors are circulating that significant changes might be on the way in the next year.

The iPad is built upon the same building blocks that made the iPhone so successful. It’s a personal device that requires an Apple ID for access to iTunes, apps, and eBooks. I’m not sure that anyone anticipated the enormous success iPads would have in schools. Educators viewed them as devices that were mobile, could deliver eBooks, manage online course content, and had powerful built-in media tools for creative inspiration. However, from a management perspective, they were designed for individual use and didn’t come with a simple, effective strategy for institutional deployment.…Read More