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.

As ESSER spending increases, digital learning is a priority

After a slow start in allocating federal ESSER funds, most states have found ways to spend their COVID relief dollars. In Montana, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is directing its ESSER money to digital learning resources.

OPI Superintendent Elsie Arntzen announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, a provider of state-of-the-art digital resources that support instruction wherever it takes place. Through this multi-year partnership, OPI is providing all 496 public school districts statewide access to a curated collection of high-quality, grade level appropriate, digital content aligned to Montana’s rigorous K-12 Content Standards.

The partnership–which is funded through ESSER–supports core instruction across Montana. In addition, the collaboration supports the state’s workforce readiness, rural education, Native American tribal history and culture, and parent and family engagement initiatives. Montana School Superintendents can activate their school district’s Discovery Education account by visiting this website.…Read More

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Riverside Insights and Kognito Partner to Offer Intervention Professional Development for School Health Providers

ITASCA, Ill. – Riverside Insights®, a leading developer of research-based assessments and analytics, today announced a partnership with Kognito, a provider of practice-based digital learning experiences, which provides strategies to improve mental health and well-being across schools. With this collaboration, school health professionals, such as psychologists, counselors and school nurses, will have access to additional training to support mental health-related cognitive interventions for at-risk students.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research shows that in 2021 more than four in 10 students felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third (29%) experienced poor mental health. Through the partnership, health professionals will have additional training to notice the early signs and establish a therapeutic collaboration with the student.

“Riverside Insights’ partnership with Kognito is another example of our commitment to supporting the whole child,” said Sunjay Talele, clinical general manager at Riverside Insights. “School health professionals play a critical role in identifying and supporting students with behavioral or mental health concerns. Together we can provide the tools and training necessary to effectively manage the specific conversation with each student to motivate healthy behaviors.”…Read More

Wayside Publishing and Nualang Partner for World Language Education

Freeport, Maine – Wayside Publishing announces the launch of Nualang within Learning Site®, Wayside’s digital learning platform. This pioneering collaboration brings advanced technology to the world language classroom, providing learners with opportunities to practice their listening and speaking skills in a safe, confidence-building environment.

“As Wayside Publishing grows, we continue to expand our range of creative and time-saving technologies for educators—ones that also provide students with engaging and supportive learning-enhancement tools,” says Wayside President Greg Greuel. “This partnership shows Wayside’s commitment to enhancing how we deliver products for the world languages education community. Initially, Nualang will be available for the readers connected to the EntreCulturas Companion Reader Edition, and we will continue to expand its availability for other languages and products.”

“We see immense potential with our partnership with Wayside Publishing. At Nualang, we take pride in our technological innovation. Our tools give Wayside the ability to bring content to life with digital conversation exercises that are linked to their products,” says Greg Cawley, CEO of Nualang. “Together, we provide an engaging and comprehensive language learning experience that seamlessly integrates with Wayside’s Learning Site® and reaches a wide audience of world languages educators and students.”…Read More

5 innovative ways educators are using digital learning tools

Digital learning has not always been as ubiquitous as it is today–in fact, a decade ago, the concept made many educators uncomfortable. But today, digital learning resources are embraced as tools that highly-skilled educators can use to boost student engagement and connect classroom lessons to the real world.

Digital Learning Day celebrates this evolution and highlights how educators across the country are using digital learning tools to create authentic connections and personalized learning opportunities for every student, everywhere. Check out All4Ed’s Digital Learning Day resources to find digital learning tools, hear from fellow educators about their digital learning strategies, and more.

Here, five educators share the digital learning tools and resources that have proven successful in their classrooms and in their schools.…Read More

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Discovery Education and Social Impact Partners Offer K-12 Teachers and Families Nationwide Digital Resources to Engage Students in Engineers Week  

Charlotte, NC — Discovery Education and its social impact partners present teachers and families nationwide a curated collection of engaging, no-cost digital learning resources designed to engage today’s students in Engineers Week. Established in 1951, Engineers Week immerses students in the future of engineering and helps create pathways to careers. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.  

