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.

PresenceLearning and Highlights Partner To Support Children With Special Needs

NEW YORK, April 21, 2022— PresenceLearning, the leading provider of online therapy solutions for schools and clinicians, unveiled a new strategic partnership with Highlights, the children’s media brand known for their beloved Highlights magazine.  

This new collaboration marks Highlights’ first entry into online therapy in support of children with special needs. Speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals using PresenceLearning’s proprietary platform now have access to an enhanced digital library featuring a curated collection of more than 160 content pieces from Highlights’ extensive catalog. This new content includes games, stories, and activities designed to support each child’s therapy goals for reading comprehension, handwriting, fine motor, and problem-solving skills. It also promotes social and emotional health to support the whole child by educating and nurturing well-rounded and confident children—a core philosophy of Highlights.

When children carry over content experiences from their therapy sessions into their play at home, it helps them to make connections and practice skills that can support their progress. By incorporating familiar characters and fun, purposeful activities into therapy, clinicians have the potential to create more dynamic therapy experiences. With the addition of Highlights content, PresenceLearning continues to invest in brand name, digital content that helps providers personalize and enliven each student’s session. …Read More

How one district used federal funds to boost its digital library

As the old expression goes – you never know if you don’t try. This principle also applies when it comes to federal grants, through which billions of dollars in relief funding are available to help U.S. K-12 schools with recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many school districts have yet to take advantage of these resources.

Educators who spend time in classrooms interacting with students will be the first to admit that their needs are as wide-ranging as they are numerous. From making classrooms safer to providing high-quality instructional materials to ensuring schools leverage the most current digital tools, grant money can make all the difference.

And for school librarians in particular, these grants represent a unique opportunity to establish future-ready libraries with strong digital book collections. But when it comes to applying for the grants, finding out what kind of funding is available is only the first step.…Read More

Super Duper Digital Library is selected as a Winner by Two Prestigious Family Awards Programs

The Super Duper Digital Library, a collection of hundreds of online cards, games, and worksheets to support reading and literacy skills for children in Pre-K – Grade 5, recently won two prestigious awards programs – the Family Choice Awards and the Mom’s Choice Awards.

The Family Choice Awards selected the Digital Library as a winner in four categories: Technology & Apps, Children (Early Elementary), Special Needs, and Music & Audio Books.

The Mom’s Choice Awards named the Digital Library a Gold winner, making it the 11th Super Duper product to earn the coveted Mom’s Choice Awards winner’s seal.…Read More

Super Duper Publications Provides Unique Educational Materials for PreK-5 Distance Learning and Teletherapy

Distance learning has become a staple of our current educational system. With the launching of its new Digital Library, which includes more than 340 resources to support distance learning and teletherapy, educational publisher Super Duper Publications is leading the way in providing online learning materials for young students.

This unique Library:

  • Has more than 340 instructional games, cards, and worksheets for educators and parents to use with PreK-Grade 5 students
  • Is updated with additional materials and features weekly
  • Targets specific skills – basic concepts, literacy, grammar, social skills, critical thinking, sequencing, listening, early skills, phonemic awareness, memory, motor skills, sensory integration, phonics, reading, and more.
  • Offers both short and longer activities to benefit students with limited attention spans
  • Is web-based for easy accessibility at school or home
  • Can be used in-person in a classroom
  • Works on a desktop, laptop, or digital whiteboard, as well as on mobile devices such as a Chromebook, tablet or smartphone.
  • Complies with State and Common Core educational standards

“When the pandemic hit, all education shifted online,” said Thomas Webber, chairman of Super Duper. “Nowadays, educators need easy-to-access resources that they can use with students during distance learning and online special education/speech therapy sessions. Parents are also looking for easy-to-understand materials that their children can use during at-home learning. We created this online Digital Library of our most popular print materials, so that educators and parents would have access to the learning materials their children need.”…Read More

Free programs for remote learning

Renaissance is working to find solutions for students suddenly learning remotely during this unexpected global crisis. Renaissance is offering several free programs that enable students to access literacy and math activities and to complete assignments remotely.

myON and myON News
myON is a digital library that provides 24/7 access to thousands of fiction and nonfiction titles. Titles are available in English and Spanish.

myON News delivers engaging daily articles, reporting on US and world events that are reviewed by a child psychologist. Articles are available in both English, Spanish, and French.…Read More

These 7 keys are helping one district better prepare its students

In any given third-grade classroom, you can find a student who is reading at a level far beyond their age, and another who is still working on letter recognition. How does a traditional classroom teacher with 25-30 kids manage such a wide range of students? As a district leader, how do I support our teachers and ensure that they are challenging students who are at a higher level while providing struggling students with proper support?

