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.

New Resources Supporting the Integration of Minecraft: Education Edition into Classroom Instruction Now Available from Discovery Education

SILVER SPRING, MD (Tuesday, May 3, 2022) — Discovery Education today announced the availability of a host of new resources designed to support the integration of Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) into classroom instruction. Accessible through Discovery Education’s award-winning K-12 platform, these resources complement M:EE’s ability to inspire student exploration, experimentation, and expression. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.

The Minecraft: Education Edition Channel, now available within the Discovery Education platform, provides educators useful lesson plans as well as ready-to-use activities that support students as they explore Minecraft Worlds and uncover important subject area content and skills. Furthermore, students can demonstrate creativity and showcase evidence of learning through an editable showcase board built within Discovery Education’s content creation tool, Studio. With Discovery Education’s dynamic set of learning supports, educators have a new set of resources supporting the integration of M:EE into Discovery Education’s math, SEL, STEM, and science lessons.

Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources, Discovery Education’s K-12 platform facilitates engaging, daily instruction in any learning environment. …Read More

Introducing a new State and District Data Validation Tool for SKYWARD® Users

KALAMAZOO, Michigan – APRIL 6, 2022 – Level Data, Inc. announces a new suite of data validation tools for districts using the Skyward brand Student Information System (SIS). Level Data is a privately-held SaaS Company working with over 1,200 school districts and more than 5 million students using their data validation, data integration and reporting products.

Public School Administrators and student data specialists everywhere understand that submitting accurate data to federal and state agencies is absolutely essential for their district to receive all the funding they are entitled to from many government sources. State submission specialists at school districts are under significant pressure to secure all the funding they possibly can to bolster their local budgets.

Also of critical importance, data-driven decision-making has proven to be key in providing the highest quality of education to students. These decisions that can positively affect curriculum and other strategies are only as good as the quality of the underlying data. Simply put, districts that do not actively focus on maintaining the highest quality data face a substantial performance and economic disadvantage.…Read More

A teacher’s tips for effective edtech integration

It’s clear that technology isn’t going anywhere and will become an integral part of students’ educational futures. Being able to effectively utilize technology in the classroom is no small task for the classroom teachers. Integrating technology into the classroom isn’t simply transferring a worksheet into a virtual format–rather, it involves using technology to enhance lessons and enable the students to showcase their content mastery in a variety of ways.

The National Center for Education Statistics said it well: “Integrating technology is what comes next after making the technology available and accessible. It is a goal-in-process, not an end state.”

The first thing that needs to be done in order to successfully integrate technology in the classroom has to be instructing/training teachers to do so. Having professional development sessions offered yearly and up to date with the ever-changing tech tools that schools are offered would be something that every teacher could benefit from. Students, as a result, will reap the benefits of their teachers’ pedagogical tech skills. Teachers should also start utilizing the International Society for Technology in Education standards in their lessons regularly as they help focus the lessons to build on students’ competencies with technology.…Read More

1 2

Fastest-Growing EdTech Provider Trox + Tierney to “Bluum” Under New Brand

PHOENIX, AZ – Jan. 26, 2022 – Having already transformed into North America’s leading education technology company, Trox + Tierney will continue to grow in the education markets under the new brand of Bluum beginning today. The higher calling of ensuring every student has access to a world-class education remains the company’s mission.  

The April 2021 Trox and Tierney merger resulted in a technology solutions provider with a robust suite of technology products and services, AV design and integration, and professional development for educators. Many of Bluum’s 775 employees stem from education, providing first-hand experience and unrivaled knowledge to their former colleagues.

“Our company’s growth has occurred through mergers and acquisitions, as well as organically, more than tripling our revenue over the past three years,” Bluum CEO Erez Pikar said. “We are united under one aspirational brand and a vision of creating equity and access in education. All of our employees equally share in this identity, which aligns with our mission, objectives and pursuit of continued growth.”…Read More

3 steps to better edtech integration

The pandemic forced a significant shift from traditional classrooms to virtual and hybrid teaching environments–often before schools and districts were ready. It quickly became apparent that reliable virtual learning tools were a must-have for teachers to be productive.

However, classroom technology is only valuable if it builds a positive learning environment. Solutions must also be scalable for successful reiteration on the technology itself, based on research, data, and analysis. If a school has software that can analyze the effectiveness of academic content based on the average grades of the schools that adopt it, for instance, the statistical data will show the content schools should use to improve student performance.

