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.

Students need freedom to develop critical skills with edtech

After decades of working with educational technology, I’ve come to the realization that technology will have its greatest impact in the classroom when educators allow learners to use digital technology as a self-directed learning tool. This means not just providing students with laptops and online resources, but ensuring they have the necessary skills to find, validate, apply, and curate the vast amount of information now available to them.

More importantly, they must be given control of when and how these digital tools are used. Think about how adults use their smartphones; they use them whenever they need to. No one is dictating when they can use it, how they can use it, or where they can use it–why don’t we allow learners to do the same?

Imagine a classroom where students have unfettered access to digital tools and resources whenever needed. That would be a very different classroom than the ones I’ve experienced, but one that would be able to support the digital learners in our classrooms today.…Read More

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In cybersecurity, balancing vigilance with access

Cybersecurity is at the forefront of IT issues to be addressed over the next year. Nearly every list of major IT or educational technology issues for 2023 includes the need to further harden educational systems and infrastructure.

More than 20 educational organizations–including AASA, the American Association of School Administrators (the primary superintendents’ association)–have asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expand E-rate to cover advanced firewall technology to support protection from denial of service (DOS), improve virtual private network (VLN) access, and similar upgrades. The FCC is currently soliciting public input on the potential change here until February 13, 2023.

It is easy to understand the need for increased cybersecurity safeguards. In the first half of 2022, at least 34 major cyberattacks were made against schools. Cybercrime cost more than $6.9 billion in 2021. The evening news commonly reports on cyberattacks against pipelines, government systems, and other vital services. Due diligence in considering ways to harden cyber targets and protect student and institutional data is essential and to not do so in today’s environment would probably be willfully negligent. However, there is a need for balancing security with usability.…Read More

Edtech trends are enabling more diverse learning

Edtech is the combination of IT tools and educational practices aimed at facilitating scalable individualized learning. It comprises the whole world of computer-aided education and training, along with the use of digital tools and resources.

There are numerous advantages to educational technology. Students learn at different rates, and from diverse ways. Efficient reading is best for some students to gain knowledge, while others rely more on audio visual materials.

These tools deliver personalized learning and training that can automatically adjust to an individual’s learning competence. Edtech combines educational theory and technological innovation to meet the learning needs of students. …Read More

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New Report: Equity, Cybersecurity Top List of State Education Technology Priorities

As students return to another school-year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report sheds light on how state education agencies and policy-makers are adapting to an increasingly digital, post-pandemic world.

The 2022 State EdTech Trends Report, released by the State Educational Technology Directors Association in collaboration with Whiteboard Advisors, draws on the results of SETDA’s flagship annual State EdTech Trends Survey of edtech directors, state superintendents, chiefs of staff, and other senior state officials from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Activity (DoDEA), and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The report supplements the survey findings with interviews of leaders in a number of states to spotlight their efforts to support digital learning. “Our job at the state is to advocate for what districts need and to promote our mentality that we are all in this together to help our students achieve,” stated Rob Dietrich, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.…Read More

SchoolStatus Names New Chief Revenue Officer and Expands Sales Team to Build on its Continued Growth

RIDGELAND, Miss., August 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —  SchoolStatus, a leading provider of an education communications platform designed to improve student outcomes through data and parent engagement, today announced that it has strengthened its leadership and sales teams with the appointment of Phil Charland as the Company’s first chief revenue officer (CRO), and the expansion of its U.S. sales team. In this newly-created role, Charland will be responsible for global sales, marketing, and customer success for SchoolStatus. 

Charland is an accomplished educational technology executive with over 15 years of experience building and leading high-performing global sales, customer success, and revenue enablement and operations teams. Most recently, he led Ascend Learning’s Safety and Security global sales teams as Vice President of Sales, with a focus across K12, higher education, and professional learning markets. Prior to Ascend Learning, Charland led national and global sales teams for numerous leading education companies including Edmentum, Ellevation Education, Renaissance Learning, and Eduventures, LLC. Charland started his career in education as a K12 teacher and athletic director at The American School In Switzerland, where he taught for three years. He holds a B.A. from Harvard University 

“This is a very exciting time for SchoolStatus as we scale to address rapidly increasing demand for unified K12 analytics, communications, and workflow platforms,” said Russ Davis, founder and CEO of SchoolStatus. “We believe Phil’s extensive experience in sales and marketing strategy and his track record of driving business growth for education technology companies make him an ideal candidate to help us continue to accelerate our growth trajectory.” …Read More

How you can bring pandemic tech into post-pandemic learning

As an Instructional Technology Coach in Georgetown County, South Carolina, I have the amazing opportunity to work closely with teachers and students as they use educational technology in meaningful ways. 

