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.

How teachers use Wordle–and other games–for next-level engagement

“Did you get the Wordle today?” What initially began as something Josh Wardle created to serve as a personal daily game has become a household name, with users sharing their Wordle progress on social platforms and urging friends to start playing. And now, teachers are using Wordle, along with other games with viral status, to boost student engagement.

The popular game tasks users with guessing–in six guesses–a five-letter word. When users guess a word, a green square indicates they have guessed a correct letter in its correct spot. A yellow square indicates that the letter is in the word, but the user has put it in the wrong spot. And a gray square indicates that the letter is not in the word.

In a January tweet, teacher Samantha Morra shared how teachers can create their own custom Wordle words of any length–a great way to add longer and more challenging vocabulary or other relevant words and concepts to a lesson.…Read More

Discovery Education and Venture Valley Partner to Launch New Educational Initiative Teaching Financial Literacy Through Games and Resources

Silver Spring, MD. (Monday, March 7, 2022) – Venture Valley video game team and Discovery Education announced today a new educational initiative – Discover Venture Valley – helping students build financial literacy and business skills. Discover Venture Valley empowers students in grades 6-12 to build financial and business basics through a suite of standards-aligned resources and by taking on the role of a budding entrepreneur in the new Venture Valley video game. Discover Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. The Venture Valley game is a project of the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. 

Discover Venture Valley helps students discover and develop their entrepreneurial spirit by exploring the financial and business basics explored in the Venture Valley game. Accompanying digital resources – including classroom activities, a video topic series, and educator guides – align to learning standards across multiple disciplines including English language arts, math, business, and financial literacy. 

“We believe that financial competence empowers individuals to do great things for themselves, their communities and the world. We are excited to launch this partnership with Discovery Education, as they share our commitment to enriching and empowering students with an interactive and exciting digital game,” said Roger Hector, Executive Producer for the Venture Valley game. “Discover Venture Valley builds and sustains student interest in financial literacy through entrepreneurship and play, and is the perfect complement to Venture Valley, which lets those interested in becoming entrepreneurs learn basic business concepts and skills by applying them in a game.” …Read More

PresenceLearning Partners with Hasbro to Bring Beloved Characters and Classic Games to the PresenceLearning Therapy Platform

NEW YORK, February 18, 2022 – PresenceLearning, the leading provider of online therapy solutions for schools and clinicians, has partnered with Hasbro, a global play and entertainment company, to bring some of the most-beloved characters and classic games to the PresenceLearning therapy platform.

Through this partnership, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals will be able to use PresenceLearning’s exclusive digital adaptations of Potato Head, Candy Land, and Clue Jr. with students during online therapy sessions conducted on the company’s award-winning therapy platform. PresenceLearning has modified the traditional games to facilitate cooperative play, problem-solving skills, and visual perception skills. With the addition of Hasbro properties, the company continues to invest in building a content library that can help personalize each student’s therapy session. 

“Our partnership with Hasbro is part of a broader initiative to offer a next-generation therapy platform that helps providers deliver fun, engaging and effective therapy sessions,” said Kate Eberle Walker, CEO of PresenceLearning. “We’re excited for the potential to create more dynamic therapy experiences by incorporating these iconic characters and games into therapy activities. 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.”…Read More

Osmo From BYJU’s Names Kar-Han Tan, Ph.D., Head of Computer Vision and Machine Learning

Palo Alto, CA–Feb 10, 2022–Award-winning STEAM brand, Osmo from BYJU’S, announces Kar-Han Tan’s appointment as Head of Computer Vision and Machine Learning, effective immediately. With three decades leading teams in robotics and AI research and development, Tan will further thedevelopment of a world-class computer vision and AI platform that aids in the creation of new products, games, and devices incorporating gains made in deep learning technology. In addition, he will lead a growing global team to research, develop, and optimize new algorithms for computer vision and AI-enabled features such as object detection, object recognition, hand tracking, pattern matching, and hand-drawing analysis, among others, all in an effort to create the best learning tools and outcomes.