These are the tough questions I asked myself when taking over as superintendent of Maury County Schools in Tennessee in August 2015. Within the first few months, we ditched the old literacy model to adopt a project-based focus; deployed instructional coaches (without hiring anyone); and launched a top-down, district-level approach that quickly gained bottom-up buy-in through school and community support. We also implemented a differentiated literacy program and digital library that measures reading with reading—not quiz scores and points.

Creating the Keys to Success

In my first days as superintendent, I did what I called a “22in22 Tour” where I traveled to all 22 schools in my district in 22 days. I know from experience that the best leaders are the best listeners, so I made sure to take the time to hear what school leaders and classroom teachers had to say about Maury’s administrative approach. I heard loud and clear that there were issues of trust, lack of resources, switching initiatives on a dime, and a need for truly aligned and supportive professional development. That’s when I knew I had to eliminate the top-down approach that the district had taken in the past (and many districts employ) and go through a process to determine our Keys to Success.…Read More

Marketplace trend update: 5 ed-tech developments

Remaining a tech-savvy educator means keeping on top of the myriad changes and trends in education, how technology can support those trends, and how teaching and learning can best benefit from near-constant change.

Below, we’ve gathered some of the latest and most relevant marketplace news to keep you up-to-date on product developments, teaching and learning initiatives, and new trends in education.
Kids Discover‘s interactive digital library, Kids Discover Online, now includes custom assessment capabilities. Kids Discover Online enables educators to mix and match material from science and social studies to facilitate students’ exploration of big ideas through cross-curricular learning. The newly added Assessments tool gives educators full control to create, distribute, and assess custom quizzes, tests, and homework assignments directly within the platform. Read more.

Education network Edmodo‘s latest professional development program for teachers, Edmodo Envoys, is designed to help teachers find and network with one another at the local level and support each others’ professional development efforts. Edmodo Envoys host a TeachUp in their local area and can meet and exchange ideas with educators in their communities whom they might not otherwise have met. Read more.…Read More

Kids Discover Online unveils custom assessments feature

Kids Discover, a provider of engaging science and social studies curriculum, announced that its interactive digital library, Kids Discover Online, now includes custom assessment capabilities. Kids Discover Online enables educators to mix and match material from science and social studies to facilitate students’ exploration of big ideas through cross-curricular learning. The newly added Assessments tool gives educators full control to create, distribute, and assess custom quizzes, tests, and homework assignments directly within the platform.

The Assessments feature includes more than 5,000 pre-built questions covering more than 1,200 science and social studies topics. Question types vary to include discussion prompts, short answer, multiple choice, and true/false. Educators can save content to their Classroom and have questions specifically corresponding to a given article automatically populate the question bank.

“It is so important that our users know we listen to their feedback and requests. They are our best source of information on how to continue making our solution the absolute best for them and their students,” said Ted Levine, the president and CEO of Kids Discover. “With pre-built questions, customization features, automated grading, and Gradebook tracking, teachers will now be able to use our science and social studies content to accurately assess their students’ knowledge and understanding within those subjects.”…Read More

Federal judge rejects plans for Google digital library

The deal between Google, authors, and publishers gives Google too much control over out-of-print works, the judge said.

A federal judge on March 22 rejected a deal between internet search leader Google Inc. and the book industry that would have put millions of volumes online, citing antitrust concerns and the need for involvement from Congress while acknowledging the potential benefit of putting literature in front of the masses.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan said the creation of a universal digital library would “simply go too far,” and he was troubled by the differences between Google’s views and those of everyone affected by the settlement. Still, he left the door open for an eventual deal, noting that many objectors would drop their complaints if Mountain View, Calif.-based Google set it up so book owners would choose to join the library rather than being required to quit it.…Read More

Google putting its digital library to the test

Google Book Search has about 12 million books available.
Google Book Search has about 12 million books available.

Google Inc. is giving researchers nearly a half-million dollars to test the academic value of its rapidly growing online library.

The grants announced July 14 will be used to help pay for 12 humanities projects studying questions that will require sifting through thousands of books to reach meaningful conclusions.…Read More