TRENDING  //  Gov & Edu Summit 2021: Reimagining the Learning Experience  //  Google Cloud’s learning platform powers teaching and learning

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.

It’s beyond time to showcase all postsecondary education paths

COVID-19 has caused a marked shift in attitudes toward higher education, particularly among high school students who are rethinking their options as they look ahead to a future career path that remains in flux due to the pandemic’s impact on the workforce and economy. While exacerbated over the past year, this was a trend we were seeing in the United States even before our nation went under lockdown.

Data from ECMC Group’s Question The Quo surveys fielded throughout the pandemic show more than half of students are open to something other than four-year college and the majority want to forge their own educational path.

In addition, while more than half of teens believe they can be successful with education they can complete in three years or less, a majority feel uninformed when it comes to their options, with 63 percent wanting their high school to provide more information about the variety of postsecondary education routes. Parents are also looking for options that stray from the four-year path, according to a recent Gallup poll.…Read More

1 2

National Leaders in Clean Energy Education Convene Virtually to Kick Off Efforts to Foster an Equitable Clean Energy Economy

Leaders in clean energy education– the KidWind Project, REpowering Schools, and CE – Clean Energy. Bright Futures – are hosting the first virtual national Renewable Energy Education Summit today, February 4, 2021, from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm ET. During the summit, educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the world will come together to discuss the current and future state of clean energy education in a collaborative day-long virtual dialogue.

“This summit provides a reflective opportunity for the clean energy education community to come together, set some clear priorities, and to consider whether the tools, voices, and resources in our community are enough to achieve our goals.” said Michael Arquin, founder of KidWind.

The summit will connect more than 90 teachers, researchers, and industry professionals and survey existing clean energy educational research and programs. Participants will explore the impacts of renewable energy education, identify significant gaps and research questions, and establish long-term working groups to address key issues identified during the summit. Participants will be responding to a call to action to help broaden public awareness and include linkages to energy justice, equity and inclusion in clean energy education, and increased access to clean energy career pathways.…Read More

Scholastic brings civics education to the forefront with new 2020 U.S. election website

Drawing upon 100 years of experience covering news for kids, Scholastic is launching a new free website to help students in grades 3–12 learn about the 2020 United States Presidential Election. The website features age-appropriate resources developed by the editors of Scholastic Classroom Magazines, including videos about the democratic process, quizzes, and activities, in addition to rigorously fact-checked candidate profiles and articles focused on issues that are at the center of this year’s election: pandemic response, racial justice, the economy, health care, climate change, education, immigration, and national security.

To access the Scholastic Election 2020 website, visit: www.scholastic.com/election.

Through the site, students also have the opportunity to participate in the Scholastic Student Vote, a virtual mock-election that has been running since 1940 and has allowed kids across the country to cast their votes for President of the United States online. Results will be announced in October 2020 before the national election on November 3, 2020. Since 1940, the outcome of the Scholastic Student Vote has mirrored the results of every presidential election, except three: Thomas E. Dewey vs. Harry S. Truman in 1948; John F. Kennedy vs. Richard M. Nixon in 1960; and Donald Trump vs. Hilary Clinton in 2016.…Read More

COVID-19 student transportation safety solution

CalAmp, a global technology solutions pioneer transforming the mobile connected economy, and its subsidiary Synovia Solutions, today introduce Bus Guardian, a suite of digital solutions designed to help schools more safely and confidently return students to the classroom.

Bus Guardian is a powerful, flexible, and scalable solution designed to help schools deliver actionable reporting on school bus ridership focused on contact tracing in the event of an ill student. The program also delivers a hygiene verification system to help administrators monitor and report on real-time sanitization efforts.

When paired with the latest features of the award-winning mobile app, Here Comes The Bus, Bus Guardian delivers a robust, off-the-shelf slate of software and hardware products ready to support schools and families as students return to the classroom.…Read More

STEM, STEAM, and makerspaces–oh my!

By now, we’ve all heard about STEM, the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math education. Most people have heard of STEAM, which includes arts education along with STEM and allows students to be more creative in their exploration of more technical subjects.

And it’s not a far leap to assume a lot of educators are familiar with makerspaces, which offer open-ended creative spaces for students to explore these concepts as they engage in project-based learning or attempt to solve real-world challenges.

