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.

District upgrades SIS to improve data accuracy

PowerSchool works with Perrysburg Schools to implement a comprehensive student information system

PowerSchool is collaborating with Ohio’s Perrysburg Schools to replace its student information system to help power its school operations, increase district efficiency, and enrich integration to the online systems used by this district.

The new SIS solution will also improve data accuracy and make it easier for families to view student progress at all levels, content in the district’s learning management system, and access to Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

“We were looking for a solution that would seamlessly integrate with many of the platforms we currently use, such as IEPAnywhere and Schoology. PowerSchool will increase efficiency throughout the district,” notes Joe Sarnes, Technology Integration Specialist at Perrysburg Public Schools.…Read More

How every school can promote safety in a digital world

Keeping students safe in the digital era — with its myriad dangers — means a proactive IT strategy

Technology has become a mainstay within the walls of today’s schools. One-to-one computing is enhancing and enriching the student experience, transforming the way we teach and the way we learn.

K-12 schools were expected to spend approximately $4.7 billion on technology this past year, according to IDC, with no sign of a plateau. But as rapid technology adoption continues unabated, the safety of the students who are meant to benefit from these advances is frequently overlooked.

The evolution of learning with computers

When desktop computers first appeared in schools, the curriculum focused on typing, word processing, and basic coding skills. Then search engines arrived, completely revolutionizing the way students accessed and consumed information over the web.…Read More

3 LMS adoptions that go way beyond the basics

These districts and schools are drawing more benefits out of their learning management systems

Learning management systems originally got their start in higher education, serving as central hub for college students to drop in assignments, check grades, and contact their professors. Needless to say it caught on with universities—and eventually school districts.

Today’s LMS is a bit of an upgrade, with new features and design elements frequently drawn from the social networking sites students love so much. Developed by Blackboard, Desire2Learn, itslearning, Takai, Canvas, and a host of others, these solutions focus on helping educators organize and orchestrate learning tools, educational approaches, and whole courses.

Any time schools get a new software program, they tend to pick off the low hanging fruit—i.e. the simplest functions or features—and never make full use of the programs’ capabilities, and/or interoperability with other systems. For most, the LMS is rarely so different.…Read More

5 ways cloud computing will impact students, teachers, and IT in 2016

Software-as-a-service deployments are having a moment. What does that mean for schools?

It’s no secret that being able to access enterprise applications and other types of software online—in a 24/7/365 environment—beats having to install, maintain, and upgrade individual applications across multiple desktops and laptops. Especially when maintaining software at school, classroom, teacher, and individual student levels is such an arduous task.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or “cloud computing” has helped districts and schools streamline their applications while at the same time introducing new challenges to the mix—such as online privacy and security concerns. These and other obstacles aside, cloud computing has been growing in popularity lately due to its low entry costs, short installation/implementation times, and the fact that it lessens the burden on schools’ IT teams when it comes to software maintenance and upgrades.

Formally defined as a software licensing and delivery model where applications are licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted, SaaS is often used interchangeably with “cloud” or “on-demand” and usually accessed via a web browser and password (if applicable). Here are five ways this software deployment method is changing the K-12 environment right now:…Read More

Before going one-to-one, this district is helping every kid get home wi-fi

Ensuring wi-fi access at home or on the school bus is a top priority for a district still planning its one-to-one

The typical one-to-one computing initiative comes with a lengthy to-do list that includes (but isn’t limited to) mapping out vision statements, coming up with the funds to pay for the devices, selecting them, buying them, insuring them, training students and teachers how to use them effectively, and making sure wi-fi systems can handle the new burden. Add concepts like blended and flipped learning to the equation and you come up with yet another to-do list item: Make sure students can actually use their devices when they aren’t physically on campus and within wi-fi range.

Put simply, asking a fifth-grade student to watch an instructional video before the next day’s flipped classroom science lesson will fall on deaf ears if the child doesn’t have access to the internet at home. The same point can be made for the athlete who is whisked off to a game or swim meet right after school and is unable to do her homework on the bus or while sitting in the bleachers.

Little Falls Central School District in Little Falls, N.Y., wants to avoid these problems by determining how many of its students lack internet access at home and then “filling in” that gap by working with Verizon and OpenRoom to either introduce the families to their wi-fi service options (for those that can afford it) or equip pupils with 3G- or 4G-enabled devices (for those that are financially unable to pay for the service).…Read More

This is how your infrastructure should look before your next tech rollout

Follow these guidelines to create a technology infrastructure that support teachers and students

Most educational organizations want the classroom to change; to improve teaching and learning by leveraging technology. The terms blended and flipped learning are touted extensively as useful educational goals.

However, to increase the probability of long term success and to reduce teacher/instructor frustration, organizations need to ensure that the broader fundamentals are in place before asking teachers to change. This is true whether the organization is a large university or school district, an eLearning business, or a small school of a few hundred students. (Note that I am not talking about the success of the “lone experimenters;” the innovators and early adopters who will implement change no matter what the environment is like. I am talking about organization wide long term success.)

Fundamentals fall into a number of categories. I will consider one (infrastructure) in this article and others in companion articles.
If teachers walk into a lesson and the technology regularly fails, even for just a few minutes, they lose confidence. They become frustrated and lose commitment (and who could blame them?).…Read More

New tool helps districts compare bandwidth pricing

Compare & Connect K-12 leverages federal data to help districts compare bandwidth deals they and their neighbors receive

The nonprofit EducationSuperHighway on Jan. 21 launched a beta version of Compare & Connect K-12, an online tool that makes the internet services that schools receive more transparent.

Through Compare & Connect K-12, school district technology directors and superintendents can easily view broadband pricing and bandwidth information for school districts across the country.

By creating transparency for K-12 broadband speeds and pricing, Compare & Connect K-12 empowers school leaders to make smart network purchasing decisions and get the most bandwidth for their broadband budgets.…Read More

Top 5 IT and technology trends for 2016

Libraries, connectivity, and more are big issues for IT professionals

tech-trends

Chief technology officers and IT professionals in the K-12 field have a lot on their collective plates these days, what with the continued proliferation of technology in their schools, new governmental programs and compliance requirements, and the push to effectively integrate their technology in the classroom. Here are five key trends that CTOs will be watching and reacting to in 2016:

The modernized E-rate program. Since it was established 18 years ago, the E-rate program has focused on connecting schools and libraries to the internet. Now, the FCC’s Second E-rate Modernization Order (adopted December 2014) will address the connectivity gap — particularly in rural areas — maximize high-speed connectivity purchasing options, extend the program’s budget through 2019, and increase the E-rate funding cap to $3.9 billion. Keith R. Krueger, CEO at CoSN – the Consortium for School Networking, said the fact that the modernized E-rate hones in on broadband and more robust networks is a net positive for K-12 IT departments and their CTOs. “Many networks for learning were designed under scarcity, and by managing bandwidth and telling people what they can’t do,” Krueger explained. “Now, we may be able to flip the conversation and look at what it takes to enable the learning that we truly envision.”…Read More