With integrated technology and software, schools improve student performance and teacher productivity through more accessible application and learning of edtech systems.…Read More

1 2

Sourcewell’s Technology Division Kicks off 2021-22 School Year with Launch of SpringMath and Proliftic

ST. PAUL, MINN. (SEPTEMBER 24, 2021)—

In an effort to extend the benefits of its evidence-based solutions to more schools and districts,  Sourcewell’s technology division is revamping the brand identity for its flagship products:  SpringMath (FKA Spring Math), a K-8 math intervention solution and Proliftic (FKA edSpring), a student data integration platform. Both offerings have a new website and will retain the same functionality and support via the Sourcewell Technology Advantage, ensuring educators and students are set up for success this back-to-school season.

“Inspired by the success of our district partners, we are investing in SpringMath and Proliftic–including refreshed branding and new, product-specific websites,” said Jamie Loken, Sourcewell Technology Managing Director. “We believe in the efficacy of these evidence-based solutions–and are actively working to extend the benefits to more students and educators.”…Read More

NetSupport further enhances classroom.cloud’s online safety provision by including integration with Microsoft Teams

NetSupport today announced that its newest solution for classroom management and online safety, classroom.cloud, will now further enhance students’ online safety at all times – and, critically, in any location – by including integration with the widely-used communication and collaboration solution, Microsoft Teams.

With many students equipped with their own school learning devices to enable blended and individual learning to occur both inside and outside of school hours via platforms such as Teams, online safety no longer stops at the end of the school day or applies to only certain applications.

Schools can now widen their safeguarding provision by connecting their Microsoft 365 tenancy to classroom.cloud to allow keyword and phrase monitoring of  Teams channels and chats. Powered by more than 14,000 phrases across multiple languages, classroom.cloud’s keyword and phrase monitoring tool enables schools to monitor what topics their students are typing or searching for across diverse applications and learning environments – helping to identify, support and protect students engaged in any concerning activity. It also allows schools to share and exchange local terms with other schools and add any new ones to their database to further broaden their eSafety net.…Read More

InSpace Announces Integration That Will Bring Virtual Communities, Classrooms and Offices to Canvas

BURLINGTON, VERMONT, August 4, 2021 –   InSpace, a leading online communication platform built by educators for educators, is announcing a full integration with Canvas, the industry-leading learning management system (LMS) by   Instructure, which serves 30 million teachers and students worldwide.  

The integration means that the transformative features developed by InSpace, including video-conferencing for learning and socializing, synchronous and asynchronous chat functions, mobile notifications and virtual office hours for professors and administrators, will be available at the click of a button for Canvas users.  

“We have spoken with hundreds of fellow educators who were dissatisfied with the experience of teaching with video-conferencing platforms that were designed for business, not the classroom. They lacked human interactions and social cues necessary for learning,” said Narine Hall, the CEO of InSpace and a professor of data science and machine learning at Champlain College.  …Read More

CoderZ Recognized by SIIA as Best Coding and Computational Thinking Solution

DERRY, N.H. – July 26, 2021 – The computer science program CoderZ was named winner in the Best Coding and Computational Thinking Solution of 2021 as part of the annual SIIA CODiE Awards. The prestigious CODiE Awards recognize the companies producing the most innovative education technology products across the country and around the world.

CoderZ is a powerful, self-paced virtual learning platform for grades 4-12 that teaches computer science integration by gamifying NGSS and CSTA-aligned curriculum. Any teacher, even those without computer science expertise, can use CoderZ’s proven approach, which uses virtual robots to bring instruction to life. Each CoderZ course develops interdisciplinary skills like problem-solving, collaboration, and grit as well as core knowledge in physics, geometry, literacy, and algebra. CoderZ also offers a professional development program that introduces instructors to the concepts of teaching computer science and computational thinking using an online tool.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the full slate of CODiE winners during an online winner announcement on June 23, 2021 in light of ongoing COVID-19 concerns.…Read More

7 ways to get teacher buy-in for new edtech

Parent engagement is a driving factor behind any child’s success in school—but a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 teachers found that parents are often disengaged in their child’s learning journey. To harness edtech tools that can help school-home communication, it’s essential to first secure teacher buy-in.

More than half of the teachers surveyed believe parents do not understand the importance of their involvement in their child’s school experience, and they assume education is a teacher’s job–not a collaborative effort between parents and teachers.

As the district technology integrationist in a rural Title 1 district, I continually look for affordable and/or free edtech resources that will bridge the communication gap between teachers and parents. But those resources also require teacher buy-in.…Read More

1 2