Taking place February 19-25 with the theme “Creating the Future!” Engineers Week shows students the excitement of engineering and its importance to the world. To support this theme, Discovery Education is providing educators, students, and families with a collection of no-cost resources tailored for any learning environment. Among the resources created in collaboration with leading social impact partners are:   

Virtual Field Trips  
The Future is Now Virtual Field Trip from Reach for the Sky – designed with Edge at Hudson Yards – takes students on a virtual adventure into NYC’s newest and most forward-thinking neighborhood and the incredible observation deck where marvels of modern engineering elevate the possibilities of everyday life to meet with various leaders about the history, social impact, and STEM behind the new gravity-defying structure. After the VFT, students can start engineering by creating prototypes of their own design using the Engineering Design Process. …Read More

37 predictions about edtech’s impact in 2023

As we close the door on 2022, we approach 2023 with clear-cut priorities for edtech and education as a whole. Education and student well-being are stretched thin, and lingering learning gaps, exacerbated by the pandemic, present hurdles for all students–especially underrepresented students groups who were already at a disadvantage.

Digital learning cemented itself as a “must have” in schools this year, and equity remained front and center, too, continuing conversations around inequitable technology access, along with racial and socioeconomic disparities and discrimination.

We’re headed into a fourth year of learning in the pandemic’s shadow. While massive COVID quarantines and school closures have diminished, we’re still grappling with the impact of learning during a global pandemic. This begs the question: What’s next for education?…Read More

65 ways equity, edtech, and innovation shone in 2022

Each year, we share our 10 most-read stories. Not surprisingly, many of this year’s Top 10 focused on innovative ways to engage students, digital resources, and online and hybrid learning strategies related to post-pandemic teaching. This year’s 6th most-read story focuses on the predictions educators and industry experts made for learning in 2022.

As we wrapped up 2020, we thought for sure that 2021 might bring us a reprieve from pandemic learning. Well, it did–but it also didn’t. Virtual and hybrid learning continued into the spring, but then classrooms welcomed back students for full-time in-person learning in the fall. Many silver linings emerged and digital learning cemented itself as a “must have” in schools. Equity remained front and center, too, raising issues of inequitable technology access, along with racial and socioeconomic disparities and discrimination.

2021 brought with it new COVID-19 variants, the dreaded school COVID quarantine, and renewed calls to support the nation’s educators, who have worked tirelessly (and constantly) to support students’ learning, social and emotional needs, and more.…Read More

Discovery Education and Social Impact Partners Present Engaging Resources Supporting STEM Day Observances

Charlotte, NC.— Discovery Education and select social impact partners are offering engaging, high-quality digital learning resources to students and teachers to support observances of National STEM Day. Held annually on November 8th, National STEM Day unites communities in celebrating the importance of teaching science, technology, engineering, and math to students in grades K-12. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.  

Discovery Education offers educators, students, and families hundreds of no-cost resources tailored to STEM teaching and learning wherever it takes place. Among the resources created in collaboration with leading social impact partners now available to support observances of National STEM Day are:   

Engaging Classroom Activities 
Integrate STEM into instruction with activities from the STEM Careers Coalition™ – the first-of-its-kind national STEM initiative powered by corporate and non-profit leaders and anchored in schools by Discovery Education. These activities span a broad range of STEM topics and feature important skills, as well as step-by-step guides for implementing activities in your classroom.  …Read More

Teachers using technology report stronger connections, community with students

Educators who use technology as part of their teaching practice report that they are more aware of their students’ individual needs (61 percent) and more likely to be leveraging technology purposely to tailor learning for their students (61 percent), according to results from a national survey from education nonprofit Gradient Learning.

What’s more, teachers using technology are more than twice as likely to report that they spend more one-on-one time with their students.

Teachers using digital learning tools are more likely than teachers on average nationwide to see a stronger connection between the effective use of technology and positive changes in their instructional practice. …Read More

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