Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Even if the old spoon under the pillow trick hasn’t worked for the students in your district yet, it doesn’t mean it won’t be your turn next!
No matter how well prepared you are, weather cancellations can be cause for confusion. It’s worth taking a few extra precautions so your families know exactly what the story is.
Here are a few simple tips districts can follow to make sure weather communication messages are reaching home without causing confusion:…Read More
Just when we thought the painful trend of ransomware attacks on public schools might be waning, news arrived of a massive incident. Over Labor Day weekend, the country’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, experienced a ransomware attack. The district serves 600,000 students and described “significant disruptions affecting access to email, computer systems, and applications.”
There was good news, though. The district appeared to catch the attack early, shut its systems down and avoided more serious problems. A lot of the time these attacks result in the loss of social security numbers and all kinds of other data, amounting to a serious violation of children’s privacy. For such a large district, this could have been catastrophic. LAUSD’s impressive response likely resulted from some smart preparation.
LAUSD was unfortunately not the only school to be victimized this year, and in other cases, some of the consequences appear to have been more severe. Staff at Cedar Rapids, Iowa schools saw their personal information stolen this summer, including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers, and even medical history information. …Read More
LAS VEGAS — June 30, 2022 — Leading cybersecurity and data management firm Trustifi has added four new awards as of this month, demonstrating its consistent reliability in protecting customers against email-related cyber threats. The latest slate of honors includes a Gold Globee, Gold Stevie Award, SourceForge’s Top Performers Award, and a place on Expert Insights’ Top 100 Most Innovative Cybersecurity Companies list for 2022.
“Our most important endeavor is protecting information. Our customers rely on us to keep their data safe, and we take that seriously because we know we are protecting their livelihood and all that entails,” said Trustifi CEO Rom Hendler. “Recognitions like these showcase our solutions and their efficacy across many different customer bases.”
Two awards were determined based on overall company performance, while the others were focused on specific product benefits. For instance, Trustifi’s Inbound Shield and Outbound Shield were recognized. Inbound Shield protects organizations and individuals by analyzing, detecting and classifying an abundance of malicious email types — including phishing, spam and viruses. Outgoing emails are protected with Outbound Shield, which secures information with data identification features and has quick implementation and automated integrations for common office suite software.…Read More
This time of year sees email in boxes filled with information about how to prepare for the next year, reminders that grades are due, and papers await grading. We are deluged with predictions about the future, what to worry about, and sometimes even what to be excited about. Those with calendar year goals are often rushing to complete projects or solidify a final sale. Family and other holiday obligations can often add an extra level of stress as well. One thing often missing is how to make sure you are balanced and ensure you are taking time for self-care.
According to a recent NBC article about the increasing educator shortage, between retirements among an already-aging population and the stress and burnout of the pandemic, the number of potential educators in the pipeline is not nearly enough to match needs.
An October 2021 NPR report showed that 80,000 aspiring nurses were turned away from nursing schools due to a lack of adequate nursing instructors. It is clear that educator burnout can directly lead to shortages in other critical areas such as health care.…Read More
Walking through the parking lot, your office manager sees a USB flash drive labeled “Teacher Cutbacks” on the ground.
Your lead teacher receives an email that appears to be from your IT person requesting a password reset.
Your custodian sees a flyer advertising a free meal for school employees and uses his phone to access the QR code at the bottom.…Read More
Confession: I’m a bit of a hoarder. I’ve kept every email, text message, and document I’ve ever written. It’s probably the journalist in me. Or it’s being the daughter of two antique collectors and the granddaughter of a collector of everything.
Yet quite often, calling on history can help us make more informed decisions about the present.
As I reflected on the structure of this article, my archived files got some exercise as I reflected on the origins of Future Ready Librarians® and why the journey we took to create the program has never been more important than today. …Read More
Writing is often difficult for educators to teach, challenging for students to do, and hard for administrators to monitor and evaluate. Yet writing well—and the high-quality writing instruction behind it–has become an increasingly important 21st century skill due to online college and job applications, as well as the reliance on email and collaborative documents in many 21st century careers.
Ways to compile and use data to guide writing instruction were explained during an edWebinar sponsored by Texthelp, which featured Joni Degner and Mark Schwartz, a Director and a Product Evangelist for Texthelp. The software automates and accelerates many aspects of the writing-evaluation process, though each teacher’s grading and feedback also remain crucial parts of the process.
Related content: 10 writing lessons for distance learning…Read More
Many districts across the United States are starting the 2020–21 school year using hybrid or fully remote learning, so students’ online safety remains a top priority. That fact, plus Gaggle’s high success in saving student lives (927 in the 2019–20 school year), has resulted in 95% of districts renewing subscriptions to Gaggle’s student safety solution, up from the previous year. In addition, 286 districts across 42 states have implemented services with Gaggle since March.
“The School District of Osceola County utilizes multiple systems to protect its students in an increasingly complex digital world,” said Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace. “Gaggle is one system that the district relies on to monitor the safety of our students’ Microsoft email and OneDrive, and has proven itself on multiple occasions, especially during possible student situations. During the last year, the district was notified of 14 possible student situations, including issues of violence and suicide. Knowing that Gaggle is monitoring the safety of our students is a great comfort.”
For more than 20 years, Gaggle has helped thousands of districts avoid tragedies and save lives while also protecting against district liability. The company helps ensure student safety in digital spaces by providing real-time monitoring of the use of online tools within Google’s G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, and the Canvas learning management system for more than 4.5 million students across the United States.…Read More
While the current COVID-19 virus lock-down continues, many children across the world are unable to attend school. Parents and teachers alike may need to come up with creative ways to keep the children occupied and also provide them with education from home.
During these hard times, Octagon Studio would like to support those who are currently at home with our #LearnFromHome campaign. We are giving away 3,000 serial numbers and digital markers for users to enjoy our educational Augmented Reality experiences for free. This campaign shall be ongoing until the pandemic is over or until the 30,000 quotas have been met.
To get a free serial number, users can simply visit our website at https://octagon.studio/ and scroll through to find the #LearnFromHome campaign banner. By clicking the CLAIM NOW button and fill in their details, users will receive an email from us containing a free serial number and the digital markers of the product of
their choice. Each serial number can be used on one device, and each email address can be registered to claim one product out of five available 4D+ series: Animal 4D+,
Octaland 4D+, Space 4D+, Dinosaur 4D+, and Humanoid 4D+.…Read More
Google Cloud announced it’s making Google Meet, Google’s premium video-conferencing solution, free for everyone with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to G Suite’s business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including the expanded tiled view.
“With the lines blurred between work and home, Google Meet can offer the polish needed for a work meeting, a tiled view for your online birthday party and the security needed for a video meeting with your doctor,” said Javier Soltero, VP of G Suite. “We’re in the middle of a significant worldwide shift impacting communication from the workplace to schools to the home. People want familiar, secure tools that they can use across all facets of their lives.”
Google has invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that’s trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months has accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful. Whether it’s hospitals supporting patients via telehealth, banks working with loan applicants, retailers assisting customers remotely, or manufacturers interacting safely with warehouse technicians, businesses across every industry are using Meet to stay connected.…Read More