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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.

27 digital tools and edtech resources from FETC

As aspects of pre-pandemic life slowly emerge from nearly two years of masking, testing, and social distancing, educators are once again gathering at edtech conferences to experience the latest and greatest solutions, digital tools, and professional learning opportunities.

In Orlando, the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) kicked off with keynotes and sessions from top edtech experts and real-world practitioners.

Here’s a sampling of new digital tools and announcements from edtech solution providers.…Read More

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Promethean Partners with Radix to Expand Device Management and Security

Today at FETC 2021, Promethean®, a leading global education technology company, announced a premium device and application management solution for the seamless management of virtually any device in a school’s technology ecosystem. This new offering is the result of focused efforts between Promethean and Radix, a cutting-edge device management solution provider. This solution will directly reduce IT administrators’ work time and introduce new opportunities for efficient centralized remote control of devices, including the Promethean ActivPanel® Elements Series from a single web console.

As classrooms have seen rapid evolution over the last year, new guidelines required schools to quickly transform educational settings for remote and hybrid learning. This resulted in a proliferation of new edtech devices within educational ecosystems that were already complex. Managing all these devices and keeping them secure in hybrid and remote learning environments has never been more important.

Promethean Panel Management simplifies device management by deploying mass updates, grouping devices, and setting ActivPanel® Elements Series configurations. With the implementation of Radix VISO, users can greatly expand management to cover prior generations of ActivPanels and the ever-growing number of other devices within schools. Radix VISO device management and Promethean Panel Management together deliver comprehensive device management, allowing IT teams to manage growing infrastructures more efficiently while improving security and ensuring a seamless user experience.…Read More

The 7 coolest edtech products I saw at FETC

I saw many interesting products at FETC 2019 in Orlando last week, but here are the ones that resonated most strongly because of their uniqueness and immediate classroom application.

1. Lucid for Education

Lucid is one of those companies that you may not have heard of, but you definitely should! They have a visual learning toolkit that helps students learn to collaborate using 21st-century skills while making deeper connections to prior knowledge. By creating digital resources and presentations with other students and educators, this tool makes the classroom appear more like today’s workplace of today than anything else I’ve seen.

…Read More

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FETC 2019: Day One

Not the driving rain or 50-degree temperatures could keep edtech enthusiasts from the opening day of FETC 2019 in Orlando. Wearing winter coats and braving the harsh Florida weather, lines formed early for the 8 am workshops.

Because this is my 13th FETC, I confidently walked into the conference center as a tour guide for an FETC first timer. However, in its usual manner, FETC changed it up for the better. Though I do miss seeing Hawaiian shirts and skateboards at the Surf conference that shared the south side of the Orange County Convention Center, the extra space taken over by FETC makes the conference workshops more accessible, convenient, and right in the heart of the main concourse. The new and improved conference registration location is an upgrade from its previous place in the corner of the Expo floor.

The Expo floor did not open until 4:30 pm on Monday, but educators and administrators were able to choose from 100 workshops, Apple and Microsoft concurrent sessions, and an all-day Blueprint for Technology in Education Summit. The FETC Experience, in its second-year, models personalized learning with tracks that identify attendee relevant workshops and sessions. The edtech administrators, information technology, educator, early learning, and inclusion and special education tracks ensured that there was something for everyone.…Read More

Creating the future of education

The power to create the future of education technology is very appealing. The ability to fabricate and then implement a technological universe that could lead our future generations of learners might be our generation’s greatest achievement. If I were going to put together a formula, I would probably do the following:

1. Identify around 1,000 of the best available education minds from all over the world.
2. Assemble these big thinkers in one place, and over a period of four or five days have open discussion and lively debate around some carefully thought-out subject areas.
3. Include areas of innovation, academics, emotional intelligence, and the business of technology.
4. Invite at least 10,000 working educators and administrators to join in the discussion.
5. Watch carefully as the magic happens.

If I could put together this much firepower in one place and ask the right questions, imagine what could be accomplished.…Read More

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What’s happening at FETC 2018?

Even if you didn’t need a reason to travel to sunny Orlando in January, the opportunity to attend FETC should have you packing your comfy walking shoes and an extra suitcase for all the swag. This is my 12th year attending FETC and I have never been more excited about the edtech trends being highlighted at this conference.

