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.

Introducing Tynker Copilot – The First-Ever LLM-Powered Coding Companion for Young Coders

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Tynker, the leading game-based coding platform that has engaged over 100 million kids, proudly introduces “Tynker Copilot.” Leveraging the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), Tynker Copilot empowers young innovators aged 6-12. It provides a seamless interface for these budding developers to transform their ideas into visual block code for apps and games. Additionally, when exploring existing projects, kids benefit from the tool’s ability to explain block code fragments, ensuring a deeper understanding. Tynker Copilot allows children to build confidence as they work with AI, laying a solid foundation for their future. With this launch, coding education takes a significant leap forward.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have excelled in text-based programming languages like Python and JavaScript. However, their application to visual block coding, the primary introduction to programming for many kids, had yet to be explored. Tynker is the first to bridge this gap. Our latest integration lets children quickly convert their ideas into block code, streamlining their initial coding experience.

Tynker introduction of the Copilot feature marks a significant industry milestone. Until now, the capabilities of LLMs have not been fully utilized for the younger age group. Tynker Copilot empowers children as young as 6 to input text commands like “Design a space-themed knock-knock joke” or “Teach me how to build a Fruit-ninja style game” and receive block code outputs with step-by-step instructions. Moreover, when debugging existing projects, students can submit block-code snippets and benefit from LLM-generated natural language explanations.…Read More

Michigan EdTech Pitch Contest awards $22,000 to five education innovators

LANSING, Mich. — Edtech innovators from Spelling Safari have been chosen as the winners of the second annual Michigan EdTech Innovation Pitch Contest, sharing $22,000 in business startup grants and legal and creative startup assistance with four other finalists. The concepts developed from the final pitches will be used to improve Michigan classrooms through innovation, technology and firsthand educator experience. 

“All of our groups did a great job and this wasn’t easy. Five minutes isn’t a long time to present and this was a difficult choice for our judges,” explained Matthew Okoneski, a contest judge from Red Cedar Ventures. “Startups are hard and I want to commend our participants for their decision to focus in this space to solve some of our communities’ biggest problems.” 

The first-place prize went to Jonathan Marceau, a teacher at Monfort Elementary in the Utica Community School district, who will receive $10,000 in business startup grant funding, plus branding and logo design support, and legal consultation for Spelling Safari. Spelling Safari is a spelling curriculum reinvention and software solution providing elementary students with fun and adaptive learning. …Read More

Ripple Effects’ Complete Suite of PreK-12 Social Emotional Learning Programs Earns Finalist Honors in Prestigious EdTech Awards 2023

SEATTLE –   Ripple Effects, a leader in digital social emotional learning and behavior and mental health supports, today announced that its suite of PreK-12 programs, which includes Bouncy’s Ready to Learn Resilience, Ripple Effects for Kids and Ripple Effects for Teens, earned finalist honors in the  EdTech Awards 2023, which recognizes and celebrates the best and brightest in education technology.

The EdTech Awards were established in 2010 to recognize, acknowledge and celebrate the innovators, leaders, and trendsetters in education technology. The annual program shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, higher education and skills and workforce sectors. Ripple Effects earned recognition in the category of general product or service.

“It is an incredible honor to receive this recognition for our entire PreK-12 suite of digital   programs,” said John Ray-Keil, CEO, Ripple Effects. “At Ripple Effects, we immerse ourselves in developing and delivering a comprehensive, yet dynamic set of tools designed to support learners to help them thrive in school and in life, today and tomorrow. We appreciate the acknowledgement of our work.”…Read More

8 education trends bringing disruption in 2023

The pandemic made it clear that education must innovate and evolve to meet the diverse needs of students. Sora Schools, an online, project-based middle school and high school, along with a wide network of innovators and education experts, collaborated to round up what are the biggest forces shaping education in 2023. 

Sora launched a new research and analytics group, the Sora Learning Lab, to uncover important insights from parents, students and educators, and to help influence the future of school in a positive way.

As a result of its research, Sora identified eight key trends in education today.…Read More

Discovery Education and Boeing Present a New Virtual Field Trip for Students Exploring STEM and Robotics in Aviation Manufacturing 

Charlotte, NC — Discovery Education and Boeing present a new virtual experience – Manufacturing the Future of Aviation Virtual Field Trip – to show students how STEM makes aviation manufacturing more efficient and safer. This virtual field trip is part of FUTURE U, an award-winning program that provides standards-aligned, hands-on, experiential learning resources that ignite excitement and inspire students to become tomorrow’s innovators. 

Premiering Feb. 7 at 1 p.m. ET and available on-demand, this virtual learning experience transports students to manufacturing centers in Renton, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City, Utah to meet the diverse mechatronics, robotics, and ergonomic engineers at Boeing. During the Manufacturing the Future of Aviation Virtual Field Trip, students discover the revolutionary devices and machines that make modern manufacturing safer, faster, and safer. Learn more and register here. 

“It’s critical for us to do all that we can to get students excited about the careers of the future. This new virtual field trip is another exciting way students can learn more about how important STEM careers are in the aerospace industry–and how fun and rewarding they can be,” said Vice President of Boeing Global Engagement Cheri Carter. …Read More

Back to school but not back to normal

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In Getting There: Innovation in Education, Editor at Large Kevin Hogan sits down with K-12 educators, thought leaders, and innovators to highlight the latest in an ever-changing school year.