But how are these three things impacting classrooms and the students in them?…Read More

1 2

eSchool News launches Digital & Mobile Learning Guide

We are excited to bring you the latest in the eSchool News Guides series. eSchool News Guides are full of resources, tips, trends, and insights from industry experts on a variety of topics that are essential to the classroom, school, and district.

The November Guide, the eSchool News Digital & Mobile Learning Guide, offers expert insight on the reasons digital and mobile learning support students’ academic achievement and build the skills they’ll carry with them into the global economy. In the guide, we take a look at the various factors present in successful digital and mobile learning initiatives. Plus, we’re giving you tips to incorporate more digital resources into your instruction.

Have you dreamed of using more digital tools and resources in your district’s classrooms, but don’t know where to look for those resources? In the eSchool News Digital & Mobile Learning Guide, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular digital learning apps and websites. Do you want educators throughout your district to understand just how much digital equity impacts students? We explore this issue, which is vital to digital and mobile learning.…Read More

7 things supporting broadband best practices

State leadership can have a powerful impact on broadband best practices in K-12 schools–and a new report highlights success stories and strong policies supporting broadband connectivity.

State K-12 Broadband Leadership: Driving Connectivity, Access and Student Success, the new report from SETDA, highlights how state leaders are instrumental in advocating for policies and policy decisions that focus on broadband networks, bandwidth capacity, Wi-Fi implementation, and off campus access for low-income families.

“In order to provide personalized learning experiences for students to best prepare them for college and careers, and to compete in a global economy, all schools need access to reliable, high-speed broadband,” says SETDA’s incoming Executive Director, Candice Dodson. “No two states approach broadband implementation the same, however, state leadership is essential to the process in implementing high speed broadband for all.”…Read More

1 2

How we created a comprehensive drone curriculum

As educators, we are all continuously looking for interdisciplinary learning opportunities that will provide students with the most authentic learning experiences possible. With students’ hyper-exposure to the growing applications for technology, STEAM programs are one area in which real-world applications are readily apparent to students.

Here in Salamanca, New York, as we seek to ensure our students have the necessary marketable skills for the modern economy, we’ve chosen to incorporate a drone curriculum into our STEAM programs. With the core drone skills, our students open themselves to employment opportunities in diverse sectors such as cinematography, industrial inspections, public safety, agriculture, construction, specialized sciences, and much more.

Drone education starts early on

To deliver on this goal for our students, we have developed a comprehensive drone curriculum that will introduce students to drones as early as kindergarten and allow them to become more hands-on throughout their academic career. For juniors and seniors, that experience culminates with an immersive curriculum through which they become FAA-certified drone pilots, while also imparting the core skills in data collection analysis necessary to pursue careers in this rapidly evolving workforce.…Read More

1 2

How STEM learning invigorates classrooms

eSchool News (eSN) recently spoke with Vince Bertram, the chief executive officer of Project Lead The Way (PLTW)—an organization that has been bringing real-world and hands-on STEM learning into the classroom for 22 years—about the importance of STEM education. PLTW creates an engaging, hands-on classroom environment and empowers students to develop the in-demand knowledge and skills they need to thrive. The organization also provides teachers with the training, resources, and support they need to engage students in real-world learning.

A look at how STEM learning invigorates classrooms

eSN: How do you look at STEM ed?

PLTW: I think schools look at STEM ed as discrete subjects, but we think of it as a foundation to our economy and how STEM connects to every industry. From a student perspective, it’s not just learning math for the sake of it but understanding the relevance of math and science in an applied way. Hands-on activities that connect with real-world examples make it relevant. We can give lots of examples to the “When will I use this again” question.…Read More

7 engaging resources for the Hour of Code

It’s that time of year again—nestled between Thanksgiving and winter break is Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code, offering super-cool activities to keep restless students engaged in programming challenges.

This year, educators are focusing on all the things that make computer science education important and necessary for today’s students—namely, how programming builds skills like critical thinking and problem solving that help students in daily life, the fact that these students will have STEM-focused careers (including some that don’t yet exist), and the need to fill programming jobs that sit empty due to a lack of highly qualified workers.

Computer science drives innovation throughout our economy, according to stats on Code.org, but it remains marginalized in the K-12 education system. Just 15 states have adopted policies to give all high school students access to computer science courses, and of those 15, only 6 states give all K-12 students access to computer science courses.…Read More

1 2