Security and data privacy workshops/sessions at FETC have tech leaders packing the house. With devices now integral tools in learning environments and so many of these devices in students’ hands, school districts, parents, and community members are hammering to find the right security options for their students. Cybersecurity companies are focusing their attention on providing school districts and parents with insurance that student safety and privacy both at school and in the home are guaranteed.

Educational scavenger hunts such as Breakout EDU peppered many of the sessions. The sessions focused on both professional-development applications and classroom applications. Microsoft OneNote was even a presence at some of the sessions. These types of educational scavenger hunts are trending as participants must work together to solve a variety of clues to open the Breakout EDU strongbox. The sessions I attended demonstrated the problem-solving skills needed to reach the goal and the teacher energy was through the roof!…Read More

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Flipping the classroom when home access is a problem

A lack of reliable internet access at home can make flipping a challenge, but by no means an impossibility

Ed. note: Jess Peterson will co-present a related session, “Flipping the Classroom in Low-Socioeconomic Schools,” at this year’s FETC conference in Orlando, on Friday Jan. 15.

Ask any educator, and they’ve probably at least heard of flipping the classroom. There are articles for days about the benefits and rewards to be reaped from flipping. Plenty of teachers have given it a go, or at least considered it. Too many teachers have ruled it out on account of their students’ lack of access.

It’s true that our students come from all walks of life. We see the ones with the new Jordans or the latest iPhone, and their peers wearing the old hand-me-down sweater. All of them are our future. All of them are entitled to the best education possible. Only some of them are equipped with the means to achieve their fullest potential.…Read More

15 amazing education technology solutions from January

These ed-tech solutions are taking schools to the next level in achievement and Common Core-readiness!

solutions-technology-schools One of the best ways to learn about innovative solutions for education technology is through conferences, and from STEM curriculum developed for classroom robotics to one of the most comprehensive Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions on the market, the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) at the end of January (2014) provided educators a showroom chocked full of innovation.

[Listed in alphabetical order]

1. Airwatch: Airwatch is helping schools and universities embrace the next generation of learning with education apps, eBooks and digital content on mobile devices. During the FETC conference, Airwatch highlighted its Teacher Tools: AirPlay Mirroring and AirDrop both enrich classroom collaboration. Mirror device displays to whiteboards and Apple TVs. Configure a whitelisted set of Apple TVs so students can quickly demonstrate their assignments to the class without distributing Apple TV passwords to the rest of the classroom. Use Airdrop to share files from one device to another without sending emails to multiple devices and accounts. For more information on Airwatch, click here.…Read More

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Hidden Common Core skills students need to learn…and how to learn them

School experts say these Common Core tools can teach students the digital skills they need to learn

common-core-student-skills As schools across the country begin to implement Common Core, assessments are asking students to use digital skills that many still need to learn. According to one school district, it’s knowing what these skills are, the online tools available, and in what grades to implement them, that will make students Common Core-ready.

“If you look at the Common Core requirements closely, there are minimal technology requirements for every student,” said Tamra Hogue, supervisor of instructional technology and media services for Bay District Schools in Panama City, Fl., during the FETC 2014 presentation “Common Core: Cool Tools for Your School.”

Beyond knowing how to respond to an online prompt during computer assessments, prompts that often use Microsoft Word icons without instructions, students also need to complete Common Core requirements by creating “brochures” or “video presentations.”…Read More

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FETC 2014: This is how you take mobile to the next level

Three professors use research to create mobile app rubrics for app evaluation

mobile-apps-education Would you buy a car without knowing how well it could perform on the road? No? The same principle applies to purchasing mobile apps for the classroom, experts argue. Without research-based rubrics based on vetted learning principles, you’re driving blind. Now, educators can evaluate apps to truly make a difference in classroom learning.

According to Malia Hoffmann, assistant professor at Concordia University, Calif., as of fall 2013, there were more than 1 million apps for Apple and 1.1 million apps for Android, she said during her session during the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) 2014, .

“These numbers are overwhelming, and outside of hearing word-of-mouth suggestions, or looking at third-party source recommendations online, there was a lack of research-based rubrics to help educators evaluate these apps for their schools,” explained Hoffmann. “Which is why, based on well-known research on learning principles, my colleagues and I developed these four rubrics.”…Read More

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