“We were impressed by Kar-Han’s extensive experience leading R&D teams in robotics, AI, and deep learning,” says Mark Solomon, Senior Vice President of Products and Platform at BYJU’S. “His background will help Osmo expand the usage of computer vision technology across BYJU’S various products and platforms, further meeting the needs of learners of all ages everywhere.”

Tan, who was born and educated in Singapore, most recently founded Helpful Robotics LLC, which designed and built an AI-enabled autonomous assistive robot from the ground up, and fostered a collaboration between scientists and engineers located in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the University of California San Francisco, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.…Read More

Discovery Education and TrueSport Partner to Present a Unique, Virtual Town Hall Exploring the Life Skills Students Need for Success Beyond Sports

Silver Spring, MD (Thursday, January 27, 2022) — TrueSport – the outreach education arm of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) dedicated to transforming the culture of youth sport – and Discovery Education today announce a partnership providing powerful educational tools to equip students with resources that help build life skills and core values for success on and off the field of play. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

The partnership has produced The Mindset of a TrueSport Champion Town Hall, which premieres February 1 at 1 PM ET in time for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. In an engaging 24-minute video, students meet with Olympic, Paralympic, and Team USA athletes to explore how the values of sportsmanship, character building & life skills, and clean & healthy performance drive their success in both athletics and life. Included in the Town Hall are Team USA weightlifter Abby Raymond, wheelchair basketball Paralympian and three-time medalist Trey Jenifer, and Olympic boxing silver medalist Richard Torrez, Jr. Learn more about The Mindset of a TrueSport Champion Town Hall here.  

“The lessons and values learned through sport prepare young people to be more successful now, and in the future. The Mindset of a TrueSport Champion Town Hall is designed to inspire students, educators, coaches, and families to reflect on their choices and core values so that youth sport is about more than just winning,” said Dr. Jennifer Royer, the Senior Director of TrueSport and Awareness at USADA. “With Discovery Education as a partner, we are thrilled to take our mission of transforming the culture of youth sport through education even further.”  …Read More

Slooh Brings Space Exploration to Classrooms Worldwide with ‘The Online Telescope for Teachers’

Washington Depot, Connecticut, January 18, 2022 – Slooh, the only organization offering live online telescope feeds to students, is now offering an affordable way for teachers to bring the power of its network of online telescopes to all students with The Online Telescope for Teachers. This solution can change how teachers teach astronomy by providing opportunities for students to explore and analyze more than 1,000 real-world space objects and events. 

“Slooh’s innovation is that an unlimited number of teachers and students can share online telescopes in a manner that includes an exchange of ideas and opportunities to learn from each other,” said Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “Just as kids learn to play video games by watching other people play, the sharing inherent in the platform enables students to learn from the amazing things other teachers and students do with our online telescopes.”

In addition to online telescope access, this new solution provides elementary through college-level teachers integrated curriculum-based lesson plans that can be used with students and ongoing professional development to help educators easily use the technology.…Read More

How to bundle education device management

Technology has opened up endless possibilities in classrooms around the world. For one, access to education has been significantly broadened, facilitating a wide range of teaching strategies and learning styles. The pandemic accelerated the adoption rates of educational technology solutions. In some cases, demand far outstripped supply, leading to backlogs of requests for laptops, tablets, Chromebooks, and other school-issued devices. With the flood of school-issued devices, the need for education device management is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception.

Schools are always looking for ways to keep their students engaged and learning–and implementing technology can do that. Technology is changing the way we teach and learn. In today’s world, where children are already familiar with tablets and smartphones from watching videos on YouTube or playing games at home, learning through technology will likely become more exciting than daunting (and this goes for teachers too).