It is clear that COVID-19 has changed how teachers use educational technologies to support teaching and learning.  During the “Emergency Teaching Era” of the pandemic, educators grew quite familiar with edtech resources and developed many new competencies and strategies for integrating those resources into instruction.  However, as the education community tentatively moves into what I think of as the post-COVID world of education, the competencies and skills teachers built, and the edtech tools they acquired, can be used in new ways within your classroom.  Here are some of the best strategies and skills I’ve recently learned for the new technologies I began to use during the Pandemic:

Write Around the Room: This is a great activity to do with upper elementary through high school aged students, and capitalizes on devices students received and the keyboarding skills students picked up while learning remotely.  For those of you who have ever found yourselves searching for creative ways to inspire your students to write while also reinforcing important skills related to story structure, having your students “write around the room” is a fun way to get your students excited about writing. …Read More

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6 time-saving tech tricks for school librarians

Is there an educator on the planet who would turn down a bit more time in their day?

With time-saving technology strategies, school librarians can find ways to connect with their school’s teachers and students on a deeper level, forming relationships and helping with research and skill development.

During an ISTELive session, Kristina A. Holzweiss, a high school educational technology enrichment specialist librarian, shared her tips to help school librarians engage with students, support teachers, and make their school libraries dynamic and welcoming learning spaces.…Read More

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How 3D printing is changing education

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we must invest in educational technology. When schools use technology to improve the quality and quantity of educational content, learners will thrive. Amid this technology-driven educational environment, 3D printing offers students the following: helping to facilitate differentiated instruction, increasing student engagement, expanding practice opportunities, and scaling up standardized instruction.

No More One-Size-Fits-All Teaching

Differentiated instruction is a teaching approach that tailors instruction to all students’ learning needs. Most students are unlikely to get much from “one-size-fits-all” instruction. Instead, it should vary based on students’ interests, preferences, strengths, and struggles.…Read More

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Classworks® and Gwinnett County Public Schools Are Platinum 2022 Learning Impact Award Winners

Duluth, GA — June 15, 2022 — Classworks, provider of a best-in-class MTSS solution, and Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), the nation’s 13th largest school district, were recognized with the 2022 Platinum Medal Learning Impact Award by 1EdTech™ Consortium, the world’s leading non-profit collaborative advancing educational technology and digital learning.

Institutional leaders and public voters selected from 34 finalists to honor innovative projects that successfully impact and elevate learning experiences. The platinum award-winning project features the partnership between Classworks and Gwinnett County to deliver a successful online summer learning program, powered by 1EdTech’s Competency and Academic Standards Exchange® (CASE®) framework.

The project mitigated learning loss precipitated by COVID and effectively prepared students for the 2021-2022 school year. GCPS decided to launch a districtwide, online Summer Enrichment and Acceleration (SEA) program using Classworks evidence-based instructional program. GCPS utilizes district-specific Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) standards in reading, language arts, and mathematics as part of its curriculum. The summer learning program required Classworks to align its standards-based learning progression to the GCPS AKS.

“As a district with our unique curriculum standards, the CASE framework allows us to more easily align content and resources from our partners with our standards so that teachers and students have the exact resources to match their instructional needs,” said Tricia Kennedy, executive director of instructional development and support for Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia. “Our partnership with Classworks leveraged CASE to create a customized summer school curriculum addressing district-defined targeted standards in a learning path scaffolded for understanding.“

The CASE framework simplifies the way systems manage learning standards information, making it easier for districts to provide standards-based learning experiences. Using CASE, Classworks instruction was quickly aligned to the GCPS-specific AKS, saving hours of manual work. The effort ensured that students had access to summer lessons that both reviewed focus standards from the prior year and prepared them for the upcoming year in a research-based learning progression.

“By replacing a manual and labor-intensive mapping project that typically takes weeks with a CASE-powered process, Classworks provided more than 180,000 students at Gwinnett County Public Schools with a high-quality, standards-based learning experience in just a few days,” ​​explains Jerry Henley, senior vice president of product experience for Classworks. “Classworks embraces 1EdTech’s philosophy on interoperability, and we’re proud to partner with forward-thinking and innovative districts like GCPS. Our success demonstrates why we are a best-in-class online intervention solution.”

To learn more about the Classworks and GCPS summer learning project download our whitepaper Using CASE to Power Standards-Based Learning for All Students. 

Learn more about the 2022 Learning Impact Awards.

About Classworks …Read More

Case Study: How Edison High School Is Using Rise Vision to Serve Its Students’ Diverse Needs

(March 24, 2022) –– Rise Vision has released a new case study of Edison High School, a small school in Elmira Heights, New York, with a student body of 110 students with learning differences. Thomas A. Edison High School has long been rated in the top 10% of educational technology environments in the USA and is committed to find new ways to improve emergency response effectiveness and preparation using digital signage.

Dr. Troy Spetter, Director of Educational Technology since June 2018, is responsible for orchestrating the school’s technology, training and security within the context of a greater vision for Edison and its students. Specifically, Dr. Spetter has helped Edison move away from relying on dated infrastructure and toward web-enabled services, cloud-connected collaboration systems, single sign-on implementation, and a totally new security and backup model. 

Currently, Edison uses three screens with Rise Vision. Two are fully engaged in student-oriented messaging. The third is located near the school president’s office, where visitors, including donors, may be waiting or passing by en route to a meeting with senior school staff. This screen is used to display schedules when no visitors are expected. Content can be tailored to visitors’ interests.…Read More