This latest episode, Back to School, but Not Back to Normal, includes:

…Read More

Carolina Biological Supply Company’s New Young Innovators Program Inspires Students with K-12 Students’ Inventions

BURLINGTON, NC, Aug. 2, 2021 – Leading school science supplier Carolina Biological launched the Young Innovators program to highlight student inventions and inspire students and teachers to see that all students can succeed in STEM. As educators and students return to class this fall, these high-interest profiles are free resources perfect for engaging students in learning science, while promoting equity and inclusion. One of the first Innovators of the Month to be featured is six-year old Robert Samuel White III (Sam). Sam White, whose amazing new take on a traditional ABC song encourages other students to think about the jobs they could have as they learn the letters of the alphabet. A video of Sam singing his co-written song, “ You Can Be ABCs,” with his dad went viral on social media last fall. What started as a simple idea to make learning fun for Sam turned into a sensational video and soon to be book that parents and teachers can use with their students who are learning to read. Sam, entering second grade, has also recorded a new video for Carolina, featuring STEM careers to educate young students about jobs in science. A diverse selection of young student innovators will be featured so that all students will see someone that they can relate to. From their classrooms or at home, teachers can engage students in learning science. The new site www.CarolinaYoungInnovators.com launched with 12 Young Innovator profiles and will recognize their accomplishments by honoring a Young Innovator of the Month every month. Carolina is searching for more Young Innovators to highlight, so teachers are encouraged to nominate their students on its online recommendation page.

Individual profile pages and free downloadable literacy cards for each Young Innovator are available now in a choice of grade-appropriate K-12 reading levels in English and Spanish. Teachers can access and share these digital resources with students anywhere they have Internet access. Suggestions are provided for how teachers can use these stories with their classrooms. Carolina is celebrating the launch with a Facebook contest through August. Four winners will receive a Young Innovators poster and T-shirt, plus a signed copy of Sam’s book.

The inspiring students featured in Carolina’s Young Innovators program will surprise and captivate students’ attention. They demonstrate the amazing achievements that happen when students take action to answer a question or solve a problem in science, technology, engineering, and math. By recognizing and celebrating these Young Innovators’ accomplishments both big and small, Carolina strives to open the door to possibilities, to inspire all students and nurture their visions. Carolina promotes diversity and inclusion to encourage every student to take their place in STEM.…Read More

Coding and robotics programs are engaging learners worldwide

On a visit to a class in Sitka, Alaska, we watched second grade students gain incredible experiences in computer science skills. The teacher, Cindy Duncan, believes in teaching young children to code, so she begins the year by introducing students to Ozobots through stories.

She used “The Gingerbread Man” and taught dyads of children to develop story characters. “I teach coding and robotics because as an educator it is my job to recognize that my students are global innovators, thinkers and problem solvers,” she explained.

Related content: 6 reasons to support K-5 coding…Read More

5 Big Ideas for Education Innovation in 2019

Over the last year, education innovators around the country continued to pursue expanded definitions of student success, personalized approaches, and wholly new models of school. For many, the very real challenges of change management and discovering ways to promote scale with quality dominated 2018. But for those conversations to go a level deeper, we can’t assume that these new measures and new models are fully baked or that everything deemed “new” is at it seems. Looking ahead, here are five big ideas I’ll be watching for in 2019:

1. ‘Unbundle’ what we mean by SEL.
Social-emotional learning. Soft Skills. Habits of mind. These critical but sometimes elusive ideas have gotten their fair share of love over the past year. But pulling back the curtain on the research base, the paltry supply of reliable SEL assessments can make the current energy around SEL interventions feel anemic at best, and hollow at worst. Like personalized learning, “SEL” now connotes a bundle of concepts and aspirations that may need to get unbundled in order to be useful. In that vein, in 2019 I’m most excited to watch emerging SEL point solutions targeted at specific, narrow skills or dispositions. These innovations are focused on doing a few things really well. For example, GiveThx, the brainchild of Leadership Public Schools’ teacher-entrepreneur Mike Fauteaux, plucks off one particular emotion and skill: gratitude. In a similar vein, Kind Foundation’s effort, Empatico.org, focuses on experiences that inspire empathy across classrooms. I’ll be watching models like these that offer narrower on-ramps to more rigorous measurement and targeted interventions within the exceedingly broad SEL landscape.

2. Commit to threading the coherent curriculum needle.
Speaking of the murky waters of personalized learning, rumblings (and occasional shouts) about the fragmented state of curriculum to support personalization have been building for years. One of the fundamental tensions we hear articulated is whether a coherent, evidence-based, off-the-shelf curriculum is better than a potpourri of lessons that teachers and leaders assemble—and in some cases build—themselves. Although these debates are not unique to personalized environments, personalization hinges on a commitment to tailor learning experiences to individual students. But the more varied those experiences and resources are, many worry the less rigorous and coherent curriculum becomes. Through the lens of our own Modularity theory, these tradeoffs aren’t unique to curriculum per se: across industries, a modular approach can be more affordable and flexible, while integrated solutions are pricier but better at pushing the frontier of performance. In 2019, I’ll be keeping an eye on how districts and schools manage to strike a balance between the tradeoffs of modular and flexible versus integrated and coherent approaches to curriculum.…Read More