One of the most important aspects of using technology in schools is responsible and secure management: ensuring devices are protected from viruses, malware, and other threats that can cause significant disruption to critical school operations.…Read More

3 ways you can use digital tools to boost student motivation

Many educators navigating the use of technology for learning have seen this scenario come to life in the classroom: you give your students an online assignment and a few minutes into it you start the exhausting routine of trying to guess who might be opening other tabs to play games or watch videos, while you figure out ways to redirect them towards their work. 

In fact, the switch to hybrid and fully virtual learning during the pandemic highlighted how students can become distracted and lose motivation when they are seemingly hiding behind a screen, causing many frustrated parents and teachers to loathe the use of technology in learning.

But before you give up on e-learning altogether and grab that printed worksheet, let me tell you that there is a world of wonderful apps and platforms out there that when used properly can actually INCREASE student engagement and motivation, and help you maintain it throughout the school year. …Read More

How scholastic esports helps students’ academic achievement

According to Newzoo, the live-streaming audience for games will hit 728.8 million viewers in 2021 globally. For reference, the NFL is projected to hit 141 million viewers.  Clearly, esports’ popularity is growing exponentially. However, many people are still unfamiliar with esports, especially the emergence of scholastic esports in education.

The utility of game-based learning in education has been known for a long time, but what is beginning to emerge is an understanding of how esports are having an impact in education. Due to the affordances of video games, esports promotes important qualities, forcing students to develop new skills and problem solve in novel situations bounded only by their imaginations.

Teachers who are pioneering esports programs can attest to this. Tyler Hahn, Director of the Cherokee Public Library in northwestern Iowa, has seen that “esports empowers learners to use the convergence [of] games and their own interests as a platform to acquire communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in all aspects of life”. His program is focused on developing college and career awareness services for middle school youth through esports and community engagement.…Read More

BOOKR Kids Enters US Educational Market With BOOKR CLASS Next Generation ESL Learning App For Classrooms And Families

BUDAPEST/LOS ANGELES (October 1, 2021) – An acclaimed and multi award-winning English As A Second Language (ESL)appin daily use with over 20,000 classrooms across Europe is launching in the US.  Produced and distributed worldwide by Budapest-based EdTec leader BOOKR Kids ( For Schools – BOOKR Kids) BOOKR Class combines original animation, music, interactive games, storytelling, animated flash cards with 4,000 words and a vast library of children’s books from prestigious publishers including Oxford University Press, Albert Whitman & Company and Blue Apple Publishing to deliver a first-of-its-kind ESL tool for both classroom and home use.

According to BOOKR Kids Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dorka Horvath, BOOKR Class underscores the unique effectiveness of ability digital media as ESL learning tools for the classroom.  “The digital world is constantly evolving, and students nowadays are constantly connected to digital media. Thanks to these many digital stimuli, their stimulus thresholds have risen, making it an increasing challenge for teachers to arouse their students’ interest and maintain their attention. Immersive and interactive, digital learning tools can encourage new levels of creativity and concentration in the classroom,” said Horvath. BOOKR Class presents storybooks in a highly engaging format to focus on reading in English.  Contemporary children’s literature combined with the use of advanced digital technology allows unprecedented opportunity for interactivity and engagement.  “Experiential learning is the future of education.  Children have always been naturally curious and motivated by interactive activities, making them perfect partners for digital educational platforms. Experiential learning can induce curiosity and excitement, creating a dynamic learning environment that engages children by tapping into their natural abilities.”

Organized in multiple levels that specifically address all age groups from kindergarten through eighth grade, BOOKR Classutilizes Accidental Learning as a basis for its comprehensive approach to teaching English.  A burgeoning new category of instruction, Accidental Learning occurs when the student is immersed in a range of activities and experiences outside of the scope of traditional instruction that leads to learning.  BOOKR Class promotes learning English vocabulary and structure as a by-product of enjoying the app’s diverse interactive elements.  To continuously measure each child’s reading ability, BOOKR Classemploys Lexile® Framework for Reading learning measurement technology. …Read More